30.1.15

# 64 || " WHEREVER YOU ARE, BE ALL THERE "

“A thought is harmless unless we believe it. It’s not our thoughts, but the attachment to our thoughts, that causes suffering. Attaching to a thought means believing that it’s true, without inquiring. A belief is a thought that we’ve been attaching to, often for years.”

The other week I decided that disappointment is all inside your head.That what you expect from the world, when you let your imagination run wild all around the world and then what is written in the stars lets you down — none of it is the slightest bit real. It is one of those instances where emotions outshine reality* when it should be the other way around. But *by reality I mean fantasy and really it is okay to daydream every damn day so long as you don’t let yourself fill up with too much sorrow when it doesn’t happen exactly how it does in your handwritten fairytale. 

Maybe the magic is where you were when you were all there. The magic wasn’t then and it isn’t to come, but it is here where you are right now. There it is, that moment you wake up and wonder where you are. It’s there when you wander the aisles at the supermarket. It’s there out in the big bad world when you look up and see somebody looking at you, acknowledging your presence. It’s there a split second before and after you let yourself feel bitter at the chill of everybody else and their misunderstanding and your misunderstanding of them. 



You don’t have to remember compassion all the time, but just once in awhile and you’ll be just fine. Animosity is just a symptom of fallacy :: you don’t understand and you forgot to slide off your sneakers and slip your feet into their shoes. I forget, all too often, my core belief that you’ll never truly, intimately, be able to comprehend the intentions of others and for that reason alone, you have little place to judge their motivation and moral. I’m sorry for every occasion that I didn’t remember where you were coming from, I’m sorry for every time I let my intuition trump my intelligence. But you didn’t know, or even care to know, how much those moments meant to me. 

Every night, every day, every cigarette, every sideways glance, every text message, everyday. That shiver as soon as I wake up, with a chill that would last for hours, has only just started to subside and there you go again. I’ve always said that finality in an actual form is an extremely rare occurrence, but now I’m pretty close to done. This conclusion has little to do with that infinity, and more to do with fear. It's terrifying to be misunderstood, to speak words that make sense only to you. Fingers crossed this fear inspires a little more patience than yesterday, and a little more empathy than yester-year.        

" --and that part of persevering meant getting past moments just like this one, when people made you feel small, unlovable, and took away your confidence. ” -- Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot

xo, A
 

 

"WHATEVER THE PRESENT MOMENT CONTAINS,

ACCEPT IT AS IF YOU HAD CHOSEN IT."

                                                    ~ ECKHART TOLLE

25.1.15

# 63 || “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”

It feels like a lifetime since I’ve put pen to paper and scribbled down anything at all, really. But over the last few weeks spent growing out my hair, unrolling my yoga mat in a hot and humid studio every other day, re-assessing my priorities and figuring out where I truly belong - I might even be feeling better than I have in years. Every December writing resolutions for the new year is one of my very favourite things, but deep down inside me I knew this year had to be different than all the others. So whether this entry matches all of the words preceding it, and whether it makes any sense — — — I decided to write and share my reminders, rather than resolutions, for 2 0 1 5 :

i. Don’t forget, through every other emotion - your family will be there for you in the end, if not before or during the deluge. That’s a pretty safe bet and if I were you, I wouldn’t take those odds for granted.
ii. Don’t forget, “if you stay still, earth buries you, ready or not.”
iii. Don’t forget, with a head and a heart and a conscience, that you’re just as important as everybody else.
iv. Don’t forget what Annie Dillard said : “There are 1, 198, 500, 000 people alive now in China. To get a feel for what that means, simply take yourself - in all your singularity, importance, complexity, and love - and multiply it by 1,198,500,000. See? Nothing to it.”
v. Don’t forget, “Beginning is easy - Continuing is hard.”



I’ll never forget that one time I actually did my weekly readings for a class ; POLS2105 or something like that. Genocide Post-1945. I read what Annie Dillard said and it changed just about everything. Before that I was shy out of shame and self-deprecation, not out of some kind of strange humility that reminded me of every other beating heart in the world that might need more attention than me. For many things there are reasons behind them and you should try to understand before you come to your own conclusions. And for the reasonless other things you simply need to accept everybody else for their differences and decisions. I can’t forget that. For disappointment is one of my primary weaknesses. Disappointment in others precipitates disappointment in myself, and if not for apathy and detachment - I don’t know how I would make it through each and every day. But what needs to change this year is replacing indifference for a surrender to my own shortcomings. 

Writing this I am reminded of the Serenity Prayer and perhaps if I should forget everything, I should not forget this :  

"God, give me grace to accept with serenity,
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
And the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other."

because “For every ailment under the sun There is a remedy, or there is none ; If there be one, try to find it; If there be none, never mind it.”And with those words in mind, and a mini trip over-the-sea to look forward to, I think this year is going to turn out exactly as it should. Because while I can’t yet sincerely abolish all of the dreams and desires that make me a human being, I can reassure myself that what is real is the intention to be better. Not whether or not I had the strength or courage to be. 

"
How selfish it is
to crave
someone

like they were
yours
to miss at all.
" — Michelle K., But I Am Selfish.


Love,
A

4.1.15

# 62 || THE BITTERSWEET BETWEEN MY TEETH

sweetheart, bitter heart : now i can't tell you apart ( parte deux (( ou trois? )) )   

Sometimes it feels like all the words of wisdom I've ever been told, won't ever stop swimming inside the infinite ocean that is my mind and the crazy imagination that accompanies it. With the most humble intentions, I am offered words of wisdom advising me how to react to the confusion that seems to constantly perplex my psyche. All I want is to learn and understand how I can be the best possible human being I can be in this life, but it seems to be one hindrance after the other : physically, mentally and emotionally.

Lately this reality seems all too much to handle. The power and intensity of people and our unbounded potential is almost petrifying. Power and control lies in the desired outcome from everything and everybody involved. Take away any loss or gain from any situation and suddenly it has neutralised into something so raw and real, a thousandfold than it was before. Imagine if we indulged in everything we desired because, from the deepest place in our hearts, it was as organic as water flowing down a stream. There is no catch, no personal gain, no advantage. I want to eat a banana because it tastes like my childhood and will make me feel the perfect kind of nostalgic. Forget potassium and the fact that it's summer and bananas aren't a million dollars a milligram at the moment. Do everything for a thousand reasons that are just for you. 


If the only motivation I have at this moment is the curiosity of the things that are yet to come, of the future that hasn't happened and the magic that might mosey my way. If I consistently remind myself that the best is yet to come, then maybe that will incite the hope I need to wake up every morning. It's only Day 4 of this brand new year and I'm scared beyond measure.

xo,
A