There are times when I wake when I am at once tempted to be anxious, and I say “No, thank you,” although that is how I sometimes may have an inkling feel upon waking, and I am also tempted to be hopeful, and I say “No, thank you,” for that is its own temptation toward control beyond my natural constraints—to imagine all of today going just as I please, when it is only in this moment that I enact agency.

Each of them, both anxiety and hope, may lead into another, and they may place me out further ahead than I should like to be—for here I am, and it is better to follow my cultivated routine with discipline than to be buffeted by emotion and impulsive thinking.