meditation media
even though it's so inextricably linked to spirituality in the way i perceived it at first, i've begun to wonder of meditation and how i'm performing it. up till recently, it'd been a while since i'd been lost in a piece of art, the way i used to spend most of my time as a kid: buried in a book, and it's beginning to happen again, to my relief. art just horrifying enough (requiem for a dream) or perplexing enough (it's what's inside) or just weird (kinds of kindness) have been engaging in a sense i'd forgotten how to feel.
i'd call engaging with such art a weaker form of meditation, provided a certain degree of 'artiness' to the art as well. we see parts of ourselves in characters we see, and it teaches us things about us. would i have felt the same paralysing fear arjun felt on the battlefield? very likely, indeed. would even the geeta have helped me overcome it, could i have killed family for dharma? who knows! i was part of a conversation about reading the mahabharat at a certain stage of life (not mine), and the introspection it provides you with through the characters.
i have learned many things about me through art, it is awfully convenient to have people who are very good at verbalising feelings do the job for you. even though there is nothing new under the sun, and to a certain extent, i agree, there's always a new combination of existing stories that finds a nerve you didn't know existed. the bones may be the same, but the skin always morphs and changes and adds a certain quasi-citrus freshness to any story. maybe one day i'll graduate to actually introspecting, but for now, i'm very thankful for art for being my gandalf through middle earth.
other ask games are too sexual or romantic and i dont like that so im making my own, bitch
🫂 - i wanna hug you
🧠- i love hearing you talk. you should ramble to me more often
🫀- i love you in a deeply concerning platonic way
💿- i wanna listen to music with you in a treehouse in a summer night
🌷- i wanna shittalk people with you and just be haters together. it would be fun
🪻- you are so so cool and awesome oh my god
🌻- im proud of you
🍄- you didn't deserve what happened to you
🌵- you could stab me and i wouldnt mind as long as its you
💧- you are an important presence in my life
🍬- id go to a candy store with you and steal all the candy
🕹️- i wanna go to an arcade with you
🕰️- ill love you until the end of time, dear friend
🥊- id beat someone up with you
🌑- you worry me sometimes. just remember im here if you ever wanna talk about anything <2
♟️- you, me, board games.
🍁- im so glad you're my friend
🐚- our souls are linked in ways i cant put to words
Hearts lie heavy,
Always weighted down,
By the grief, and love, and beauty,
A gentle sunrise on a small town.
So has Syrae's,
He knows no love without pain, or hurt
For him, it is eternal.
No one without the other.
A rainstorm on a winter night,
Fog clouding eyes on hills,
Tears, flowing, a constant stream,
That is how he lives his years,
A nightmare or a hellish daydream.
The stream never ceases,
Relenting only when the other stream,
The stream of power
Is let loose,
With its wake of destruction to follow.
The world is fortunate the stream lies in his hands,
For it would long have been dust,
If it was any other.
A landscape is called barren,
When it lies devoid of life.
If that were true, Autumn would be no less.
A person whose soul was more extreme
Than the driest desert,
Or the highest peak.
In a world of beauty to the eye,
She is blind,
For nothing can be beautiful that is not appreciated
And nothing can be appreciated that does not deserve it.
Autumn is loath to believe anything does.
Many objects are loved, in this world,
As a soft rainbow in a sunny sky,
A chirp from a bird in a quiet night,
Or a gentle breeze in the midst of summer.
None appeal, to the stone that is her heart,
She would simply call a diamond,
For what beauty can the most beautiful object see,
When there is nothing more so than itself?
There has never been a time,
Where Autumn and Syrae
Have not loved each other.
It is an absolute truth.
Does the sun rise each day,
At dawn, as clockwork?
It would be foolish to ask,
As it is known, that it does.
Does water quench thirst?
Or fill the sea?
Does a lion hunt a deer?
Nobody would dare to ask.
It is the same, with the two of them,
Because there has never been a time,
When Autumn has not been at Syrae's side,
And he at hers,
It is known.
They who are known,
they who are envied,
For being known from a story,
Are often envious of those not.
It is rarely a boon to be seen,
To be known in such a way,
That a mere mention of your name evokes the thought of you.
Oh, to be forgotten.
Syrae desires for joy,
Good, in the world.
There is rarely ever enough,
Through his eyes,
And all he can ever do is try,
Him against evil.
It feels so, that it is only ever him.
The force of good has always been too small,
Yet it oft prevails,
So is the force of it.
So is its power.
So is his.
As inevitable the victory of the kind is,
So is the rise of cruel.
It is as thorns on roses,
Always present, ready to prick,
Only sated with the taste of blood,
No lesser than a bloodthirsty beast.
