Take the Rocks

Do you guys like stories? i love them! i have a story for you all today. well, a parable, really. i did not make this up, i heard it from a kid in my school.
Once upon a time, there was a man who was traveling through the wilderness via camel. After several hours, he grew tired and thirsty, so he stopped to rest near a flowing stream. He sat under a tree, enjoying its shade as he ate his bread.
After he had finished eating, the man bent down over the water to drink. It was then that he noticed that the bottom of the stream was covered with small pebbles. They were pretty ordinary looking, so he didn't give them another thought as he scooped the cold, clear water into his parched mouth.
As the man got up to continue on his journey, he suddenly heard a voice in his ear. It was soft and whispery, as if it belonged to the wind itself. The voice said, "Take the rocks, for tomorrow you'll be glad and tomorrow you'll be sad."
"What?!" the man exclaimed, taken aback. "I already have so much to carry, and my camel is tired as it is. Why on earth would I take these useless pebbles? They'd only weigh me down."
The voice did not answer.
The man shrugged. "Might as well take some," he figured. "It can't hurt."
The man sank his arm to the stream's bottom and pulled out a few pebbles. He dropped them into his pocket, then climbed onto his camel and continued on his way.
It was only the next day, when the man had arrived at his home city many miles away, that he remembered the rocks. He stuck his hand into his pocket and took them out, but what he saw amazed him. Instead of ordinary pebbles, there were three dazzling diamonds sitting in his palm! They had turned from plain old rocks into valuable gems!
The man was overjoyed at his newly acquired wealth. But at the same time, he was devastated. He had only brought back three pebbles, when he could've had hundreds and hundreds! Now he would never again have the opportunity to go back and retrieve the treasures. It was too late.

Not a very good story, I'll admit. Still, it has a very good lesson. throughout our lives, we will go through many different experiences, some pleasant and some not-so-pleasant. We have a choice- we can simply let the time pass, and get nothing out of it. Or- we can take something with us. We can make the most of our time, even if we aren't enjoying our situation. We can see it as an opportunity to learn, to grow. We can have a chance to grab at priceless treasures, even if they might not seem like treasures at the time. We should try to take as many as possible, so that we can have few regrets once the opportunity passes.

So take the rocks, for tomorrow you'll be glad, and tomorrow you'll be sad.

Choices

decisions, decisions.
when i was younger, i hardly had to make any. what color shirt i wanted to wear, what ice-cream flavor i wanted, that sort of thing. nothing major.
when i got a little older, i LOVED deciding things for myself, and tried to make my own decisions at every opportunity.
and now, well, now i hate having to make important decisions. I'm still just a teen, and I'm not 100% positive of what's the right decision all the time. and I've made the wrong decisions often. too often.
when i make the wrong choice, i often end up regretting it. i say, "if only i could go back to yesterday, and change that!"
thing is, we can't go back to yesterday. ever. we can only move forward. the fact is, you will make the wrong decision from time to time. hopefully not too often, but it will happen. but just sitting there regretting it won't help you.
so, now you're faced with yet another decision- do you let your bad choice eat you up? do you sit there saying, "I wish i can go back and change that!" Or, "i totally messed up, I'm such a horrible person!" are you going to eat yourself up inside, be so consumed with regret that you can't deal with the situation?
Or-
are you going to learn?
everybody makes mistake. the question is, do we keep making the same mistakes over and over again, or do we learn? mistakes, bad decisions, are all about growing. you mess up from time to time, but it changes you. you grow from your mistakes. every single action that you do changes you, and hopefully you will be changed for the better.
as Lewis Carrol so perfectly put it:
"I can't go back to yesterday, I was a different person then."

some decisions are hard. hopefully, you'll make the right choice. and if not, it's still okay. just learn, get the experience, grow, and move on. and remember:
"Learn from other people's mistakes, you won't live long enough to make all of them yourself."

let freedom ring!

"O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."
most people who read that will recognize where it's from. it's the last line of the Star Spangled Banner, the U.S. national anthem.
ah, freedom. such a good word. but what does it mean? America is supposed to be synonymous with liberty, right? we're all free!
what's free? who's free? well, let's take a look at the people who you'd think would be the most free of all, the ones who can do whatever they want- your average Hollywood superstar.
celebrities have it all, right? money, fame, everything! they can do whatever they want! they must be the happiest people on earth. sounds logical. but take a closer look- almost every single celebrity is deeply depressed. they're steeped in drugs. their marriages never last. if anything, celebrities, in my opinion, are the least happy people in the country.
why? if you have it all, why are you so depressed? you're free! i think i have an answer. remember, this is just my opinion.
i think we've got the wrong definition of freedom. freedom doesn't mean that you can do anything you want, that you can satisfy your every desire with impunity. i think freedom means having control of yourself. being able to take charge of yourself. if you want to do something, but you know it's wrong, so you don't do it, that is freedom. freedom is being in control of yourself. of not being a slave to your every desire.
people today have a warped definition of freedom. "it's a free country, i can do what i want". this mentality is what makes me afraid to walk around the corner from my house at night. a fifteen-year-old girl was murdered in my neighborhood a short time ago. gang wars are threatening my family's safety. why? why all this crime? because people think they can do whatever they want. it's their "rights". the entire mentality of "freedom" cost an innocent girl her life.
this is not what freedom is supposed to be. the real feeling of freedom comes when you know that you are in control of your own actions. you call the shots. if someone is trying to convince you to do something wrong, you have the ability to say no, you have control over your own actions, you act in a way that you know is right, you are not a slave to your desires or someone else's. That is freedom.

