There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means.
Ryan Holiday
Cigarettes – David Kushner
We all love stories. Don’t we?
In the like pretext, rarely have I met a person who doesn’t like movies.
For, movies move many stories and we can’t help but be captivated by their awe.
Personally, I believe stories have immense power.
We all ought to ‘authentically’ put one. Take it as one of our moral obligation.
Not only the highlight reality over social media. Not only the sugar. Not only the cream.
But both good and bad.
I was talking to my girlfriend about it as she’d ask why do you always have this strong urge to tickle the terrible days of the past; emphasize on the contrast you have with the present?
I said, i only tell stories. It’s upto the readers how they’d want to look at it.
I don’t have grip over their narrative and rightly so.
Philosophy gives a way to life. Don’t let it come in a way of trying to live a gleeful life. Balance.
~ Musicpervs
Alex Yurkiv, Thelma Costolo – Take Me to the River (I Will Swim)
Couple housekeeping: Paid off my student debt. New plans on the way. Dinner date after a while.
Over dinner date this evening, I and my girlfriend talked about trodding the path of lifeline with the end in mind.
I went in to explain her that either of us is going to outlive the other — only if we were not to get into an unfortunate, unimaginable accident together. Touchwood.
I also confronted her that secretly, I do enjoy her getting pissed off at me, for at least she has me who she can trust to vent off at, to get angry at and know things will fall back to normal when things have cooled off.
I told her we ought to learn to not take the other for granted and cherish our partnership; our moments of togetherness as well as the times we’d separate with kindness, care and utter delicacy.
I told her that I want to see and experience world, different culture, different stories. She shared all she wants in life is not to be bothered by anybody and live rest of her lives without pressure.
I also went on to tell her, that fundamentally all we’d ever crave for is one clean, full, deep breathe of fresh air, a food on the table, and few we love around us. I told her I don’t really see the point of being angry, being dissatisfied, even chasing things. Exception: Trying to be better than yesterday is a must.
In the due course, we clinked on our choices of red wine. Ate the spanish dishes we had never tried before. Bitched and buried one or two on our colorful, intense conversation. Most definitely savored the San Franciscan, Spanish culinary experience at ‘Coqueta SF’ to the fullest. Rode the Bay Wheel together, laughed a lot, lived a little more.
Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.
—John Lennon.
Mumford & Sons – Ghosts That We Knew
Jim Rohn in one of his famous speech went onto say,”
Something my parent taught me that they practiced all their life. Now I practice.
Don’t Miss Anything.
Don’t miss the game.
Don’t miss the concert.
Don’t miss the performance
Don’t miss the show
Don’t miss the conversation.
Don’t miss the sermon.
Don’t miss the class.
Don’t. Miss. Anything.
Go.
Look.
See.
Learn.
Try.
Taste.
(With gesture of hands, suggests)
Let that Flavor of life be part of your lifestyle.
Elton John sings, “She lived her life like a candle in the wind, never knowing who to cling to, when the rain set in.”
What if you missed that?
See, that wouldn’t be good.
George Harrison used to sing before he died, “If not for you, the winter would hold no spring. Couldn’t hear a robin sing. I just wouldn’t have a clue if not for you.”
Again with meaningful gesture of hands re-iterates,
Go Taste.
Go Listen.
Go Enjoy.”
See, one thing is for certain.
Nobody is ever, never prepared for what is going to happen in our lives far into the future.
But the only guarantee that renders a glimmer of healthy hope, that this one time opportunity ‘life’ would eventually fold in a good enough episode is to actually plant, nurture and water the seeds of wisdom as it progresses.
Go explore Jim. He was the harbinger of a laying out his unique template for a practical, pragmatic and most importantly a good-enough life.
“Almost everything we experience is a zero-sum game. Just, don’t take the wrong medicine for the wrong disease.”
~ Musicpervs
Tu Chodiyon Na – Ronit Vinta
There is so much noise out there.
Almost everything we see and hear are a zero-sum game.
Almost everything cancels out each other.
So, is this bad?
Does this mean, we ought to just eat whatever we get our hands on, and learn from exclusive experience, and learn as truth unveils itself eventually?
Actually not.
The actualization and realization of this one fundamental facet of this infodemic era is in-and-itself a super power.
It calls for truth.
It call for not believing or giving in to things you’re exposed to, or influenced at will.
It calls for original thinking.
It calls for genuine curiosity and getting to the process of seeking truths and grooming and feasting over facts, facts and facts, and developing your ideas over those unfiltered, hardcore, for-real information.
It’s been couple of weeks I’ve been out of instagram, facebook grid. I don’t know if I will ever be back. Although my X (formerly Twitter) usages has gone up.
Since Elon Musk took over X, residing in San Francisco and closely following his works, intentions and personality as a whole has personally made my life more purposeful.
In all sincerity, every-time I walk around the financial district, especially around the market street in the course of going towards my fitness center, or every-time I take a walk to the Ferry Building through Embarcadero, through Montgomery Street, every-time I take an Uber to go visit my best friend at El Cerrito; being able to afford all this, being able to have all of these experiences utterly enriches my heart. Not that this is the first time I’m saying I feel grateful to be living at this phase of my life. Yes, I’m grateful.
The center of it all, without-a-doubt is the ‘Solution’.
Sometimes I wonder, only had I not h.e.r in my life, how all of these was even a possibility.
Sometimes I wonder what if I lose her, that she leaves me on my own to be.
