Memories to Call Home

Memories are like houses.

You live inside of your memories when tragedy happens.

You choose to remember the good so that coping with a loss can become easier.

You live in the cherished times as a way of keeping your loved one alive.

Rather than focusing on life without them, we choose to live in a life that still very much involves them.

We remember them through the memories that now house our loved one.

All that we have left of those that we lose are the memories that we have of them.

As of now, I am residing in my home of memories of my grandmother so as to not lose her completely.

These memories are now my home, the place where I lay my head at night so as to not forget all the wonderful times I had with her.

I use these memories as a home away from reality, as a way to keep her alive when I miss her the most.

In my home, she is always there, she will always be there, and that, my friend, is a beautiful thing.

RIP, Nana. I'll love you forever, and ever.

Sea of Depression

In our lives, sometimes we feel unsure about things.

Sometimes we are scared of new surroundings.

Most of the time, we let our doubts and our fears hold us back.

So much of our focus is placed on the daily worries that we face, rather than the little spurts of happiness that pass us by.

When we choose to focus on our worries and our fears, we are blinded to the opportunities of utter bliss that arise.

We lose sight of happiness, and instead dive into a sea of depression.

Optimism is no longer a factor, only thoughts filled with sadness...

Doubt...

Fear...

Worry...

Only these remain.

Instead of focusing on the positive, we ignore it and focus on the negative.

It is human nature.

Some depressing things have recently been brought to my attention and I do not know how to go about handling them.

Hard decisions lie in the journey ahead of me, but I must continue.

I must jump into the sea of depression.

But, I will do it with this on my mind:

Stay strong. Do not focus on the worries and the fears, but instead look at the little things, the things that could potentially bring you happiness.

I am going to jump into the sea with the state of mind of a child:

Always looking for the next thing to brighten my day and bring me what we all fail to enjoy.

Happiness.

Plain and Simple

Birds.

The life they live seems so simple.

Wake up, chirp a while, maybe build a nest, catch a few worms, chirp some more, sleep.

I sit and look at birds sometimes.

Call me strange; I won't care.

But, I do.

I find them to be a beautiful, delicate animal.

They are graceful in the way that they go about their daily lives.

I find watching them to have a soothing effect on me.

It calms me down.

Allows me to think.

Sometimes I wish that my life was more like that of a bird.

That my life would be simpler, plainer, less hectic.

I wish that I could just go through life without much of a care in the world.

But, that is the problem with being human.

Caring is a burden.

Your heart attaches itself to people, even to things, in ways which are hard to prevent.

You can only let it happen.

Then, life isn't simple.

You begin to worry about those people or things that you care about.

Worry if they are okay.

But, you cannot help it.

That's just part of being human.

I don't like caring about people and certain things, because the worry that comes with caring burdens me and my life is never how I would like it to be.

Like that of a bird.

Plain and simple.

Careless.

Eyes of a Child

Too often in our lives we see the world through the eyes of a child.

We are too curious about things that we should shy away from.

The world seems to be a vast being full of untouched opportunities.

When looking through the eyes of a child, we are naive.

We as humans let our curiousity run our lives.

Therefore, we dabble in areas where we should not be.

Children have yet to establish that sense to know the difference between right and wrong.

Adults have that sense established and it shames me to see people still look at the world with curious, child-like eyes.

How do you see the world?

Like a child?

Are you curious about the right things?

Float On

I have come to realize that in our lives, we all have those times, those moments, that we wish would never fade away.

But, in our lives, those precious moments do pass.

All we are left with is the memory.

I'm beginning to understand that the reason we can only remember these times are so that as we continue on in our lives, we can bask in the glory of even better moments.

The memories we have are there to compete with the new memories, the better memories, that we will one day make.

As I near the end of one stage of my life, I am realizing that we are like driftwood.

We float through our lives, until we reach the end of the water.

We reach the shores that envelop us and welcome us into a new life.

What really matters is what we do as we float on.

How do we react to obstacles in the way of our path?

Do we find those certain things that we cling to?

Those few things that grow on us, like memories, and last forever, those are what keeps us floating on.

We long to find more.

As I pass into this next stage of my life, I can only hope that I find more things to stick with me.

More memories.

More driftwood.

Because I will continue to float on, until I reach the shore.

Everyday it gets a little bit closer.

I will bask in the glory of what lies ahead as I float on.

Breezes

The world contains an infinite number of possibilities and opportunities.

They are just floating around in the air, waiting to get picked up by a gust of wind, and brought to someone.

Is that someone you?

There is only one condition.

In order to gain opportunities and possibilities, you must be willing to put yourself out into the world.

To move forward, you have to take the first step.

So, I encourage you to take that last step to your hypothetical window and fling it open.

Stand there for a moment, and let the breezes blow a breath of fresh air onto your skin.

It's full of possibility.

Our Flame

There is a flame.

It exists in every single one of us.

It represents who we are.

No two flames are alike.

Some are more easily seen.

More vibrant.

Some flicker too fast for our eyes to pick up on.

Some are orange.

Some, yellow.

Maybe even blue.

What makes these flames so magnificent is the fact that they will always stay lit.

Until the body that holds the flame works no more.

It acts as a vital sign.

When the flame becomes so dim, and the body that holds it so weak, we know that soon it will be almost as if a drop of water consumed the flame, until it was no more.

In our lives, we see so many flames, whether they are big or small, bright or dim.

What all of our flames have in common is the fact that they are us.

We spend our lives trying to look in the mirror and see our flame.

We tend to disregard everyone else's flame until something drastic catches our self-absorbed attention, whether it good or bad.

As humans, we see death and life, wealth and poverty, gluttony and hunger.

But, what is it that we do?

Not much.

At all.

We focus on our own selves too often to notice those around us, those that cry out for our help.

And what is it that happens?

Their flames eventually die out, like ours too will do.

But do we seem to care?

No, we do not.

But we should, should we not?

Yes.

We could feed our flame, discover who we are, by exploring the unknown, helping the helpless, and remembering those whose flames have died down.

Instead, we just continue to decay and waste away while we focus on our own selves, clueless as to the fact that at any given moment, we too may have our flames extinguished.