Speak to me

Introverts have this ‘thing’ (among others): they don’t talk a lot.

The paradox with that, however, is that around the ‘right’ people they won’t stop talking. Once they feel comfort – loved, respected, appreciated, they’ll just blabber away for hours. So much that they might even feel exhausted afterwards. Because when you share so much of yourself, it’s like you’re allowing someone to have a part of you. A part you so delicately place in their hands – in their control – and hope that it won’t be harmed.

When you share parts of your story – parts that hurt you most of all – you secretly wish that it will be nurtured back to life. Like a withering flower.

In the end that’s really what we all seek: someone who understands and stays even when they see all the scars and injuries we’re carrying.

Time invested

“Whatever you do, do it with intent; otherwise it’s just wasted time. And time is not something you want to squander.”

He was right. But when you’re a child you cannot see that.

Maggie only realised what her tutor was saying when her time became limited due to work, household obligations, hobbies and social interactions and she had to carefully select what and who she devoted it to.

She recalled what he said then.

“When you do what you enjoy and have fun, it is never time wasted but time invested.”

Also part of Weekend Writing Prompt #352

Skip a day

Wouldn’t it be great if you could skip a day like your heart skips a beat?

You usually miss a beat out of excitement though; something positive that brings you joy.

What if you could erase a day for the opposite reason? Just scratch it from memory as if it never happened. So you wouldn’t even have it as a recollection.

Or perhaps at least have the option of a Groundhog Day: to relive it until you get it right – or at least to an ending where your heart skips a beat out of the thrill of happiness and not of disappointment.

Wouldn’t that be swell?

Sing me a song

Can you fall in love with a song?

Surely you’ve done it: listened to a song once then got it stuck in your head. Even when you don’t know the lyrics, you catch a couple of words and frantically search for it online until you fight the source of your obsession.

You fall in love with a song but it’s more than that. You’re enthralled by its rhythm in general, but you’re captivated by its potential, the feelings it evokes, the dreams it creates as you listen to the melody and its lyrics.

You fall in love with the power of each word. The capacity they have in lifting you up and making you dream. But most of all you often relate to the meaning and interpretation it invokes, giving you the sense that you are heard and understood. That you are not alone in that life phased you’re on at the moment.

And that there is always something more to whatever you’re experiencing.

There is great potential in a song

Because it’s never just some music with words. It’s so much more… If you want to hear it.

Everyone has a story to tell

Everyone has a story to tell. It’s often one you cannot even imagine.

The lady you see in rags on the bus everyday may have been a successful entrepreneur who got broke. A rags-to-riches in reverse story.

The old man who speaks to himself on his daily walks round the park may have been an academic whose research got to his head.

The boy working three shifts a day may be fighting to keep his family afloat after his father was killed in unscrutinised circumstances.

The girl with an attitude may be shielding herself against the abuse she experienced as a child and has grown up to view the world through a negative lens.

The disillusioned youth who finds no solace may have witnessed more than you think possible and has grown tired of our own capacity to self-destruct.

Everyone has a story to tell.

Even you.

But nobody knows about it unless you let them in.

Spread kindness with every step. You never know who might need it.

Guide to life

How easily things turn around: from the words you say to the actions you actually do.

The key to avoid the consequential mood swings and disappointment is to have no expectations.

Only believe what you see not what you are told.

Make that your guide.

Also part of Weekend Writing Prompt #345

Speaking a wish

Do you know why we say good morning (usually) every day? Because we wish it will be one. We deep down hope this dawning day will be good. Sometimes, when we’re not that optimistic (usually on account of prior experiences) we’ll simply say ‘morning’, but we still desire it to pleasantly surprise us.

We wish a lot of things during the day – good day, good afternoon, good evening, good night. But it’s not limited to times: enjoy your meal, have a nice day, good luck, bon voyage and so many more (we even say good riddance when it comes to it).

Have you noticed a trend though? We so desperately want to get something positive out of it all. We need to see something good to believe it can happen.

This unconsciously works with everything.

We need to encourage ourselves and others more. Because criticising and finding something wrong in everything is easy.

We need to see the light in the surrounding darkness. It’s the only way to create it. You either reflect it or be the light yourself.

The exuberance of belonging

Sometimes life’s paths lead you down roads you never wished to take. But it’s on these adventures that you realise where you truly belong.  When you find people with whom you share specific interests, hobbies, mindsets, it’s when you feel that deep sense of belonging that is actually liberating. You don’t have to pretend to fit in. You simply are you and are appreciated for it.

We all desire that sense of belonging. That exuberance of being part of a group, of something big, of contributing to a whole and living up to the motto of the Three Musketeers, “all for one and one for all. It’s that emotion of having found another family among friends. Be it at dance clubs, in social outings, or even at work, we all deep down long for that ‘tribe’.

It’s where we feel our best that we also unleash our greatest potential.

“We can’t become our best selves without feeling like we belong to a tribe that sees us, respect us, and lift us up”.

What if it were easy?

What would everything feel like if it were easy? The thought surely has passed through your mind at some point…right?

We’re so used to facing some kind of challenge every so often, that when something seemingly easy appears, when things feel like they’re running smoothly, we’re filled with doubt and suspicion. Because it can’t be that easy. We refuse to accept it. It feels like a trap.

We’re so habituated to being tense and on edge most of the time that we feel estranged from anything simple. We’ve even convinced ourselves that ‘simple is boring’ and try to laugh at all the paradoxical difficulties we are usually forced to encounter. Anything else seems…well, weird.

But what if the norm is actually the simple and easy? What if we’re not supposed to tire ourselves so much to achieve something? What if we’ve just haven’t found the ‘right’ way yet?

The only thing we can do is smile at adversity, used to the discomfort of trailing on the hard path, and maintain the hope that we too will soon land on that easy path of getting everything done.

A good time

©MCD

What is your definition of ‘having fun’? How do you quantify or even determine it at all? Having a ‘good time’, let alone ‘fun’, is something purely subjective, is it not? Because what may seem like fun to you, to someone else might be a drag or bore (see, for example, reading).

The common denominator, in all cases, however, is that ‘having fun’ essentially means feeling relaxed. Being overwhelmed with the sensation that you’ve ‘let loose’, that you don’t feel stressed or confined in any way. You can truly be yourself, and not have to justify anything to anyone. It means not knowing what day or time it is and not caring either.

Whatever it is you do, when you’re having fun you can fall asleep at night in an instant and wake up refreshed the next morning ready to continue whatever it is that refreshed you.

At the end of the day, shouldn’t that be the whole point anyway? To disconnect so we may reconnect with ourselves and enjoy every moment in the process?