My Year of Rest and Relaxation

by Ottessa Moshfegh

My past life would be but a dream, and I could start over without regrets, bolstered by the bliss and serenity that I would have accumulated in my year of rest and relaxation.

There was majesty and grace in the pace of the swaying branches of the willows. There was kindness. Pain is not the only touchstone for growth, I said to myself.

There she is, a human being, diving into the unknown, and she is wide awake.