Cash at hand

A wise man once said that yesterday is like a void cheque, while tomorrow is simply a promissory note. Today we have cash at hand. And we should spend it as best and as broadly as we can because we will never have that opportunity again. The world is immense, and all we have is now.

It is amazing how when you rid your mind of expectations, you also alleviate yourself from worry. The less you expect, the less you’re troubled.

Truth is, if you take things as they come, you’ll also be happier. Because you act in the way you feel, exploiting the moment and not anticipating anything. So, whatever comes is a pleasant surprise. It also reduces the pressure you feel, both on yourself and on others, to act or react in a certain way.

Studies have found that 85% of the things we worry about never actually happen. Yet we incessantly consume our energy and occupy our minds we these possibilities.

We fail to comprehend that life itself is the perception we give it. It is the lens we choose to view it with that makes the difference. And as such, we are the masters of what we select to see. We either wake up determined to make it a good day or moan that it is yet another morning when who knows what could go wrong. Just think about all the wonderful things that could happen, though.

If the secret to a successful and carefree life is the law of attraction, begin from within, attracting and ‘manifesting’ (as is the latest modern-day trend) positive and luminous energy. If we consciously choose to change our viewpoint and reject the thoughts that pose so many limitations on us, we will unconsciously begin to see that everything around us will smile right back.

Sometimes we just need to stop thinking altogether; to get out of our heads, to stop being so scared, and just go for it. Either it will work out or it won’t. But wouldn’t it be better to try than to regret? And what if it does work? What if you fly?

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Clean Slate

© Na’ama Yehuda

Love stories of the past are like wilted flowers. Their time – and season – has ended. They were wonderful while they lasted, but they had a due date. And it has expired.

We need to let them go. Throw them out so that we have space to bring in new ones. Fresh, colourful, scented, alive. Ones that remind us that there is a bright future ahead and it’s up to us to make it prosperous.

We can remember, but it should not affect us. Perhaps that is the hardest to master.

Some flowers last forever; those we should nourish.

Also part of Friday Fictioneers

Surreal instances

©Brenda Cox

They are like surreal instances. Like a bicycle clinging onto a wall as if it’s about to ride up against gravity.

Those thoughts of what you could have, would have, should have; they cause too much distress and eat you up from the inside. They tear you apart piece by piece because there is nothing you can do to change the situation or remedy anything. You can’t alter what did not happening. All you can do is look towards living the present as best as possible, and enjoying what is to come as much as you can.

Seize the now.

Also part of Friday Fictioneers

The quiet friend

©MCD_Bruno

He sat there quietly. Always on the same spot on the couch where she paused for a rest from her tiring and incessant schedule.

She lightened up every time she saw him. And when they hugged, she would inhale deeply letting out a faint sigh with that exhale.

He had a way of easing the tension she inexplicably carried on her shoulders. She burdened herself with too much stress for her own good. Even he could see it.

But it was enough for him that he made her smile. And that, even if just for a little while, she would let her troubles slip away from her mind. For those few seconds she could empty her head. She found comfort in him and was grateful for his presence.

Even if he didn’t say much. Or anything at all for that matter.

It would be a little strange if he did.

After all, he was just a fluffy teddy bear.

But the person who gifted it to her knew he was much more.

The tenant of the clock

©J Hardy Carroll

It was a present from the global travels of a great uncle. It was a gift passed down each generation. It was one that carried the history of its owners with it.

It was finely crafted and had an essence of another era. It stood out in every home it was placed. But that was its point after all: to remind you that you should stand out of the crowd.

One night in its new location, a faint scratching woke everyone up. It wasn’t the clock ticking.

It was something hiding inside the clock-tower: a tiny kitten seeking a home.

 

Also part of Friday Fictioneers

Drawing a line, closing a door

There is a saying that “you don’t drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there”. The allegory is linked to keeping your mind fixed upon the past. It’s the same as knocking constantly on a closed door and expecting it to open.

It is true that our hearts and minds often fail to coordinate on sentimental issues – you know what you need to do but you feel differently about it.

We need to close some doors. To draw a (final) line and move on. Not because what they offered was not good or worthwhile. But because they no longer lead anywhere.

We experience things in life to become better, to mature, to have a fuller existence. To live and not just be. But some things aren’t meant to last. Some are even meant to be your path towards something even better. You never know what wonders you will experience tomorrow, unless you let go of the past and embrace the present.

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us” – Alexander Graham Bell

 

Also part of Daily Prompt: Learning

The Christmas Birthday

There is a problem with having your birthday on Christmas day (25 December). Well, there are actually quite a few, but there is one main one: that you risk being forgotten.

It’s just that on that day everything seems so much bigger than you, that your birthday, to many people, simply passes by unnoticed.

And it’s not fair. Because it’s not as if you chose to be born on that specific day. Like so many other things in life, it just happened.

So, apart from the 2-in-1 combined gifts for Christmas and birthday that you unwittingly are forced to accept, you essentially never have a day during the year that is just for you. That one day that you know is yours, and that people think of and associate with you. Because literally everything on that day is associated with something else, and for that it doesn’t really feel very birthday-y.

