The Unofficial Guide to Life
There is an old man who works in a Turkish kebab shop on the street that I walk up and down most days. Sometimes, he looks busy and other times, he appears bored. He’s looking out the window, at all the people passing, and our eyes meet for half a second. It’s only when I’m already gone when I wonder if I remembered to smile.
Continue reading “We’re All Looking at the Same Moon”
There is something that I think everybody loves, at least a little bit, and that is a sunset. Some of us purposely take time out of our days to watch it. Others are lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. Sunsets are cherished images in love songs and puzzles and travel photos and maybe even pictures taken in the city you grew up in.
Continue reading “Sunsets”
There is no denying the wild horse in us, said Virgina Woolf. There’s more to the quote but that’s the part I like best. Essentially, the quote is about passion which means it’s about feeling things deeply which means it’s about having a heart. Most of the time, I don’t think people feel things to their full extent and I blame that on a lot of things, mainly fear. We are afraid of being vulnerable, and of being too much. Also, we forget how to feel things. Like many things growing up, the permission to experience true emotion is trampled out of us from a young age. It’s hardly appropriate to be fully governed by emotions after the age of two.
Continue reading “Wild Horses”
The absolute two worst things in life are hurting other people and being hurt by other people. Both change you in their own way, shattering some innate innocence that lives inside you. When you hurt other people, you think badly of yourself. And when other people hurt you, you may also think badly of yourself but you may also think badly about humanity.
Continue reading “The People who Hurt You”
Next Monday will be March which I bet many people are excited about. Maybe you are one of them. I have no strong feelings either way. In the past, I may have been wistful that February was already over because that’s how I always felt when things came to their natural end. I’d probably think I can’t believe the year is going so fast as if I hadn’t done or seen or accomplished anything thus far.
Continue reading “How Things Are Supposed to Feel”
Friday is for sausage rolls and staring out the window and buying toilet paper and drinking whisky. It’s also for afternoon walks and almost slipping on ice and wearing bright yellow sweaters with baggy jeans.
Continue reading “What We Feel”
Journal Entry Written June 6, 2014
Yesterday I had a grandpa and today I do not. Opi died last night, on his birthday, which I didn’t even remember. I spent the day as normally as any other day. I wrote in my journal while eating breakfast, went to work, came home, taught piano, and then sat down to watch Elysium. Then, right in the middle of my ordinary, everyday life, the phone rings. I think nothing of it. Mommy comes down the stairs.
Continue reading “How It Felt When Opi Died”
♥ Opening a blank journal
♥ The first time you light the Christmas tree for the season
♥ Getting a letter in the mail Continue reading “The Best Feelings in the World”
July 24, 2015
These past few weeks, I have been alone with my thoughts more than usual and I’ve realized some things: I don’t think I understand people as much as I thought I did, and I don’t think I understand myself as much as I thought I did either. I think that maybe I’m just as confused as I always was, only in another part of the world. Continue reading “On Feeling Lonely (And Other Things)”
Things I Learned Growing Up 