A day of unfortunate events

There is a belief that if something happens one, it’s just luck. If it happens twice, it may be a coincidence. But if it is repeated, then you need to look into it.

It’s sort of how it goes with various days of the week. We all have one specific day which we associate with bad luck or a series of things just not going our way.

For most it’s a Monday, which is usually an OK day until it upsets you.

You realise how your day will go from the way you wake up. Fighting with your alarm clock doesn’t count, because you do that almost every day.

If you’re forced to jump out of bed though – most often on account of a deafening noise or a bell ringing – then your entire mood is unavoidably affected.

Wishful thinking isn’t always enough. Wishing you’d win the lottery won’t help if you don’t play at all. The law of attraction, however, may have something to do with it all, even if it is the negative thoughts that get realised more often than not.

But some days, no matter how much you struggle to keep an optimistic scope on things, life has a way of laughing at your face at how many incidents can be overturned in one single day.

It’s difficult to find something positive to turn events around when you’re constantly bombarded from all over. But the things is, when you do; when you manage to stay strong; you’ll get rewarded for it.

“This is the best day the world has ever seen. Tomorrow will be better” – R. A. Campbell

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Generation Gaps

“You know, when we were young, our only way of communicating with each other was if we were both home and both had a landline. Otherwise we were sort of lost in our own worlds”.

The young girl looked up from her mobile phone.

She was astounded by the truth of her grandfather’s words. She lived in an age where you could communicate with anyone anywhere in a matter of seconds. She didn’t know what it was like to not have a phone in hand and for her it was unthinkable to not be able to find out at any given time where anyone was and what they were doing. Mostly because her generation voluntary gave out that information online.

“So what happened if you wanted to find out about someone but didn’t want them to know?” she asked coyly.

“Well, you would have to ask someone who knew them too”.

“But what if you didn’t want anyone to know?”

“Like stalking?” her grandfather put it frankly.

“Well, sort of…” she blushed.

“There was no such thing in my time. If you’re relationship broke with someone, you tried to fix it. And if that didn’t work then you just got out of touch with them. And that was the end of it”.

The girl said nothing. She looked at her grandfather trying to imagine what that was like. Her generation was used to stalking each other on social media and getting obsessed with each other’s posts, overanalyzing, overthinking and overstressing. Everything in exaggeration. What was it like to not have to think about all this? To simply not care? To be calm?

Her grandfather was almost 100. He would still go out for long walks and had the patience of a mule.

She was agitated by even a fly’s buzz.

One time she had asked him if he never worries about anything. His reply was: “would it help?”

“To be calm is the highest achievement of the self” – Zen proverb

The hardest part of being away

©Todd Foltz

The hardest part of being forcibly away is not being able to hug you and receive back that warm heartbeat vibration.

The hardest part of being forced to be apart for so long is not being able to join our laughter in chorus in all our inside jokes; in all the things only we find funny.

Forced to be at a distance, we’re never really apart, and you know that.

I can feel you, just like you can sense me. Every mood and every thought resonates within each other.

I would still prefer not to be so many miles away.

Also part of Friday Fictioneers

Right is right regardless

We, people, are too concerned about appearances. About what other people think. About how we may seem to others; the image we portray.

We are often more concerned about the impression we give, than about acting right and with integrity. We lose ourselves to please others, but, worse, to fit into social confinements.

There are certain ways of acting that we can realise on our own if they are right or not. No matter the norms of social behaviour, we can discern if it is acceptable to shout in public, to speak badly to service workers, to be rude to anyone. They are part of those things that frankly should be common sense.

But what most people fail to comprehend is that just because everyone does something doesn’t make it right or even acceptable.

Similarly, just because certain people act in a similar manner around everyone – e.g. flirting or being overly effusive – doesn’t make that behaviour acceptable or appropriate either.

There are some things we need to respect when it comes to friendships and social conduct.  We need to take into account the people we have before us and adjust our manners accordingly.

But essentially, it is one single thing: don’t do unto others what you don’t want done to you. If you want to be respected, treat the people next to you with respect. It will elevate you much more than anything else you could say or do.

Remember, “right is right even if no one is doing it. Wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it” (St Augustine).

The window-cleaner mystery

©Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

She hadn’t called for a window-cleaner, that is why she found it odd that his van appeared early that morning.

By the time he managed to explain that his company was offering free services as advertising since they were new in the neighbourhood, it began to rain.

