We clean our bodies and our lingerie, our houses and our cars, we take care of the outside on a regular basis, but what about the inside? What about our soul, our interior self? When do we make time to clean our inside path?
Sometimes we live like pigs, we are disgusted by the mess we are living in but we don't do anything about it because we are incapable and we realise we could move on and change the scenery but we remain attracted to the mess we've been living in all our life the same as a person is attracted to danger even though the first instinct it should be to run.
I wonder how long it will take me to finish Fernando Pessoa's "The Book of Disquiet"?! After each extract I feel the need to analyse myself.
We live in the age of narcissism and social alienation, when society tryes to divide us and to sell us per parts. Every day there's a new ad showing how to have the perfect bottom, how to have the smoothest legs, ageless skin, ripped abs, perfect smile etc, what is this craze with having our bodies sold per parts just like machines? The same happens with the inside, there are so many books on how to get wealthy, how to have confidence, how to talk, walk, breath and die. Too many confusing ads and info make us get lost and become materialistic, self centered, money chasing robots.
Last night I read a very beautiful article that made me sleep peaceful and aroused my creativity. It was about how we endure and find hope in a crazy world. Here are couple of lines that spoke to me:
"I’ve always loved funky rustic quilts more than elegant and maybe lovelier ones.You see the beauty of homeliness and rough patches in how they defy expectations of order and comfort. They have at the same time enormous solemnity and exuberance. They maybe made of rags, torn clothes that don’t at all go together, but they somehow can be muscular and pretty. The colors are often strong, with a lot of rhythm and discipline and a crazy sense of order.They’re improvised, like jazz, where one thing leads to another, without any idea of exactly where the route will lead, except that it will refer to something else maybe already established, or about to be. Embedded in quilts and jazz are clues to escape and strength, sanctuary and warmth. The world is always going to be dangerous, and people get badly banged up, but how can there be more meaning than helping one another stand up in a wind and stay warm?" Anne Lamott
We are not machines, we don't have a switch on/off button. I can't be happy from 1pm to 2pm and then switch off my happiness button and switch on my sadness button. Neither one of us is only good or bad, or just sad or happy, we are all a complex of feelings, emotions, thoughts and experiences and they are all interconnected inside of us. Sometimes we're up, sometimes we're down, sometimes we take good decisions and other times not so good decisions but at the end of the day we are able to stand up brush the pain and remorse away and embrace the good side, the positive part of this wide experience called life. All the pieces inside of us can be united by either positive or negative thoughts. I used to think that all this mess of fragments of experiences that is my life doesn't make anything else but to confuse me and get me lost, but now , slowly but surely, I started to change my way of thinking, all those patches that I use to see as a mess, made me the person that I am today, stronger, braver, more down to earth while still allowing to have my head in the clouds from time to time, more balanced, mare peaceful inside and out.
Everything happens for a reason and even though sometimes it seems hard to find out which is that reason, don't lose hope, keep on working with yourself, improve your body and mind and be patient. Enjoy every moment, make time to spend with your loved ones and enjoy as many happy moments as possible. Allow yourself to live every emotion, be mad when you feel like, cry when you feel like, don't hide your emotions and close them in the back of your mind and find excuses saying that you'll deal with them later because otherwise you'll risk to have a breakdown out of the blue, to fight over meaningless things and hurt the people that care about you.
When you're young you have more energy, more spontaneity. Sometimes I'm thinking of things that I've done in my past and I laugh at myself saying that I was so crazy and naive, but maybe this is exactly what I needed to be in order to experience as many and different things as I could. As the years go by, sadly but true , many of the people that I know, neighbours, work colleagues, highschool colleagues. acquaintances etc, follow the same trend, they get married very young, make some children, work and work, have a holiday one time per year, buy a house with money from the bank and then spend their lives in an unstoppable money chase... you get the point, the conclusion is that many forget to enjoy their youth and they grow up too fast, they forget about the small details, exactly the things that make the difference. And they wake up when it's already too late, some never.
I met also happy people, fewer but they still exist, and they told me the same thing "don't forget to play, otherwise you'll grow old", Fairy tales can come true if you're young at heart. Keep your mind open, allow yourself to make mistakes, travel the world, learn new languages, laugh every day, be excited and love with all your heart, be rich with experiences, travels and people and not with material things.
Sometimes we live like pigs, we are disgusted by the mess we are living in but we don't do anything about it because we are incapable and we realise we could move on and change the scenery but we remain attracted to the mess we've been living in all our life the same as a person is attracted to danger even though the first instinct it should be to run.
I wonder how long it will take me to finish Fernando Pessoa's "The Book of Disquiet"?! After each extract I feel the need to analyse myself.
