a fez of the heart

Listen

By listening, you are saying to me i am loved enough
for you to put your business aside and give me your
complete attention. You will comfort me with a nod.
a touch. a smile. our eye contact is like a warm safe
blanket enveloping me with a mother's embrace.
by just being there. sometimes my problem is small.
sometimes things are too much to handle alone.
sometimes i just want to scream out loudly with anger
or despair. or cry when everything seems to be tumbling
down. nothing makes sense.
and feeling this way makes me lonely,
but you are here and i feel stronger. With all the noise
in the world, silence has more value than any words.
i am not alone. thank you.


from Tadpole, Pop Aree




"it might also be despair, said Veronika. An attempt to prove that, after all, there are no reasons to continue battling away beneath the sun. I can't be in love with a man who lives in another world..
We all live in our own world. But if you look up at the starry sky, you'll see that all the different worlds up there combine to form constellations, solar systems & galaxies."

Paulo Coelho




Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.


Carl Jung




Of course i realised that i was drinking too much and that it would be a good idea for me to start drinking less, and during the daytime i always swore that i'd drink only the tiniest amount that night. But then night would come and the first glass of beer would lead to the next and soon i'd be flying along. I'd start thinking about how well i'd sleep if i just drank a little bit more, and i'd find myself fixing yet another gin and tonic.
As the night deepened i'd start increasing the amount of gin, and the drinks would get stronger. And as i munched my way through a bag of the greatest snack this century has produced - Butter Soy Sauce Popcorn - I'd think, Damn, i've done it again...Here i am drinking. I never drank enough to make me feel that i'd done something wrong, but i sometimes got a bit of a shock when i discovered that there was an empty bottle standing on the table in front of me.

from Lovesongs by Banana Yoshimoto from the book Asleep