And so, however much so Syrae would wish otherwise,
It rises.
Much to his disappointment, and chagrin,
It grows.
And his is the only power strong enough.
Souls, and hearts, full of life,
Laughter and joy and smiles,
Are what he prizes most,
Light prevailing over darkness.
That is the cost of being kind,
Kindness tested in forges with more heat than the sun,
And more difficult than wars,
For if there a hundred swords,
Made of the strongest iron,
Not one will refrain from drawing blood,
None, but a human,
Forged in no furnace,
But the furnace of life.
It is usual for life to grow,
Thrive, in its settlements,
Fester, until it simply is,
The place inseparable from the living.
And just as usual for it to be destroyed.
But even the tallest of trees,
Is no adversary,
For it is but ash in the wind,
Simply a victim to flames blazing,
Crawling up its bark.
Fire makes its own path,
Burning through even the thickest of bushes,
And the toughest of trees.
It has no opponent strong enough to withstand its power,
None powerful enough to face it down.
But one crafty enough, its victory over the flames guaranteed,
A flood to the ignited fuel,
But when it is not present,
Nothing can survive its wrath.
And as half the world burns down,
The water too far to attempt extinguishing,
Syrae's heart hurts.
It hurts too much.
Guilt and blame,
Regret flaming in his heart,
For even if his stream was no flood,
It was the best there was. He was the best there was.
And he failed.
Oft, swords in the back sink in deep to the hilt,
Blood spews from the chest, tears from the heart,
Until there are no more tears to cry.
Regret is often strongest during this time,
As is anger,
For how would one feel,
To turn eyes to a hand holding a dagger,
Sunken deep into flesh,
To see a smile made stronger by love,
Love they had given themselves.
Syrae knows not,
Of the pain heading his way,
The tears his eyes are yet to shed,
The blood he wishes he had shed from his own chest,
A pound of flesh he would pay,
If only to save hundreds.
Regret to flare of his own ignorance,
And anger of the loss of trust,
Both not far in his future,
Eyes to see a familiar conniving smirk,
Throat to gasp at the surprise.
Autumn wishes, against all hope or luck,
That it could not be so,
That she did not feel so.
But she did.
It was a quaint pleasure,
To sink a blade into deep flesh,
See a drop of blood dribble out,
And then a flood pour through.
The joy on her face shone bright,
The eyes twinkling with sharp sadism,
For it was only her who smiled,
As the screams rung through the night.
Unrelenting.
It was only when she tired of smiling,
That she set him on fire.
Her stream of fire. As was Syrae's of water.
They dance for hours on end,
Her flames a stinging barb into his life,
A stark warning of death,
One he cannot ignore.
He stands strong,
His face tinged with weariness and despair,
For how do you unleash upon one that you have loved,
That you have given your heart to,
That you have trusted?
She harbours no such fear,
No such regard as he does.
Who is the better person,
The one with a conscience,
Or the one without?
For if the latter wins,
They do so without honour,
But in the end,
Is honour really as important as life?
Or is it nothing but dust in the face of the enormity of life,
The possibilities it holds,
The beauty it encompasses?
They waltz for hours,
Each step a perfect match,
Each move directly matched by the other,
A waltz to be admired, to be watched.
A waltz of powers.
just saw that in our last convo in this blog we were both in 11th grade. you are graduating college this week...where did the time go
wow .. dont say that to me im still not sure i believe it
sincerity
we are in an irony epidemic. there is such a loss of sincerity and everything has to be a joke at all times.
-ethel cain, on tumblr
i've written about this before, but i saw this video that mentioned this tumblr post and it reignited my feelings about the subject in question. it's terrifying being vulnerable. when i write about anything i feel and send it out into the world (even though it is just my handpicked list of people who watch my close friends stories), i am satisfied, or sometimes, even proud of the writing i have done, and i do feel i often get iteratively better, but it is absolutely nerve wracking to think about the event of you reading this.
[...] the people that do offensive stuff like to [...] pretend like what they're doing is fringe and cool, you know, but i've started, at least recently, started to feel that like offensiveness and edginess is maybe the most mainstream thing that you could possibly do and [...] it, sort of, is thriving on the illusion that it is this sort of, like, fringe thing that no one will— “i can't believe you went there!” oh it's like everyone is going there. isn't like everyone going there nowadays? and nowadays, i feel like the edgy stuff is sentimental, or if you're being emotional or honest, that's the stuff.
