The Reason for a Season

The Reason for a Season

Lately I have been thinking about many of the things people my age struggle with on a regular basis. Something we all encounter is love. Love is a beautiful thing. It stirs up many emotions that can confuse, liberate, or excite us.

I want to express that when going through life a relationship is not necessary for happiness. Love is amazing, but a relationship is not the most important thing for your life. I often find myself looking at the media and seeing the publicized concept that a relationship is a need and not a want.

This is not true, and your happiness has to come from yourself.

Being there for someone and creating long lasting relationships with friends is extremely important in your college years. Often, the people you are close with in college become lifelong friends. These friends will see you through the years where you experience the most growth and truly find who you are and want to be.

My advice in this post is to nurture and invest in friendships and relationships that are most important to you and not worry about finding “the perfect someone”, because you’ll eventually find that person, but the friends in your life are the people who will see you through that relationship.

The poem I have chosen for this week entitled “Seasoned Friendship”, is about how relationships, struggles, joy, and other times in life are temporary and often only last for a season, but good, nurtured, and cherished friendships can last for years and years.

Walk with me

through these paths ahead

the leaves change color

the foliage is dead

new life is born

it blooms and grows

the sun comes out

your happiness shows

there is joy and love

found in each of these times

but I hope you and I

will have the other till we die.

Growth and Goodness

Growth and Goodness

Something that has been on my mind a lot lately has been ‘being a better person’. At this point in my life, and in the lives of most people in their college years, I am trying to find myself and figure out who I am and who I want to be. Many people are afraid of change, but I have always been one to welcome it with open arms. Change from within can be hard and it takes a lot of commitment, but without change you cannot grow.

I’ve done some research and thought about this for a long time and I’ve developed a list of things I can incorporate into my daily life to be a better person and a good friend to the people in my life.

Be a Better Person:

1.   Be Thoughtful

2.   Be Helpful

3.   Compliment Often

4.   Smile Often

5.   Be Honest

6.   Be Direct

7.   Listen Without Thinking of What You are Going to Say Next

8.   Surprise People

9.   Put Others First (their happiness, time, problems, wants, needs)

10. Appreciate People You Love (show it through actions, words, and thoughtfulness)

11.  Don’t Expect to Be Treated the Same Way You Treat Others

12. Encourage People

13. Remember the Little Details (about someone, in a story, in their schedule)

14. Don’t Talk About Yourself or Make Things About You

15. Worry About and Protect Others

16. Be Considerate and Polite

17. Go Out of Your Way to Be Good and Do Good

18. Offer, Without Expecting Compensation

19. Love Wholeheartedly

20. Be Passionate

Treat those around you with all the love and goodness you can muster up, because you have no idea the impact you can have on a person. I hope to live a life full of goodness, because a legacy means nothing if there is no one to carry on who you were and the love you shared.

Being there for the people in your life and being good to everyone you meet, are the greatest things you can do with your life. Love passionately and appreciate the people in your life. Show compassion and forgiveness towards them. Be the shoulder they can cry on, but also be the one that doesn’t let them stay there and instead lifts them back on their feet and pushes them forward. Listen to them, accept them, be loyal to them, and be trustworthy.

The poem I’ll leave you with this week is entitled “Lockbox”. I wrote this when a good friend of mine was at an incredibly difficult and emotional point in his life and was frequently ‘opening up’ and coming to me when he needed someone to be there for him. I showed him love through it all and listened to all he had to say. I hope to be that for many people and through the steps I have listed above, grow into the person I am meant to become.

Sing to me

sweet songs of love,

compelling tunes

full of mystery and secrets.

Whisper the words

you want no one to hear,

mistakes of the past,

captured by regretful thoughts.

-^-

I will listen,

to the pain you hold.

I will absorb,

all and everything that you are.

Faith for the Future

Faith for the Future

When I think about Wishful Thinking, I think of the hope I have for tomorrow and for the future. The future is often something that generates excitement and a hopeful attitude. This excitement for the future is taken from an optimistic perspective. However, I find that often the future can make me anxious, nervous, and even afraid. The thought that we have no idea what could happen tomorrow, next week, or in the next five years, can be utterly terrifying. If you feel this way, I can guarantee that you are not alone.

Nature's Power To Soothe by Mindfulness & Clinical Psychology Solutions

Look at this picture. What do you see? You may just see a pretty image of the woods, with the sunlight peeking through. You may see yourself as the person taking the photo, and imagine being lost in the forest. You may even find yourself unable to tear your eyes from trying to see where the path in the woods is going.

If you see any of these, you are on the right track. I added this photo not to ask you a million questions about what you see, but to have you ponder where your mind goes when you see a photo like this.

