It's Been One Year

Exactly a year ago today I uploaded my first blog post. It doesn’t feel like it’s been so long in between. I can remember the exact position and moment I uploaded it. My legs were folded underneath me as I was wrapped up in a woolly blanket. I would type a few words then a maze would form on my forehead between my eyebrows and I would press the backspace. I wanted it to be the best it could be, my best. Finally I identified that the chances of me looking back at it and cringing were very high and that was inevitable. So I agreed with myself that it may have not been my best, but my best is changing constantly: up and down.

After I wrote the paragraph above I read my first blog post Let's See Where This Goes and coincidently I talk about what I wrote above, I guess I haven’t changed as much as I thought I had.

A year. It doesn’t feel like it’s been twelve whole months since I uploaded my first post. Having this space, this place where I can write my thoughts or document memories has really brightened my life. I’m so grateful for this. Recently I've been wanting to try different things, different ways to write on different things. I can't pick a favourite blog post, many hold different memories that I want to hold onto. If you have a favourite out of all my blog posts please let me know in the comments below because it would be really interesting to know which ones you like the most.

If you've been reading my blog since the start, or any time in between, or have only just read this today, thank you. Thank you for taking the time to read words that I have written.

Don't Just Follow Your Dreams, Chase Them

I’ve mentioned 'dreams' before in this post Dreaming Big Enough but since then I’ve been thinking. It’s important to dream big but using the word ‘dream’ shouldn’t make it unrealistic and unattainable. Dreams are associated with images and desires that are created in sleep or out of fiction. They should be what make us build the foundations for. Something that could be rather than what could not be.

Dreams provide us with motivation and effort. But some days we lack the courage to actually believe they could become a reality. In all honesty they could not but that’s only inevitable if we sit and wait. You have to go out and do something. Dreams don’t come to you. That’s what makes them dreams. Dreams are achieved from hard work and persistence. If a dream truly is your dream that you desire then you will do everything in your power you can do to reach it. And if you’ve done everything you could have done and your dream doesn’t become a reality then perhaps it wasn’t meant to be and there’s something else better waiting for you.

Chasing your dreams may be a hard route but that will contribute to the accomplishment of attaining your goal. No dream worth receiving is an easy one. This may sound cheesy but I mean it when I say go out now and chase your dream.

The Sea Has Stolen My Heart

I'm not really sure what to call this. I guess we could call the following a bunch of lines, thoughts and words. It’s something different nonetheless. Hope you like it.

I thought I was content with the town I lived in
But I’ve been opened up to the rest of the world
Now the window won’t shut, there’s no going back
Someone’s taken the key and won’t give it back

A button is pressed and time remains asleep
It fills my eyes, then lingers in the back of my mind
When I’m away it climbs into my conscience
This may sound like nonsense.

Birds waltz across the water of the sky
They decorate the azure blue
Everything’s calm but moving
And leaves me wondering

It’s a home with no bed but always light

Your neighbour is the overlapping water at the edge
Serenity blows off the sand, beauty lies in front of you
Give it a chance and it may steal your heart too from you  

Beauty

A man once said 'A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.' This man was called Roald Dahl.

It got me thinking. Thinking about perfection, beauty and all the other words associated with being flawless. All of us encounter the burden to emulate a certain illusion of perfection each day: In magazines, music videos, films, on billboards, on television, it dances in front of our eyes.

This perfect picture of the meant-to-be body results in people looking into the mirror and being disappointed that their reflection does not replicate the ones in the media. But how can simple images contribute to someone wanting to change their own body? Nearly all of the bodies used in the media have been altered. Technology has enabled people to change bodies in images to something different, something that they aren't. Images of models are changed to have slimmer thighs, smaller waists and fewer blemishes. How can people strive for something in reality that only exists by virtue of a computer programme?

It's not real. An illusion of the 'perfect' body has been made. It's fake, artificial. In reality there's no definition of perfect. Only the beautiful thing of human beings being different is perfect.

We shouldn't be judging others because of their appearances. Can we start the path to changing the definition of beauty today.

Someone who is pretty or beautiful should be one who shares happy thoughts and radiates happiness into society. A kind, generous human being is beautiful. Those qualities are the ones that matter. Why are people first blinded by whether someone has shiny hair or not as to whether they are pretty or not.

So hopefully at least one of you reading this will consider adopting this new definition of beauty. And by the way happy fourth of July!