Archive for category Love

Chasing shadows.

I read these few paragraphs off a beautiful blog I follow, Marc and Angel Hack Life, and these words really made a very strong impact on me.

Amazing how serendipity manages to creep in every facet of my life. It always feels like a miracle, when you really think about how everything falls into place, to make those words appear to me at that right moment, right place and right time.

Here’s the article, and along with it, my earnest wish that our light drowns out the shadows.

Every Light Cast A Shadow, Marc and Angel Hack Life

One of the greatest lessons we get to learn in life is that we are often attracted to a bright light in another person.  Initially, this light is all we see.  It’s so bright and beautiful.  But after awhile, as our eyes adjust, we notice that this light is accompanied by a shadow – and usually a fairly large one.

When we see this shadow, we have two choices: We can either shine our own light on the shadow or we can run from it and continue searching for a shadowless light.

If we decide to run from the shadow, we must also run from the light that created it.  And we soon find out that our light is the only light illuminating the space around us.  Then, at some point, as we look closer at our own light, we notice something out of the ordinary.  Our light is casting a shadow too.  And our shadow is a bigger and darker than some of the other shadows we’ve seen.

If, on the other hand, instead of running from the shadow, we decide to walk towards it, something amazing happens.  We inadvertently cast our own light on the shadow, and likewise, the light that created this shadow casts its light on ours.  Suddenly, both shadows begin to disappear.  Not completely, of course, but every the part of the two shadows that are touched by the other person’s light illuminate and disappear.

And as a result, we each find more of that bright beautiful light in the other person – which is precisely what we have been searching for all along.

Read the full post here.

I was just going through the clutter in my wallet and I found this small piece of paper, neatly folded, with words so faint that I could barely read them.

The note.

As I strained my eyes to read the faint writing, I realized that it was a note that a friend wrote to me all the way back when I was still in lower secondary. It was a copy made with fax paper and it nearly was illegible. So I just typed it all out for memory’s sake.

What was written...

The note was titled “Difference between somebody you love & somebody you like“. It’s pretty cute, so here is that old, old note of mine.

Difference between somebody you love & somebody you like

It’s been so many, many years since I neatly folded this long note and put it in my wallet, but love’s still that magical adventure it always was. For that secondary school boy who folded that note so many years ago, love is still his life’s craziest, most mystical mystery.

Sometimes I feel like I’m still paying for the sins of my past.

Your ghosts still haunt me, mock me, as I seem to still get nowhere.

When will this karmic retribution end?

Please forgive me. I’m really trying to be a better person now.

Happiness is right in our hands.

Last night, after a long day of school, meetings and social gatherings, I stretched myself on my foldable mattress, closed my eyes and I realised that I laughed a lot through the span of the entire day. I laughed with my dear friends in class as we joked about everything from the weird noises our lecturer made periodically to our friend’s attempts at chatting up a girl in class; I laughed with my groupmates as we watched random YouTube videos in the student lounge while waiting for a meeting to start; I laughed with my friends over a barbeque and a nice supper session.

I once read somewhere that happiness isn’t measured by how much money you have in your bank account, or the number of lovers one had, but is measured by just how much one laughs. I also read somewhere that the average adult only laughs about 10 times every day! Maybe that explains why so many people seem dissatisfied and disgruntled with the lives they lead.

The Pursuit of Happyness

In our materialistic, modern society, it seems that people keep confusing worldly achievements with happiness. People keep telling themselves that they will be happy once they “get there” with that shiny new BMW, Armani suit, and hot trophy girlfriend on hand, but they don’t, because happiness is all in the state of mind.

You can have every single material achievement in the world but if you’re still uptight about life and feeling insecure about yourself, you’re not going to be happy. The important point that I want to make here is that happiness is all about improving one’s internal state of mind and if one’s worldly pursuits do not translate into positive personal development or the fulfillment of intimate, personal goals, that person is still going to feel unfulfilled and ungratified.

For me, I believe that happiness all begins with the intention to be happy. Once one is ready to actually be a happy and cheerful person, even the most mundane of things can make you laugh like crazy!

Do your part and make others laugh!

Laughter: Truly the best medicine

I seriously believe that this world could do with way more happiness and laughter, so if you are already in a happy and positive state of mind, do your civic duty and spread some laughter today! Meet up with your friends that matter and spend some time relating funny incidents that happened to you! Share that funny video that you found on YouTube! Playfully tease your friend about that one girl who has that monster crush on him! The possibilities are truly endless!

Making the people around you laugh truly is a priceless gift that I believe we owe to the people we love. So make the extra effort to give that gift of love to the people around you every single day! It doesn’t take much, but just know that every time you make someone laugh, you make that person’s life one laugh better, one bit brighter.