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

Small but significant

There has been many thoughts swirling in my mind lately, too many to find words for them. Big changes are happening, like the news that I get to move to Scotland next September to study in University of Edinburgh. I am so excited!

But today, I found my words again. I found my way back home, back here. The feeling was quite magical.

I was sitting on a bench by the sea, gazing out to the horizon. Wind started blowing wilder and as I sat there, I took a moment to just empty my mind. I closed my eyes for a while and I tried to inhale the light of the spring sun climbing higher. Slowly, the insides of my eyelids became patterned with patches of blue light. I assumed this to be the sky shining through to my vision. But as I opened my eyes, I found that the sea had broken free. Where before there had been just a vast, blank canvas of ice, a distant and cold glacier, there was now the sea. It was deep blue and it spread. I stood up and as I gazed at the sea growing, I felt that I was in a right place, at a right time. I belonged but I was free to go. I thanked the sea for making me feel whole.

Just before the sea broke out in the distance, I took this photo with my phone:

You can see that little black figure on the left, under the big cloud? Not much bigger than a black dot. Smaller than the rocks, smaller than the skies. Well, that is you and me. That is a human being. Small maybe, but significant too. Cherished for its ability to love, for its foolish pleasure of treading on the ice. The ice, it carried this person into safety, into the land. Only then did the sea free itself.

And it reminded me of how we are part of this whole entirety, how it carries us in its chain, even when we feel or act like the weakest link. And of how we should always respect the nature, for we belong, for we are enveloped by it.

We can choose to be the sun’s mirror. We can choose to be a willow’s branch, bent by the wind but not snapping.

Love for life- Romantic Monday

Image source: http://www.forwardedemails.com I own no rights.

– The meaning of life is to live rich. To be courageous. Life is short and there’s many lives for us to live within that short time. Many places to see, many wells to peek in. You don’t have to jump straight into them all but at least take a look and see how deep the water is. Find what rich life means, to you. Is it money? No…

– Money might be riches in your wallet but what are the riches of the heart is a totally different matter.

– You’re right. So don’t be afraid. Go where your heart yearns to go.

 

Above is the conversation I just had with my neighbour. It came out of nowhere, as I was coming home from my walk. Out of nowhere came the words I needed to hear, the courage I needed to feel again. Who knew? Who knew that life can be this generous?

My neighbour did.  He had the wisdom. Now it has been passed on to me. And I wish to pass it on to you.

So I hope, I wish, I pray you feel blessed today. Just remember:

The love for life is the only love you need. Out of that love is all other love born.

 

I cradle the silence

I bow my head as life’s candle is lit

I can see the flame trembling

In the meandering trail of birds

Rejoicing in the cry of a newborn

My gaze, it answers to the infinity

My fingers run smooth

In morning’s blinding curtain

With gratitude

With freedom of breath

In laughter and in vehemence

They run and my hands

They lift me up

When I throw myself in between

The blades of thunder and light

I am the spark

Flaring, blazing

I am the warmth born

Where those two blades meet

I am life

Where swords of contrasts

Sometimes dash to fall

In love

If you feel tired, I hope your strenght is revived. If you feel happy, I hope you feel happier today than you did yesterday. I hope for peace to your soul. Better still, I believe in hope, happiness and peace. I believe in love. I believe in life. I even believe in Mondays.

Wishing you peace and love on this particular one!

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

When life gives you lemons, make lemon-meringue

I have learnt an important lesson this weekend. And a tasty one too. Here it is, take a look:

Lemon-meringue pie, also called YAMMY!

Macarons with lemon marmalade filling

After my latest kitchen catastrophe, which involved a baking tray set in fire, and all the times I have called myself “the girl who even failed at making Rice Krispie cakes”, I decided to do something different.
So I whipped up a lemon-meringue pie and even braved myself to make macarons, those little cakes that can apparently go wrong in million different ways and make baking art. When I told my sister about my intention to battle these cutely coloured but bad-tempered sweets, she actually gasped a little bit. She probably started designing an emergency escape plan righ there and then, with an appropriate bomb shelter mapped on it just in case I blew up the kitchen.

But guess what?

I managed to make them, and they were delicious! And *drum rolls please* …so was the cake! And out of everyone who ate them, I think I was the most surprised by this. Because I had held this view about myself for so long, this thought that I’m not precise enough person to cook or bake. Yes, I admit, I am still clumsy and there was flour all over the walls. But they were the flag of victory I threw in the air! Because I realised, I had been wrong about myself.

So, when life gives you lemons, make some lemon-meringue.

Firstly, because it’s delicious! And secondly, because I guess it is how they say: You never know just how strong and brave you are before you find yourself pushed out of your comfort zone.
So, when life sets you challenges, don’t be afraid to rise up to them! Remember to dust your beliefs about yourself every once in a while. Otherwise you might miss the little things, like my new tiny best friend le macaron, that give you the opportunity to see the world in a different light!
So be pleased to meet yourself, every day, with a smile and fresh eyes. You might just find you’re stronger, more creative, more surprising than you ever imagined.

