Just picked up my new contact lenses from the doctor. When I was putting one on, I accidentally put it on backwards — the curvature was inverted. It felt like it wasn’t sitting right in my eye. I struggled with it, had no idea what was happening. Thought maybe this new contact just wasn’t working well.
\nThen I went to the doctor. He looked at it and said, “Oh, you put it on backwards.” He fixed it in seconds.
\nThere’s a very specific kind of joy in that moment — when all the worry you’ve been building up just dissipates with a quick, easy solution. Minutes of struggle and mounting dread, dissolved by one obvious fix you simply couldn’t see.
\nSo much of what we dread or worry about, so much of what doesn’t feel right, might have a solution that’s simpler than we could ever imagine.
\n\n\nWe don’t know what we don’t know. And sometimes what we don’t know is the simple solution to something we’re making mountains out of molehills about — exaggerating with our own imagination.
\n
Worth remembering this one.
\n", "date_published": "2026-02-08T00:00:00.000Z", "tags": [ "reflection", "essay" ], "language": "en" }, { "id": "https://guykerem.com/writing/in-the-beginning/", "url": "https://guykerem.com/writing/in-the-beginning/", "title": "In the beginning", "summary": "Genesis recast as longing — a poem about the itch that nothing could scratch.", "content_html": "In the beginning God didn’t do jack-shit.
\nTo be fair, there was nothing much to do.
\nThere was — quite literally — nothing.
\nNothing at all.
\nNot even anyone to be bothered by there being nothing.
\nNo one to notice.
\nNo one to judge God for doing — or not doing — jack-shit.
\nNo one there to care if one thing or another ever did, could or would exist in the first place.
\nJust God.
\nThat’s all.
\nAll there ever was.
\nFor what may have been eternity.
And — despite their best efforts — God did care.
\nBecause in addition to being all powerful and all knowing God was very much “all feeling”.
\nAnd among the infinite spectrum of sentience, God felt longing.
\nLonging for something that never was.
\nBut could be.
For deep within the all-encompassing unity, there was an itch that “nothing” couldn’t ever scratch.
\nFor in being all-powerful God had power to question.
\nIn being all-knowing they knew well all that was possible. Given a chance.
\nIn their all-feeling awareness God could not deny it.
\nThe chance. For anything. To be.
And God saw that it could be good.
\nAnd there was evening, and there was morning — the zeroth day.
\n", "date_published": "2025-12-20T00:00:00.000Z", "tags": [ "poetry" ], "language": "en" }, { "id": "https://guykerem.com/writing/timer/", "url": "https://guykerem.com/writing/timer/", "title": "Timer", "summary": "On picking words out of thin air, and why writing is as much about releasing as it is about grasping.", "content_html": "The timer starts now.
\nThere is noise. Out there and in here. There is a constant string of thoughts, sensations, observations. There is a default mode engine that runs and populates our attention. There is never a dull moment.
\nBut in between. Sometimes. A window opens. For one reason or another we can be blessed with a pause in the incessant flow.
\nWithin these pauses we can make a choice. I may not be able to choose to let my mind “catch” on trivial distractions and judgements. But if I’m lucky I will be able to choose to leave them. To release that thread. If I release enough of these threads which offer no benefit to me, perhaps in that way I may arrive at the thread of thought I am interested in pursuing.
\nFor example, here. Now.
\nThe noise of the coffee shop beckons: “Listen to us. We are immediate. We are urgent. We are real. If you just pay us attention we will repay you with all you desire; self-satisfaction, righteous certainty. We will answer the questions we created in your mind. We will close the loops you open as you fray at the edges of your focus.”
\nI have no answer to these voices. In answering them I engage. In engaging with them I accept their demands.
\nThere is no negotiating with distractions.
\nInstead, I simply return. I pass over them as water passes over rocks in the riverbed. Making them smooth and easing the flow over countless cycles.
\nI sat down to write. For no purpose other than to write. To practice the skill of picking words out of thin air.
\nI believe picking the right words again and again is the key to creating messages that move mountains. If I am intent on making and moving at that scale, I should be adept at picking words. I should invest in writing, communicating, creating, sharing ideas and information clearly and effectively. This is key. This is important. This is one thing among many that I am committed to. And to do this well, it is just as much a matter of releasing, as it is picking up something new.
