We are where we place ourselves

Hope.

Monday, October 06, 2008

♥ Monday, October 06, 2008

These days, all one has to do is look around, and he or she'll find a world of despair. Its not just wars, its economy, floods, famine, children dying, parents crying, people wondering when is their turn for food, others wondering when is their turn to die. We, the youths, maybe do not know these world events, but turmoil is still everywhere. In work and in play, in relationships and in friendships, in family etc. Look around.

And in the midst of that, is a bunch of teens trying. Maybe to find some friends, maybe to fill up some time, maybe to do something meaningful, maybe to find some meaning. I do not know. But you find something. Something gentle and mysterious, something creative and something enduring that says, " this is the place i want to be" that says "i am myself here" that says "i think i've found something here". In their search, they have stumbled on a paradox. That arriving and travelling are the same. That the destination is the journey. That in trying, you become. In searching you find. One doesnt take place for the other to happen. One is the other. The verb and the noun can be interchangeable.

They have discovered that maybe miracles arent when statues produce milk or weep blood, but when someone forgives, and someone trusts. They chanced upon the fact that apparitions and images in the sky perhaps arent as amazing as a friend, disappointed and hurt, going against all odds to believe. They are at those junctures where the driving forces of life can sometimes be destructive, but who locks arms with the other, to brave them.

And what that does..is nothing short of a miracle in itself. It is hope.

Maybe that is what leaven means. To be raised, above the muck. To be pregnant with possibilities. To be bread, multiplied. And it all begins by daring to say that "it begins with me". Like last sunday, when the familiar and the unfamiliar coming together to "taste and see" and maybe "remember". It began with one who asked "what about them?". It began with one daring to say "we need to open our windows, to look out, and for others to look in." All you need, is one.

Capturing a moment.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

♥ Thursday, October 02, 2008

It is her eyes, that

Captures, like a camera, moments onto that film we call memory.

"open the door.." i said.
And there, the first thing that i see, is her search. Her search that had both hope and wonder, that said "is it possible?" or "it cant be.."

Her eyes fell on me. A moment.

Badminton.
Walking, panting, sweaty and speech-weary. But she looks at me. And in that instance, her eyes whisper her feelings. A moment.

Finger at mouth; looking innocent; acting cute. Photo taken, phone snatched. Wrestled and tussled, ran and laughed. And her eyes: a ticklish irritation ; a worried humour; a playful disturbance. And maybe, just maybe, a remembering of what is it like being a child all over again. A moment.

Dreary, sullen talks. The weariness of life and the weight of the world shouldered. She looks into her phone and messages, and i stop her and take a look, again. A moment.

It is her studying now. Looking elsewhere. Looking all around actually. Anywhere but her books. Thinking and grooving to the music, her notes practically begging for more attention. And there she is. Aloof to the world. A moment.

And this is the moment where we compile all those moments and ask 'how did we get here'. As if Aphrodite herself commanded the greek gods of fate and time to plan this from the start, as if She had this grand cosmic scheme to get us where we are, right from the moment that i met her. And as if She already laid the future, in Cupid's arms, like a child.