I apologize for not posting in a long time. I know that there is a lot going on with the world right now, but the main thing I’m thinking about is the war going on with the Ukraine and Russia. I feel like war is never the answer because it only brings pain, suffering and does not resolve anything. That leads me to my first quote of this post by Janet Morris who says “Wars don’t bring lasting peace, only lasting death.” And I feel like that quote is so true. On the other side of the spectrum is peace. That is something we need more of every day. I could go on and on about war and peace, but I think I will just leave it here.
Here is my first post of the new year. Happy 2022! What is a better time than talking about life-changing moments. I feel like the last few years have given me a lot of life-changing moments, everything from moving to getting a new job, developing new relationships (romantically and friendship wise). I know it is a topic that I have talked about many times in this blog and it is something I will talk about in this very post to start off the new year. Sometimes things change for the better and sometimes they change for the worse. I am talking about every life-changing moment, whether they are good or bad. That leads me to my very first quote of this post. Delta Goodrem says “Anyone who has gone through a life-changing experience will tell you there is a different understanding of what is real and what is important, and when you are going through different moments, you can reflect and go, ‘I have been through worse.'” In other words, every life-changing moment or experience can shape us in every which way. Every one of those moments really make you realize how lucky you are to go through them because I feel like they can help shape who you are. In that moment it can feel like you are going through something really bad but in reality you could have gone through something way worse.
I feel like for the most part life-changing moments are great or good because they can take you from a not so good place and propel you in the right direction. For example I was not in such a good place emotionally or physically and there was a person who was a part of a life-changing moment. That helped me get to a better place. That is what the following visual poem is all about. It is about someone who saved me from a bad place. A life-changing moment can involve a person who sometimes does not realize how much they are helping you. That brings me to my next quote that says the following. “One smile can start a friendship. One word can end a fight. One look can save a relationship. One person can change your life.” Like I said before, it could be someone who is a friend, a romantic partner or even a stranger and sometimes they do not realize how much they can change your life.
I know that I have gone on and on about this topic. I know that this is a topic that will come up again in my blog at some point in the future. I will conclude by saying that with life-changing moments come some discomfort. That is sometimes the price we pay because not every life-changing moment is comfortable or easy. This brings me to my next quote by Arnold Bennett who says “Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by discomforts.” Change is never always easy. We may try to fight it but change is necessary in life. How are we going to grow or evolve otherwise? We may just stay stuck otherwise. That brings me right into my next quote. This is a quote that I have on my lock screen as inspiration and I am sure this is a quote that I have shared before. It is a quote by one of my personal heroes, Mandy Hale. It says “Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong.” It is a quote that keeps me going because nothing is as painful as staying in place where you do not belong.
I promise that this is the conclusion of this long post. I will leave you all with one final quote to kick off the new year on this blog. “There is no use to looking back at yesterday. I am no longer the person I was back then. Every morning when the sun rises, I am a changed person. Changed by the experiences I’ve had, the lessons I have learned, and the love I have received. It’s time to move forward and embrace the life that I’ve been given, be grateful for the many blessings that have been bestowed upon me, and start living a life of passion. There will always be ups and downs, good times and bad, losses and gains. Life is about learning lessons, showing love in the process, and growing into the beautiful souls we are meant to become. Don’t let yesterday rob you of your happiness today. Every time the sun rises, it’s a new opportunity to make your life the best of your life. Enjoy every moment.” This is my way of saying happy new year and I hope that you all enjoy the following poem. Cheers!!!!
Just recently it was national mental health awareness day. I know that when people think of health they think of physical health, but rarely do people think of mental health. In fact, I feel like mental health is a subject matter a lot of people do not talk about or try to avoid as it feels “forbidden” or “bad” to talk about it. I know a lot of people struggle to talk about problems they have with their mental health because of this “stigma” surrounding it. Firstly, we need to get rid of this stigma around mental health. Secondly, I feel like it is something we should take care of above physical health. Yes, physical health is important, but so is mental health. If we are not mentally well then how do we take care of ourselves physically? That brings me to my first quote of this post by Mel Robbins who says “Your mental health is everything – prioritize it. Make the time like your life that depends on it, because it does.” In other words, it is exactly what I was saying before… mental health is super important and our life literally depends on it!
Like I said before we all at some point struggle with our mental health. Even athletes like Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka have been open about their personal struggles. I normally do not like talking about my personal struggles either, but I have been open and honest with people about it. It is a tricky and difficult topic to navigate because where do we start when we talk about mental health? The truth is that we do not always know when someone else is struggling unless they tell us themselves. It is not like we are trying to be selfish, but for the most part we have to do things for ourselves first and foremost. I think this next quote explains it the best. L. R. Knost says “Taking care of myself doesn’t mean ‘me first’, it means ‘me too.'” It is like we are worried about others and taking care of them (I know that I worry about that myself), but at the end of the day we have to take care of ourselves too. I can make this post super long, but I will stop here. I hope that you all remember to take care of yourselves, including your mental health and enjoy the following visual poem that I wrote about this subject. Take care!!
I have been blessed to be a part of this online community called Deep Underground Poetry. It is an online community of poets and writers. You can post your work and get critique. They also host competitions. One of these competitions was for visual poetry and the theme was hindsight. The contest description was “Think back to a difficult time in your life. What would you say to yourself? Or what do you wish someone had said to you at the time.” One of the things I talked about within my piece is to not look back. I remember a post about leaving the past in the past or letting go of the past. That is more or less what I am talking about but the metaphor I would like to use in this case is the rearview mirror. I remember when I posted that piece on DUP and one of my comments on that was “That’s why the windshield is always bigger than the rearview or side mirrors.” I thought to myself that is so true. So one of my metaphors has become to not look back and to stop looking in the rearview mirror because we are not going that way.
I am not saying that we do not learn anything from the past or anything like that because we still do, but we cannot continue to look back when there is so much ahead of this. That is especially important when we go through our difficult times. It is why I never like focusing on the past. It keeps us distracted from where we are going and that is what in part this quote says. “Even thought there are days I wish I could change some things in the past, there’s a reason the rear view mirror is so small and the windshield is so big, where you’re headed is much more important than what you’ve left behind.” That quote is so true because although we want to go back and change things we should not. They are a part of our journey and mistakes give us lessons learned. There will be a post about lessons and mistakes some other time, but the lesson if we were to talk them right here is to essentially look forward instead of backwards. That is what I would highly recommend to my readers as well.
I hope that all of my readers can take this advice and find a way to move forward with their lives. If we are so busy looking backwards and into the rearview mirror then we cannot see what is ahead of us. There is this quote that I love by C.S. Lewis. He says “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” In other words, we look ahead because there might be better things there than what we leave behind. That is why we try to forget the past as much as we can, especially the painful parts. I know that I keep talking about the past, but I keep talking about it because of its importance. I am doing something a little different here and including one of my visual poems, which pretty much text over an image. The photo was taken on a drive my roommate I decided to go on when we needed a break from studying. I hope everybody enjoys something slightly different from me this time. Cheers!!
