Planting seeds of greatness, one by one, Some for nourishment, others for fun, The journey of growth has now begun. Watch and mirror the pro, she knows the way, Grasping the secrets of greatness each day. With a heart sincere and desire strong, Vow in the plow where dreams belong. In trusting and allowing, find peace profound, Navigate the path where hope is found. Expect greatness, nurture seeds with care, But know, before the breakthrough, adversity will be there. What choice will you make, what will you do? When challenges arise and skies aren't blue. Yet, because you've stood firm, your harvest draws near, Don't halt, press onward, your moment is here. Keep going, keep striving, don't dare to despair, For in perseverance, triumph is near. Press forward, prevail, your efforts are clear, In the soil of persistence, your greatness appears. © 2024, Stephene Klein Originally Pandemic Inspired © 2020, Stephene Klein
In my head, only I can see myself. The whole set of me can be seen only with the inner eye, turned to the Source. Words can describe, but never fully conjure them up. Going through them multiple times, I can spin in a circle, but never get out. Find an infinite Source that represents something more than the physical possibility of understanding everything. Through everything it is possible to find the essence from where everything starts. The very basis of everything is love or fear. From these two, different types of emotions branch out that I believe everyone experiences differently. For me, love moves, fear paralyzes. It is a daily choice to choose one because they are mutually exclusive. By entering deeper my inner space, I can remain paralyzed by experiences. By going through things I have already experienced, I revived old feelings or get rid of the fear. Freud's teachings were based on research that if people returned to the moment when they felt the first symptoms of hysteria, they could be completely cured. Fear can accumulate in us to a great extent and cause the traumas we carry with us throughout our lives. Being aware of this and constantly jumping into the murky interior is challenging but also courageous. The outside world may seem like an escape from less desired feelings,but I am always in my head. Escape from the Source is impossible as much as it seems feasible. It is easy to create an illusion,but also even easier to believe in it. The expectations imposed on me create the pressure I am taught to live with. There is a need that I have to do something because people have convinced me that it is right. The inner voice is impossible to hear because it is so loud outside that cannot be avoided.I just hurry and adapt to everything so when being alone in space, I remain paralyzed. Programmed to execute and just go, becomes an obsession. If I left without an action that occupies my attention and diverts my thoughts from everything, I experience a panic button that is activated. Staying alone in four walls and being tempted to face me becomes a danger. Doing something for me is delayed because it is more important to meet all expectations. The Critic stands behind me and watches. It feels like it's always there and never sleeps. Unfinished obligations haunt me that I am not even able to rest. Fatigue occurs again,caused by a lack of sleep.I think it's a disadvantage in fact fed up with being part of a system that works flawlessly at times. Everyone knows that revolution is about to happen, but I am here again ,in the system, running on the track and grabbing.I am drawn by the feeling of essence. The motivation suddenly seems real but again I avoid facing fears that are unfolding inside. The Will to change passes quickly as if it never existed. The system works just fine because it is temporary. Of course, everything will change.I am ready for that but not now. The right time will come that knocks differently from everything else. With humorous comments, I will create an invisible shield that will protect me a little more and make the Critic behind me laughs. It created a wonderful atmosphere. The colors create a beautiful harmony and transition from one to another. Purple, navy blue, and orange-yellow. Harmony of dark colors through which the presence of lighter colors can be felt, but they cannot be expressed in any way. They exist but as if do not exist. The change is about to breakthrough, but it is gone. Purple then takes on a blue color. Frustration is felt, feeling like a swollen bruise. It hurts but hope to live with it. Finding a friend in a Critic, I rely on my fears and doubts. Illusion governs my life because every time I am making choices, it is not the real me. Finding my madness with which I was born and killing the illusion that accompanies me everywhere is perhaps the right path. Maybe that's another expectation. Suddenly I live in a world where it is normal to be crazy. I have created so much of an imbalance that it is only possible to go back to a stable seesaw to become insane. When I think about a little better, it doesn't matter to go that way. Putting on myself a label that is the opposite of something already wrong at the start. Listening to myself and living in harmony with me is something that should be the essence of every human being. I should know to apply that in life. I come to the point that everything is upside down. I hope that the wider masses will be cut to pieces by reading one more book in the house. Madness is always there, a part of me, maybe watching, but I can also wonder who is not watched today. The list is long and not external. It is internal because every trauma, event, the experience is watched and imprinted in my behavior. I don't notice it because has been already a part of me. In everything around me, I see parts of myself. Everything I do, become part of my Source. I am everywhere and think I can manage to escape.
