Have you looked into the eyes...

Of a child rebuked,
Up at you they innocently look,
A solemn promise...
I'll never fail you again,
A firm determination...
I'll make up for transgression,
A plaintive cry...
Take me in your arms,
Let bygones be.

Of a mother who must part,
From the little one she does,
Hold so near to her heart,
An outpouring of love...
Sweetie, this is for all the time I'll not be here,
A welling up of tears...
The pain of parting with a piece of my heart,
A glimmer of hope...
A brighter future awaits,
When I'll be with my child again.

Of someone who holds you dear,
When they've been hurt by you,
Complete and utter sadness...
Being let down by one I trusted,
A steely resolve...
I'll never trust you again,
A resigned acceptance...
Perhaps you were not the friend I expected you to be.

***
It is rightly said that the eyes do talk...they shout out our true feelings, and utter that which our brain doesn't permit our mouth to speak.

Of goals and the fickle heart

Once upon a time, in a city not so far away, there lived a child. Now, this child, as all other children do, had dreams - dreams that were bigger than his frame. Each night, he'd fall off to sleep, snuggled up in the warm comfort of his blanket, thinking of fulfilling them. He dreamed of growing up and becoming just like his dad. Those were the days...

Time passed, and this child grew up into a find young lad. He went to school and made great friends. He told them of his dreams, and learned about theirs in return. He listened to his teachers. They taught him of wonderful things. His knowledge of the world around him increased, and he, now dreamt of becoming a great //insert appropriate teenage dream here.

College arrived as a breath of fresh air for the young man. He interacted with people who shared the same interests as him and learnt of their take on life - of what these brilliant people thought for the future, and, surprise, surprise, his dreams changed again. He now dreamed of becoming a successful //insert appropriate career dream here.

The point I wish to drive home from this coming of age tale? The heart is fickle indeed. What we want now is bound to change in the future. Perhaps that's what life is - a journey of discovery. We expand our horizons, we change. We come in contact with people, we change. We have varied experiences, we change. Now this might go against some stuff that's been written here in the previous pages, (but then that's testimony to the correctness of what I'm writing now :)), but, it would seem that holding onto a pristine goal that you'd like to accomplish is folly. We CHANGE, and so do our goals,  our dreams, our hopes and our aspirations. Being too hung up on just one dream, all throughout life, and following it come what may, is not necessarily the best way to live life.

A life without any goals would just drift away indeed and so we do (and should) set goals for ourselves. We should work towards them diligently, no doubt, but, also, a large portion of life's experiences come from not worrying/thinking too much about the future, and, just living the present. If a goal is not aligning with where we currently stand, then so be it.

Rather than fitting your life around the goals, fit the goals around your life.

Coping with pain

Something that I read which I thought was beautifully penned, and which appears to have more than a show of truth:
***

"Perhaps the greatest faculty our minds possess is the ability to cope with pain. Classic thinking teaches us of the four doors of the mind, which everyone moves through according to their need.

First is the door of sleep. Sleep offers us a retreat from the world and all its pain. Sleep marks passing time, giving us distance from the things that have hurt us. When a person is wounded they will often fall unconscious. Similarly, someone who hears traumatic news will often swoon or faint. This is the mind’s way of protecting itself from pain by stepping through the first door.

Second is the door of forgetting. Some wounds are too deep to heal, or too deep to heal quickly. In addition, many memories are simply painful, and there is no healing to be done. The saying ‘time heals all wounds’ is false. Time heals most wounds. The rest are hidden behind this door.

Third is the door of madness. There are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. While this may not seem beneficial, it is. There are times when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain the mind must leave reality behind.

Last is the door of death. The final resort. Nothing can hurt us after we are dead, or so we have been told."

― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind.

Grieve not

Grieve not, for you shall be smiling soon,
Rather, cherish each moment that you live - it is a boon,
And glorious sunshine does await the bitter moon.

The bigger picture

Discarding the oft adopted parochial view,
Does frequently lead to happiness new,
Why is our thinking so constrained,
Why is everything a matter of lost or gained?
If we would not, everything, thus scale,
If we could forget the petty detail,
And focus rather on the bigger picture,
Our sorrows would be fewer, our joys richer.

What then?

The other day, I was just thinking of some of my long cherished dreams. Now that I do see the path of fulfilling a few of them (oh ok, just one of them), a few thoughts crept into my mind. These were unlike any others that I'd felt before. I thought of what it would be like if I achieved something that I'd dreamt of for a long time. As with anything momentous, there is always the niggling doubt of "what if this doesn't turn out to be all that I thought this would be?". Also, with achieving dreams, there is also the feeling of "so I've gone and achieved what I always dreamt of...what now?"

The thoughts of mine found absolute resonance amongst the unlikeliest of people: Princess Rapunzel from Tangled. I was watching Tangled just the other day, and there's this scene where Rapunzel 's finally about to see the flying lanterns, and she wonders out aloud to Flynn Rider about what's troubling her. Here is that portion transcribed. Flynn's answer to it is also the answer to my thoughts indeed:

Rapunzel: I've been looking out of a window for eighteen years, dreaming about what I might feel like when those lights rise in the sky. What if it's not everything I dreamed it would be? 

Flynn: It will be.
Rapunzel: And what if it is? What do I do then?
Flynn: Well,that's the good part I guess. You get to go find a new dream.  

Awesome ain't it :)...got me over my pondering and ready to pursue my dream :)...Full steam ahead!! 

How we change

A long while back,
I'd look into the mirror,
And find a familiar face,
Staring back intently.
We'd have our conversations,
This face and me,
We shared dreams and hopes,
We shared smiles and tears.

But as time passed,
As so happens with friends dear,
We fell apart,
And steadily grew the distance between us...

The other day, I was looking at the mirror,
And hark, what do I see,
The face was back,
And was staring at me.

Overjoyed at finding my long lost friend,
I hugged him close,
"Where were you all this while", I asked,
"Why did you disappear in the past?"

A smile fluttered across his lips,
"I was right here", he said,
"Watching over you,
Looking at you change.
It was you who'd lost sight of me,
Yet, now that you need me,
Here I am, right be your side,
I will, forever, with you abide."
 
His biting words stung me,
For they carried with them the bitter truth,
I'd come a long way in the recent past,
But here was I friendship that I sure wanted to last.

Over time, oh, how we change,
But it will serve us all, to not, the real us estrange.