-bo burnham, [...] responds to youtube comments
this quote ended up being longer than i expected, but i didn't feel like i could trim anything from it without losing information that i felt was necessary. as a child, a lot of decisions are made for you, and many work out, because the people making them care about you and want you to be well. i believe it is our responsibility to continue to make choices that work out for us when we have that power. maybe this illustrates where i really lie within the free will vs. determinism debate.
for a while, i only had three movies on my letterboxd profile, and i couldn't figure out what the fourth should be. and one day, as i was going through my mutuals' diaries, i saw that alia had logged words words words, and it hit me. it had to be inside. bo eschews honesty and sincerity in a way that's gripped me since the first time i watched it, and the rawness of his words hits you like a truck, to use an internetism. there's nothing as powerful as a word from the heart.
optimisation
i've been thinking about this for a while, and i even wrote about it as more of a rant, but maybe i've stewed on it enough to be able to talk about it in a more refined manner. i'm watching a video about conformity in social media and books, and it mirrors my thought process in a sense. i've been frustrated by how everyone seemed to read the same books, and even though i was once a part of that crowd, as a means to be a part of the excitement, a part of everyone, it felt eventually a bit too monotonous. the disadvantage of appealing to everyone's tastes is that you regress towards the mean. please overfit your books, and the readers with the right amount of noise will find you perfect for them. i've leaned into my tastes and the weirdness of them, and i truly do love absurdity and surrealism in my art. what's art without some boundaries being pushed?
in the video, she talks about the hesitation to ‘try’ something new, to find, seek, discover, and instead the appeal of choosing what the masses have approved, and enable yourselves to get a decent, palatable, and risk-free experience. the one thing i have learned from finance is that there is no return without risk, and in that case, money is quite an important thing to risk. i don't believe a few hours of your time are too much to risk for a piece of art that may affect the way you view the world.
this optimisation problem can stick in your head, as a way of desiring to maximise your experience in the world. i want to achieve the most i can, have the most fun i can, live the most i can, and there's no better way to ruin all these goals than this thought process. there cannot be any enjoyment with this feel hovering like an omen, reminding you to enjoy experience live more more more. breathe, listen to the air flow, feel your arms and legs, and remember that we exist here. we're lucky to. (quite literally, do you know the probabilities?) imagine everything you've ever experienced, and know that most people will not have felt what you have, and that it is you here. trust yourself, nobody knows you better. what do you want to do tomorrow?
friendly reminder that you're really powerful
you can make people smile just by complimenting them, you can make them laugh by telling them a good joke, you can love and what really is more powerful than all this? you can make someone's day by telling them they're pretty you can make them happy in so many ways you're so powerful
wield that power wisely, my sweethearts
i love you
BLACK = I would date you. GREEN = I think you’re cute. BLUE = You are my tumblr crush. GREY = I wish you would notice me. PURPLE = I don’t talk to you but I really love your blog. TEAL = We have a lot in common. YELLOW = I don’t know you at all. ORANGE = I don’t like your blog. BROWN = I don’t like you. PINK = I think you are unattractive. RED = I hate you with a burning passion. WHITE = You scare me. RAINBOW = BED PLZ. SCARLET = You have influenced my decision/thoughts on something. MAROON = You taught me something new. CINNAMON = You’re a really cool person and admire you from afar. PERIWINKLE = You make me laugh MAUVE = You are really talented BLUSH = Seeing you on my dash makes my day a little better. CYAN = We have very little in common THISTLE = I only just started following you INDIGO = I’ve been following you for a long time FUCHSIA = Your blog content is gold COPPER = Your blog content is trash (and I love it) VERMILION = You make me feel passionate HONEYDEW = I want to call you by a nickname LAVENDER = You inspire me CORAL = You’re a meme UMBER = I want to know more about you FORGET-ME-NOT = You remind me of somebody RAZZMATAZZ = I would share my favorite food with you ARSENIC = I don’t know how to describe the way I feel about you WINE = You make me feel kinda funny, like when we used to climb the rope in gym class SAFFRON = I love your ideas TIMBERWOLF = I trust you FALLOW = I want to run through the Northern wilderness barefoot with you PLUM = I’d like to chat with you TANGERINE = I love your aesthetic SAGE = You make me cry CRIMSON = We should collaborate on something! VIRIDIAN = I wanna hang out on your blog CHARTREUSE = You’re my homie BURGUNDY = I get excited when I see posts from you
ohh okay thought we were in the same board haha. best of luck to you too!! you'll do great i'm sure of it <33
(also realised i wasn't following you?? weird. anyway hope it's okay to send asks here)
we are not in the same board if it helps
i'm holding you to that orange !!!
new pfp ❓️❓️ ORANGE ❓️❓️❓️❓️
I've had a Halloween matching pfp since the last 2 or 3 years now so i figured I should change it at Some point 😭