As I Turn the Page

An old friend once told me that when things are going crazy in my life, and this was back in high school, I make myself very busy. I study like there's no tomorrow. I make pages and pages of reviewers. I loved the idea that it consumes my mornings and nights.

And now that I'm working, I see the same pattern. When I was trying to get over a heart break, I bombarded myself with things at work. I come in early, I leave late. I skip my breaks and rarely take my full lunch. It seemed as if I live and breathe work.

Then I came across this line in the book I'm reading: "We often rush around looking busy, trying to solve problems, but in reality, we are often compounding them." Is that so? So all this time, I was just fooling myself into thinking that this was my way of moving on. But really, it is just masking the chaos that is taking place within me.

Like I mentioned yesterday, my weekend was an extra-ordinary one. I tried to go on a spiritual retreat. I think it was something that was much needed and much awaited. Weird as it may sound, I got myself a hotel room. Though I didn't do anything special, just the idea that I wasn't home and I wasn't with anybody was heaven. I didn't have Internet access and I didn't call or text anybody. I was away from it all.

And the following day, I went to a shopping center a little closer to home but it had a hidden paradise, at least to me it did. And that just even added more to this special retreat I was trying to have. There were a couple of chairs and a table under a shade. The weather was perfect because it was sunny but with a cool breeze. You can hear the calming sound of the water flowing and the birds chirping. That's when I started writing...

I also bought a couple of books. Pathetic I may sound but I got these books from the self-help section. I'm not a big fan of books but every now and then I come across books that I would read and actually enjoy. So probably for the next few days you will hear me talk about what I've learned from these books.

There are already three things that caught my attention...

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude. - William James

When you learn to "let go" of problems instead of resisting with all your might, your life will begin to flow. - Zen Philosophy

Change the things that can be changed, accept those that
cannot and have the wisdom to know the difference. - Serenity Prayer

I would probably talk about these more once I've read a few chapters. Maybe I need to have a deeper understanding of these words before I actually share my thoughts on them. But as is, I already feel good writing my thoughts. And though I don't think there's a lot of people reading this, it's enough for me to know that I have shared something to this world.