Find that one

Find someone who makes your heart smile

Someone who makes you love the weekends

Who lets you know that you’re constantly on their mind

Who will make distance seem trivial because they’ll drive from the other edge of town at any moment if necessary simply because they missed your smile

That one with whom you can joke and laugh even during your most intimate moments

Who makes you feel like the special person you are

Who chooses you each and every time and doesn’t expect a reward for it

Who surprises you and isn’t afraid to show how much they love you

Who isn’t ashamed of certain public displays of affection

Who makes plans with you and shares their dreams with you

Who loves you despite your faults and even because of them

That one with whom you can talk all night about anything and nothing

Who makes time even when there seems to be none

Who gives you all the attention you deserve even when you don’t want it

Who can read your mind before you speak it

That one who makes a sunset seem like the most majestic thing on earth, simply because you’re watching it together

Who tells you they’re on their way and you find yourself counting the minutes for their arrival with a racing heartbeat

Who makes any place you’re together a home

Who can admit their at fault and say their sorry; who won’t allow you to stay mad at each other when you fight

That one in whose hugs you fit perfectly and in whose eyes you get lost

Who kisses you and you can feel their smile on your lips

That one who clicks with you in every instant

And who makes your heart grow stronger every day simply by being there and sharing their life with you

Find that one who makes you fall in love deeper with every breath you take.

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Keeping it simple

Pen in hand, he stared at the blinking cursor on the white background. He was stuck. There was nothing to write about. They told him to keep it simple. But simple is not as easy as it seems.

His head was swarming with fairy tales of magic and dragons and princesses and kings and monsters. But they were all asleep somewhere, unable to be driven out of his head and brought to life.

He fixed his posture, straightened his back and inhaled deeply. He then slowly let out the air that had refreshed his lungs and looked hopefully at his computer screen.

Still nothing.

Where had it all gone? He was a person whose imagination ran wild and who could write about anything at anytime. But not now.

His emails bleeped away with newsletters and greetings from colleagues, but all he could hear was the clock ticking and his deadline drawing nearer.

All he had to do was write about something, anything. It was supposed to be simple. Supposed being the key word.

He moved to the couch to clear his head. But he soon fell asleep. Two hours later he leapt up like a damaged spring and raced to his computer.

Something. Simple.

Sometimes the things we take for granted, the simple things, are not merely as simple or as easy or as abundantly available as we may think.

He had found his topic.

 

Also part of Daily Prompt: Simple

The things that matter

@MCD

The day she met him she had found a penny on the way to the store outside of which they were to bump into each other. She thought it was good luck and gave it to him for their three-month anniversary. She told him it might be silly, but she enjoyed looking out for all the small details that for her made a difference. She kept souvenirs and memories of their outings, even dried-up flowers he gave her, in a small box in her nightstand. She felt they granted a special energy to their relationship and strengthened their bond.

He didn’t really pay attention to the penny and it got lost. Or he might have even spent it somewhere; he didn’t remember. He wasn’t the type of person that gave attention to material goods. He felt people and the time spent with them were more important. He tried to offer her as much of his free time as he could. And he tried to please her as much as possible.

But something always seemed to go wrong.

On the day they moved-in together, she found a penny outside his door gate. She gave it to him as a token that it would bring them luck in their new endeavor and in sharing their lives. She found it a few days later still on the TV table where he had left it. She smiled, thinking that he valued it too much to spend or lose. But a few days later, the penny disappeared. And so did her optimism.

He wasn’t too much of an organiser, often leaving things lying around the house for days, even scattered between tables and drawers. He complained lack of time was the perpetrator. And he could not understand why she made such a fuss over insignificant stuff.

She felt he didn’t care enough to cherish the things she brought him.

He felt she was becoming too quirky, too hard to satisfy.

She was about to leave in tears, when he walked into the bedroom, opened the top closet door and brought down a rectangular silver frame. He handed it to her and said, “I pay attention to the things that matter; and that means having you. That’s all I need. That’s all I want”.

He had framed the note where she first wrote to him that she loved him.  She had given it to him the night of the day she gave him that first penny.

Every story has two sides, you just have to have a mind that is open enough to see them both.

The dormant volcano

They say that you never truly develop unless you face what you fear. Because you can never truly know what you’re capable of unless you’re forced to deal with circumstances you never thought you could survive from. To allow yourself to get exposed to the risks you fear of taking.

It’s when you realise that you hide much more inside than even you yourself thought was possible. When you acknowledge that a person will only find their limits when they push themselves towards them. Or like Eleanor Roosevelt said, “you must do the thing you think you cannot do”. And just like the fact that you cannot grow unless you are willing to change, and sometimes even surpass the things you fear, there are certain circumstances – or even people – that bring out the best in you.

