Lessons

          Hey guys!
    How is everyone doing today? How was your week? I hope you all had a great week. I had a good week, for the most part. You know, I always wait till Saturdays to write about my week. I find that looking at things after taking a step (or two) back really helps. You see things that you never would've seen in the heat of the moment, you can evaluate things you said and plan better responses for the future. You come to appreciate things that went wrong and you can see clearly the lessons learnt. You make peace with spilled milk and decide to do better. I wait till Saturdays because I want to keep the blog unbiased and drama free. I want to have a lesson or more from every week to share. I like to see the humor in every thing and my personality is such that I'm rarely able to do this in the heat of the moment. I can be quite serious. I see the quirky stuff when I take a step back and ramble a bit.
     I learnt so much this week and I'm having trouble coming up with a title for this post. The highlights of my week would have to be:
  1. Reuniting with my favorite threesome, my best girlfriends from college and just gabbing about nothing and everything for three hours straight. I miss them so much. They're all in different time zones and we ended the conversation promising to have regular catch up sessions (fingers crossed). The next day, I had a lengthy conversation with my best girlfriend here and she had the same experience- catching up with an old friend. And she had the same feelings of pure joy and just hopefulness that they would indeed stay in touch as promised. In both our cases, these were people we hadn't spoken to in quite a while and when we did talk, it was just like old times, like nothing had changed. My lesson : With real friends, time is just an illusion. It always feels like no time has passed. There might be initial (5 minute) awkwardness that comes with re acquaintance, but then it feels just like old times. So if you had a true friend, a real friend, don't let time or distance be a barrier. Try to stay in touch. Maybe not daily or weekly conversations, but check up on each other, send sweet messages. Be there. Be present in spirit. It feels wonderful.
  2. Having my cousin over for a night. I'm the kind of person who loves her space. I like my company. I like to have time to ponder every scenario. To imagine stories. To listen to music. Read. And just breathe. No voices. Just my thoughts. I discovered that people time can be good as well. I  mean I have people time normally, just not with so many people and not so often. But being with someone else, cooking for an extra mouth or just asking if they need something felt nice. I mean if it was for three weeks, I might get tired, I know. All I'm saying is it helps to think of someone other than yourself sometimes. We all need time. Everyone should learn to like their company. To love their company. But we need people every once in a while. Just so we don't forget how to feel.
  3. Opinions are just that, opinions. Everyone is entitled to their opinions. Your opinions do not have to become someone else's rules. I can't exactly say why or from what situations I learned this. I can say that I learned this from both myself and other people. I've always been very opinionated. Not so vocal about my opinions, but opinionated all the same. I'd rather write what I think than say it. Only certain people's opinions actually matter to me. I don't need to say all of their names, but they know that their opinions matter and they don't throw around their words carelessly because they know their words matter. A ton of people's opinions actually mean nothing to me but I'm not going to throw that in their faces because while their opinions do not matter, they have a right to have one. My point? Respect everyone's opinions but only a few should shape you. And if you know your opinion matters to a person, don't throw hurtful words at them or be dishonest with them because they're counting on your honesty. And sometimes if your opinion isn't asked (when it isn't a life or death issue) swallow your opinion.
   4. This week, someone told me they were inspired by the music on the page of one of the (many, I know) social networks I'm on. She called it ''my music''. I was floored. I immediately went to see what songs were on there. I couldn't help thinking how we affect others by our words, actions, dressing, music, poems and everything else. It's amazing how we all have an opportunity to INSPIRE. We should never take this for granted. You never think that anyone is watching you. Or going through your phone or ipod. Or reading your blog. But there's someone, for everyone. Maybe it's one little person, a younger sibling, a friend. Anyone. Live like the world is watching and learning. There's someone watching all of us. We may not inspire Him, but we make him proud. Live to inspire.
   5. Thank you. So many people met me this week and went ''you didn't tell me you had a blog!''. Even my closest friends!. And my number of views here skyrocketed. Thank you. For reading all the silly rambling. And if you made it down here. I write more poems nowadays because I'm terrified of saying how I actually feel in real sentences now that I know I good number of people actually read this thing.Thank you again. I appreciate it. Sorry for all this deep talk and emotional rambling. I was feeling inspired. I'm looking forward to hearing from anyone who would be willing to add their thoughts to any of the things I wrote about in this post. Experiences..in person, on Facebook or your comments here.
          Have a lovely week guys! And remember to inspire. Not to bring others down. Just inspire, And love. And laugh. And be happy. xx

***P.S Please listen to Justin Timberlake's ''Mirrors'' here. That song just became my Number 1 feel-good song!!

Thump Thump

My heart falls out of step

Every time I see your face

And whenever your voice is heard

I feel my stomach drop into space

You give me premature ventricular contractions

You make my heart's doorbell ring

With you it's all about the expression

Of all the feelings my heart can bring

Your eyes pull me into your soul

Every time I stare.

My heart you stole

And I'm not sure I want it back in here.

I'm not sure about forever

But right now you're my magic

Who needs forever?

Right now is fantastic.

Fear

  Hearts that feel squeezed in the chest,

With moisture filling the palms of their hands.

Feeling out of breath.

And feet that are losing their grip on land.

Paralyzed minds

Unable to think clearly

Thoughts entwined

But no words, sadly

Those afraid to dream

Those afraid to fly

Afraid to be under their own steam

They lay in bed and sigh

Too scared to love

Too scared to trust

Too scared to show they love

Too scared to show they trust

Terrified of failure

No balls to face reality

Too much fright to be sure

Of your own ability

Afraid of all the wrong things

Unaware of the right fear

Which with wisdom 

Is in the same kingdom

Everything else can be conquered

With a little faith

And some trust

And some love.

    

      -A

Friends With Benefits

                                          
               When I thought of my next post, many ideas popped into my head. This topic won over the rest because... its really gaining popularity and thinking now, I've never really expressed my opinion on it. Well, this is it. And just so you know, this is one person's opinion. :),
               Most of you reading this already know what 'friends with benefits' means. However, for those of you who don't (which would be strange :/), its basically, two people in a relationship in which they are friends but with the added 'privilege' of being able to do 'stuff' (you know what I mean jor!) with no strings attached. I've done my best to explain. If you still don't get it, then as T-pain said in 'kiss kiss' - 'you just aint gettin' it!!! :p.
              Okay, people who are, have been, or plan to be 'friends with benefits' will tell you that 'it's cool' ,'it's commitment-free', 'it's sweet' ...bla bla bla... Its probably true...for them. Me?? I believe in commitment !! because believe it or not, one person is bound to get attached AND hurt at the end of the day. Besides that, don't you even value your friendship with the other person enough to be commited if you do have a relationship? (food for thought).
             Well, like I said, its just my opinion. I believe in commitment, LOVE, friendship. I also believe that all three should be respected and extolled. I love my friends, male and female and I wouldn't joke with their feelings WITH or without their consent!!! I value them too much to want to jeopardize our friendship.

P.S If you love doing friends with benefits, issokay. Just DON'T suggest it to me. You have been warned. Hehe.