The little things we overlook

People are silly.
You have the ridiculously pessimistic, the ones who tell others flatly that their ideas will not work, even though it's truly impossible to tell. You have the absurdly optimistic, who in my opinion no matter what, are far more pleasant to be around, though not always lucky or truthful to themselves. No matter how intelligent a pessimist may try to sound, they may still be afraid of living or looking up, and that makes them silly regardless of intellect. No matter how naive an optimist may sound, they may either be lying top themselves, or plugging along feverishly.
People are silly.
I have gone through nearly 4 years of high school, and have learned more about myself and about the world via independent, for-curiosity research on ideas than I have in school. People teach you about yourself, and show the importance of introspect to you, funnily enough. You can tell the people who take time to notice little things in their surroundings, those who take pleasure in a tiny blip of a day, from those who simply go through the motions of living and feeling. Then again, perhaps I'm assuming things. I'm silly.
People are silly.
Not enough people make a list of things they like, or try new things, or take time for introspect and reflection on how you can be a better person, or looking over things you like about yourself and friends. People like to complain. When done frequently, it's anti-productive and it holds the illusion of being beneficial to stress relief. It's not. It pushes the stress around, spreads it, makes things harder to do that otherwise wouldn't be that bad or a struggle. I would know. I complain a lot. I try not to though. I think, more importantly, in order to not complain as much, we additionally need to learn how to block out complaining, to not allow it to penetrate us. Then, it will be easier to focus on more fulfilling aspects of life, or at least, better conversation.

Post a list of little things that you like, if you so wish. Remind yourself that you are a human, not a parrot, and that little things can shut people up and just...make them happy. It's okay to not talk (I know, I know...hypocrite) and allow the silence to absorb other things in a moment. :)

I'll go first with some examples of little things that I really enjoy for no reason whatsoever:
*When you first bite into a pb&j sandwich on toast, and your teeth penetrate the golden crust, then the bread, break through the other toasted side, and sink into peanut butter.
*The way you can feel individual blades of grass underneath your feet in summer
*The way woods smell immediately after a heavy rainstorm
*The sound I make when I say "Robusto", even though it's in a stereotypical and likely inaccurate Italian accent
*The contrast between green leaves and the sky around 5 or 6pm on a really bright, non-hazy day.

From Amelie; she takes a blind mans' arm at a street corner: "Let me help you. Step down. Here we go! The drum major's widow! She's worn his coat since the day he died. The horse's head has lost an ear! That's the florist laughing. He has crinkly eyes. In the bakery window, lollipops. Smell that! They're giving out melon slices! Sugarplum ice cream! We're passing the park butcher. Ham, 79 francs. Spareribs, 45! Now the cheese shop. Picadors are 12.90. Cabecaus 23.50. A baby's watching a dog that's watching the chickens. Now we're at the kiosk by the metro. I'll leave you here. Bye!"

Placid

I just discovered something.
I went canoeing and kayaking for the first time yesterday, on a lake in the Poconos.
I love it. Took to the water like a duck.
The water was like a giant mirror, and when the sun FINALLY came out, the view was breathtaking. Kayaking was not as peaceful, but was extremely fun. I was doing figure eights in the water around my two friends, one attempting to acclimate the other to the experience.
On another note, I can do something physical and not suck at it, yay! My arms feel so ripped right now. Just kidding, they're noodles, but they were worked hard yesterday and I LOVE it.


"Being on a boat that's moving through the water, it's so clear. Everything falls into place in terms of what's important and what's not." ~ James Taylor

Fulfillment

So my next-to-last post was about figuring out where I stand on things and where to find happiness, albeit a little garbled.
My next question is: how do I know what I want in a career? Do I want to make money to not be stressed or in debt that way, but stressed and a slave to my job? Or do I want to be poor and in debt and stressed over that but in love with my job?
Do I want to do something just because I'm good at it, even if it's not my favorite and I merely put up with it? (i.e. math, chemistry...) Or do I want to opt out for a "fluffy" major, like English or foreign languages, or philosophy, or music, because I am captivated by those subjects, because they really make me think or inspire feeling in me...?

Harumph.
I need to figure this out this summer. I'm going to be doing a lot of reading and meditating on this stuff. I need to. I will push aside rock climbing or dorm shopping or camping trips with friends if need be.
Maybe.

If I have to resort to that.

Probably not.
However, I plan on using this blog to chronicle my discoveries, thoughts, intuitive truths, and postulates made from those truths. Don't fall asleep on me now.

In the meantime here are some butterflies:

"An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. "Can they be brought together?" This is a practical question. We must get down to it. 'I despise intelligence' really means: 'I cannot bear my doubts.'"~ Albert Camus

My favorite stories for Summer

http://www.nesenenko.narod.ru/bradbury119.html
http://www.scaryforkids.com/death-and-the-maiden-by-ray-bradbury/



Ray Bradbury is one of my all-time favorite writers. His stories, particularly the ones above, always make me savor my life all the more. They also make me anxious for summer. Bradbury suspends a small moment in amber, and with the utmost care, unlocks all of the emotions and possibilities in that moment. Because of his ability to use imagery symbolically, or even to use it as a means of capturing the essence of a moment, I tend to pay attention to the little things around me. I live far out in the countryside, and I never get tired of simply glancing over leaves and sky, of gazing out the window of a car and taking it all in. I never ever want to take it for granted.

"The room was like the bottom of a cool well all night and she lay 
in it like a white stone in a well, enjoying it, floating in the dark 
yet clear element of half dreams and half wakening. She felt the 
breath move in small jets from her nostrils and she felt the immense 
sweep of her eyelids shutting and opening again and again. And at last 
she felt the fever brought into her room by the presence of the sun 
beyond the hills." ~ Hopscotch, R. Bradbury

“Strange. Half my years afraid of life. The other half, afraid of death. Always some kind of afraid. You! Tell the truth, now! When my twenty-four hours are up, after we walk by the lake and take the train back and come through the woods to my house, you want to…”
He made her say it.
“… sleep with me?” she whispered.
“For ten thousand million years,” he said.
“Oh.” Her voice was muted. “That’s a long time.”
~ Death and the Maiden, R. Bradbury

Crazy

Crazy life. AP tests. Prom? Saturday? Oh yes. Senior Year. All that jazz.

I am too pumped. No worries, blog posts will be frequently popping out again ideally by mid-next-week. I will have regained sanity and will not be drooling over dresses and lipstick and the Heritage Ballroom.

...I do love dresses though. :)

"What's a royal ball? After all, I suppose it would be frightfully dull, and-and-and boring, and-and completely... Completely wonderful..." ~ Cinderella