Reposting: Closing Cycles

One always has to know when a stage comes to an end.

If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through.

Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the moments of life that have finished. Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship come to an end? Did you leave your parents’ house? Gone to live abroad? Has a long-lasting friendship ended all of a sudden?

You can spend a long time wondering why this has happened. You can tell yourself you won’t take another step until you find out why certain things that were so important and so solid in your life have turned into dust, just like that.

But such an attitude will be awfully stressing for everyone involved: your parents, your husband or wife, your friends, your children, your sister, everyone will be finishing chapters, turning over new leaves, getting on with life, and they will all feel bad seeing you at a standstill.

None of us can be in the present and the past at the same time, not even when we try to understand the things that happen to us. What has passed will not return: we cannot for ever be children, late adolescents, sons that feel guilt or rancor towards our parents, lovers who day and night relive an affair with someone who has gone away and has not the least intention of coming back.

Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away. That is why it is so important (however painful it maybe!) to destroy souvenirs, move, give lots of things away to orphanages, sell or donate the books you have at home. Everything in this visible world is a manifestation of the invisible world, of what is going on in our hearts and getting rid of certain memories also means making some room for other memories to take their place.
Let things go. Release them. Detach yourself from them. Nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Do not expect anything in return, do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood. Stop turning on your emotional television to watch the same program over and over again, the one that shows how much you suffered from a certain loss: that is only poisoning you, nothing else.

Nothing is more dangerous than not accepting love relationships that are broken off, work that is promised but there is no starting date, decisions that are always put off waiting for the ideal moment.

Before a new chapter is begun, the old one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has passed will never come back. Remember that there was a time when you could live without that thing or that person. Nothing is irreplaceable. A habit is not a need. This may sound so obvious, it may even be difficult, but it is very important.

Closing cycles. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because that no longer fits your life. Shut the door, change the record, clean the house, shake off the dust. Stop being who you were, and change into who you are.

I'm going to change.

So why did I do it? I could offer a million answers, all false. The truth is that I'm a bad person, but that's going to change, I'm going to change. This is the last of this sort of thing. I'm cleaning up and I'm moving on, going straight and choosing life. I'm looking forward to it already. I'm going to be just like you: the job, the family, the fucking big television, the washing machine, the car, the compact disc and electrical tin opener, good health, low cholesterol, dental insurance, mortgage, starter home, leisurewear, luggage, three-piece suite, DIY, game shows, junk food, children, walks in the park, nine to five, good at golf, washing the car, choice of sweaters, family Christmas, indexed pension, tax exemption, clearing the gutters, getting by, looking ahead, to the day you die. - Renton from Trainspotting

Reposting: The Quarter Life Crisis

I remember reading this a few years back. Thanks Pao Picasso for sharing this with me again and reminding me stuff today :) "everything will be fine"

The Quarter-Life Crisis
by unknown

It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are a lot of things about yourself that you didn't know and may or may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.

You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you do not realize is that they are realizing that too and are not really cold or catty or mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you.

You look at your job. It is not even close to what you thought you would be doing or maybe you are looking for one and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and are scared.

You miss the comforts of college, of groups, of socializing with the same people on a constant basis. But then you realize that maybe they weren't so great after all.

You are beginning to understand yourself and what you want and do not want. Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging a bit more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and add things to your list of what is acceptable and what is not. You are insecure and then secure. You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward.

You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you or you lay in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough to get to know better. You love someone but maybe love someone else too and cannot figure out why you are doing this because you are not a bad person.

One night stands and random hook ups start to look cheap and getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. You go through the same emotions and questions over and over and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision.

You worry about loans and money and the future and making a life for yourself and while wining the race would be great, right now you'd just like to be a contender!

What you may not realize is that everyone reading this relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out.

....

Ahhh, things are slowly falling into place.

I can finally breathe. It only gets better. :)

David Cook – I HEART YOU.

…if you can’t stand the heat then get out of the kitchen! Ok… If you can’t COOK then get out of the kitchen! Hehehe if David Cook was in the kitchen, I will forever stand the heat… okay I’m not making sense anymore.

I was never an American Idol fan, but for the first time, I left the office before 7pm, as I walk towards the train station, I had to make sure that I had the correct pace so that when I get home it was 8:30 punto for American Idol. Eww, I know right?

After watching the show it’s a given DAVID ARCHULETA. will win, but I don’t care because David Cook still reigns my heart…ACCK as if that really matters. But seriously, I think Cook has this way of connecting to crowd and having that certain chemistry with them too, I see otherwise with Archuleta. (or maybe I’m just really that bias?!?!?!) and there’s more VARIETY with Cook. Swear!!!

But anyway, I just love the fact that Cook sang ‘The World I Know” by Collective Soul because it’s like one of my favorite songs…EVER. I think I was in 6^th grade or something, yeah…. (aside from listening to Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys, I had a little knowledge on pop-rock)

Even if Cook will lose L ( AMERICA, prove me WRONG!!!!) it’s okay because I know, I sooooo know he’s gonna be famous and yes Ayala Malls will now bring him to Manila (I give it 6 months) and I’m back to my teeny bopper days. :D

*Woot woot*

Remaining Open to Love

A Rose dreamed day and night about bees, but no bee ever landed on her petals.

The flower, however, continued to dream. During the long nights, she imagined a heaven full of bees, which flew down to bestow fond kisses on her. By doing this, she was able to last until the next day, when she opened again to the light of the sun.

One night, the moon, who knew of the rose’s loneliness asked: “Aren’t you tired of waiting?”

“Possibly but I have to keep trying”

“Why?”

“Because if I don’t remain open, I will simply fade away”

At Times, when loneliness seems to crush all beauty, the only way to resist is to remain open.

An excerpt from Paulo Coelho’s Book “Like the Flowing River”, for my heart broken friends out there? A short story to give you hope, I never stopped believing, neither should you

Hello Boys!!!

This is just an excerpt from a blog wrote like a year ago: http://charanoid.multiply.com/journal/item/61/Only_Charisse_Vilchez....truly_one_of_a_kind

Back in Assumption unfortunately we wear a uniform, honestly I don’t like going to the mall (except for Quad) wearing my uniform. As much as possible I always bring casual clothes with me, apparently one day after class I decided to go home with my friend thinking I’ll get picked up there by my dad and I didn’t need extra clothes since I’m just going to make “tambay” there anyway,right? Wrong! Suddenly, the guy my friend liked for the longest time asked us to have dinner with him. Of course she had the advantage to wear anything…and as for me..I REFUSE to go out in my uniform. I asked her if I could borrow any top from her or whatever. Unfortunately the only piece of clothing that could fit me was a blue “baby tee” ( I hardly even wear baby tees!) with a huge colorful caption that says “HELLO BOYS” – yep…ALL CAPS…in BOLD…SCREAMING and yes…even if you were 20 feet away from me…you could read it. Maybe this could be the answer to my “singlehood” but NO! I refuse to parade around greenhills wearing that shirt….Unfortunately, I had to go down at Uni-mart and exchange my friend’s dollars (since she didn’t have the time to park anymore)…oh and for the record, I got all HELLOs in the world from the security guards.

Of course this anecdote never failed to make anyone laugh, so my friend, Paulo Navarra had this brilliant idea of making this his peg for one of his shoots.

I hate posing in front of the camera, seriously. But I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw this photo. I must say he did a fantastic job with the help of the make-up artist – Liee Lozano.

So this is the the shirt. Tell me would you see yourself walking around a public place wearing this shirt?

To view more photos of Paulonav. You can check out his site: http://paunav.multiply.com/photos