Ancient Temple of Zeus, Athens(1), Zappeion, Athens(2), Marmaris Castle, Marmaris, Turkey(3)
We live in the age of narcissism and social alienation, when society tryes to divide us and to sell us per parts. Every day there's a new ad showing how to have the perfect bottom, how to have the smoothest legs, ageless skin, ripped abs, perfect smile etc, what is this craze with having our bodies sold per parts just like machines? The same happens with the inside, there are so many books on how to get wealthy, how to have confidence, how to talk, walk, breath and die. Too many confusing ads and info make us get lost and become materialistic, self centered, money chasing robots.
Last night I read a very beautiful article that made me sleep peaceful and aroused my creativity. It was about how we endure and find hope in a crazy world. Here are couple of lines that spoke to me:
"I’ve always loved funky rustic quilts more than elegant and maybe lovelier ones.You see the beauty of homeliness and rough patches in how they defy expectations of order and comfort. They have at the same time enormous solemnity and exuberance. They maybe made of rags, torn clothes that don’t at all go together, but they somehow can be muscular and pretty. The colors are often strong, with a lot of rhythm and discipline and a crazy sense of order.They’re improvised, like jazz, where one thing leads to another, without any idea of exactly where the route will lead, except that it will refer to something else maybe already established, or about to be. Embedded in quilts and jazz are clues to escape and strength, sanctuary and warmth. The world is always going to be dangerous, and people get badly banged up, but how can there be more meaning than helping one another stand up in a wind and stay warm?" Anne Lamott
We are not machines, we don't have a switch on/off button. I can't be happy from 1pm to 2pm and then switch off my happiness button and switch on my sadness button. Neither one of us is only good or bad, or just sad or happy, we are all a complex of feelings, emotions, thoughts and experiences and they are all interconnected inside of us. Sometimes we're up, sometimes we're down, sometimes we take good decisions and other times not so good decisions but at the end of the day we are able to stand up brush the pain and remorse away and embrace the good side, the positive part of this wide experience called life. All the pieces inside of us can be united by either positive or negative thoughts. I used to think that all this mess of fragments of experiences that is my life doesn't make anything else but to confuse me and get me lost, but now , slowly but surely, I started to change my way of thinking, all those patches that I use to see as a mess, made me the person that I am today, stronger, braver, more down to earth while still allowing to have my head in the clouds from time to time, more balanced, mare peaceful inside and out.
Everything happens for a reason and even though sometimes it seems hard to find out which is that reason, don't lose hope, keep on working with yourself, improve your body and mind and be patient. Enjoy every moment, make time to spend with your loved ones and enjoy as many happy moments as possible. Allow yourself to live every emotion, be mad when you feel like, cry when you feel like, don't hide your emotions and close them in the back of your mind and find excuses saying that you'll deal with them later because otherwise you'll risk to have a breakdown out of the blue, to fight over meaningless things and hurt the people that care about you.
Platia Ammos, Kefalonia(1,2), Myrtos Beach, Kefalonia(3)
When you're young you have more energy, more spontaneity. Sometimes I'm thinking of things that I've done in my past and I laugh at myself saying that I was so crazy and naive, but maybe this is exactly what I needed to be in order to experience as many and different things as I could. As the years go by, sadly but true , many of the people that I know, neighbours, work colleagues, highschool colleagues. acquaintances etc, follow the same trend, they get married very young, make some children, work and work, have a holiday one time per year, buy a house with money from the bank and then spend their lives in an unstoppable money chase... you get the point, the conclusion is that many forget to enjoy their youth and they grow up too fast, they forget about the small details, exactly the things that make the difference. And they wake up when it's already too late, some never.
I met also happy people, fewer but they still exist, and they told me the same thing "don't forget to play, otherwise you'll grow old", Fairy tales can come true if you're young at heart. Keep your mind open, allow yourself to make mistakes, travel the world, learn new languages, laugh every day, be excited and love with all your heart, be rich with experiences, travels and people and not with material things.
"Don't you know that it's worth
Every treasure on earth to be young at heart
For as rich as you are
It's much better by far to be young at heart
And if you should survive to a hundred and five
Look at all you'll derive out of bein' alive
And here is the best part, you have a head start
If you are among the very young at heart"
Frank Sinatra
Skala Beach, Kefalonia(1), Ionian Sea Hotel & Waterpark, Kefalonia(2)
The pictures were taken on Kefalonia Is., such a wild, delightful place, Athens, the full of contradictions capital of Greece, and Marmaris, Turkey on a short trip from Rhodes with a fast ferry.
To be continued.
Beldi