You have never been nothing.
You are a body made up of unique DNA and cells that have multiplied into organs and tissues and skin and bones and a system that tries its best to protect you from influences that harm. You are the product of a long line of evolution, the present artifact of your ancestors successfully procreating until their genes were passed onto you. You are a product of chance and deliberate reason.
You occupy a definite space on this planet. You are mass and in your space, you exist.
You are a contributor to collective thought and discourse. You have opinions and decisions that ripple and reverberate in their results. Your words and silence and heavy pauses are all important, no matter the size of their relevance.
You are hope and sadness and betrayal. You are coldness and emotion. You are forgiveness and absolution. You are the difference between acceptance and tolerance. You are brave even as you are a coward. You are giving up and going on. And every single day, you are moving forward whether you want it or not.
You are judgment and objectification, stereotypes and mistaken assumption. You are pollution, you are unstained, an oxymoron. You are rules and the capacity to break them. You are a disorder and you are everything right. You are complicated and complex, and you will always remain a puzzle even to yourself.
You are sexuality and intellect, passion and logic coexisting in one being.
You are death itself because you have been holding its hand on the very day you were conceived. You will come to embrace the moment your breath expires and you will be nothing but a memory as your facts become part of the world’s continuous fiction.
But right now you are here and you are alive. You are possibility and change in one. You are soul and you are heart, no less and no more than anyone else around you. You were born as energy and power. You have a story and it is being written at this very second. When the end comes, what will your tale be about? What will they say about you who once existed and lived and decided?
You are creation and destruction. You have a right to your own definition.
Over all of these, you are master. There is the challenge of circumstance and forces that try to outline you into a template of how life should be lived, of what and how you should be. Remember that you can listen or ignore them.
This is your life and you should live it and believe as you please. Waste your hours, harness your power. Be offensive or try to reconcile. Stay ignorant or seek enlightenment and education. Place blame or take responsibility. See an unsolvable problem or a see a challenge. Be pointless. Be purposeful. In the end, know that everything you do is on you.
Yesterday, you were important. Today you are vital. Tomorrow you will still count.
(All credit goes to Thought Catalog and Jamie Delos Reyes.)
Always remember that you are loved, you are appreciated, you are necessary, you are helpful, and you are not forgotten. You are not some sad story with an unhappy ending. You are here, you are alive, and "a still more glorious dawn awaits."
Much love xxx.
Showing posts with label confidence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label confidence. Show all posts
December 1, 2013
August 4, 2013
Keep the Channel Open
I'm going to be honest with you guys--I've had an "off" day. Well, a lot of off days lately. Like nothing I do is good enough, and the harder I strive for perfection, the farther I am from it. There has been no satisfaction with anything I've done lately. I can't find words to express myself, I can't turn my mind off, and I just don't feel very good about myself. Do you know what I mean? The face in the mirror hasn't changed, but it doesn't look so good all of the sudden. I do the same things the same way, but they just don't feel right. I feel aggravated, unhappy, and discontent, uncomfortable in my own skin, and then guilty for feeling all these things when I have no reason in the world to be anything but immensely, eternally joyful. It's not a good feeling.
Having finally gotten myself out of this funk, I wanted to share some things with you guys. Whether you're just having a bad day or a string of bad days or a whole bucket of bad days, sometimes all you need is to feel like you're not alone, that you're not the only one to feel bad about yourself and your life. On one of my worst days, I found a quote by Martha Graham in the back of a vocal instruction book, and felt that it applied to much more than singing:
"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open...no artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."
In living an extraordinary life, there are breathtaking highs and soul-crushing lows. There are rarely any times of moderation, peace, or contentment. There is an inexplicable desire to keep moving forward, to dig out of the wreckage of whatever mistake you've just made and keep pushing on, over the mountain and onto the next one. When you keep that creative channel open, not only do you open yourself up to feeling greater ecstasy than imaginable, you also subject yourself to the darkest, most secret places of the human mind, the dusty corners that so many ignore. That feeling of flying high usually ends in a crash landing, but it is in these crash landings that it is most important to find a way to express yourself. Like the saying goes, when you're happy, you enjoy the music, but when you're sad, you understand the lyrics.
That being said, I've found a playlist on some website that I've since forgotten, titled simply "Confidence." I would like to share this as well:
1. How to be a Heartbreaker - Marina and the Diamonds
2. Tip Toes - Jaymee Dee (LOVE this one!)
3. Carried Away - Passion Pit
4. When I Grow Up - The Pussycat Dolls
5. High Hopes in Velvet Ropes - The Cab
6. Body of Work - The Mynabirds
7. Come and Get It - Selena Gomez
8. Something Good Can Work - Two Door Cinema Club
9. Three - Cameron Ernst
10. C'mon, C'mon - One Direction (babes!)
11. You've Got a Place Called Home - Hannah Georgas
12. You Need Me, I Don't Need You - Ed Sheeran (all time favorite; this man is my hero.)
13. Primadonna - Marina and the Diamonds
14. We Are Who We Are - Little Mix (my addition; such an upbeat song!)
15. Chloe (You're the One I Want)- Emblem3
Lucky for me, I've got some wonderful friends and family around me who are willing to listen to me obsess over the same things over and over and over and over again and never get tired of it...or at least don't show it! I've got to run off to church now, but I wanted to take a minute and get this down. Have a blessed day!
Xx, L
Having finally gotten myself out of this funk, I wanted to share some things with you guys. Whether you're just having a bad day or a string of bad days or a whole bucket of bad days, sometimes all you need is to feel like you're not alone, that you're not the only one to feel bad about yourself and your life. On one of my worst days, I found a quote by Martha Graham in the back of a vocal instruction book, and felt that it applied to much more than singing:
"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open...no artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."
In living an extraordinary life, there are breathtaking highs and soul-crushing lows. There are rarely any times of moderation, peace, or contentment. There is an inexplicable desire to keep moving forward, to dig out of the wreckage of whatever mistake you've just made and keep pushing on, over the mountain and onto the next one. When you keep that creative channel open, not only do you open yourself up to feeling greater ecstasy than imaginable, you also subject yourself to the darkest, most secret places of the human mind, the dusty corners that so many ignore. That feeling of flying high usually ends in a crash landing, but it is in these crash landings that it is most important to find a way to express yourself. Like the saying goes, when you're happy, you enjoy the music, but when you're sad, you understand the lyrics.
That being said, I've found a playlist on some website that I've since forgotten, titled simply "Confidence." I would like to share this as well:
1. How to be a Heartbreaker - Marina and the Diamonds
2. Tip Toes - Jaymee Dee (LOVE this one!)
3. Carried Away - Passion Pit
4. When I Grow Up - The Pussycat Dolls
5. High Hopes in Velvet Ropes - The Cab
6. Body of Work - The Mynabirds
7. Come and Get It - Selena Gomez
8. Something Good Can Work - Two Door Cinema Club
9. Three - Cameron Ernst
10. C'mon, C'mon - One Direction (babes!)
11. You've Got a Place Called Home - Hannah Georgas
12. You Need Me, I Don't Need You - Ed Sheeran (all time favorite; this man is my hero.)
13. Primadonna - Marina and the Diamonds
14. We Are Who We Are - Little Mix (my addition; such an upbeat song!)
15. Chloe (You're the One I Want)- Emblem3
Lucky for me, I've got some wonderful friends and family around me who are willing to listen to me obsess over the same things over and over and over and over again and never get tired of it...or at least don't show it! I've got to run off to church now, but I wanted to take a minute and get this down. Have a blessed day!
Xx, L
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