Tag: time

Twists and Turns

This post won’t further increase any panic you might be experiencing, promise.

No doubt, 2020 so far has not exactly been what we had hoped for. This virus is another setback. It’s weird how life can change in such a short period of time, how suddenly you no longer feel in control. Many people are suffering and many are fighting- it’s easy to lose sight of anything positive in these times. But not all is bad, not all is lost.

Many of us have been looking forward to a break. Because life can be exhausting. It’s demanding. Sometimes it’s annoying. For many, the everyday life has become so stressful that all they can do is look forward to quitting time, to the weekend, to the holidays. And it can feel like you don’t have time to breathe, as though your air supply was limited.

This is a situation in which our lives are restrained. We’re forced to cut back in some aspects. But in the right light, this is also a chance. This is your chance to take a breath. Take one, take another.  Take as many as you need. Then take some more. You don’t know when you’ll have the chance to take in as much air again. It is also a chance to find back to something many have given up due to everyday business. A chance to resume old hobbies you gave up because time was lacking. To begin new hobbies you’ve been thinking about forever. To read books you’ve been piling up. To watch movies and series that have been on your list forever. To learn how to cook. To reestablish relationships with people you lost contact with, but never stopped loving (of course, via messaging platforms for now). To realize that being part of a community means more than benefitting from rights. A chance to find back to yourself. Take it.

BUT if you’re going to spend the next two weeks(+) scrolling down social media, just lying in bed or on your couch, panic will kick in at some point. Of course media is going to fuel this topic as much as they can. Media wants panic. Because panic means reactions. Reactions mean interaction. Interaction means clicks and clicks mean money. Even in times of global concerns and insecurity, money owns people, that’s reality. It’s your job to avoid being pulled in.

If you’re like me, this is the first time in your life where you don’t exert control about what to do with your time. It’s challenging but I think there’s a lot to learn from this situation. The first lesson I learnt? There are many more unteachable and obstinate people than expected. The second thing is that you’re allowed to change your opinion. A week ago I was laughing about this virus- now I don’t. Many people have said it before: don’t panic, but don’t underestimate the situation. We all are part of this society. As a member of this community you have rights, which you are free to exert. You do however have obligations as well. If you think that this problem does not concern you, because you’re young and probably won’t be affected by this virus, you’re no better than all the boomers who do not care about climate change and who you have been (rightly) bashing in the last months and years. Just because it does not directly have an impact on your life, does not mean you get to ignore the problem. This is a time in which all of us have to assume responsibility.

Even if you do not care so much about the risk groups- think about all the people who in these times are the pillars on whom life as we know it depends. Doctors, nurses, paramedics, scientists etc. etc. They need our help and it’s not too much to ask.

Let’s build a world in which we can count on one another. This is not an easy situation for many of us. Still, I sincerely hope you see the silver lining in all of this.

Invent yourself (now more than ever!!!)

CK

Die Corona Lehre

Quarantänehäuser spriessen,
Ärzte, Betten überall
Forscher forschen, Gelder fliessen-
Politik mit Überschall.
Also hat sie klargestellt:
Wenn sie will, dann kann die Welt.

Also will sie nicht beenden
Das Krepieren in den Kriegen,
Das Verrecken vor den Stränden
Und dass Kinder schreiend liegen
In den Zelten, zitternd, nass.
Also will sie. Alles das.

-Thomas Gsella

Choice

(Another 3 months have passed but there’s a lot I have learned living on my own, so you might forgive me for being inactive again.)

Everyone has them. Bad days that make you feel like nothing is worth fighting for, that life is just an infinite repetition of the same boring days. Bad days that make you forget all the good in your life. They cloud your mind, and have you thinking about nothing but the negative stuff you had to endure.

But these days, while they might be horrible live through, seem necessary to me. We need to feel terrible from time to time, to realize how lucky we are. To realize that we have been given a gift that we should cherish much more often than we tend to do. Because that is exactly what we do. We take everything for granted until it’s gone, then mourn about it and feel betrayed by life.

