Lessons from Anne. (and also a review)

I slept so much today. 

I woke up at 9am and then I just stayed in bed until 11am because I decided that I was hungry. But there was no food at home, I crawled back into bed to sleep. You might think 'What a lazy girl you are', but I must add that I am not usually like this. I am usually up and about busy with work or making this, painting that, sewing this, drawing that. I seem to have lost it for awhile, but pardon me while I push through this envelope of blues. 

I decided since I have time away from work, I should finish reading Anne Frank. And I have to say that it inspired me so much and it kind of lifted my negative spirits away for a moment. I was truly truly inspired and absolutely moved by her words and thoughts. To think they were written without an audience makes it even much more genuine and personal. Yknow, thats the thing about blogging...somehow you write because of an audience. True enough, I started this blog because I wanted to get my work out there...but then as time goes by I begin to feel like its an outlet of expression for thoughts, feelings, even stories and crazy talk...I don't know, I feel so crazy sometimes its like I want to write everything down so that if someone happens to feel the same way as me, he/she will know that they're not alone. 

In a society now where people puts up false or altered images of themselves or their lives on social media to paint a picture of perfection, its dangerous. I say this because many will constantly feel like they fall below expectation of the "perfect life". Like "omg she has so many friends, i bet she's never lonely like I am, my life sucks." or "omg she has the perfect body and she's a model, I'm sure her life is perfect, my life sucks." I'm sure you know what I mean when you scroll through someone's social media and then you feel this pang in your heart like "why isn't my life like that, omg I'm such a loser, what am I doing here." I don't know how I digressed to this, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want to steer away from that false pretence, I mean, the whole point of having a blog is to be real right? And it sucks to be me now because as you already know, I am in the middle of a depression. 

SO.

I shall leave you with some quotes from Anne frank. Maybe they'll inspire you as well. :) 

-

"Can you tell me why people go to such lengths to hide their real selves? Or why I always behave very differently when I'm in the company of others? Why do people have so little trust in one another? I know there must be a reason, but sometimes I think its horrible that you can't ever confide in anyone, not even those closest to you." - Anne Frank 

"The best remedy for those who are frightened, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere they can be alone, alone with the sky, nature and God. For then and only then can you feel that everything is as it should be and that God wants people to be happy amid nature's beauty and simplicity. " -Anne Frank 

"Riches, prestige, everything can be lost. But the happiness in your own heart can only be dimmed; it will always be there, as long as you live, to make you happy again." - Anne Frank 

"Whenever you're feeling lonely or sad, try going to the loft on a beautiful day and looking outside. Not at the houses and the rooftops, but at the sky. As long as you can look fearlessly at the sky, you'll know that you're pure within and will find happiness once more."- Anne Frank 

A Tale for the Time Being- Book Review

For all you bookworms who's looking for a new book to read, this is a book that you have to have to read. I enjoyed this 85%, I laughed and cried together with it. I'm quite an easy cry-er though, but this is not a sob story so...rest assured. It is a book on life, death (oh lots of it), time, space, religion, philosophy, conscience and moral choices. There are also very interesting themes explored such as schoolgirl bullying, unemployed suicidal salary men, kamikaze pilots... which are all widely associated to Japan's culture. I love this book to no end. You have to read it. 

Here are some quotes that I picked out that struck a chord in me: 

(on blogging)

"It made me sad when I caught myself pretending that everybody out there in cyberspace cared about what I thought, when really nobody gives a shit.And when I multiplied that sad feeling by all the millions of people in their lonely little rooms, furiously writing and posting to their lonely little pages that nobody has time to read because they're all so busy writing and posting, it kind of broke my heart." - Nao, pg 27

"... the fact is that I just turned sixteen and I've accomplished nothing at all. Zilch. Nada. Do I sound pathetic? I don't mean to. I just want to be accurate. Maybe intend of graduate, I should say I'm going to drop out of time. Drop out. Time out. Exit my existence. I'm counting the moments..." -Nao, pg 7

"You can feel life completely by taking it away" - 'Harry', pg 88

"A wave is born from deep conditions of the ocean," she said. "A person is born from deep conditions of the world. A person pokes up from the world and rolls along like a wave, until it is time to sink down again. Up, down. Person, wave." - Jiko, pg 194

(on Nao's grandmother)

"I was still thinking about what she said about waves, and it made me sad because I knew that her little wave was not going to last and soon she would join the sea again, and even though I know you can't hold on to water, still I gripped her fingers a little more tightly to keep her from leaking away." 

-Nao, pg 195