True Blue

There are certain things we human beings cannot avoid doing. Breathing, eating, sleeping... these are essential in keeping you alive. If you stop breathing you die. If you stop eating, you get sick and die. If you stop sleeping, you go mad and then (yeah, you guessed it...) you die!

Often I have come across people who rebel against these responsibilities imposed by mother nature. They claim that sleeping wastes too much time in ones life, food is a waste of the earths natural resources and if only we didn´t have to breathe, we could habitat and conquer other planets!

Among these life essentials, man often overlooks the need to be true to one´s self. To all of you shaking your head and rolling your eyeballs... let me remind you that the difference between a human and a robot is the soul... the spirit... the personality... the power of decision... it also happens to distinguish the difference between us and animals.

If you have no spirit... you die! You become another zombie, another programmed robot in the crowd! You disintegrate slowly and yes... you eventually die.

So how is a spirit created? How is it maintained and how is it killed? A spirit is born with you, it is elemented by everything you learn and everything you experience. Morals are built by your parents, principles from your teachers and experiences from your friends. (These of course may vary) and soon you come to realise that almost everything around you influences your wellbeing.

How is the spirit maintained? Well... that´s debatable but research shows that love, care, friendship and good sex keeps a person and their spirit happy. Of course we can add the sunrises and sunsets but everyone knows what it is that gives them that innerglow that shines out their smile. Whatever makes you happy, builds your spirit.

Just as lack of sleep, food and air can be a slow death... so is the death of a spirit. Like a virus: insecurities, self doubt, criticism, disappointement attack your spirit and you learn that the same people who build up your spirit, have the ability to tear it down!

Sometimes you get more clowdy days than sunny ones, sometimes there are more words to make you feel unworthy, than there are words to make you feel whole. When things keep going wrong and there´s no one to pick you up from the ground... all you have is you!

How do you keep yourself from breaking? From being moulded into other´s opinion of you? From being programmed by society or by letting experiences tarnish you?... Be true to yourself.
The hardest job created in the world was given to all it´s inhabitants... You have the sole responsability to be you! Life can influence you but only you control your attitude.

You may be thinking that all of this is so easily said and not applicable to the “real life”. Then let me tell you about a true story that i´ve been pondering about all day...

A girl I once knew found the courage to pack her bags, leave her home and follow a dream. Her dream was to return to her birthplace, build a home, a carreer and make friends. When she arrived at her destination, slowly but surely she managed to conquer all that and she was and is happy. Anyone who knows her will tell you how hard it is to make it as far as she´s come how lucky she is. Most people will tell you that they would not have the courage to follow in her footsteps.
This afternoon I had a talk with her and she shocked me with talk of leaving her comfortable world to chase after the prospect of true love. I couldn´t believe that she was willing to give up her dream that she had worked so hard for and tried to remind her of how hard she´d fought to conquer all that she´d had. I knew that she was happy with her carreer, her home and her friends so it didn´t make sense to me that she was willing to sacrifice all that to chase after something that wasn´t even solid.

She smiled at me sweetly and reminded me other something I´d almost forgotten... life isn´t about the destination, it is about the journey. Her life hadn´t ended here just because she had succeeded on conquering her dream and to keep her spirit happy, she would keep following her heart.
Often we´re afraid of the next step because we´re afraid of losing what we already have. We forget that nothing is garanteed and that at any given moment you can lose it all. All that God really gave to you to survive was your instincts and your heart. The challenge is to survive listening to them both. This is what is called as being true to oneself...