life is not a pink cupcake

They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered.

—F. Scott Fitzgerald

stripping it down

I realise now, that less is more.
We don’t need to be changed, we are delightfully damned.
Beauty is happiness, not perfection.
I realise now, the eyes don’t lie.
You see through the glass, into the dark room.
Drawing the curtains, confronting the deep green truth.
I realise now, this love is fearless.
It grows while we sleep, our bodies, one and the same.
No need to run, fragility becomes our greatest strength.
I realise now, this is life.
Not everything else.

If you are not here for this moment of your life, you’ve missed this moment of your life.

—Jon Kabat-Zinn

Saw the wonderful Florence and the Machine on Sunday night in Melbourne. Blown away by her performance and her amazing voice! Even with the large possibility my friends and I had the worst seats in the whole stadium - it was one of best live performances I have ever seen. Florence’s music is very poignant to me as it became the unofficial soundtrack for my new life in 2011.

(Source: silentshadows-xxo)

current thoughts

Today a boy in my class said that he got drunk on Saturday night (which is why he hadn’t finished his homework). The whole class burst into laughter, this included the teacher.

She then added “She wished she had been drunk on Saturday night as she was marking essays and it was soooo boring….”

The class laughed again.

I was the only one who seemed to think there was something inherently wrong with this passage of conversation.

Sometimes it feels like everyone is just asleep, or lost. But I’m not sure if I can really excuse either any more.

And in a years time, that joke will still be funny to everyone. Or at least they will laugh, I know they will.

He knows who he is x

Watch this now.

The point isn’t that you want to be different or that you don’t want to jump on the band-wagon…the point is social justice. The point is change.

I have no words, watch the video. Activism is a beautiful thing.

awake and still dreaming

The moment where you wake up and realise that reality is greater than any dream you ever had.

The sky is illuminated a thousand shades of blue and pink, like a careless but brilliant artist has decorated a canvas with his favourite colours.

The heavens open up and it’s a private screening of the greatest show on earth, you would watch until the end of time.

A chef has prepared this all for you, a delicacy only to be enjoyed in certain places on this planet. You consume it all and are never too full.

All of your favourite elements are rolled into one on this morning - the freshest of air, clear cold water, crunchy white sand, the rising sun creating shadowy silhouettes of all it’s audience. And of course he is there too, your walking heart.

You think to yourself subconsciously that this is what it is all about, the truth of the greatest matter of all. Life and love in its most pure form. Uninhibited happiness in a held hand and next to no words.

You are only passing through physically however some things will stay with you, they come home for the ride. Not like the sand in the back of the van or the mementos you pick up along the way, these material goods will fade and get lost in the unforgiving nature of time.

When all is said and done… this delicious day, the feeling of fleeting freedom, the things you realise at this moment and the images etched into your eager memory will stay with you until your very last breath.

And for this you are thankful.
Because you will always have the Great Ocean Dream…long after you’ve woken up.

life, sunny side up please.

It’s time to start expecting from myself the same I expect from others. I am not the exception to the rule. I am not the only one. I am apart of something much bigger. From now on, I am the example. I am not exempt. Read the below words but don’t just look at them…use them. Learn them. Be them.

Promise yourself to be strong so that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

To think only the best, to work only for the best and expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

- Christian Larson

Life has become very dear to me, and I am very glad that I love. My life and my love are one - Van Gogh

wake up!

It is not just on our birthdays that we wake up in the morning with gifts bestowed upon us. Every single morning we are given the greatest gift of all - funnily enough this gift is ‘the present.’ The majority of us are given an incredible opportunity to start again… a new day. We may look the same as we did yesterday but the things we experience and the people we meet all have the opportunity to be unique. We cannot change our physical self over night, however this doesn’t mean we cannot change ourselves. We are given a choice - a choice to think differently or the same, negatively or positively.

When we roll out of bed to our jobs, to our schools, to our many endless commitments we are in control of the way we choose to be. When little problems arise during the day (and they are little) we have the ability to rise above them, to fight them with good. When we meet people, we can choose to spend half a minute being polite or half a minute being rude - it takes the same amount of energy to put on a smile and say hello or ask someone how their day is then it does to put up a wall and ignore them, not to mention the benefits of knowing you may have made someones day.

And yes, 8am is early for everyone! But you’re up, you’re awake, you’re alive and you are sharing the planet with 7 billion other people who also need to get up in the morning. It’s not a unique phenomenon only occuring to you on this day, we all know what it’s like to be having a bad day, to feel like there is no point - which is why we all have the ability inside us to help these people when we are feeling stronger. Someone very close to me always tells me that you can’t just rely on yourself to get by in this world, it’s great to be strong but you need to interact with others and form relationships, you need to smile at strangers so that when you are feeling sad - someone will smile at you. You need to make the choice to get outside of your head and into the world.

We are given a new day to expand ourselves, to learn as much as we can, pass on some knowledge perhaps, to enrich lives - our own and others, to do good… so why spend even a minute backtracking this? Why work against yourself? And not all days will be good,you might spend a whole day working a job you hate, feel useless, be upset, have no hope - but we can take comfort knowing two things. We are not alone, not for a second. There are others out there experiencing all of this, it’s how you choose to view things that set you apart. And no day is a waste. We can take something from each and every experience but this all up to you. Choose to take the positive route when the negative road seems easier. We all know that street is a dead end.

Wake up, it’s a new day and it’s here for us.

amen to this

New aim in life. Attain this print and hang on my wall immediately. Isn’t it fantastic? These three things really do cure most of my problems!