It seemed pointless to get the windows cleaned now.

So he offered instead to clean the gutters.

She stayed inside and watched the rain dampen the windows as he climbed up his ladder.

That was the last thing she remembered when they found her, bloodshed, on her living room floor the next day.

Also part of Friday Fictioneers

When we say we’re fine

When people ask each other “how are you?”, the response is a reflex answer of “fine, and you?”. Rarely does the question delve deeper into how the other person actually is. We ask about our news, our novelties, our gossip, work, relationships etc, but hardly does anyone actually look into how we really are; how we feel, in what mental state we are in.

This year (2020) has been hard. Almost six months have passed, and we have but a few days in which things actually progressed and we have something to show for them. Otherwise, all we have done is stayed at home, explored our neighbourhoods, developed our cooking skills, irritated the people we live with, become depressed at being alone, and wasted an obscene amount of time on Netflix and social media.

Undeniably, even doing a bare minimum – or absolutely nothing – takes a toll on our mental health. We tell each other we’re fine to believe it is true. Because if we don’t overanalyze, we won’t have to admit to ourselves that deep down we are not as great as we want to appear. We are lacking security, the freedom of movement, the capacity to make plans again, having something to look forward to, the prospect that we will get to see our loved ones again soon in a scheduled time and date without the fear of risking a new lockdown or quarantine measures being imposed on you.

We’re only as fine as we believe ourselves to be. Yet, we prefer not to talk about what is bugging us in an attempt to override it. It’s like sweeping the dust under the carpet. Just because we can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Mood swings and mental breakdowns don’t necessarily need professional help to be overcome or healed. Sometimes all we really need is people around us who care enough to offer the help we don’t dare to ask for. It’s enough to know that there are friends and family there who can offer a hug, a random talk when needed, and a simple confirmation that we’re not facing things alone. Because in the end, what we all need is the sentiment that better days are coming no matter what, and the incentive to garner the patience to deal with it all.

An obdurate nature

“There is a difference between remaining firm in your beliefs and simply being obdurate. Because in the latter you stubbornly refuse to change”.

“That’s what you’re doing”.

She no longer yelled at him like she used to. She was too tired and exasperated to do so.

“Why should I change? It’s not I who is thinking things wrongly”.

She sighed. There was nothing left to say. He had made it perfectly clear.

Also part of Weekend Writing Prompt #161

Fly away with me

©Ronda Del Boccio

“Please forgive me; I won’t be able to make it again. Work is chaos. I’ll make amends, promise”. His voice was an amalgamation of despair, anguish, guilt, and exasperation.

She sighed trying not to be heard. She understood it was hectic at work but did not agree that he allowed his entire life to revolve around it. She said nothing more than “OK”.

Two days later, he led her blindfold to a cliff. She trembled, not knowing what to expect.

“How about you fly in the sky with me for a while and I’ll show you the world from above?”

Also part of Friday Fictioneers

Summer life

©MCD

Once June came, he would transfer to the beach house. He longed for those months there. Everything seemed so much better then.

It wasn’t just because it was summer and the weather was warmer, the days were longer and everyone seemed happier.

At the beach, people tend to worry less. It is as if they somehow realise that the meaning of life is to live it, not overanalyse it.

His father once told him that “at the beach, life is different. Time doesn’t move hour to hour but mood to moment. We live by the currents, plan by the tides and follow the sun”.

Magically, a solution to every problem appeared during his walks at the beach. His mind calmed down during sunset. And at night, when the only thing to be heard was the silent ebb and flow of the waves while gazing at a star-filled sky, he felt so much stronger, optimistic and…alive.

Forward no matter the speed

©MCD

It appeared in the middle of the footpath in the forest park. The little child was amazed. It pulled onto its grandfather’s hand to approach it cautiously.

“Look, how fast it’s going!” it pointed.

The turtle was moving faster than what is conventionally believed to be its pace.

The child was thrilled. For a few moments, it stood there, mesmerised, in silence watching it, as if absorbing every movement the turtle made.

“Turtles are extraordinary creatures,” her grandfather said. “They demonstrate how to be comfortable in your own shell; how to travel at your own pace even if that means going slowly. The only thing you should fear is standing still”.

The little girl tiptoed behind the turtle.

“Speed doesn’t matter. Forward is forward”.

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go” – T.S. Elliot