Laughing matters...

‘Smile, and you may brighten up the day of someone who may brighten yours someday’
-The Puppet Master


So, you’re sitting here, in front of this screen. I bet you’re not smiling.

Why not?

Maybe you think there’s no reason to smile today, or just right now. Well, for one thing you’re alive. You probably have a job. You surely have a family, or just people you can count on in your direst times. There can be a million different reasons why you should smile, if not outright laugh.
We live under so much pressure. Each morning starts with our worrying about the rest of the day, and maybe even the days to follow. Is there enough money left on our bank accounts? Is there much homework to do for college? Is the pool clean? Am I ill? Did I feed my fish? Do I have clean clothes for tomorrow? What am I going to cook today? Does he/she still love me? While we worry about all these things we’re not living our lives, our lives are living us.

Stop your day for a second. If possible, turn the lights of your room off for a minute. Otherwise just turn off the lights of your mind and think not of things other than ‘why, despite it all, should I be happy about’.

Practice this. Pick three unknown people today, look at them in the eye and smile. Just smile. You will see their faces brighten up. You make even make a new friend. Most importantly, you may ease a burden from that someone’s shoulders. They will feel so good about themselves that they will, in turn, smile to someone else. Imagine the power a simple movement of your lips can have, it can change lives, it can change the world…



Lesson learned: Give unto others, and life will reward you.

Self dedication...

‘Why do we dedicate time but not thoughts to ourselves?’
-The Puppet Master

Before reading more pick up a blank piece of paper and a pen or pencil. If you don’t have access to them right now then wait, and read it when you have them available, you will then experience something that can change your life.

Now, with the paper and pen in hand…

Write yourself a song, dedicate yourself a poem.

Have you ever wondered what your life in its entirety is like? You surely have dwelled on the problems you face, on the moment you are living through right now. You may have ignored the rest, though.
Have you sincerely ever sat down to think how your life has truly been? Have you ever given much thought to the ‘who am I’, rather than to the 'what I want'?

Write it all down, as a brainstorm before editing it.

Though you may think yourself unskilled in this endeavor your life in itself will make a masterpiece of whatever you choose to write. It is the very essence of your self, of who you have learnt to be, what will give life to the piece you write. Be honest, for only then you will truly understand so much about yourself and you will be ready to face the world once again as you truly are, not as you want to be.

Write it here as a comment and contribute to the growth of others. Most importantly, know yourself, love yourself, teach yourself, and learn yourself.


Wanderer

Over many years, many changes
Faces in my life, most remembered
Battering illusions of the past
Playing my own disbelief

(Chorus)
Preying prayers holding me together
Torturous hands tearing me in two
Supplication of iniquity
I’ve sinned against myself
I’ve trespassed my soul
Will I be the same forevermore?

Eyes searching upon the light,
Blessing touch of healing hands
Comforting words that ease the pain
That soothe the soul, that lick the wounds

Settling in, wandering settler
Achieving goals so far away
Hidden joy and hopeful song
Bursting through my chest

(chorus)




Lesson learned: Only by being honest to myself will I be able to start the journey to change what I must change to become who I must become.

For granted...

‘Every single little thing, if seen on its own, is valuable’
-The Puppet Master


So you’re sitting there, in front of this electronic device. Many of you have taken a step forward in life and have determined to try and appreciate things more. Well, there are very small, insignificant things that may have been overlooked…
Who served your coffee this morning? Who is that person and what does it mean to you? He might be just an anonymous guy serving coffee, but that anonymous guy helped you start your day off in a particularly good mood. If it wasn’t for him you’d get to work late(or even later if you’re already so).
Who was that lady in the car at your side while you drove to work? She’s just one lady driving her vehicle, but yet you recall her face, and maybe her smile however faint. Who is she, and what does she mean to you? She may well be just an aged woman, but she smiled at you, and a smile is always responded, conscious or unconsciously.
Who’s the security guard, the janitor, the policeman, the little child across the street? Who are they, and what do they mean to you in the never-ending chaotic turmoil of your life.

Now, who is the person you sometimes kiss in the morning? Who is that someone who cuddled with you in the cold of the night. It might not mean much, but that someone’s proximity would help you comfort in your sleep. Who is he whose eyes pierce your very essence and make your drawn weapons fall to the ground? Who is he, and what does he mean to you?
Have you forgotten? To truly appreciate life one must appreciate all the little things around us, and all the big things our ungratefulness makes appear little.


Lesson learned: Every single little piece of candy is sweet. Like each day in love, it should be truly appreciated.

Dawn breaks...

‘Good night, Mo, and sweet dreams. Fold this day into itself, and when tomorrow comes start your life anew’
-Whitten Hall , text message received on 08/15/07

(This post would originally be named ‘Night falls…’ However, like plants, if I am to continue my growth process I need to bask in the warm light of a new day)

…and, with difficulty, you close the last page of that accursed book, its parchment written along with never-ending tears of blood. Despite an utmost desire to cast it away to the bottom of the sea or burn it in a pyre something makes you cling to its content for a second. You take the book back. If opened once again the fresh memories will claw at your skin viciously, perhaps reopening wounds that have clearly not been healed. The shock of the things sometimes best left forgotten will cloud your thoughts and will weaken your spirit.

Set it down, look at this inanimate object that has taken possession of your most intimate thoughts. Breathe in deeply, look at it one last time and say 'thanks for the lessons learned'. Pick it up and place it in an open bookshelf, but high enough so that you can't reach it again, but so that you can see it and remember the lessons you learned whenever you decide to clean your house.