And if sometimes you try and try and things still go wrong, don’t feel bad. Just make some more meringue. Then at least you have a cake to eat. This is a win-win plan right here.

Scarlet blush

 

Right, I’m not actually at all sure whether Romantic Monday is still going on but I still want to give you the love you deserve. So you’re getting a poem from me anyway.

This one is not just about love, it’s also about asking. Why is it so hard to ask for help when you’re in need, why is so scary to voice your inner dreams? Have you ever thought about that? Is it because it makes you vulnerable? If so, why is it bad to be vulnerable?

It’s tempting to keep on rambling about this poem  because somehow it feels particularly important to me. But since I did the asking, I’m going to leave the answering to you.

So do you dare to call out to your dreams, do you dare to listen to yourself and voice yourself this coming year? What do you wish for when the fireworks burst at midnight?

 

Scarlet blush

 

When my expressions

Become splintered

Like a thinning lint of a cloud

Ripped down, torn away

From the shining canvas above

 

When all the lines of my skin rest limb

Emaciated out of emotion

When they have given up running

Tingles down my spine, searching

For the prickling electricity of human touch

 

Will you come then to rescue me

Will you trace those lines alive

Dive deep into me and push apart

That skinny ice, that crippling

Cobweb veil covering my stilled eyes

 

Will you find and gather

All the loose ends of love we’ve scattered

Will you plant them around our hearts

Sew them into a lacy wallpaper where

The escaped threads of our souls entwine

 

Till they grow into a shelter

A shielding ivy cottage and look

All the tulips bending their bashful necks

Blossoming into bright scarlet blush

When we move together…

 

Wishing you all a lovely New Year! And peace and love, as always.

 

Be free in yourself

Image source: Wallpaperbuzz.com

 

Everything you do is self-expression. Your words, your gestures, smiles and sighs, music you hum to and words you write. Every step you took today was you telling the world you want to move forward.

So don’t forget those steps, those smiles or tears you shed today, don’t forget them when you feel lost in yourself or are afraid to express yourself.

It is bad when you let someone else to limit what you can be. When you allow them to tie your soul into untangable reef knots, when you let them to drown your spirit or send you spiralling into melancholy with their words. Don’t let anyone do that.

But more importantly, don’t do that to yourself.

Never tell yourself that you cannot write or dance in the street in the middle of the night, or that you cannot share your dreams and feelings and thoughts.

Because you can.

Your self-expression, it is not coming up with a masterpiece dazzling enough to make Mona Lisa blush in shame or Einstein scratch his head in total wonder. To express yourself, you don’t need to come up with that masterpiece.

You are that masterpiece.

You are a limitless spring of expression.

In yourself, you will find the strenght for yet another adventure and you will find the safe haven of existence too to nestle in when you come back from all of your wanders.

In yourself, you have life. Never stop living it and nurturing it. Never cage it inside yourself but let it shine through. Because to someone that life in you might just be the light to guide their lost feet.

So be free in yourself. Be free to yourself.

Surrender your doubts and look up. The sky is beautiful and it is your mirror.

Landscapes of loneliness -Daily Prompt: Flawed

Today’s Daily Prompt: Flawed:

What is your worst quality?

I worry, a lot, too much. It stops me, makes me halt. It makes me hesitate, agitate, doubt. It has even stopped me writing for the past week. Post per day, that’s how it used to be, now it’s turned into hiding a post per day. I just want every dot to be perfect.

But this time I just decided to let it go. Here, I have poured all my worries out for you. I hope you can relate to it. No, actually, maybe not. I don’t wish ‘over-worrying’ to anyone, it makes everything so tangled up inside your head.

So instead, I hope you like it.

 

Landscapes of loneliness

 

A straightjacket of thoughts

clutching at me, biting at my cheeks

To silence me, as I dwell

In my imagined landscapes of loneliness

 

Everchanging, freezing glaciers

Melting into choking sand dunes

I tiptoe across this Sahara of sore memories

Like blisters pulsing under my skin

 

I’m falling deep down

Into Marianas Trench of my mind

Into misery and doubt, losing touch

Your touch, and all sight of reality

 

As  I imagine all my bad guides

Pestering fears and throbbing shivers

Shaking my heart, turning it into flaking plaster

Under the weight of these worries

 

What am I?

 

Lost, worrier or a warrior

Hopes in hiding, longing for love

Searching for a gateway, crying out

For the light winds of freedom

 

Finding clarity

Right now, if I could give you absolutely anything in this world, I would give you a peaceful moment. I would give you a moment that is just for you, your own tranquil hiding place. I would give you some time to think, to laugh, to sleep, to cry, whatever it is you need right now. Unfortunately, I cannot stretch the day to cover more hours. But I can try and share you the clarity and peace I found today, just wandering outside my house. Luckily, nature is ancient and eternal, it does not bow to our watches. It just watches us as we pass by, offering us peace under its many branches and roots.

