The Non-Facebook Post #21

I want to write my heart out!
I want to write and write and write.
It's the only raahat.
'Chainn ek pal nahin, aur koi hal nahin...'

The Non-Facebook Post #20

Indiana weather can turn on a dime. Foggy in the morning, warm and cheery in the afternoon, cold and windy in the evening.
Well, at least there's someone else out there like me!

The Non-Facebook Post #19

Rilke says, "live the questions now."
The question though is, "what is the question that I am trying to live with now?"

What is it that remains unsolved in my heart?

The Non-Facebook Post #18

Oh, how every word of this interview rings true!

http://www.parentous.com/2015/03/09/an-interview-with-natasha-badhwar/

I identify with so much, although I'm not yet at the parenting stage, and I don't think it's for me at this point in life. But still, the entire interview makes sense. Just plain, simple, unpretentious, common sense.

"Sharing is caring" indeed and what a wonderful thought that each of our stories are valuable, to be shared, celebrated and validated - all our stories are "for listening and identifying with", that we are "important" and that we should "talk about ourselves." Well, yes, this may touch on narcissism or vanity, but you never know how your story is maybe helping another cope through his phase of life - by either agreeing or disagreeing with it. Identifying with a story - identifying with your story.

And oh, talk about the many life inspirations, the people who become your inspirations - the ones that bring out the best in you. Then there's also the best brought out in you when you crash and burn and reinvent yourself - " I wouldn't have picked myself up and created a new me if I hadn't crashed so hard." Becoming the best - soaring to a higher you through inspiration or because of hitting the ground hard in failure - diametric, poetic, effective. But, this is our greatest strength, the ability to get back up after falling, and get back up, better - "to recover, survive and flourish."

Here's also channeling all my restlessness and pensive gloom, and heartache into my writing as I have channeled my "extreme sense of joy, disdain and anger into my writing" earlier. Because, if you can't keep the innocence of a child within you, and delight at the world with a childish joy, what sense is living? To light up your surroundings with your enthusiasm about the little things in life, to bloom brighter than happy yellow sunflowers because "your vibe attracts your tribe." Ideas from a March 9, 2015, HONY photograph.

Badhwar hits the nail on the head in that interview describing innocence as "an intrinsic human quality" that's very "precious and real".

This beautiful article on writing published in The New Yorker lifts my heart and reaffirms much that I believe in. That diversity - of people, their beliefs, backgrounds, roots, orientations - enriches life. "The worst mistake anyone can make is to perceive anyone else as lesser." And writing is about baring your soul, or getting an uninhibited look into another's soul. It's about sharing your experiences, "cloaking experiences" in words and making experiences that occur in "unsayable spaces" tangible. The author quotes Rilke's advice to writers penned in his Letter to a Young Poet. I think I've just found my next favourite writer. This article too champions keeping the innocence of youth in you which sometimes gets jaded by experiences, as you go father in life. These stories and experiences are then, to be shared with a writing that is "heartfelt, quiet, humble, sincere; and use to express yourself the things that surround you."

I love that I've found pieces of writing that resonate with me. Thank God for writers.

The Non-Facebook Post #17

Sometimes, it's vital to have a gallery to play to. The performer in you helps keep you, the person, in top form.
It's vanity, yes, but vanity that strangely keeps your skills sharp.

In Badhwar's words (again), "it nourishes me and gives a platform to my inner performer."

The Non-Facebook Post #16

Taco Bell's 'Fire' sauce - There was a time when this made you scoff derisively, "that's called hot?"

Taco Bell's 'Fire' sauce - Today, it's living up to its name and setting your mouth on fire!

Oh, how the tides change indeed!
Yup, fully transformed tropical-to-continental palette!

The Non-Facebook Post #15

This morning started out in a gorgeous haze of steel grey fog, blending in with a pale blue sky and blurring the world in smoke-veiled forms. Still lit street lamps glowed like orange orbs, the shafts of light they throw being swallowed by the surrounding smoky fuzz. The best sights were across large expanses of vacant land, like the parking lot and school playground. In the parking lot, double globes of perfectly spherical radiance rhythmically rose through thick white misty clouds on tall black metal stems. Bare tree branches peeked through the fog every here and there, seemingly floating, trunk-less.
This afternoon is yet another exercise in beauty. Soft yellow sun has dispelled the morning's brooding fog. It's a warm, ponderous atmosphere of lazy sunlight and people and cars waking up to newly frenzied activity from this morning's dullness.
In the midst of all the crowds, the people, everyone's battling their own struggles - you are made privy to challenges your friends, the faces in the crowds, the driver driving your shuttle that morning, are contending with. The serene and already thoughtful afternoon is now laced with deeper meditations into the way the tides turn, the manner in which life rolls. From your deep musing comes the one thought, again and again, that the people you value in your life may never have to go through such ebbs. That the sun comes out after the fog for everyone.