As bad as things may seem they are not the end of the World. Maybe they are the end of the world you knew, a world which you thought you would never be able to escape. Free yourself from pain, free yourself from sorrow, and free yourself from those who inflict them on you or themselves. Above all, love yourself, for in due time you’ll realize you’re the only one you can count on.


Lesson learned: 'The past is a collection of memories from which you can learn, not a web in which you are caught. By all means leave it all behind, lift your hands in victory over that which would never let you move forward, yourself. Just say goodbye'

The end...

‘There’s a means to an end, and what does the end truly mean?’
-The Puppet Master



A time of respite comes after every big battle. Where many have died not long ago and many wounds were inflicted, where the spirits of hatred permeated the scene, now only quiescence remains.
An empty house, the echoes of the crystallized tears breaking upon contact with the ground fill the air. Where once there was love there is now resentment, where there was passion uncontrolled desires reign, where there was understanding there’s just confusion left.
You wake up in your bed one day, alone. Your only companions have been your pillows, sheets and the sun, the only ones caressing your chest now.
It feels as if we are in a vortex. The Limbo or Hades itself would seem like an easier place to live in.

The end is just happening. We are living through it.

It is not over…

The end is just a step away from the new beginning.
The sheets in your bed will comfort you while you’re sleeping, the sun will wake you up without an argument, his warmth the one you have not felt for long.

A new day has arrived. There is so much to do. Things happen for a reason, they say. Close the last chapter and sigh, breath out in relief that the burden was already carried, set in place. Reward yourself.

Pull the ivy's thorns from around your heart out, it will hurt in the process, but do it promptly lest your heart be wounded beyond repair.

Forgive…
…forget…



Lesson learned: ‘Rise up and smile, and you’ll shine more than the purest of gold’

Left behind...

‘Everything in life is a learning experience’

-The Puppet Master

Have you ever felt like a slow child sitting at the front desk in his classroom, trying to learn as fast as the others, only to be forgotten by an indifferent teacher? No matter how hard he tries, no matter how much he strives he will always, in the end, be left behind…And some may argue it is not cruel, and many will agree. They say the masses cannot lose grip on their success due to their waiting for the weakest link.

What about those animals who are wounded, they will be easy prey to the wolves following them. Those in the front will move on, leaving the unfortunate one behind…Some may say it is in nature itself to preserve the species, and that the species cannot succumb due to the saving of the one who will die nonetheless.

In some homes there are parents who have grown tired of their problems. They pack up their things and just disappear one night, leaving their children defenseless, behind…Surely there are those who argue people act in weird ways at times, and it should be forgiven, for in the end they are protecting themselves from insanity.

Even eternal lovers separate occasionally due to one partner’s desire to ‘live life to its fullest’ without taking into consideration the needs or desires of his other half, and one stays alone, behind…What argument people may add is that one should look for its own happiness, even if sometimes it means others must be sacrificed.

An old pet is forgotten by a child, eager to receive her new pet and hold it in her arms.The original one tries its best to be noticed, only to be replaced easily and left behind…Parents may agree children need new experiences, and each new experience makes them grow to become better people.

Clearly, all these fools have never felt what it is to be left behind.

When you stay behind what’s left is the cold winter of a cruel solitude. The hungry, impious predators loom around waiting for your fall to devour you, gnawing at your bones when nothing is left.

Look up now, stand up, stand out, and stand proud. You have been left behind for a reason. Someone has overlooked your true value. Someone has mistaken you for something else and, in many ways your abandonment will ultimately help you to realize your true worth.

Lesson learned: Stand up, light a fire, and fend off the wolves of your past. You have not been left behind, as those fools have not moved forward. They have turned and moved a different way.

Unsung song...

''The only perfect song comes from the heart'

The Puppet Master

You

Never thought one day I’d come

To admire, ooh to admire

A spirit young,

Crazy, always roaming free

Striving to stay afloat

Fighting for freedom, ooh endless freedom

From that labyrinthine mind,

Torturous punishment, damned curse

You

Smiling, a lighthouse in my life

A touch infrequently soft

Yet always so gentle

You

Disquieting poem of endless

Different verses

Composing your being

Perfect statue

I built you a throne of heart-made marble

Black pearl eyes charming me

Ooh charming me

Warrior of justice

Friend to the loneliness

Brave young sentience

Lifting me up, ooh lifting me up

Lesson learned: Write yourself a song, and it will never go unnoticed.

Bitten hand…

‘I have to admire Jesus’
-The Puppet Master


It feels awful to be so deeply hurt that even the tears refrain to make an appearance. Of the many experiences that shape lives I guess pain turns out to be a very loyal friend. Years after a painful event the mere memory of it can cleave into our heart and leave a bleeding gash. It was always there, we then realize. Pain just makes you believe the cake is freshly baked.
Amongst the worst kinds of pain is the one you feel after a betrayal. We are not perfect, nobody is. Some of us, though, try our best to help another being. We sacrifice our time, we fall in love, we modify our plans, we spend money, sometimes get in debt, only to one day be left behind when that someone is feeling better.
The grass is always greener on the other side… those wise words should be included in the Bible.
Beware of stray dogs. They may be wounded, their saddened eyes hiding their very true sick nature. You will feed them in order to not only do some good, but to truly aid some being. In the end a stray dog will still be a stray dog. It will sink its teeth deeply in your hand before it leaves for someone else’s care. All the time you dedicated serves nothing, for all he cares you’re one day running out of food, and he needs to find another source.

There are things worse than stray dogs…


Lesson Learned: ‘Parasites: a phenomenon in which two organisms which are unrelated co-exist over a prolonged period of time, usually the lifetime of one of the individuals’