Wishing you a gentle Sunday!

 

 

Finding clarity

 

What traces, what lacy webs

Of laugher do I leave behind

Carved into the swooshing, surging

Swift winds of time, into its flooding quicksand

 

Only guesses and howls shouted

Into the winding tunnels of night

Faint heritages ringing out longingly

From inside the worn-out grandfather’s clock

Its hollow clanging clinging on

To the memories, calling for answers

 

Till I find them all, quietly passing by

As luminecent and pure as a willow grouse

Against the snow’s light that crowns

The treetops and the windows of my heart

Gazing out to meet the eager eyes of this world

 

There I find it, the invisible in the air

As it tenderly, peacefully, slowly

Bends me lower, pushes me to feel

The vibration of life travelling

Above and under, enveloping all

Entwining us in its sleeping beauty

 

So gently, I am grounded

And peace touches me like owl’s wing

In flight, not waiting for an answer

Just softly awknowledging

That I am here, in time, in touches, alive

 

Copyright: Poem and all photos ©daydreamdaisies

Believe in yourself? But how?

I have a solution to all your problems.

Okay, I’ll admit, despite this grand start: I’m not going to promise you hundred new, innovative ways to blend your vegetables or one, quick and easy route to abs as hard as James Bond, the way they do on every tele shopping channel. Heck, I’m not going to lie to you. This might not be easy or quick, but I’m pretty sure it can help you. It helped me, hugely. It resolved all the worry-knots of my heart. This is it:

Self-validation.

I have realised that this is all that you need in life, a bit of self-validation. Giving yourself credit for what you have achieved. Accepting yourself, asking acceptance and love from inside and not from your friends, landlady, postman and your Twitter followers.

It sounds a bit like the “Believe in yourself” that you have heard before, that results in 282 000 hits in Google, I know. I didn’t think I could make this post important at first, but then I realised I need to talk about this, that I want to! Because I realised there is one massive difference. And I want to make people see this difference, want them to have the same blissful feeling I had. This is the difference:

Self-validation is not the synonym of believing in yourself. It’s the basis for it, the foundation. To have self-confidence, you first need self-acceptance.

Realising this was a huge relief to me. Because I have been struggling with this believing in myself-thing. That’s also why I want to talk to you about this, because I think there might be others who feel the same way.

Believe in optimism? Check.

Believe in life? Check.

Believe love exists? Check.

Believe in myself? Uh oh. I don’t know.

I want to give love to the world so why can I not give it to myself?  Sound familiar?

Well, there is nothing wrong with you, or with me, no reason why you couldn’t believe in yourself. You have just maybe gone a bit amiss with finding the way. I know I have, I have tried to climb that tree from the top. There is only so many times one can reach for the moon from the top of the highest tree only to fall into a mud-pond head first. But I want to tell you now:

Maybe you have fallen so that you can look at things from the right perspective. You have fallen so that you can finally start climbing that tree of self-acceptance steadily, from the bottom. Just as it should be.

And I don’t think we’re missing much from getting to the top, to the point of believing in yourself. I think  all that we’re missing is that crucial little ‘in’.

I think the only reason we don’t believe in ourselves is because we believe ourselves too faithfully.

We believe ourselves on those weak moments at 3am when our only company is the still-blank Word document that has not blossomed words, not even after ten cups of coffee (and those two energy drinks). We believe that we can’t write then. And when it’s grim and rainy and gloomy we believe we carry that greyness on our face, when we tell to the mirror that we don’t look nice. We believe ourselves when we think we can’t sing or run or dance. When we think that we’re indecisive, awkward or a bit lazy.

We believe our inner-critic. And then we wonder why we don’t believe in ourselves.  But who would, who would believe in themselves whilst carrying a  nasty, judging troll inside their mind, one that always wants to start a mosh-pit of guilt in your head? One that never pipes down.

But to silence that inner-critic, I want to tell you:

Those are your beliefs. In fact, all the beliefs about you are yours. All of them. Even the stuff you think other people think about you. That is your beliefs too. The way you think others see you just reflects the way you see yourself.

So, next time someone says something hurtful to you,  you can choose if you let those words make you miserable. Because you have a choice. You don’t need to welcome those words, you don’t need to accept them in your heart anymore.

You’re only going to take that nasty blow of life to heart if you believe it, and only then can it knock your heart out. But if you accept yourself, if you change the way you “believe yourself”, if you question your beliefs and your inner-critic,  it is a whole new world. 

A world of love and bravery. A world of peace and acceptance. All inside you.

So start climbing that tree, even if you’re scared of heights. Because that is what you have waiting for you! Move from believing yourself into believing in yourself.

Come with me, I’m climbing. And I have messed up something as easy as Rice Krispie cakes. So if I can do it, so can you!

Do you want to see that world?