This photo is a picture of the woods, but it can mean much more. This photo can represent the future. Sometimes we get so comfortable in our beautiful surroundings that we don’t think to look forward to what is ahead. We find ourselves lost in the woods of the unknown, and fearful of what is on the path we are heading down. We can never know for sure of what is down that path, we can only move forward one step at a time and choose to focus on the light that peaks through even the darkest corners.

It is normal to be fearful of the future, it is full of unknowns, what ifs, and shocking twists and turns, but that fear cannot stop us from moving forward. If we let our fear keep us from moving forward, we will stay exactly where we are and never change or grow. Life without change is not only boring, but it does not leave any room for growth as a person to prosper in life and experience new things.

As we look towards the future, while it may scare us at first, it is important to look forward with hope and faith in ourselves and our capability to accept future challenges, so that we can grow into who we are meant to be.

This week’s poem is entitled “Embargo”. I wrote this poem when I was afraid of what the future had for me. The thought that I had almost nothing figured out and so much change ahead of me left me full of fear, worry, and anxiety. I saw the mistakes others had made before me and I was scared to follow in the same footsteps. By changing my perspective to an optimistic point of view and focusing on the light instead of the shadows, I was able to find hope and joy for what was ahead of me.

Forbidden roads

lost in shadows

The search of light

on a path untraveled

Dew on grass

aside shaken ground

A single path

none dare follow

For fear

such that

no man should walk

No man should see

what the shaken ground of that path withholds. 

Peace and Pastimes

Peace and Pastimes

Pastimes are defined as an activity that someone does regularly for enjoyment. When I am at the end of a day of work and sitting in my thoughts, I am at peace. Peace to me is being completely calm and accepting whatever is going on around me. I find peace when I am enjoying my favorite pastimes: writing, listening to my favorite music, and daydreaming.

Here is a link to one of my favorite songs, “Hand of God – Outro”, off the album "The Human Condition", by Jon Bellion. This specific song describes the peace you can find in knowing that your life is not in your hands. The song explains that sometimes we mess up, get lost, or break, but we can trust in the future and have faith. These themes expressed bring me peace whenever I am stressed or overwhelmed. It is music like this that can change your perspective and bring you peace. This album is especially stimulating due to its catchy rhythms, different sound, and meaningful lyrics.

Peace is a hard thing to come by and we often take it for granted. Peace is something I try to value, because when I am at peace I can truly enjoy the things I like to do. Some of my favorite pastimes are writing, listening to music, and letting my thoughts wander creatively. Something I often find myself doing is daydreaming. Daydreaming is incorporated in “letting my thoughts wander creatively”. 

Daydreams and wandering thoughts often inspire my poetry. Daydreaming is another peaceful pastime of mine because of the hopeful endings in each of the dreams. When you let your mind wander like this you can dream up anything and everything you choose to. I find I often daydream scenarios of love, excitement, and humor. Rarely do I find myself dreaming up something that is not positive.

This is another example of “The Hope in Wishful Thinking”. When I daydream, I don’t dream up things failing or ending, I dream up positive situations and circumstances that are full of hope.

This week’s poem is entitled “Renewal”. I wrote this poem when thinking of the hope you can find in what is to come. Much like a daydream, our goals for the future are full of hope for happy endings. Because of this, we can find peace when daydreaming and thinking about the future.

Such humility comes

when a love

so sought and dreamt

passes away

and somehow is replaced

with peace and contentment. 

Introduction to the Hope in Wishful Thinking

The Hope in Wishful Thinking

Think about the last time you set a goal for your future. Think about your dreams and plans for life. Think about here and now, and how you want things to be. Wishful thinking surrounds each and every one of these prompts and our thoughts. It is in our human nature to have hope for tomorrow and for the future. The American Dream surrounds the idea that anything is possible with goals, perseverance, dedication and completion. 

Often when going through the stress of finals, exams, papers, and drama we get caught up in thinking that these thoughts are simply that, thoughts. That they have no depth and carry no real weight. It is just “wishful thinking”. A dream that cannot be achieved. Something you want but can never actually have. 

In this blog I hope to create a personal account for the moments when you feel lost, confused, hurt, and stressed, but also for the moments of joy, happiness, positivity, and love. This is what I call The Hope in Wishful Thinking. The silver lining when all else fails. The choice to keep moving forward and be positive even through the hard times. The poetry in my posts will capture these feelings and serve as an outlet for those in these situations. This outlet will allow readers to understand my feelings and thoughts, during good and bad times, and be able to relate them to their own lives.

Look forward and take a deep breath

Wish for tomorrow, wish for the time ahead.

Feel the pain that surrounds you,

And find the beauty in its simplicity.

Look forward and take a deep breath

what we lose can be for the best.

Find the hope that keeps you moving

And it will carry you through.