The Rose That Grew From The Concrete

Copyright: Daydreamdaisies

 

Here’s a painting of Tupac Shakur I finished the other day. I didn’t really have a burning passion for this guy’s music before picking up the brush since this piece started out as a present to my sister’s boyfriend. But its meaning soon became greater in my heart.

Tupac is one of those people who surprised me with his message.  I thought it was sex, drugs and bling bling combined with girls grinding shiny cars; in other words, the tool kit of many succesful (MTV) rapper. Oh, but how wrong was I.

Tupac speaks of bravery and of beating the odds. He encourages you to dream big, to journey on, to be resilient and to keep your head up. This man had many things to say, and many of them good. He had a tough life but still his voice rang clear and inspired many.

And guess what throws me and surprises me again and again?

The realisation that be your idol Jimi Hendrix or Susan Boyle, they’re all just humans. These inspiring, amazing people who we throw our dreams and knickers at in concerts.  These people who we look up to, they’re just people like us. Their hair gets greasy like ours and they have their bad days.

So if they are like us that means we are also like them. It means that the ability to inspire and comfort lives in all of us. We can reach out and touch someone’s heart. We can dream and make our dreams happen, if we only dare to. If we stop standing in our own way with doubts.

And even when life seems hopeless and dreams torn, there is still a way for us. Or have you not heard about the rose that grew from the concrete?

 

“Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete?

Proving nature’s law is wrong, it learned to walk without having feet.

Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams

It learned to breathe fresh air.

Long live the rose that grew from the concrete

When no-one else ever cared.”

-Tupac Shakur 1971-1996

Clockwork

 

 

Life is a miracle full of smaller miracles. Every dandelion is a miracle. Every minute is a miracle being born. Every tiny organism is a miracle. You are a miracle, your body is.

Your body isn’t just inches and pounds, fat and muscle. It is so much more: It is baby heartbeats, it is air filling your lungs, thoughts playing in your brain. You’re so many things, you’re so much. And you can be so much more, life can.

Because life never stops flowing. It is like a river:

Even when the temperature drops, river braves on. Even if the river finally freezes, it is just a passing illusion. Ice can never kill off river’s core, its heart. Under the ice that river still keeps on flowing. Even if it is invisible, it is alive.

Your life is that river. River of miracles and opportunities, encounters and goodbyes, surprising acts of kindness, soul-sweeping smiles.

Life loves you.

Every morning it wakes you up, takes your hand and proposes to you. But sometimes it can be like a forgetful child, wondering so far that you shake and panic.  But those moments are just life’s little insecurities, magic tricks,  temporary vanishing acts. So don’t worry.

Because life is never as far as it seems to be. In fact,  you cannot lose it. It is inside you.

At times your skin might be ice, but your heart can never freeze.

 

Clockwork

 

Somewhere

On a riverbend

She sits and builds bridges

With her gaze

Between night and day

Between sun and rain

Water circulates

Swirling reflections

Absentminded cartwheels

On her face

But she smiles

Waits, inside anticipates

That chime of spring

A beginning bearing

A sense of an ending

Life’s ring in her reach

So she smiles

From somewhere

Gains an answer as he sighs

Crouching on Autumn’s porch

Picking pastel shells

On the seaside

Picking summer’s last smiles

Sunset’s candy floss streaks

Like drawings of a child

Water circulates

Swirling reflections

Dancing light wrinkles

On his face

Till the moment c0mes

The sea is calmed

Its storms tucked away

Under soothing ice

And they wonder

What glacier, what force

Clockwork of nature

Will finally bend their souls

Their young, wonderous vows

To rest beside

The sleepy willow branches

Drooping lower

Past their eyes

Once so lively leaves

Falling into memories

❤ Language love ❤

If you’re at all fascinated by languages and words, you might enjoy listening to this. Even if you aren’t, it might still make you chuckle because I’ve heard Finnish sounds like gibberish. And as a bonus, it’s a really special song!

 

I love the English language! It is not just the fact that I’m fluent enough to do the practical stuff, like express myself at the doctors, either. I just feel so connected to the language. I have christened that feeling ‘the soul fluency’. It is when your mind, your dreams, even your feelings function in a certain language. It is the feeling the language gives you when you open your mouth, the feeling of coming home. Like that language forms a part of your soul. That really is English to me.

But then again, Finnish is my mother tongue.  It is the language I uttered my first word in.  So it is, too, a part of my soul and that is a side you don’t get to see here often. That’s why I thought it would be nice to introduce it with this song. Finnish is weird, peculiar, complex language. It is beautiful too, like the man above. Or what do you think?

Anyway, I admire the artist Samuli Putro endlessly. He is a lyrical genius. I think he really has a unique, gentle way of portraying our ordinary lives. I hope the feeling comes across! But just so you don’t have to trust Google Translate I have translated the lyrics for you. Listen, read, fall in love!

But before you do, just out of curiousity, what is the language that speaks to your soul? Or the word, for that matter, if you’re more of a word-geek?

Lyrics:

Ash in the Jewellery Chest – Tuhkaa korulippaassa

 

In the morning, I see migrant birds

In formation, on the sky

I’m moved and I greet them

See you in the spring, or later

 

I stood there, in the shade of the moment

Musing on the frailty of human life

And I could not question

Some kind of God

 

Our life has a purpose

And beauty in its every moment

We’re not automatons

Typing errors on the screen

 

Our life has a purpose

Everyone’s story is precious

We are not meaningless

Ash in the jewellery chest

 

I celebrate my birthday today

My present was a digital camera

I took two photos of a woman

Other one of them looked pretty

 

I decided to propose tonight

To the lady on the photo, knees on the carpet

I pondered over the words carefully

I closed my eyes and I smiled

 

Our life has a purpose

And beauty in its every moment

We’re not automatons

Typing errors on the screen

 

Our life has a purpose

Everyone’s story is precious

We are not meaningless

Ash in the jewellery chest

Ash in the jewellery chest

 

People’s expressions and

In the old songs

Flowering fields and

In the winter snow drifts

Spouse’s haircut I’ll notice or maybe not

Yellow September and stains on the linen

 

Our life has a purpose

And beauty in its every moment

 

Our life has a purpose

And beauty in its every moment

We’re not automatons

Typing errors on the screen

 

Our life has a purpose

Everyone’s story is precious

We’re not meaningless

Ash in the jewellery chest

Ash in the jewellery chest