life, the race, the purpose and how it all means to me...

Listen to the mustn’ts, child.  
Listen to the don’ts. 

 Listen to the shouldn’ts, 
the impossibles, the won’ts.  

Listen to the never haves, 
then listen close to me…  

Anything can happen, child. 
Anything can be. 

-Shel Silverstein

Some people will hurt you, some you will hurt, some you won't even notice exist. Some will love you, some will leave you behind. Some will lie, some will be brave enough to tell you the truth no matter how painful it is. Some will comfort themselves with stupid and selfish excuses just to keep the truth a lie. Some would disappoint you, some won't even bear the thought of doing so. Some will come and never go, some will just pass by. Some will leave marks, lessons and scars; some will take everything they can with them. Some will turn their backs when you need them most, some will stand up with you no matter what.

People will always be people. We all have choices to make. We all have difficult things to deal with. We all have sacrifices to make. We all define life in our ways. We all see happiness and contentment in our own perspective. We all want adventures. We all want fun. We all want safe and secure. We are different yet we are the same. We are people. And again, people will always be people.

- - - - - - - - - 

At some point, we all get hurt, we all get to be the one left behind. I was thinking it's really hard not to bear hard feelings when such happen. It is so easy to say we're not bitter, or hateful, or so broken inside, when in fact we are all those things and more. It's natural. The hardest part is that sometimes it suddenly becomes difficult to remember how the good feelings were like. When the bad things start to happen, we tend to forget all the good stuff in a snap. That's why the pain principle sucks, it has to be felt whether we like it or not. When there is too much pain inside, happy thoughts could lose their rightful place. There is only so much a heart can carry. If only we can choose, maybe we will choose the easier choice -- to not feel the pain, to just let it pass without a sting, to just be how it's always been. But as they say, "No pain, no gain." This is how we learn best. We run the mile, we get tired, we rest. We try to run again, we stumble, we find the balance. We go on, we fall, we stand up, we keep on going. We walk. We run. We rest. We move on. Until the finish line. Until we arrive at where we are going. And then it's over... until an entirely new race that we want to win comes along with a whole lot of new challenges.

The universe has a plan... this has been my mantra for the past few days (c/o HIMYM tv series). "And this plan is always in motion. It's a scary though but it's also kind of wonderful. These parts of a machine working together, making sure that we end up exactly where we are supposed to be, exactly when we are supposed to be there.. Be at the right place at the right time." We will end up as products of a plan bigger than all of us. It's great and funny how we have the guts to try to take hold of our future, that we sometimes try to fight what's meant to happen. We can, yeah. It's our life so we have a say on what goes and what doesn't. But then again, there's that bigger plan, there's that "something" there that has it all figured out. We can only do so much for ourselves. It is never just our decision to make.

The fun part with the race is always the journey... not who won, not how fast we run the race, not how easy finishing it had been. The journey is what we tell to our grandkids. The journey is what we remember with fondness. That's why even when it feels like life just sucks big time right now, just let it happen. Take the journey and learn as much as we can learn from it. We make the most out of every experience because it can be a last shot. We never know. So whenever we have a shot, we take it (Pacific Rim). We don't always have that long to think it over first, because by the time we've made our mind, it could be too late already. So we take the challenge upfront when we have the chance. Run the race even when we did not choose this particular one. If we get hurt, we just have to let pain do it's thing, occupy some space we've tried to empty because it feels like the right thing to do. And when we finally realize that we've had enough of pain, maybe we'll be able to open up to other things again. Then we'll be able to continue the race and maybe get lucky enough to complete it, or even win it. Then the happy thoughts, and all other good things, will start to find the place where they've always belonged. It might be a bad day, or really bad days... but my friend, it is never a bad Life.

Sometimes we keep on losing only because it's just not the right race. When we finally find that race of our life, I'm sure it's gonna be a hell of a run. My friend, it's a great life. Let's make this race  another best...

(n_n)

When did the rain become a storm?
When did the clouds begin to form?

Yeah, we got knocked off course by a natural force
And we'll, we'll be swimming when it's gone...

And let them go, let them fly
Holding back won't turn back time
Believe me, I've tried