Consciousness is like a river. The water is our thoughts, a constant flow of new information from any and every outside source, and the riverbed is our beliefs. Along the banks of the river, there are adjoining springs and streams; these are the thoughts that come from learning new things, experiencing the world, and talking with other people. Each river needs these resources to stay alive and thrive. If each person’s river started from one small spring at the beginning of the imagination, and had nothing else contributing to it, it wouldn’t make it. All the water would eventually soak into the ground, and the riverbed would stay dry and unchanged. In the same way, we can’t sustain our beliefs on our own thoughts alone. To form intricate and viable beliefs, one must listen to the thoughts of others, conjoin two streams, and allow them to offer guidance.

My most firm belief is that one should never stop asking questions. Living is learning; learning is living. One must find new ways to think, and find new ways to ask questions. I believe that if someone is satisfied with what they know, they are not living.

This belief is at my core. I have the desire to find answers to questions I don’t know I have. I read books about astronomy, psychology, art, history, religion, and philosophy to quench this thirst for knowledge. I pick up instruments and learn to play them so I can better understand music. I read the work and hear the stories of many kinds of people gone before me to learn their ways of thought, their beliefs, hopes, and dreams, to delve into the life of another in order to better understand my own. I observe. Dissecting interactions, and analyzing motivations, I watch life taking place around me. A lifetime is too short to find all the answers because those that are found only lead to more questions. I believe, rather, that it is the quest for truth, the process, that holds the most value.
You wonder what I am thinking.
 

I am thinking that life is beautiful. The world around us is filled with complex designs and processes, many of which are undiscovered or unexplained. That alone, the fact that so many questions have yet to be answered, energizes me to clamber further into the mountain of knowledge. I need new springs and streams to sustain my river of consciousness because with more water flowing down the river, the banks will be remolded. That means my beliefs will erode and reshape, always and ever changing.

Any person that lives a day and is not in awe of the complexity and beauty of the universe around them does not live.

Never stop searching.