The Horrible Truth

My last post was about my own life is/life isn’t. It’s actually about my delusional idea of what life should be and should not be. Why delusional? Because let’s admit it. No matter which side we look at life, it is most definitely about how physically beautiful you are, how rich you are and how talented you are. Pick up the morning paper or any magazine lying around your house. Skim it and all you’ll see are advertisements and products on how to look good, movie stars wearing skimpy clothes with perfect curves and breasts and job advertisements requiring pleasing personality and certain height requirement. Doesn’t this all show superficialities? It’s all about being perfect, being popular and earning lots and lots of money.

Try telling someone that being rich or ugly doesn’t really matter and all you’ll get is a scowl. With the way we live today, attractiveness and richness is all that is appealing. Let’s face it; being pretty and rich sure does get you somewhere. It puts you way ahead of others. The tall, pretty and sexy girls almost always get the job. The white, rich guys always get the girls. So unfair.

But here’s the catch. If you try to understand and accept the painful truth of life, you’ll eventually learn to work against it. Look at the famous and rich people today. Many of them are not very pretty and rich when they started out. But somehow they find a way to get what they wanted. It’s often surprising to know that those who aren’t rich, attractive or popular before have managed to do great things.

So, all ‘poor and unattractive’ people out there don’t lose hope. Accept the harsh facts of life and realize that you can work against it and trash its implications. Sometimes it’s nice to have fun and believe that the superficialities of life don’t really matter. It’s nice telling others that money and looks don’t matter. But the fact is, no matter how many times you tell others or yourself that they don’t matter, they still do and that is not going to change. What you can only do is accept it and work against it.

The whole point is: Open your eyes to the dim-witted rules of life. Acknowledge that life is hard, painful, and ugly. But realize also that Life is good, Life is fun and Life is beautiful.

My Life Is/Life Isn’t

Life isn’t…

All fun and easy
Doing things just for yourself
Enriching yourself at the expense of others
All about money
The car you drive
How big your bank account is or what school you attended
How many servants or dogs you have
How soft your bed is
How huge your kitchen is
How techie you are
The movie you watch or the music you listen to
The clothes you wear
The color of skin
The size of your breasts
What job you have
All about what other thinks about you


Rather Life is…

Your family
The friends you keep
The people you love
The people you live for
It’s about integrity, determination, hope and compassion
It’s about helping others
Sharing what you have to others
About putting behind jealousy, ignorance and revenge
Embracing life
Nurturing inner love and spreading it
Touching other’s life
Making the right choices

Beauty

A face weathered by numerous trials and hardships in life is the most beautiful of all.

A woman’s beauty shines most when it has endured several hardships in life. Just like the grains on wood which deepen as time passes, her beauty shines more with every hardship that lines the smooth skin of her face. When you see a woman free of ornaments or cosmetics, her true beauty and naturalness come to light. It’s sad to know that commercialism defines what beauty is today. But most often, women who look beautiful in their youth look rather dull when they grow old. Though physical appearance is always associated with beauty, it’s not always wise to focus on it as lasting attraction to a person comes from inner beauty and confidence. So nurture your inner flame as they are the light that would make your true beauty shine.

Outlook. . . Attitude

On my day offs, I oversee the workers who help fix up our house. One of them, a sixty-eight year old man, eagerly and diligently carry sacks of cements to and fro the second floor. Though I don’t see him rest and stop on his trips, I can feel his difficulty in carrying those sacks. His body is old and tired yet he doesn’t complain. He doesn’t let it hinder him from earning money for his family. He comes as early as 7.30 every morning and leaves late in the afternoon. Every time I see him he always has a smile on his face. Day in and day out, I can see his happy smile. The meager money we pay him has helped a lot put food on their table.

But every morning on my way to work, I always pass by a group of men sitting and talking looking like they don’t have anything important to do or go to. I always see them either smoking, drinking alcohol (that early) or talking loudly. Once, I heard one of them say he can’t have her pregnant wife checked up at a hospital cause he doesn’t have money. I always hear them complaining, how they don’t have jobs or food to put on their table everyday. They can’t even send all their children to school with the meager income their wives make from selling vegetables. What? Why let their wives work when they are the one’s supposed to provide for their family? Day after day, they leave their “tambayan” with nothing, except a murky outlook and attitude.

In life, it is our choices that make us who we are. It is our attitude that shapes us. And attitude is always a matter of choice.

The Art of Letting Go

When do you really let go? When do you really say it’s over?

The art of letting go is not really hard to master. It’s like losing something valuable to us everyday – a good quality pen, a badly spent hour, or a missed chance. All of us have, one way or another, experienced the hardships involved in letting someone or something go. It’s especially difficult when you are letting go of an intimate relationship.

