Imagine the few moments before your death. The few moments when your whole life will flash before your eyes. Is it worth watching?
Odds are that you’ll feel regret. All the “what ifs” that can no longer be acted upon, all your broken dreams and hopes and ideas. All the happiness that you could’ve created. All the help you could’ve given others. Continue reading
“A writer is an organism that will go on writing even after its heart has been cut out.” – Wallace Stegner
In April 2012 I decided that I was going to write. No matter what. I was heartbroken, alone, poor, and sick. What else was there for me?
The woman I was in love with was about to get married. I had such low self-esteem because of my issues with my teeth that I couldn’t stare her in the eyes. She’d keep asking me to look at her, yet I couldn’t. What woman would choose such a man?
You see, hearts break sometimes. And when they do, some pieces get turned into art. Stories, paintings, songs. Tears become words. Those words that press heavy against one’s heart comfort those whose own hearts have been broken.
Art is the only glue that keeps most hearts from shattering. Continue reading
What if I were to tell you that doing just one thing could boos your productivity tenfold?
If each day, for an entire year, you woke up an hour earlier than needed and invested that time in yourself, what would happen?
If you spent that hour doing whatever you wanted to, as long as it was self-focused and involved activities that are meant to engage your brain.
That’s all it takes to improve your overall physical and mental well-being, to skyrocket your productivity, motivation, to boost your mood.
Each day’s hour can also be different. It should just be working toward becoming a more thoughtful, livelier, and more positive person.
The following are key themes of how you can spend that time to yield the best results. Continue reading
The truth is that at some deep unconscious level we’re all broken. The sad truth of this world is that we’ve all been broken, lied to, cheated, or left behind. We’ve all lost something and we all miss people we’ve never even met. We all attach a certain melancholic beauty to memories that never even happened.
There’s good and bad in every person you meet. There’s beauty in searching for the good parts, there’s something noble about pretending that their light is all you see. Continue reading
“You are afraid to die, and you’re afraid to live. What a way to exist.” – Neale Donald Walsch
Afraid. To live. To die. To get hurt. To hurt others. Afraid. Of failure. Of success. Of getting stuck somewhere in between. Afraid of doing nothing at all, afraid of overdoing it. Afraid of yourself, afraid of others. Rationalizing. Being practical. Over-intellectualizing. Holding back. Waiting for the right moment and the right place.
Finding excuses. Blaming yourself. Blaming others. Telling yourself that you’ve got enough time. Continue reading
Nathaniel Hawthorne once wrote, “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.”
We all act differently around certain people, because we want to impress them, or maybe because we simply don’t want to dissapoint them. And sometimes, indeed, we can’t figure out who we really are.
I once wrote that our freedom is limited only by what we believe to be the perception others have about us. If we’re afraid the world won’t like us for who we really are, then we try our best to “behave.” Continue reading
“Heard joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he’s depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says, “Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up.” Man bursts into tears. Says, “But doctor…I am Pagliacci.” ― Alan Moore
You know the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover?”
Well, it’s true.
Oftentimes there’s a big difference between what we’re able to decipher about a person, what we see at the surface, and what lies underneath it all. There’s a big difference between appearance and essence.