You can’t really do it on purpose. A childhood memory that lasts forever seems to happen out of nowhere, a flash of lightning, an experience where novelty and curiosity come together so seamlessly it leaves you changed. The first time I ever visited a good friend in the tiny town of Evanston, Wyoming, during high school we had a fantastic time going around the town, watching fireworks, playing video games, and talking to girls.

It’s clear to anyone that follows my work that I write a lot. A book last month, a blog post every day, and then there’s all the writing I do that no one but me sees, like in my journal (the DayOne app). Then there are all the lists I make, the notes and observations I take in the Drafts app that end up becoming these blog posts. It’s a lot.

One of my favorite parts of parenting are the snuggles. I know, it’s the part of parenting almost everyone loves. But my son, between months 3 and 6, learned to put his head on my shoulder when I picked him up. I knew it wouldn’t last forever, but at the time it was one of the best feelings I’ve ever experienced. He still does it, but mostly when he’s sick or really tired.

The items that are eye level were put there by marketers who paid extra to have their items at eye level. It’s a subtle manipulation but an important one: we don’t pick our food, our food (and its makers) pick us. Unless we actively go out of our way to avoid the manipulation, like people who only shop at Farmers markets. It’s not the only capitalist-style manipulation in my life. The internet seems to morphing into one huge manipulation, for instance.

It’s a total coincidence that I happened to post about Mark Manson’s article yesterday because I read another one of his pieces this morning and it connected to one of the ideas on my ongoing list of potential blog topics. And that is, the idea of regret. I met a friend in High School who said that he wants to have no regrets at all. The idea was foreign to me at the time, but when I started to think about it, I realized the implications.