365 days project 2. Day 85. Family

   You can't choose your family. That's what they say. You come to this world belonging to a group of people who will always be around you no matter what you do. You'll see them at birthdays, weddings and funerals and sometimes you'll spend holidays with them. 

   When you're a child, all you know is your family. You love them all to bits and you look up to them. You want to be like them when you grow up and you love that they know so many things you can learn from them. Then comes adolescence when you basically hate everyone. Your friends become your family and you spend most of your time with them. Your parents are your enemies and you feel they never understand you. When that period passes you become an adult. And when you're an adult you'll be wise enough to understand that even if you didn't want to be born in that family and you have your differences and dramas at times, that group of people will ALWAYS be there for you and you need them just as much as they need you. 

   Family is such a complex word and it includes so many feelings, memories and if you're lucky, that place you'll always call home. 

   We don't choose our family but whoever chooses it for us is surely having fun watching all those interesting stories developing. Hopefully, most of them have a happy ending. 

365 days project 2: Day 18. Let's be childlike

 

   A child's world is very small. He only knows what he loves: his family, his toys, his buddies at the kindergarten and that's all he needs to be happy. An adult's world is bigger. Way bigger. It involves many responsabilities, wishes, hopes and needs, taxes, parents of his own, kids, a house and so many more. A parent's happiness is always different from that of their child. He eagerly awaits for the night to come and the kids to go to sleep so that he can enjoy some time for himself. But in all this daily rush people forget that every child is a blessing and that we should be thankful for them and learn from them... how to be very honest but also how to give compliments without expecting anything in return, how to love without boundaries, how to ask for what we want until we get it and how to love life without regrets. 

   For kids there's only today. No yesterday and no tomorrow. Let's learn from them and be happy we have them around. They are all little gems that can make our day more beautiful if only we allow them to :)

The unexpected card

   "Close your eyes and pick one. Which one's gonna be? Now open them. Ta-raaaa!"
    Every day you pick a card from the deck. You have no idea what's waiting for you. You make plans and you know what the weather's gonna be like, but who knows if things are gonna go your way and not theirs?:)

   Maybe one day your card will bring you back to your childhood cos you'll eat the chocolate your uncle used to bring you when you were a kid, the yummiest thing ever. The next day your card might show you that you have to fight like an adult for what you want, make plans and organize and on the third day you might have to cancel them and play baby again cos you'll be sick and in need of affection. 

   My life's unexpected and I learned to like its ups and downs. But most of it, I like the fact that I have people around me who are willing to sing me "Soft kitty" when I'm sick and hug me as much as I need:) Yep, life takes me by surprise every day and yet I like this game. I wonder what tomorrow's card will bring:) 

Day 355. Forever ago

   Today I accidentally plunged in my past and I noticed it didn't hurt so I decided to swim deeper and deeper. It made me realize how much I miss a dear friend I lost contact with, how much things have changed around during the past 5 years and I ended up asking myself if I had changed as well. 

   So I called my best friend over to take a look at our life then (during high school teenage years when we were desk mates) and now (when we're already employed emerging adults). It was kinda difficult for me to remember past experiences so way back because once I closed that book and forgot it on a shelf in the attic I only remembered closer experiences from university. So I had to go back to the attic and dig for the lost book. Then I started comparing. Then and Now. Now and Then. 

   You'd say the result is expected. Kinda like textbook development. I still like the same general things, just that now I know exactly which ones and how I like them to be. Take psychology for example. Back in high school I started being interested in the field and I knew I wanted to become a psychologist because I loved listening to people. Now I am practicing it but I'm a school psychologist not a clinical therapist because I realized I love kids more than anything and that therapy is way more complicated than it seemed back then:) 

   You could say my search has been refined and now not only than I know exactly who I am and what I'm looking for, but I'm also in a stable relationship for 4 years. So THEN was all about exploring options and NOW is all about a single road I chose to follow. I love photography, writing, English and people. That's who I am and that's who I'm always gonna be:) I didn't change, I just evolved. I got out of my cocoon and now I'm flying around as a beautiful butterfly:) 

Day 326. Age beautifully

   Today I took the emotional roller coaster through all ages of my life until now. I've been a furious child, an overly emotional teenager and ended up as a confident adult. 

   I realized all ages have their benefits and their disadvantages. When you're a kid you depend on your parents for everything but you have no problems whatsoever and life is just a game. When you're a teen you don't know who you are or what you want, you wanna be cool and you still can't be independent, but you're wilder and more full of life, hopes and dreams than you'll ever be. When you're an adult you start facing different problems. Sometimes small ones, other times life changing ones, but you're finally independent, you know who you are, what you want and you can get it. You might not see life as pink as you once did, but you're surely not as confused and emotional as you used to be in adolescence nor are you as intolerant to frustration as you were as a child. You've already been through enough to form your own life perspective and learn your own lessons to prepare you for future problem solving. The only thing that's still missing is wisdom and that will come as well when time is right:)

   You should enjoy the age you have right now and all the benefits that come with it. And then remember that our life purpose should be to age beautifully:) Take the good things of all stages and move on wiser:)

Day 262. The quiet before the storm

   There are stressed people out there. And careless people too. The careless ones swim through life knowing that somehow it will all be OK. The stressed ones always want to be the best. They want everything to be perfect and and they need to be sure they control every little detail of their life. 

   All my life I wanted to be careless. But I couldn't. What if I have something to lose? What if something will go wrong precisely because of my careless attitude? How do you get to be a whole new person when you wake up one morning and you realize you're already an adult? Can you still change something and in the end is it even worth trying? 

   I tried it today. My negative brain fought against me so much but in the end I prevailed. So I guess you CAN make a small change here and there if you really want to. In the end you're the master of your brain. Or is it vice-versa?

Day 260. The right time

    "There's a right time for everything:

A right time for birth and another for death,

A right time to plant and another to reap,

A right time to destroy and another to construct,

A right time to cry and another to laugh,

A right time to lament and another to cheer,

A right time to make love and another to abstain,

A right time to embrace and another to part,

A right time to search and another to count your losses,

A right time to hold on and another to let go,

A right time to rip out and another to mend,

A right time to shut up and another to speak up."

(Eclesiastes 3:2-8)

    Today I realized that every period of human development has its own normal features even if they seem weird for the others: you can't blame a hungry child for being noisy, a teenager for feeling misunderstood or an adult for being overly protective with his child. 

   Also, I understood that no matter how much you want to move forward when you're a kid or backwards when you're an adult, trying to live in the future or in the past is of no use. You won't understand adults when you're a teenager nor will you understand teenagers when you're an adult. So why try to be somewhere else than the present? You know what they say. Learn from the past and hope for the future. Re-living the past periods won't make you wiser. It will only confuse you. So let go and come back where you belong. There's a right time for everything.  

  

Day 228. Never say never

   A bird held in captivity will be very fearful and will not want to stay on your finger when you let it out in your room. Though, it happened to my dad. Years ago I told myself I would never wear that and now I find myself loving it and thanking the heavens I haven't thrown it away. I disliked the shower gel mom once received and now, when the bottle is almost gone I'm thinking about buying some more. 

   In the past years I met plenty of situations that told me I should "never say never" because things can change faster than you think. YOU might change. You might want something else in a few years simply because you're developing, growing to be an adult. The adult brain makes you see life differently even if you want to believe you're still a kid. You and I both know you're not the same you were years ago. So never say never, dear. Because "never" will be your best friend in a while, you'll see:)