Sometimes I wonder what if I have to leave this city that I’ve fallen heads over heels with.
Two days ago, as I was walking to the gym (it’s a 23 minutes walk) I pulled up my phone, subscribed to Apple music impromptuly, and started listening to the sad playlist. Deliberately!
Not because I had a rough day.
Not because I had been going through a lot.
Not because I was hurt.
Not because I was sad.
Not because I was fucked!
It was solely and only because I wanted to synthesize sadness. Weird. I know.
Unpacking…
I wanted to soak in and soak myself with my forever friendemy — grief.
I wanted to step on the earth, again! Rest. Reflect. Re-calibrate.
Move. Shake.
For, it’s been a while I have been flying in perpetual happiness.
For, it’s been a while I had been living in a foggy, seemingly make-believe-world.
In a nutshell, I wanted to meditate on despair.
I wanted to refresh, relive, re-fill, re-feel my memories as far as my on-and-off relationship with sadness is concerned.
And, to say the least, sadness has always given me purpose.
I had forgotten I had to show up for musicpervs today. It’s almost 10 past 15pm. Normally I sleep at 9:30pm because i had to wake up at 4:45AM every weekdays.
This evening I had almost two hours long conversation with my uncle who I’ve not had a word for a long, long time. My eyes are yearning to shut themselves off as i type these lines in a pitch dark room, but I know I had to show up.
I wanted to write about meaning of happiness.
I wanted to write about living cheerfully in a mundane, routined life.
I wanted to write about potatoshrestha, and why someone who’s trying to avoid social media is posting just about every little thing that goes in, out and around him.
I wanted to write about why it is important to be mindfully aware about the passing time and the opportunity cost.
I wanted to write about why I will never be perfect but perhaps grind my teeth to be the better version of me than i was yesterday.
I wanted to write about how I deal with my own anxious self.
I wanted to write about why not every what has to have why.
I wanted to write about why it is important to learn to do nothing.
I wanted to write about why it is so important to show up even if it means doing nothing.
It’s sad. Most of us don’t realize what we have unless we don’t have it, anymore.
Musicpervs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc8_xB7I6lo
Ajnabee – Little Things
In a world where real love is a lot of hard work where friction is inevitable.
And true love still, is never a conflict-free love.
Never take him .... Not, to take her...
Yes, don't you make a mistake of taking your beloved for granted!
p. s. Remember. The Balance Sheet of love also has Assets, Liabilities, Expenses, Overdrafts and Adjustments.
Let's start from there.
Little things in relationships.
If you’re a vivid reader of this small blog; You must’ve come across many such posts that speaks of the must haves’ and the havenots’ — recipes for a ‘good-enough’ relationships.
I’m certain I’ve spoken enough, in imaginable length, breadth and the depth about the real.love.ingredients that make up for a real.love.relationships. A pure partnership per se or simply Friendship. The genuine Reciprocity. Loads and loads of Humor, for sure. The unadulterated Honesty. Radiating and re-assuring Emotional Security. Shared Responsibility. Non-judgementism, Appreciation and Acceptance. Non-negotiable Understanding and a strong, very strong Support System. The Non-negotiable Respect too. Heavy stuff like organic, mutual growth, best jokes. and so on and so forth.
But, Shit! Have I written anything about simple.little.things which actually, and in reality make up for a large portion of the ‘daily grind’ that any…. any well-nourished, balanced and well-maintained r.e.l.a.t.i.o.n.s.h.i.p.s — Go Through ->
[Sidenote: She asked me if I’d write on ‘little things’ after having binged Netflix series ‘Little Things‘ together.]
So, here I am. And, here it is.
Frankly, I don’t have 10 little, secret things you can do to pump up and launch your relationship to a sweet-next level, with your partner in crime, but sure I have some food for thoughts to share on the same.
[haha]
Cool.
So, allow me to present to you my flavor of ‘little things’ that we all can do.
A simple wake up and wind down texts.
Explore overlapping interests. May be food. Travel. Games. Pick anything. And do them. Freaking indulge,… responsibly though.
Watch movies together. Eat ice-cream, drink coffee, enjoy your mint lemonade whatever you like. Go to concerts together. Cook together. Find out and solve problems together. Go, shopping together. Do weird, silly stunts together — merely for a bellyful of laughs and gasps. Doesn’t have to make sense! Share, listen to songs together. Dance together for no reason. Unpack your whole package together. … Don’t think dirty! [haha]
Ask stupid questions. Ask, how was your day, How you feeling, questions? Take meaningless selfies. Make funny, stupid videos. Bitch about life’s unfairness and it’s suckers.
Plus, an advice from my married-best-friend, “Take things lightly whenever you have disagreements and talk about it later with cool head”.
Give each other sweet, little, frequentsurprises. Take each other out for unplanned treat, retreats [emphasis added].
Oh yeah! And please compliment. Compliment dudes.
Kiss. Cuddle. Chumpy. Massage. Shower. Walk. Do Tik-toks if you have to.
Encourage one another. Just Be.there.for.each.other — side-by-side, nail and flesh.
Take inventories of each other’s favorite things as well as painful problems. Listen. Listen, and help each other out when things aren’t right.
Make your significant other feel he/she is special and taken care of and taken care for.
Life’s good if little things are taken care of man. And I guess, rest will follow.
p.s. Enjoy One of those days for a secret to a perfect relationship.
p.p.s I’m also learning bits and pieces in this department.