We all have emotions, abilities, potential, that is hidden, dormant, within, waiting for the right inspiration, time, person to surface, to be awakened and expressed. It’s how you grow and evolve into who you want to be and who you can be.

It’s how you become a better version of who you are.

 

Also part of Daily Prompt: Exposure

The homeless keyowner

When Oralia was a young girl, her grandmother had given her a set of keys as a present. She told her that she would spend all her life trying to find a lock, so she might as well be prepared. Oralia didn’t really understand what it meant, but she was proud to own something so significant.

When she grew up, she had the habit of carrying with her sets of keys – be it for her home, the storage room, the office, even her closet doors. For some reason it made her feel important, granting her a sense that she was responsible for something so significant.

When the economic crisis broke out and homeless people began to appear more abundantly in the city streets, Oralia was saddened by the thought that apart from not having a roof over their head, these people didn’t own any keys.

One day, however, the unimaginable happened to her. She got locked out of her own house. And she couldn’t find the keys.

She had left her precious set of keys on her desk at the office that evening, when in a rush to get home, change and meet her friends at the movie theatre. The office door locked automatically and she was not the last to leave, so she was not concerned about that. But when she reached the front door of her apartment building, she felt her blood freeze in her veins.

City life was so asocial and distant that she didn’t even know any of her neighbours who could buzz her in. But even if she did get into the building she couldn’t enter the apartment. And she would have to call a locksmith to change every lock, from the apartment door, to even the closets so she could access her belongings. It was a nightmare she would rather not even think of.

So she decided to go back to the office instead and retrieve her original set of keys.

On the way, she saw two homeless people, one snuggled in a quilted blanket on a park bench and one sitting at the steps in front of another tall apartment building.

She no longer felt sorry for them not having a set of keys. It wasn’t the keys themselves that made them important; it was what they unlocked. And that is what her grandmother meant all those years ago.

RSVP

When sent a form of communication – be it an email, an SMS, an instant message, a written letter, a pigeon, a Morse code or smoke signals – it is always good manners to respond. Regardless of whether there was a direct question involved.

The same implies for when someone is addressing you with an issue of some sort. Maybe they want your opinion on something, maybe they are asking for your input, or maybe they simply want to share their experience with you. But in all cases, they expect that you will respond in some sort of way.

Otherwise, if you don’t even have the courtesy to nod in acknowledgement that you are registering what they’re saying, it is easy to misunderstand or rather, conclude (either rightly or wrongly), that the other person is simply not interested.

If you care enough, you find the means, the time, and the way to respond.

The French have even globalised a polite abbreviation for it – Répondez S’il Vous Plait (RSVP). OK, you might not really want to respond to something, but it is merely polite to simply acknowledge receipt of the communication and fire up a minimum five-word response. It takes up much more of your time trying to edit a photo to upload on social media, or scrolling through social networking sites.

It is a shame that in the so-called digital era all this technology has in fact made us so anti-social.

Flakes of excitement

As the first flake of snow fell on his nose that evening, he could feel his entire body jolting with excitement. It was snowing in the city centre and everyone was thrilled. Perhaps a little too much, acting as if no-one had ever seen snow before and posting it all over social media. It wasn’t that strange a happening. It was winter and it was snowing.

No matter how many times he had seen snow before, he would always feel that same rush once the snowflakes began to fall, like cotton balls gently dropping from the sky. Everything seemed calmer and more silent when there was snow. And there was something so much more magical going to bed or waking up to a city dressed in white.

What he loved most was the white lumps gathering on the trees. They were usually among the last to dissolve in the morning sun and added a different sort of wintery glow to an otherwise routine stroll around the city.

No matter the years that passed, he would still rush to the window to see if the snowfall was continuing, and would often refuse to go to bed unless it stopped snowing, anxious to see how thick the white carpet would get.

It didn’t matter how old or young you were after all. What mattered was that you enjoyed those small, often seemingly insignificant, moments in life that make you feel grateful to be alive.

The Psyche of Eros

There is a fact we all soon come to acknowledge: that there can be no love if not felt deep inside the soul. There is a lovely Ancient Greek myth that centers on this – the fable of Eros (Love) and Psyche (Soul):

Once upon a time, there was a king who had three wonderful daughters. The youngest, Psyche, was much more beautiful than her two sisters and looked like a goddess among mere mortals. People throughout the land worship her beauty so deeply that they forget about the goddess Aphrodite. Aphrodite becomes angry that her temples are falling to ruin, so she plots to ruin Psyche. She instructs her son, Eros, to pierce the girl with an arrow and make her fall in love with the most vile, hideous man alive. But when Eros sees Psyche in her radiant glory, he shoots himself with the arrow instead.