Truth is, we blame life for being heartless and unfair. We try to impose our rules in a game against an opponent who can’t lose. You can’t win a a game against life but you can learn to play by the rules, accept them and make them work in your favor. There is nothing you can do about being taken away things or people you love, you cannot get it back. But you still have a choice. You either choose to regret, live a life full of mourning that will only get worse and put yourself in a vicious circle, because whenever something will be taken away from you, that feeling of having wasted the good times will become stronger.

Or you choose not to deliberately destroy your own life. You come to terms with the transience of everything. You realize that while all the good times have an end, bad times aren’t everlasting either.

There is good in all bad and bad in all good.  Don’t bring yourself down by ignoring the good.

Some days are just bad days, that’s all. You have to experience sadness to know happiness, and I remind myself that not every day is going to be a good day, that’s just the way it is.     

Invent yourself, CK

 

 

 

Structure

12th February. My last post. It’s been 6 months since I last published, and I swear this has by far been the messiest time I’ve ever been through. I meant to take a small break from writing, to be able to focus on studying for my finals. Yet when exams were over, I somehow missed out on getting back to what I know best. There have been more ups and downs during these last months than ever before, and I feel like I should have never stopped writing to. And yet.. maybe it was necessary for me to find out that I need it. After all, we all need something to let off steam, some outlet that brings back balance to our life.

Anyway, I’m back now. And I mean to stay this time.

One thing I’ve learnt recently is that we all need some sort of structure in our lives. We need organization, something to rely on, because at times, when nothing seems to go our way, we still have something that makes us feel like we have at least some control over our lives. Structure is basically a precondition for one’s sanity. A mind that has no reference points whatsoever, eventually goes mad. These holidays, especially after finishing high school, being a main event in most people’s life, are wicked. For a lot of you, as for me, this is a time of major change and I can tell you that I am afraid of what is to come. I worry a lot, and at times feel unable to accept any kind of change in my life.

And yet, we can’t stop time, nor can we know what the future holds for us. All that’s left for us to do, is to stay positive, keeping both eyes on our goals and follow the flow of our life.

We have to be prepared for change, accept it, embrace it.

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.- Maya Angelou

Invent yourself,CK

Time

Always be ready to be caught off guard. Time is bigger than all of us, we’re playing its game, not the other way round. We’re toy figures. We’re part of a cruel game, unable to see through the rules- we are victims. There’s no escape, no save spots, no breaks.

Time passes, people come and people go and while you think you’re in perfect control of your own life, you are no more than another character in the game we call life. See, how often have you been told to move on ? You are not to decide when things change. You have to adapt to whatever time has up its sleeve for you.

There are days when you feel like you’re in control of whatever happens around you, but believe me, its impossible to win a game against its creator. You have the choice to try to challenge time, but you’ll always be the one showing his cards to his enemy. Most often, you try to have more control in your life, but you’ll always only have as much as time wants you to.

Yet, it’s better to play by the rule of someone else than not play at all. Accepting the fact that we can’t make time go faster or slow it down is the best we can do, we always have the choice to decide between giving up right from the start and trying our best to live our life to the fullest, while we can. One day we’ll only be a memory and a later day we’ll only be a shadow of a thought, until one day, it will be as though we never lived.

This is why we have to seize the day, be an active part of our life, push ourselves to where we want to be and stop only when we’ve reached our goal or time calls the end of our life. We are not to decide how long we will live, but we’re free to make the most of it as long as we possibly can.

Possibly, time does not even want to be our enemy, it might only take the responsibility of pushing us into other directions, we might feel betrayed but at the end of the day, it’ll make sense only when you will be looking back and understand why some thing had to happen while others didn’t.

Time is bigger than all of us. It’s David against Goliath.

Invent yourself,CK

 

 

Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils. -Hector Louis Berlioz