life...

"Life is too short, or too long, for me to allow myself the luxury of living it so badly."

Paulo Coelho - eleven minutes

the artist...

"You see that glass of anisette before you?" he went on. "Now, you just see the anisette. I, on the other hand, because I need to be inside everything I do, see the plant it came from, the storms the plant endured, the hand that picked the grain, the voyage by ship from another land, the smells and colours with which the plant allowed itself to be imbued before it was placed in the alcohol. If i were to paint this scene, I would paint all those things, even though, when you saw the painting, you would think you were looking at a simple glass of anisette."

Paulo Coelho - eleven minutes

life's a rollercoaster

I spend today outside a funfair. Since I can’t afford to fritter my money away, I thought it best just to watch other people. I stood for a long time by the roller coaster, and I noticed that most people get on it in search of excitement, but that once it starts, they are terrified and want the cars to stop.

What do they expect? Having chosen adventure, shouldn’t they be prepared to go the whole way? Or do they think that the intelligent thing to do would be to avoid the ups and downs and spend all their time on a carousel, going round and round on the spot? At the moment, I’m far too lonely to think about love, but I have to believe that it will happen, that I will find a job and that I am here because I chose this fate. The roller coaster is my life; life is a fast, dizzying game; life is a parachute jump; it’s taking chances, falling over and getting up again; it’s mountaineering; it’s wanting to get to the very top of yourself and to feel angry and dissatisfied when you don’t manage it.

It isn’t easy being far from my family and from the language in which I can express all my feelings and emotions, but, from now on, whenever I feel depressed, I will remember that funfair. If I had fallen asleep and suddenly woken up on a roller coaster, what would I feel?

Well, I would feel trapped and sick, terrified of every bend, wanting to get off. However, if I believe that the track is my destiny and that God is in charge of the machine, then the nightmare becomes something thrilling. It becomes exactly what it is, a roller coaster, a safe, reliable toy, which will eventually stop, but, while the journey lasts, I must look at the surrounding landscape and whoop with excitement.

Paulo Coelho - eleven minutes

kilkon ikhwe ya ikhwet...

natural self

We would all agree that babies are their best selves. They are their natural selves. A baby knows exactly what he wants and doesn't want and lets it be known. As that baby matures, he learns what pleases and displeases those around him; he begins to change. He begins to develop a social self, a self that is more accepted by important others. He learns that some of his natural tendencies and characteristics are not only not appreciated, but also sometimes disdained. If you watch a baby develop into childhood, you can see the socialization process taking hold.

To a degree, that process is necessary to enable us to live amenably with one another. In an ideal world, children would be taught how to get along well in this world while, at the same time, having their natural selves honored and esteemed. In an ideal world, children would stay connected with their natural selves while developing social skills. Unfortunately, we don't live in an ideal world. Sometimes, more often than not, the socialization process goes awry and children lose part or all of the connection to their natural selves.

This loss of connection can happen in many ways ranging from as small as thoughtless comments by well meaning others to as large as child abuse. It also depends on the persons' level of sensitivity. Some people, about 20% of us, are born with the natural characteristic of high sensitivity. For a highly sensitive person, it may only take one careless remark to wound him so deeply that he loses the connection.

Many people who have lost the connection to their natural selves describe it as an empty feeling, as though there is a hole in the middle of their stomach. They may try to fill this hole with other things like substances such as alcohol, drugs or food or by romantic relationships or with material things. None of that fills the emptiness. That hole can only be filled by one thing -- reconnecting with the natural self.

Sharon L. Demarte

free hugs...

eh... w ba3dein ?