‘I Have Learned’ via Paulo Coelho
Reading this brought tears to my eyes as my beating heart melted away…
I’ve learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them;
I’ve learned that no matter how much I care, some people just don’t care back;
I’ve learned that it takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.
I’ve learned that you can get by on charm, for about fifteen minutes. After that, you’d better know something;
I’ve learned that either you control your attitude or it controls you.
I’ve learned that no matter how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion fades and there had better be something else to take it’s place.
I’ve learned that sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you’re downhill are the ones to help you get back up.
I’ve learned that sometimes when I’m angry I have the right to be angry.
I’ve learned that true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love.
I’ve learned that just because someone doesn’t love you the way you want them to doesn’t mean that they don’t love you with all they have.
I’ve learned that maturity had more to do with what types of experiences you’ve had and what you’ve learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you’ve celebrated.
I’ve learned that your family won’t always be there for you.
I’ve learned that no matter how good a friend is, they’re going to hurt you every once in a while.
I’ve learned that it isn’t always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to forgive yourself.
I’ve learned that no matter how bad your heart is broken, the world doesn’t stop for your grief.
I’ve learned that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.
I’ve learned that just because two people argue, it doesn’t mean they don’t love each other. And just because they don’t argue, it doesn’t mean they do.
I’ve learned that we don’t have to change friends if we understand that friends change.
I’ve learned that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.
I’ve learned that no matter how you try to protect your children, they will eventually get hurt and you will get hurt in the process.
I’ve learned that your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don’t even know you.
I’ve learned that it’s hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice and not hurting people’s feelings and standing up for what you believe.
Playlist: Florence + The Machine ‘No Light, No Light’ (Dave Sitek mix)
Florence and the Machine - No Light, No Light (Dave Sitek mix) by factmag
Illustration: Fumi Mini Nakamura
Our Hands Will Eventually Destroy Everything Beautiful Series
I Want To Be Your Favorite Hello And Your Hardest Goodbye
In Your Soul are Infinitely Precious Things That Cannot Be Taken From You
The Nature Speaks In Its Secret Language That Translates Into Shapes
“Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe…
…or we are not.
Both are equally terrifying.”
Authur C. Clarke
Film stills: 2001 Space Odyssey
Best of 2011 (from my archive)
So if you cut my brain opens it looks just like this (lie). Think I stared at some of these pics so long that looking at them again is like re-reading journal entries. Favourites -just from my side that is - posts of 2011. Odd boot placement but very necessary.Hope ya’ll see what I see!
(sasha) xoxo
Review: We Need To Talk About Kevin (Best Films of 2011)
We Need To Talk About Kevin is the film adaptation Lionel Shriver’s profoundly disturbing fictional work on the life of a teenage killer, and an exploration one of the last taboos of parenthood; what happens when you don’t like your own child?It begins in the nightmarish aftermath of Kevin’s rampage. While he serves time in a youth facility, we meet what remains of Eva Ktachadourian (outSTANDing Tilda Swindon) ; a woman etching out the most moribund of existences. Once the model of liberal aloofness, she now lives in shadows; dodging confrontation in supermarkets, getting assaulted in the street, having her home vandalised, all the while absolutely accepting of her role as mother of a mass murderer.
“Do you know where you’re spending the afterlife?” asks a doorstep preacher.
“I’m going straight to hell”, states Eva very matter of factly.
At night her mind’s landscape looks like a fractured kaleidoscope of past events, close and distant, real and imagined – there’s barely any distinction. Numbed with wine and pills she spends hour upon torturous hour agonising over to what extent she is responsible; was Kevin born evil or did he somehow ingest her discontent with motherhood in utero. While Eva struggles with this chicken and egg style conundrum, it soon becomes clear that no amount of subtle resentment could have created something so abhorrent.
Baby Kevin cries relentlessly and will only calm down around his father (John C. Reilly). Toddler Kevin he refuses to speak or interact. As a young child he forgoes potty training and instead practices the subtle art emotional blackmail . Under the guise of a study, Eva constructs a shrine to her former charmed and independent lifestyle prior his arrival - Kevin understands this desecrates it immediately. Just another act of spite, suitably measured to keep his father blindly on-side. By being as despicable as he knows how, Kevin both corroborates and encourages Eva’s guilt, “Just because you’re used to something doesn’t mean you like it” he challenges his mother, “you’re used to me.”
Her failure to deny this accusation of dislike could only have strengthened Kevin’s destructive resolve - demonstrations of which became more pronounced and deadly as he becomes a teenager ( played by the stunning Ezra Miller.) By this time the resentment is so entrenched that any attempt by Eva to salvage any semblance of a relationship is met with a mixture of amusement and contempt from Kevin. There is nothing in him to be salvaged.
WNTTAK is an uncomfortable and absolutely necessary examination into the minefield of parenthood via the anomalies of parental guilt and moreover, parental love; perhaps the only love that will bind descent people to intolerable ones. As Eva picks though the broken egg shell remains of her life, sifting though the could-haves the would-haves, it becomes clear there was only ever one should-have. They should have talked about Kevin, which is exactly what they failed to do.
Happy New Year y’all! xoxo
(Sasha)
15 Minutes of Fame
On the 24th July 2010, 80,000 people from 192 countries filmed their day answering 3 questions: What do you love? What do you fear? What’s in your pocket? 4,500 hours of footage was sent to Kevin Macdonald, who subsequently turned these segments into ‘Life In A Day’ - A moving yet at times stationary, joyous come heartbreaking, 90 minute film of our daily experiences. Sprinkled with a little cheese for good measure.The result? A beautiful life affirming piece or an advert for YouTube? You can now watch the film in full, courtesy of those thoughtful people at YouTube HQ.