Meanwhile, Psyche and her family become worried that she will never find a husband, for although men admire her beauty, they always seem content to marry someone else. Psyche’s father prays to Apollo for help, and Apollo instructs her to go to the top of a hill, where she will marry not a man but a serpent. Psyche bravely follows the instructions and falls asleep on the hill. When she wakes up, she discovers a stunning mansion. Going inside, she relaxes and enjoys fine food and luxurious treatment. At night, in the dark, she meets and falls in love with her husband.

She lives happily with him, never seeing him, until one day he tells her that her sisters have been crying for her. She begs to see them, but her husband replies that it would not be wise to do so. Psyche insists that they visit, and when they do, they become extremely jealous of Psyche’s beautiful mansion and lush quarters. They deduce that Psyche has never seen her husband, and they convince her that she must sneak a look. Confused and conflicted, Psyche turns on a lamp one night as her husband lies next to her.

When she sees the beautiful Eros asleep on her bed, she weeps for her lack of faith. Eros awakens and deserts her because Love cannot live where there is no trust. Cupid returns to his mother, Aphrodite, who again decides to enact revenge on the beautiful girl.

Psyche, meanwhile, journeys all over the land to find Eros. She decides to go to Aphrodite herself in a plea for love and forgiveness, and when she finally sees Aphrodite, the great goddess laughs aloud. Aphrodite shows her a heap of seeds and tells her that she must sort them all in one night’s time if she wants to see Eros again. This task is impossible for one person alone, but ants pity Psyche and sort the seeds for her. Shocked, Aphrodite then orders Psyche to sleep on the cold ground and eat only a piece of bread for dinner. But Psyche survives the night easily. Finally, Aphrodite commands her to retrieve a golden fleece from the river. She almost drowns herself in the river because of her sorrow, but a reed speaks to her and suggests that she collect the golden pieces of fleece from the thorny briar that catches it. Psyche follows these instructions and returns a sizable quantity to Aphrodite. The amazed goddess, still at it, now orders Psyche to fill a flask from the mouth of the River Styx. When Psyche reaches the head of the river, she realizes that this task seems impossible because the rocks are so dangerous. This time, an eagle helps her and fills the flask. Aphrodite still does not give in. She challenges Psyche to go into the underworld and have Persephone put some of her beauty in a box. Miraculously, Psyche succeeds.

When she gave Aphrodite the box, the goddess got extremely angry. She yelled the poor girl that she would never let her go and she would always be her servant. At this crucial moment, the Gods, who were watching this wrongdoing all this time, decided to take up action. They sent Hermes, the messenger God, to narrate Eros all the misfortunes that his wife was going through. Eros was touched and this healed the wound of betrayal. He left his room and found Psyche exhausted in his mother’s garden. From that moment on, Eros and Psyche lived happily together in their lovely palace, which was always full of roses and other flowers. Psyche persuaded Eros to forgive his mother for what she had made her suffer. As a wedding gift, Zeus made Psyche immortal and allowed her to taste ambrosia, the drink of the Gods. Even Aphrodite was happy because, now that Psyche was living in the sky with her husband, men on earth had forgotten all about her and were again worshiping the true goddess of beauty. Eros and Psyche then had a daughter named Hedone (Pleasure).

The story centres on the power of true love and the strength it finds in overcoming all the obstacles thrown before it. But most importantly it reveals that in the union between love and soul, trust is essential. For love is an act of faith for the other and it must remain surrounded by a small veil of mystery. It is what keeps the feeling alive. Living each moment with deep emotion, without trying to understand the magic that lies behind it. If we cling too much, we will end up strangling love itself.

Love is something we often don’t fully understand. It comes abruptly and touches our heart and soul. If it persists, if it prevails despite the challenges it may face, that is when you know it is true and worth having.

 

The secret of the clock

When the house was silent, it was the only thing that could be heard. But even above the voices, its ticking sounded strongly, giving rhythm to the time that passed. It alerted its co-residents as to the time of day, the minutes and hours that passed by. But it also reminded them of that wonderful day when they first bought it and made it an intrinsic part of their home.

The couple that owned it was one that had already been together for half a century and continued to love each other as deeply, truly and wholly as the first day they met. The cuckoo clock was a souvenir from a winter holiday in the Alps. One where they fully enjoyed the festive season, the snow, the joy and the glow that the decorations brought along, and the carefreeness of becoming a child again. It served as a reminder that time is the moments you spend enjoying your existence.

As the cuckoo sprung out of its little home upon every half hour, the people of its home became all the more aware of how quickly time passes. Of how important it thus becomes to live every moment as it comes, to embrace the people surrounding you, to share the love in your heart, and to allow your subconscious to be without remorse and unfulfilled ambitions.

The cuckoo called out to them to live, and not just exist. Because it is the memories of a life well spent that fill our hearts with the energy to carry on.

 

Happy New Year, make it the greatest one yet!