The Kiss

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  “Ryabovitch pulled the bed-clothes over his head, curled himself up in bed, and tried to gather together the floating images in his mind and to combine them into one whole. But nothing came of it. He soon fell asleep, and his last thought was that someone had caressed him and made him happy—that something extraordinary, foolish, but joyful and delightful, had come into his life. The thought did not leave him even in his sleep. When he woke up the sensations of oil on his neck and the chill of peppermint about his lips had gone, but joy flooded his heart just as the day before.” The Kiss By Anton Chekhov (1860–1904)

Focus

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"Don't waste the rest of your time here worrying about other people--unless it affects the common good. It will keep you from doing anything useful. You'll be too preoccupied with what so-and-so is doing and why, and what they're saying and what they're thinking, and what they're up to and all the other things that throw you off and keep you from focusing on your own mind." (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 3.4)

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