10/21/25 — The Lights Across the Meadow (Journal Entry Dissection: #Maturity #Nature #Borne)
- Kurt Bell
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
About These Posts
Each day I add a new journal entry to my social media feeds. Here, I take that day’s entry and expand it through the lens of my Good Life Creed, which you can read about in my book Going Alone (available for free on this website). These dissections aim to connect ordinary reflections with the enduring objectives and principles of the Creed.
Journal Entry (10/21/25)
I wake at 4:00 AM every day. Our neighborhood is dark and quiet then, though I’m not the only one awake. Across the meadow, lights glow in the homes of my neighbors, Sato-san and Inoue-san (not their real names).
Why are we three always up so early? For me, it’s the ingrained habit of a lifetime—trying to get a head start on whatever the day might hold. If I’m up early, I can be dressed, fed, and ready for action before the sun comes up, which brings a certain peace—the same kind that comes from knowing the life insurance is in order, the car is serviced, and my daughter’s college tuition was paid.
I sometimes wonder about the lights across the meadow. They’re much older than me. What worry, what old discipline, what quiet desire for order brings them up before dawn as well? Or perhaps I’m reading too much into the glow of a room at 4:00 AM. Maybe it’s simply habit—like mine.
Dissection
This reflection observes not just habit, but the quiet mystery of human nature itself. The sight of distant lights at dawn becomes a meditation on individuality—on how each of us carries unseen reasons for our actions, born from different needs, temperaments, and histories.
#Maturity (The Principle of Maturity)
Maturity brings not only steadiness but curiosity about one’s own ways. You no longer assume your early rising is purposeful—it simply is, and the wondering itself becomes a form of wisdom.
#Nature (The Principle of Nature)
Each person acts according to their own nature. You and your neighbors rise early for reasons known only to yourselves. Observing this without speculation honors the truth that every life unfolds according to its own quiet design.
#Borne (The Principle of That Which Must Be Borne)
The act of rising early, whether from worry, habit, or simple wakefulness, reflects the quiet endurance of life itself—the steady carrying of days forward, one morning at a time.
Takeaway
The lights across the meadow speak to the quiet universality of human nature—each of us moving according to our own unseen rhythm. To wonder about this, without needing to know, is itself a kind of peace.
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