We didn't get to say goodbye. For the entire duration of my quarantine till date, that is what I contemplated upon most. We didn't get to say goodbye. It was midway through my fourth semester in college that we were informed we had to immediately evacuate and go back home. There was no time for us to bid farewell or cry our goodbyes. We just held the inner hope that everyone would stay safe and that one day, we'll all be reunited. The 14-hour bus ride back home, just a journey on road, felt more like a series of flashbacks of everything that I've witnessed and experienced with college. Everything around me was taking place too quickly, none of us had the time to process nor figure out what we were going to do. All we knew is as a consequence of COVID'19 and this global pandemic, we had to avoid going outside and maintain ultimate cleanliness. It is after this bus ride that my quarantine began. For a while, the lockdown seemed like a very much awaited vacation, an escape from all the exams planned and the busy hectic life we were all accustomed to within college. Soon, as expected, the craving to go outside grew with each day. It was a circumstance where I would do anything to feel the warmth of the sunlight splayed across my face. College is the wonderful years of your life that you'll never get back, and being blessed to go to college, I was determined to make the most of it and being stuck in a pandemic wasn't in my plan. Saying a tiny prayer every night, in hopes that lockdown may end any time soon, I used to go to bed peacefully, drowned in privilege, not realising I'm far more blessed than I accounted for. It was after that where this pandemic turned out to be more of a life lesson for me. I learned the true importance of three factors with which one can comment, is the secret to life. First, Gratitude. I learned to be grateful for the little things in life. This pandemic has made me realize that these little things are deserving of the most appreciation. From my mother's hot tea every sunday morning to my father's warm smile every night, these tiny memories that are stuck in my head, an image imprinted on my brain, these are the moments I'm going to remember. Maybe it's because being enclosed by these four walls have taught me that I didn't appreciate the time I got to spend outside. Maybe it's cause seeing the world in black and white makes you wish you appreciated the colors a little more. I am blessed with a family who loves me, with friends who take care of me, blessed with the stories I've lived till today that I relive every time I close my eyes. It's these stories that keep one alive, the stories that you think of half past midnight, the stories that you're eternally grateful for. Second, Family. One can reach places with family. Through ups and downs, and all the curves life throws at us, Family endures the journey with laughter and tears, and always more love to go around. If you are blessed with the comfort of family, then you are one of the lucky ones. Some of us are fighting to experience such a love. I have fought with my parents, much more than I would like to admit, and if I had the opportunity to go back in time, and take back a few words that I have screamed across my living room, I would, without a second thought. What you don't realize initially when you are a bit too self-consumed, is that they are there for you, for anything, even when you don't ask for it, and they do all this selflessly, even if sometimes, they can't expect it in return. When your mindset starts to apprehend life in such a perspective, you tend to realize that no matter what sacrifices you take, no matter all the gifts, there is nothing that can even compare to the love of a family, and for that, I'm eternally grateful. Third, Time. Life goes on. It gives you enough time to catch your breath or sit and relax, but life goes on and you get to go along with it, whether you wanted it or not. You go through the ups and downs, the good times and the bad times equally. Time brings forward the concept of change. Circumstances change with time. Life goes on. That's what time teaches you. What you make of life is what you do with what life teaches you. We didn't say goodbye, but we learned how much it meant. We didn't say goodbye, but now we don't have to. Just remember, if you're lost along the way, being happy is a great place to start.
What comes into your mind when you heard or read the word “Maturity”? Do you possess this kind of characteristic? Are you mature enough? If yes, how mature are you? These are quite few of the many questions that we might ask in the matter of maturity. For this word could mean many things. One of which is that it covers one's overall development of different aspects of personality and capacity as an individual. Through the years, we commonly perceived that the older we get, the more mature we become or it's a must. Well, sometimes this is true but oftentimes this is a common misconception. In what way? Come to think of it. For instance, you meet a 40-year-old man who still acts like he's 16; an adult in age but young at heart. Conversely, you meet a teenager who acts more than his age; a teenager with an old soul. Pretty weird right? However, we can indicate that the maturity of the two different person you've met is more likely to be a delayed and an advanced one. This just appears that maturity may or may not hit a person regardless of his/her age and time can't tell either when. Distinguishing mature ones from a diverse group people is quite difficult. It's not an easy task because we can't judge a book by its cover as per say. But, I think we can all agree to the fact that those people whom we feel to have a high level of maturity seemed to possess a breadth of life experience in dealing things with responsibility and acceptance. “Experience is the best teacher”, right? Thus, no doubt that we all have the opportunity to become more mature with more life experiences that we can obtain along the way. Still, are these opportunities can really help us to become more mature? Yes! If we were to turn them into reality by obtaining each experience along with the reflection. As we may know, reflection occurs when we tend to pause for a while and do some realizations in life and put our thoughts into careful considerations pertaining to this and that. Simply because the experience alone doesn't produces maturity. As a matter of fact, some people are still relatively immature even though they have already obtained several years of life experience; gaining different levels of educational recognition, working many jobs, dating different people, traveling the world, trying new things, and many others. How come they are? It's because they may lack reflection in obtaining those life experiences, making it significantly useless without practicing reflection simultaneously. In line with that is the saying that says, “maturity is not when we start speaking big things. It is when we start understanding small things”. I do agree to that citation because being mature means you appreciate and understand both big and small things, and if you don't understand the latter how much more the former, right? Maturity comes when one has a wider perspective in life and sees things in a larger picture. It is optimistic that it finds opportunity in every difficulty and humble enough to admit that he/she commends fault and say, “I'm sorry”. Mature and grown-up people find pleasure in waiting and believers of delayed gratification. They don't rush things out and wait for the right moment instead. Another amazing thing about maturity is that if you possesses it, you hold the trait of calmness with strength. You concede defeat, face frustrations, and accept criticisms, unpleasantness without complaining. You are tranquil enough to control your emotions and wrath within yourself. Instead, you understand first the situation, put yourself in the shoes of others and be consistently grateful. Likewise, you know how to act childish and an adult when situation force you to. Mentioned above are just few of the many characteristics of people who possess the marks of maturity. How about you? If you are to assess yourself, are you one of those mature people? Or just like me and many others out there, are you the kind of person whose level of maturity changes depending on who you are with? I am immature, so are you. We are all immature in nature, until we learn how to neglect it and embrace change in our lives. However, along of searching it, we may not always forget the essence of knowing, understanding, appreciating, respecting and loving ourselves first better more than anybody else. Lastly, embracing maturity and living life in peace with the things that we cannot change, the courage to change the things that should be changed, win or lose, the wisdom to speak words with humility, the dare to make a difference and just being ourselves are definitely the best options that we could start with or continue to. For again, maturity does not matter in the age that we carry. It's indeed a choice, the sensitivity, the manners, how we react and accept things in life. As what Mr. Edwin Louis Cole says, “Maturity comes not with age but with the acceptance of responsibility. You are only young once but immaturity can last a lifetime”.