Prologue
Before You Enter
You do not need to understand yourself before you begin.
Most of us do not enjoy being explained to. We are even less enthusiastic about being fixed—particularly by people who never bothered to ask what our habits once protected.
But an impossible road may catch our attention. A lantern may refuse to behave. A hermit crab with questionable paperwork may have something to say about the bag we insist on carrying.
Bring your curiosity. Bring your contradictions. Bring the part of you that is tired of being treated as a problem—and the part that suspects some old solutions may no longer be working.
The lantern you seek is already within.
The gate is open.