And what is worse, you spend the entire year waiting for that one day, when everything is crammed into those 24 hours that pass-by so quickly, you hardly have the time to acknowledge what just happened.

It is widely recognised, though, that people with December birthdays live Christmas more intensely, despite being overshadowed by it. They do unwillingly assent to the fact that they are classified as people of that year, despite the fact that they only showed up during its last five days, and it is simply unfair to lose an entire year like that. But there is nothing really you can do about it. Apart from remind everyone that when they’re out celebrating this festive season, there is one more reason there too.

Yet, no matter the fact that you do feel severely neglected, you can’t not delight in the fact that you were still born during the most wonderful time of the year, when everything seems just so much more lovely, and that may be a blessing in itself.

Snowy pearls

Somewhere around the globe, where the snow had already spread its unblemished tapestry, a young boy was still waiting for Santa Claus. He hoped he would bring him a New Year that would be radically different from the one that was just days from becoming history. This one had simply not lived up to his expectations.

Frederick was a strong young man. He had learned to survive the hardships and no matter what life struck him with, he would rise stronger. Until now. This year had broken him. He was forced to deal with loss, with pain, with anguish, with unemployment, with being broke, with disappointment, with having his expectations built-up only to have them crushed, with break-ups, with heartache, and it just seemed to be getting dimmer. There was no light at the end of the tunnel anymore and that was what hurt him the most.

It was snowing outside. The temperature had fallen to below zero already and you could feel the cold nipping at your nose the minute you stepped out of the door. Frederick decided to stay indoors, with the fireplace lit. He was sitting on the small couch by the window with a hot cocoa in hand, staring at the snow spreading like a white fluffy carpet outside.

He could feel the melancholy gripping onto him. It was this time of the year when he felt more alone, when he pondered on what he wished his life was like, and realized what it was not. He wanted so much more of life itself – a partner, a family, wonderful moments to share and people to experience them with. It all meant nothing if he was simply stuck in a dead-end. He wrapped the red fleece blanket around his legs; the cold was creeping in as the sun set.

Frederick wanted to believe that this New Year would be different. That it would finally be the year when his life would improve, when he would manage to realise his dreams and achieve his ambitions. He wanted to be happy and at least look back and be content with the life he led.

That is what he wanted Santa Claus to bring. A new year that would have things go his way, or at least in the same direction he would like them to. He knew it was a difficult thing to ask, but nonetheless he believed. He had to believe in something after all.

He fell asleep there, wrapped in the blanket, with the fire glazing inside, and the snow silently falling outside.

When he woke up the next day, the fire had already extinguished itself and the sun was trying to peek out from behind the clouds. There was a snowman staring at him outside his window – complete with two thin sticks for arms and a carrot for a nose. He even had pebbles formed in the shape of a smile. Frederick smiled. Maybe it was the kids in the neighbourhood who had created Mr Frosty. Either way, it was a very welcome and very pleasant surprise.

But that was not all.

Right in front of the fireplace there was a little blue box. Frederick could swear that was not there before. And he was certain all the doors were locked so no-one could have gotten in without being heard. He got up and picked up the box. It was feather-light. He opened it slowly – who knows what could jump out.

In the centre of the velvet interior was a white pearl. And at the back of the box cover there was writing. “A pearl of wisdom because every year that passes, no matter the pain, the heartache and the suffering, will always make you wiser, more mature and more knowledgeable. Life will hand you many such pearls, it is up to you what you will decide to do with them. Never give up.”

It was not signed.

Frederick’s pulse raced. Could this be the sign he was longing for? The optimism that he needed for a favourable new year?

To him it was. Because sometimes, all it takes is the smallest of things to remind you that what matters most cannot be seen.

 

Also part of Daily Prompt: Mystery Box

Dancing Shadows

As a child Laura wanted to be a dancer. To join the ranks of a famous ballet troop and dance her life around the world. She wanted to be the best. To express every ounce of emotion through the eloquence of dance. And to be so artistically close to perfect that it would even bring her audience to tears.

But that never happened.

When he was young, Mario wanted to live life to the fullest. He didn’t care what he did, as long as he would do it whole-heartedly and enjoy every single moment of it. He never thought about growing up. For him, life was about living the moment. About delving as deep into it as possible. About living then and there.

Until that accident happened.

In the prime of their lives, Laura and Mario were involved in an accident. With each other. One that would inevitably change their lives.

A single second of distraction led to a pileup on one of the busiest avenues in the city. But it was so intense that Laura was told she could not dance again. She was lucky she could still walk and run. And Mario realized that there are some things in life that carry more weight than the frivolousness attributed to almost anything when you view the world through the eyes of a youth.

They changed. Irrevocably. Suddenly. Forcefully.

And their childhood dreams became the shadows that accompanied them for their rest of their lives. Even when they sit in each other’s arms years later and remember that dreadful accident that brought them together, they sigh in melancholy as they imagine ‘what could have been’ and the reason it didn’t.

And how their youthful shadows may dance now, since they no longer can.

 

Also part of Daily Prompt: Futures Past