Sticking to a plan

I'm a stickler for planning, and getting things done according to a schedule, so much so that surprises can either piss me off or leave me unbalanced. So, yesterday it did hit me that we are coming to the end of this month which means that I'll have to share another story this coming August on this story blog  and that got me working overtime. Good thing is, I already have a story to share. So, what's the hold up? I have to ensure that I'm in the right frame of mind to pull it off because it seems as though there's a lot more to be done. Now, a friend challenged me sometime this past week- he said "we have smartphones but dumb people." I noticed he did not have his very cool Samsung Phone, but a simple GSM phone. When I asked where his phone was he simply said, "I'm switching off Dora, I'm done with fake friends."
"What fake friends are you talking about?"
"I have fake friends, see on facebook I have 5000 friends, and on twitter I have like three thousand followers- but what use are they? I mean, when am sick or feeling down none of them is around, all we do is chat and pretend to care about the same things yet when it comes down to it, I'm just me, and well around three friends only. So, I'm out, I'd rather live my life with the three friends than fool myself that I've got  thousands of them...and maybe when I die, you could write my eulogy. I know you would tell the truth and all, but it's just crap, this online thing is just crap." I looked at him, and held his hand then asked, "am I part of the three?" He laughed and said that I was all the three, and that's when he challenged me to think things through. He said that the internet never forgets, and it was the way he said it that had me thinking about it. Are we as estranged as my friend pointed out? I have 5000 + friends on facebook and a writer's page too. I also have over a thousand followers on twitter and yet I always have my family and close circle of friends to turn to at the end of the day. I know that most of my online friends like what they read about me, and we are friends as a result of opinions and not principles. So, I'm not switching off. I still like getting on twitter and sharing links and getting to hear from my family and friends. So, what did I do instead?

I created another blog! 

Yes, another blog that's out to prove that people can always inspire us no matter the place or time.
The blog is titled "I met this wonderful person," and you can access it here
You never know, I might just meet you next :-) 

So, what about my plan? I had started off the year by declaring that it would be a writing year for me, because I want to advance my writing by challenging myself to write in as many genres as possible- but still maintaining the quality and voice of the work, and so far I have been doing that. Talking to my friend only brought an idea to mind and I executed the idea...and I do hope to always learn and look back on this as one of the greatest milestones and achievements I've made regarding my writing.

FROZEN IN TIME

Have you ever heard people telling you 'forget about it, let it go-it's in the past?"
Have you ever wondered or asked yourself why you seem stuck in that moment? I do love three things and I will tell you about them again; books, coffee and good music. I can sit down to a good book, sip some coffee while listening to some good music. To achieve this I visit the school library every day and walk through the floors-and browse through the shelves. I have some friends who do not know how the school online search system works (OPAC)-and some of them ask me where they might locate certain books. I would more often than not direct them appropriately but it's not because I use OPAC, but because I browse through the shelves. I pick a section, go through all the books and then walk to the next. There's something about books that draws me to them. I wish I had a better way of explaining how good it feels looking through those shelves for a good book.
So, today I picked a book "Thinkers of the East" by Idries Shah and was drawn to it, first by the quote " The rights that others have over you,remember them. The rights that you have over others, forget them."
It got me thinking-how often do we do the opposite?
Why is it so easy to forget the rights others have over us and remember the ones we have over others? Simple-it is because of our ego and the need to feel superior. It hit me that every day in whatever we do, one of the main objectives is to make the 'me' happy. It is all about being happy. Happiness in this case is simply about pride and not peace of mind.
I have often heard people say that they are having a bad day. If you ask them why, or what it is about their day that makes them declare it bad, they say 'things are not working out as I planned.'
If you were a driver on the wheel then you would say that. We often forget that we are people and we have minds. We process thoughts and at times desires that are manifested in our actions. We also forget that the same mind, can choose to make out a situation out of nothing, simply because we have these preconceived notions that we are supposed to have things work our way.
We get frozen in time, because we keep playing one moment over and over again. Each time we play that moment we forget to switch roles and often play the victim. It becomes more of a state in which 'I was wronged, it shouldn't have happened like that, I did not want it to happen like that, blah blah blah!'

Each time you replay an occurrence in the past, try switching roles and thinking of the other perspective-maybe then you will not be so frozen in time,who knows?