Youthful Life: X

Truth - Complete and utter silence is a rarity in this world. We spend our lives constantly on the go and take little to no time to just be, to be present, to be real, to be one with the world instead of trying to master in. There's so much noise in lives. Distractions abound, pressures build, and stress is constantly weighing us down. There always seems to be more that we can do, but to what end? When does it stop? Will it ever? There has to be some place for us to be alone with ourselves. Where is your sanctuary?   "Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character." James Russell Lowell     There seems to be this generational fear of being alone. It's this oddly striking thing others say to me. "I don't like being alone. I'm afraid that I'm going to end up by myself. I'm bored out of my mind." I realize that we go through this abrupt change where our environments shift. We grow up surrounded by p...

Truth - Self-esteem has to come for yourself. Too many times we look to others to determine our value and self-worth. It makes absolutely no sense. The key words in those hyphenated compound words is the "self" portion meaning us. We must be the ones to determine how we feel about ourselves, our bodies, our minds, our hearts, and our souls. No one else can do so. It has to be us. We have to decide for ourselves how will be embrace who we are, how we are, and why we are. It is time today, and every single day to write our own stories and be proud of our narratives. We are authors. "Self-love is the source of all our other loves" Pierre Corneille We are authors of our own life stories. Why then would we let anyone else be the protagonist in our stories? Our first-person adventures detail our experiences, hardships, and successes. Others may try to pen a few lines of our dialogue but we script our own soliloquys. Supporting characters may try to co-opt our sto...

Truth - Knowledge is power. What we choose to do with that power though makes all the difference. Knowledge can be used to the benefit of others. It can be a tool utilized for liberation just as easily at it be a used to oppress. Knowledge can provide choice, agency, and control in the same ways that it can limit, obscure, and dictate. Knowledge does not come with an inherent values judgment. Those who bear it's weight must decide what to do with it. This is knowledge. "Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family." Kofi Annan Do you ever feel like you just know too much? It sounds like the plot of a 1920's crime ring that you have just unwittingly uncovered, and you're set to be "taken care of" because you gained some knowledge you weren't supposed to have. There is this unspoken burden that comes with knowledge. You have to do something with it otherwise it is truly mea...

Truth - Life is a series of choices. We are constantly tasked with making choices whether we are conscious of them or not. In some instances there seems to be much a myriad of options and at other times we feel limited but nonetheless we are made to choose. Regardless of our preparedness we have to choose, and even deciding not to choose is a paradoxical choice in and of itself. We learn what we need to choose in our lifelong of practice of choosing. This is choice.   "There are three constants in life... change, choice and principles." Stephen Covey One of the many dilemmas my generation faces is the abundance of choice. Now, more than any other time in history, we are given more choices. We have options, opportunities, and less boundaries. From what we eat to where we live, to what we do and how we do it - choice after choice is presented to us. Our challenge is to manage the smaller choices while tackling the gargantuan ones as well. Even that dichotomy though pla...