Sunday 30 August 2015

Dear Owls, life changer.

Dear Owls, 


Many times, it's been proven that those who come to my rescue are people I've been ignoring my whole life. A simple conversation with a stranger I judged turns into a good friendship with someone. Sometimes, we are too quick to judge people, we forget that they deal with their problems in a different way. A very good example would be my encounter with a girl in a Book Fest, around the month of April. At first, I thought she laughed a little too much at everybody's joke. Especially the boys'. And so, being a girl, I wasn't too slow to give her the weirdest looks and my imagination went wild. 

"Wow, have her parents not raised her well?"
"Does she not know how to contain herself?"
"Is there something wrong with her hormones?"

My thoughts were kept to myself until the girl came and sat next to me. She smiled and said, "That boy is such an idiot." I smiled back and asked her how long she's known him for. She told me she just met him, just like I did. So, I couldn't not say anything. I looked at my bag and remarked, "You laughed too comfortably with him, so I assumed you knew him longer."
And just like that, I turned into those girls I swore I'd never become. She laughed once more and said that she loved laughing. 

Later on in our conversation, my mother called and told me to get home because she needed me. I wasn't prepared to go home alone and we found out that we both live in the same area. She noticed that I wasn't ready to be alone and offered to take a Taxi together. I loved that suggestion because at that time, I was going through some stuff and I avoided being alone as much as possible. 
In the car ride, we talked... as all girls do. And I found out that her father had passed away less than 2 months ago! I immediately hated myself for thinking all those thoughts. I loved her energy and bravery. She was laughing off the pain every step of the way, and I mistook it for a behavior deficit. My stomach turned and I spent the whole ride listening to her grieve.

She had been really close to her dad and he was really healthy. He died of a heart attack and she was expecting everything but that. She told me she had to be strong for her mother who was practically falling apart. Her story, like many others, had inspired me insanely. 
It also taught me to be more open with strangers, get to know them and understand more about their stories. Anyone is willing to talk about themselves, the trick is to know how to get them to start. Everyone that passes by us smiling, is most probably tearing up on the inside. After all, this world is a masquerade and we're all wearing our finest masks.

To anyone who's reading, I hope you take the best out of this. If this girl happens to read this too and recognizes it's her, thank you. You gave me a piece of the puzzle that helped me get through an emotional time in my life. Many aspects influenced my rise after a great fall and your encounter is something I value. It was short, simple and needed. I wish you all the best. And this just became a letter inside a letter. 

Yours always owls, 
Me. 

Sunday 23 August 2015

Dear Owls, Oceans.

Dear Owls, 


Something about the ocean feels right. Although I hate visits to the beach, I am aware, deep down, that everything in this world is somehow connected. If we are more conscious of our surroundings, we can alter anything we want. To a certain extent, I do believe that we can remember the past better than we lived in and that sometimes, we can predict the future. It is in our mental capacity to remember an unlimited number of things for an unlimited number of time if we truly push ourselves to the limit. We are also capable of recalling memories from a third person point of view, and sometimes, thinking we are somewhat disconnected to this memory- a watcher, if you may. We can jump through our thoughts in and out without leaving footprints, because no matter how many times you may lose yourself daydreaming about going to Paris, you are aware at the end of the day that you did not actually visit it; not your physical body, at least. 

I also believe that Déjà vu is a remarkable thing. I may have overthought it, but for imagination's sake, let's say we could tell the future... maybe just for a few seconds even. Wouldn't that explain why sometimes you're thinking something is going to happen and it does. Or when you're sleeping and you wake up to a scream, but then seconds later someone actually screams? There are so many things we are yet to discover about the human mind. We keep connecting it to monkeys, apes and God knows what else. In reality, humans have proven to be extraordinary in all their abilities. We change constantly. Our lives seem to have purpose and meaning. We are the only species that create, lie and destroy as per our own wishes. A lion may seem destructive, but it's only to feed or protect. Not all humans kill humans to protect, and here's me hoping none kill to eat either. 

There is so little we know, although it's funny how we never admit to it. As soon as someone knows a little more than we do, we give them a title, a pedestal. We call them doctor and hang up their degree on a wall and let them tell us how much danger we're in, how much time we've got left. And I'm not only talking about physical doctors- but all doctors. Space, earth, mental... everyone who has the privilege of earning the highest honors degree. I'm sure those who do work hard are more informed about a lot, but anyone with that much information can muster up two or three words about astronomical behaviors and other fancy words I'm not sure I want to try to say.  

At the root of it all, we still don't know how far the galaxy goes (and infinity isn't an answer), we still don't know if we're in this Universe alone, or if we're on Earth alone. Everyone has their own explanation to everything and nobody's willing to hear you out unless you're on TV. 

Something about the ocean feels right. As if to say, "Why know more about land on Mars than you do about the water on your own land, given 3/4 of it are oceans?" 
I think that tells us a lot about humans. The oceans are ourselves, our feelings and emotions. But we jump to the neighboring planet because whatever lies hidden is just too hard to understand, too deep, too unsettling and yet too familiar. 
Baby Yoshi Blinking