The search is on.

            The search is on. The search to find someone to share your story with. Many people have a hard time understanding what love is… maybe that is because love isn’t a thing, it isn’t tangible. It’s something felt in the heart, perceived by the mind, and expressed through the soul. I love the book and movie “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” well, in the movie, Oskar is says something that gets me thinking every time, oddly enough, gets me thinking about love. Young Oskar is on the search for people named “Black” and he develops a system… “I started with a simple problem, a key with no lock… and I designed a system I thought fit the problem. I broke everything down in the smallest parts… and tried to think of each person as a number… in a gigantic equation… but it wasn’t working… because people aren’t like numbers. They’re more like letters… and those letters want to become stories… and dad said that stories need to be shared.” Oskar has discovered something that few people understand. People are not numbers… and I’m sure you’re sitting there thinking, “No duh” but hear me out on this… So often times, people see others and just numbers or signs. They fail to recognize them as human beings with a story. Insurance companies, banks, credit card companies are most commonly known for doing this. Sadly, individuals do it to other individuals. They may never realize what they are doing, but when you get down to the bare bones of it, it becomes apparent.

            People use other people. It’s a fact of life. So often time people lay all there burdens on someone else and leave them like that… I know this for fact since I’ve dealt with this. Finding someone who shares the weight of the load can be a live saver, literally. If you keep around friends who bury you in their pain, but do nothing to help you with yours, I’m sorry but they aren’t really your friends. So many issues today could be solved by sitting and listening to each other… I know I’m preaching to the chorus but really people? How difficult is it to help someone when they are in need? People are letters that make up a story, take time out to listen to someone’s story, because guess what… you may just fall in love with them. People have vibrant, colorful, pained souls. We all got to where we are by a series of great or horrible events. We all have things weighing us down, they make us drag our feet. We look around and sometimes see people lapping us, making fun and laughing at us. People feel beaten and battered, they come home and lay there in defeat. These broken souls walk by us every day, maybe you have a broken soul. Well today we can change that. “We are broken, we are bleeding, but we love. Take our broken mangled hearts, press them together that’s who we are. Two broken beaten souls, when put together make us whole.” That is a short poem I wrote for the girl I really care about. She and I are very close, we can feel each other’s pain, we rejoice in each other’s triumphs. We took the time to listen to each other. I opened up to her days after meeting her, I felt safe with her, I saw something in her I hadn’t seen in years… peace. My mind was at rest when I talked to her, when I looked into her eyes, I felt confident she’d help me. She has. Really, looking at it, it must be love. No other way to put it. When you meet someone who listens to your story, shares with you theirs, then together you work to be strong. That is Love.

            Love doesn’t always have to be with a relationship though, Love can be with your best friend, your roommate… There is more to Love than being together for life. Love is really like an invisible force, it can drive people to do crazy things, but it can drive people to sanity as well. With a network Love and support, anything is possible. So please, take the time out of your day, get out of your comfort zone, and listen to someone’s story. Anything could happen.

            This really has been a long winded way of saying something that has been simply put by the lovely internet. “Be kinder than necessary, everyone is fighting some kind of battle.” So, be kind, listen, and feel. Don’t be afraid to go out and listen to what people have to say, listen to their stories, learn. That is all for now, hope you enjoyed, sorry for the rambling….

Confidence Is Key

In whatever you do, have confidence. A simple statement, but when broken down you realize how difficult it is when it's something you have either never done and or have failed at so many times before. It's actually amazing though, how the brain functions. When one is trying something, and they do so with pronounced confidence, 9 times out of 10 they do it well. Lately I have had to work to have some confidence in my life.

I have been applying for jobs non stop lately, to be honest, thinking back, I have applied to close to 20 business around my house, I only heard back from three to say they were no longer accepting applications for this position. Well, a dear friends mom tipped me to an opening at the local Kroger... The opportunity seemed too good to be true, and due to my lack of success my hopes were low. Well, Tuesday morning I applied, thirty minutes after applying I got a call for an interview and had it scheduled the next day. My friend kept telling me, "be confident!" I kind of shrugged it off since I didn't expect to get the job. She kept telling me I'll get it, and that I need to have some confidence in it. Well, time of the interview came, and it was a breeze, even though I was faking the confidence, I projected the idea that I was confident. They interviewer liked that, and I was hired on the spot.

Confidence is also needed when making decisions that will greatly effect the outcome of the scenario. For example, in bowling, transition and changes happen constantly (as in life, but I know bowling better than I do life so I can easily explain my theory). So in bowling I am constantly making adjustments, and the pro always reminds me when he watches me, "move with confidence!" And you know what, when I make moves with confidence, so often that move works. When I don't feel confident in my adjustments, so often times the outcome is pitiful at best. Confidence is truly key in whatever you do, whether it be something in sports or in everyday life.

So, as you can tell, I have really learned lately that having confidence really is a key to success. Fear is good to have, it lets you know that you're taking a risk and a lot of times, the more the risk the better the reward. Don't let that fear stand in your way of something great though, stare it down with confidence. People will be more likely to notice you if you in a good way if you attack any decision with confidence. Good luck, having it all the time isn't easy, I know this from experience, but work at it, and someday it'll help you make it big. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. Until next time.

I'm never "OK"

Sorry for not posting anything in a while. Been really struggling to come up with a topic. Fortunately for me, I think I found one and hopefully this goes well. So... here goes nothing...

"Are you ok?" is something that is so often said to someone who obviously is struggling with something, whether it be a physical pain or a mental drain, it is noticeable that they are not ok... But the common response by them is "Yea", why? Cause when you are down the last thing you want to do is talk to people because in your heart you feel like they really don't care they are just trying too make it look like they do. Well, I no longer say "yea" when asked if I'm ok. Why? Because truth be told, I am never ok. I am never in that surreal state where nothing is bothering me. My mind is never in a safe haven where it is free of worry, stress, ambition... I am, nor will I ever be ok.

I am human, at least I think I am, and guess what. Being human means having a brain, and a brain stores information and emotion. Now if you were too look at emotion on a spectrum, the far left being bad emotions that hinder you such as fear, doubt, pain, jealousy (which can be good in some ways..) then the middle is "OK" and the right side are "good" emotions like love, happiness, joy and so on. Well, when you look at emotions like a spectrum, and you plot out what you are feeling, guess what, I highly doubt you ever land on just "ok" because you and I are alike. You're full of doubt, full of fear, yet you're full of joy, happiness, and ambition to be the best. The mind is so powerful and can comprehend a thousand different feelings and emotions at once, so if you plot a few, you'll see you never land on the basic "ok". So let us stop with the games of being "ok" and start being human. Saying, "why would I be ok, ok implies feeling nothing at all, and being human means feeling it all."

As the great Robin Williams said in the movie Dead Poets Society (fantastic movie), "Avoid using the word 'very' because it is lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don't use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys -- to woo women-- and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do." Now, I know, that doesn't do much with being "ok", but, it really does. See, "ok" is like "very". It is a lazy word. Don't be afraid to describe your feelings and be expressive about it. You are human, you have feelings, don't hide them! "It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us..." don't hide the good times, and never be afraid to talk about the bad times with people. If they didn't care if you were ok, why would they ask? Thank you. Hope you enjoyed. Until next time...