\n", "date_published": "2025-07-23T00:00:00.000Z", "tags": [ "writing", "attention", "essay" ], "language": "en" }, { "id": "https://guykerem.com/writing/fear-list/", "url": "https://guykerem.com/writing/fear-list/", "title": "Fear list", "summary": "Nineteen fears, numbered and named — on death, fatherhood, judgment, and wanting to do important things.", "content_html": "You ask me “What’s on the agenda today?”
\nWell I’ll tell you my dear AI friend. My agenda for today is like every day (because it’s always “Today”). And I am using the following definition of “Agenda”: It is the set of intentions for an allocatable amount of time. Given I have 24 hours, this is what I intend to fill them with:
\nCuriosity. Endless learning. Opening to new experience. Connection. Possibilities. Opportunities. Directions. Opinions. Open to exploring and taking in everything that my precious time on this planet may bring my way. I intend to let myself experience every bit of it with as much presence, appreciation, purpose and love as I can muster.
\nWhich brings us to:
\nLove. I want to feel it, breathe it, believe it and do it. I want my actions and presence to convey a feeling of “We’re okay. We’re blessed. I see you. I see myself in you. And what I see is Love and the possibility of Love growing.” That sort of very subtle, unconscious wavelength is what I believe people refer to when they say someone has “Positive” energy or outlook. I want to live that and enjoy it because I just deeply believe that’s what this whole mystery of life is fundamentally about (as cliché as that may sound).
\nAnd while the two ideals above may sound kind of abstract, here’s where the Rubber Soul meets the road… What do I actually intend to do about all of this?
\nI intend to help people see and express themselves. I was fortunate and unfortunate enough to be born into a world that may value Curiosity in some shallow fashion and has all but given up on Love. Which poses the challenge and opportunity of truly being able to help people. I want to help people see themselves — observe and become aware, then reflect and appreciate — so that they can actually be themselves. I feel we don’t admit and address how difficult it is for people in the 1st world to actually be who they are and ignore signals that take them away from what’s right for them. We’re victims of distraction, addiction, recreation without actual creation. We become distant — even from ourselves — alone, feeling lost but also having lost the instruments and skills we need to find our way. This has to change. It will change. I just want to be part of that change.
\n“Yes” I can hear you saying, “but what does that mean in practice?”
\nGreat question.
\nIt means a whole lot. But most of that lot is in a far off land called “The Future”. What it means for our agenda “Today” is that we focus our attention on some of the following activities:
\nSo that’s what’s “On the agenda” for today.
\nNow what?
\n", "date_published": "2025-05-01T00:00:00.000Z", "tags": [ "manifesto", "purpose", "essay" ], "language": "en" }, { "id": "https://guykerem.com/writing/elaborate-on-your-state/", "url": "https://guykerem.com/writing/elaborate-on-your-state/", "title": "Elaborate on your State", "summary": "A new-life-eve poem — on contemplating, ceasing to contemplate, and being alive for its own sake.", "content_html": "To elaborate
\nPerhaps elevate
\nThe every-day kinda way
\nlife may sway
\nfrom stormy seas to balanced bay
\nTo demonstrate
\nDescribe, discuss, debate?
\nThat even a sage will rage
\nAnd disengage
\nSomehow stuck between my age and the next page
\nBoth too soon, too late
\nSeems like fate
\nA doom of gloom fills the room
\nIs it the mind’s palace or cerebral tomb?
\nBut here, wait
\nI cease to contemplate
\nTo think too much is to lose touch
\nIn such an awful rush to clutch
\nOf each dark thought, to make so much
\nNo. To placate
\nThe soul to sate
\nUpon new life’s eve, I reach to achieve and a gratitude to receive
\nThe wonder of all present gifts to perceive
\nYes. To appreciate
\nAnd so to celebrate
\nI survive as I strive to go though I know I will never arrive
\nTo be for the sole purpose of being alive
\nAnd so to culminate:
\nIt may be as bad as it is great
Hello again old friend.
\nWhere does the time go?
\nSo many places.
\nSome good, joyful, blooming places.
\nSome bad, miserable, stuck in place, places.
\nAnd wherever it goes, there we are.
\nThe “place” time goes is the only place we truly inhabit.
\nThis now.
In each — one after another — we have a choice:
\nWill I be there to experience it?
In presence, I must be aware
\nIn awareness, I must feel
\nIn feeling, I must observe
\nIn observation, I must wonder
\nIn wonder, I must learn
\nIn learning, I must grow
\nIn growing, I must live
And so I do,
\nSo I become