Why?

I've decided to do something a little differently today. usually i write what first pops into my brain socket. but now, i think I'm going to post one of my poems. my poetry is a little- OK, very- bad, but whatever. here we go:
WHY?
Why are we so surprised when winter comes,
Though it happens every year?
Why is change, though it happens constantly,
The one thing we most fear?

Why don't we stop to tell people how much we love them?
Why do we just assume that they know?
And why do we hold on to thing the most tightly
When it's time to let them go?

Why do we waste precious minutes and seconds
Doing unimportant things?
Why do we push off what we really should do,
As if we know what tomorrow will bring?

Why do we judge others so quickly,
But are reluctant to judge our own minds and hearts?
Why do we try to be just like others,
Hiding everything that sets us apart?

Why do we walk around laughing and smiling
When we really want to cry and shout?
When we're bleeding inside, why do we never seek help,
And think death is the only way out?

Why are we sometimes blind to our own faults?
We're perfect, or so we claim.
We tell others to practice what they preach,
But do we do the same?

Why do we conjure up our own illusions
To make the world seem more secure and fair?
Why do we stand dumbfounded when illusions shatter,
Though we're the ones who put them there?

Why are we often jealous of what others have,
Though they might have less than us?
Why do we so often hide our feelings
From the ones whom we most trust?

Why do we judge others by what we see outside,
And never try to look within?
And when people judge us in that same way,
Why do we think of it as the worst sin?

Why is it that we feel it's horrible to murder,
Or hurt someone in any way,
But we've no problem with driving daggers into people's souls,
Killing them, slowly and slowly, each day?

Will we ever be able to answer these questions?
Will we not be able to change until we do?
And is changing even possible for us?
Do we even want to?

if you had to choose...

ignorance is bliss.
knowledge is power.
i wonder which is better?

my list

i have been visiting several blogs lately, and because of this, i have become quite familiar with several bloggers. the thing is, we don't really know each other, do we? i mean, how much can you really know about a person if you never even met him face-to-face? i believe that this is the main reason why you people sound so surprised when i mention an abnormal and/or stupid thing that i have done in the past. everyone who really knows me never seems surprised, because i tend to do abnormal and stupid things quite often. so you can all get to know me a little better, i have decided to list a few, although i already have a list in one of my earlier posts:
1) i crashed a wedding.
2) i kissed a frog...twice. (it didn't turn into a prince the first time, so i tried again.)
3) i ate a burger made from buffalo meat
4) i fell into a very dirty lake
5) i died my hair pink. temporarily.
6) i got screamed at by 3 elderly women at once. (a record!)
7) i ate a leaf.
8) i also ate glue. the leaf tasted better.
9) i walked around my neighborhood barefoot for about 45 minutes.
10) i used a cereal box as a reference in a history term paper
11) i had a vicious paint fight, and afterwords discovered that the water power wasn't working, leaving me unable to bathe after being drenched with paint.
12) i gave myself a paper cut on my earlobe
13) i ate half of a HUGE can of fruit- and didn't vomit!!!!!!!
14) i received a 13 out of 100 on a test
15) i bathed in a wading pool
16) i played a game in which the players have to eat all sorts of disgusting foods. some examples: baby formula, an entire spoonful of salt, and a mixture of grape juice and mayo. (this is the funnest game ever! but don't try vinegar- all players who drank it promptly vomited.)
17) i very nearly fell asleep during a concert, on stage, right next to the huge speakers.
18) i sang opera in public on numerous occasions.

there, now you know a little about my recent history. what crazy things have you done?

tip of the iceberg

did you ever realize how incredibly complex humans are? when you look at a person, it's like you're seeing the tip of an iceberg. it looks huge and complicated. and yet, you're only seeing 10% of the entire thing. there's another whole world below the surface, out of view.
no matter how close you might think you are, you can never really, truly understand someone else. i mean, just think about yourself! you know how complicated you are, how your thoughts and emotions are sometimes so jumbled that you yourself can't even make sense of them. you know how hard it is to understand yourself sometimes. so how can you really, completely understand someone else?
when you look at a person, you have to realize that you are seeing an entire world. a deep, complicated, and beautiful world. and a very fragile one. it is pure folly to base your thoughts on a person entirely on what you see at first glance- because you are only seeing the tip! you have no idea what that person has gone through. you can only guess at his true thoughts and feelings. even if you think you have the hard life, while this person has never had a second of troubles, or maybe you think that person is incredibly shallow and a complete idiot. trust me, you're wrong. do not judge people by what you see, because you are not seeing the whole picture, not even half of it. you are only seeing the tip, the barest shadow of who this person truly is.
so be careful around others. treat everyone- friends, siblings, parents, teachers, enemies- with the respect due to fellow human being. don't make assumptions about others, even if you think you know them. because what you are seeing is not the real person. with your limited vision, you have no idea what an incrediby complex and beautiful world you're looking at.
so tred very carefully- and try to see beyond the tip.