It hurts so much to lose someone much more a relationship. You’ll start criticizing and blaming yourself for the fall off. It’s inevitable. But the more you dwell on a broken relationship, the more you are headed to a deeper problem and the more you get bitter. Often, it is better to slip away and spend some time finding peace, happiness and contentment. It’s better to surround yourself with love than anger and pity. Anger and hatred is a hitch that keeps us tied to the past. So do yourself a favor, drop the hitches. Shake it off and step up.

With love around you, you are headed to understanding yourself and resolving the bitterness and pain that dwells in your feelings. Feel and live the essence of your life. In the end, you’ll see and realize that you have finally let go. You have finally mastered the art of letting go.

Mystery

What is death? Where do go after we die? Does our soul live on even after our body decomposes? Is life really only a phase that we have to go through? Is it painful to die? These and many more questions linger in our mind once in a while.

Practically saying, death is the only thing certain in life. It is necessary and inescapable. If people don’t die, just imagine how overly populated we are today. Just imagine the number of problems we would face – living forever with a weak, sagging body; running out of things to do because of old age; getting bored of everyday existence and of course overpopulation. With death, we are given the chance to change and regenerate.

Let’s try to appreciate death as a blessing. Blessing for being given the chance to rest and prepare for a new period in life. Let’s not hate it. Let’s embrace it.

Death does not hurt or discriminate. It strips us of everything we have leaving us with only ourselves to depend on. This gives us the chance to ask ourselves of what we have made of our life. What have I contributed to society? How have I touched other’s lives? Have I lived my life to the fullest?

Remember that in order to die well, you must have lived well too. Accepting the reality of death allows us to convey joy, inspiration and courage to others.

Happiness

The world ain’t always about happiness and success. It ain’t always full of sunshine and rainbow. There would come a time that we will face tall mountains and rivers of sorrows. This can be the times when we most feel down - when we lose a loved one, when we don’t get accepted to a school or job we want, when we had a fight with a friend, when we wasted P2, 000 to a branded can’t-even-wear-sore-and-numb-causing stiletto, when it simply is raining. Simple things that make our life seem like wasted and distressful. But it is through this darkness and downfalls that we find oceans deep with hope and true happiness. Happiness that doesn’t only fulfill us money-wise; but morally and emotionally as well. When we find that inner happiness, that’s when we will truly feel the sun of joy in our heart.

If you are having trouble sleeping, then get up and do something instead of just lying there

If love is a fairy tale, I hope it doesn’t end.
If love is a storybook, I wish it has a happy ending.
If love is a cloud, im gonna walk in the rain.
If love is a battlefield, I’ll charge and rescue you.
If love is an employment, I’ll slave till the end.
If love is a bridge, I’ll bridge our hearts so we’re never apart.
If love is a wild wind, I’ll blow away with it to get to where you are.
If love is a perfect murder, I’ll be the willing victim.
But is love a choice?
If it is, I’ll choose to live each day loving you more and more.

it is often easier to be angry than tell someone you are hurt . . .

I read this article in a news magazine that claims that sometimes it’s good to be sad. Sadness is a part of our life because often we only get to realize that we are well when we get hurt.

As much as I hate to be sad, I have come to appreciate the nifty advantage of misery. I love it when I get to sulk and be alone. Solitude is my pal. We get along really well. Sadness is also my buddy when I write my creative pieces. When I’m in the mood to weigh up my life, I turn to sadness. It helps me get through my rough days.

It hurts to be sad but it hurts more when you feel empty inside. Try forgetting a friend who has hurt you. The more you don’t think about him/her the easier you forget him/her. But sooner or later you’ll feel emptiness. Emptiness that’s making you feel dead inside. You know that something is missing you just can’t figure it out. It may be your friend’s happy smiles, her mood swings or simply her presence. But wait, you hate her don’t you? So why waste your time feeling empty for her.

My advice, grieve for the loss. Mourn for the death of your friendship. When you try to remember your friend or your friendship someday, you’ll find yourself laughing at your stubbornness and the bad times you had. That way you won’t feel numb, dead and hollow again. AND you’ll remember to pick your friends more cautiously this time.

So, enough with happiness. Try a dose of sadness once in a while. It would hurt, but that’s exactly the reason why it’s called sadness.

Every day’s. . .

. . .the same. You wake up, go out and go home again. On your way you meet a lot of people but you never really look into their eyes. It seems everyone’s in a hurry. It feels like they are all ordinary people going about their ordinary life. It’s fascinating to know that every individual you meet has something special in them. It’s often hard to keep track of the people you meet. Sometimes someone just feels so familiar. Some look wasted, others look tired, still others look proud and accomplished. Despite our differences, remember that there’s always light in our stars. Keep it burning and shining. After all, we are all a part of a greater plan.

Hate. Misery. Vengeance.

Burnt out and fed up.