This marks the end of a year and the start of the next.
While striving to live life to the fullest, let's just believe in the following:

- To live for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.
- If you wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes. If you don't wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes.
- We can't stop the waves, but we can learn to surf.
- We spend 99% of our time walking towards our goals, and only 1% on the goal itself… so shouldn't we learn to enjoy the walking, too??
- It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.
- We do not remember days, we remember moments.
- The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.


In this time and age where we bank on efficiency, time-pressure comes into place naturally in our daily lives, so much so that we go steam-rolling ahead without stopping. I try to bear in mind that doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things and am still working on speaking at a slower rate and regulating emotions though I don't seem to be succeeding.

Sometime back, I read some book reviews and noted the following sentence:
"I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear."- Joan Didion
Seems like everyone is trying to find sanity through words, in this ever-changing world.

Another excerpt:
"From day to day, as you walk down a busy street in the large and modern and prosperous city in which you work and live, dismayed, puzzled… at how alone you feel in this crowd, and how awful it is to go unnoticed, how awful to go unloved, even as you are surrounded by more people than you could possibly get to know in a lifetime that lasted for millennia. One da that awful feeling of displacement comes over you... Being ordinary is already so taxing, and being ordinary takes all you have out of you.." (Jamaica Kincaid: A small place)
-This, describes the exact feeling of helplessness and loneliness…

I guess I've much fate with Taoism and Buddhism much more than the rest. But that doesn't mean I don't believe in others. When the school's Dharma club's booth was up for that particular day outside the library, I happened to past by and took this book which teaches the everyday stuff.

It mentioned that the first challenge is to put out my own fire as one who is on fire is more likely to spread fire with what he touches than to put them out. (people asking for advice/ people needing help. Just like the SJAB D-ABC way. Check for Danger, check Airways, Breathing, and Circulation.. lolx)

Many things matter a lot to me but I still take them lightly. It's not as if I have an indifferent attitude. It just means that I take things in my stride. Somehow I've managed to convince myself that nothing is permanent, as hard as I may try. Coz how can anything I hold on to remain the same when even I myself, the holder, change?.
So as nothing is materially substantial, we shouldn’t constantly look for 'substance' in life.

So a perfect answer to the question:
Being alone is just being alone.
Being lonely is being unhappy about being alone.

Oh.. And one of the reasons why I love rainy days is just that rain is the only thing that binds Heaven and Earth. So right now, I can just imagine you sitting in front of the monitor nodding/ saying "Oh ya! Aha! I see!"

Cheers, to a better year!