I have been away for so long that I have forgotten how to write or even why I used to write. I lost the art, the charm, the ability to convey myself to people and to myself, and honestly, it was a torment that rang in my ears, haunting me and asking, why did you abandon yourself? You loved this, and this was how you wanted to be remembered in the world: as the Bella Hooks who wrote with such wisdom, or the Charles Burtosky who wrote with such vulgarity that didn’t just make life feel like a fever dream. I had all those dreams, and I gave in to the illusion people have dreams that eventually die,
‘Laughter is timeless. Imagination has no age. And dreams are forever.” — Walt Disney.
I can say this haunts me: the dream, the haunting of self, that feeling that you are an observer in your story, watching yourself from the terraces and slowly becoming detached from being. This is how it has been since my last post, or rather since 2022, when I truly felt like myself. I have nothing but my mind and my dreams. The dream that fueled my desire, holding onto the reality or the fallacy of how dreams and reality can coexist.
The postponement of greatness. I say it like this because that is what I would tell myself. I would say Jesus died at thirty-three, and I must wait and allow myself to go through the want, the desire, and the acceptance. I thought that for me to be purged of my reluctance to self-awareness, I had to cry in the garden of Gethsemane; I had to go through some kind of trials and tribulations. I know it is very blasphemous of me to think I can be like Jesus, but that was my path; I felt that was the best path, and if the Son of God could endure the wait until his purpose, I could wait too, but I ignored everything he did before that. I say this as a believer, but those who are not, I want them to read this as a story and take it in and see the link; maybe read the Bible and see how such a historical scroll can influence so much and reflect our day-to-day lives.
The pursuit of happiness
“Folks are usually about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” — Abraham Lincoln highlights the power of perspective (this is a hearsay statement; people aren’t sure he actually said it, but his companion says so.)
I was in search; I was searching high and low for happiness. I am not ashamed to admit I looked for it in people, in things, and in religion; I looked for happiness everywhere, never fully understanding how happiness comes to be. Is it a borrowed emotion evoked by external contributions, or is it something I decide I want to feel? Is it something that comes from self-gratification? Was I supposed to stand in a mirror and tell myself that you are ok, if you look at it, I am still the same person, but different. I have no answer to all this yet, but I think I will get there and understand where I am supposed to be; as the starting point, I write this from a perspective of self-introspection. Where there is a will, there is a way, and one thing that is certain is that growth is not stunted. Yet now all my questions became: does growth mean the abandonment of your core? Is it the abandonment of your mana? Do I want to be a butterfly when being a caterpillar was so beautiful?
These were all the questions that played in my head during my retreat, but yet I am here feeling lost when I was supposed to seemingly find myself.







