If you have love in your heart, let it show

People walk by. They pass in front of you. They approach your eyes but never look at them. They run, they stumble, they fall, they wait. They leave or they come back. People are moving. Sometimes it takes more than a moment to realize that there are actual people around you. People are in a rush. So, they do not pay that much of attention. People are not looking. They are not observing what goes around them. Unless its too sad or too nice. So, people are also selfish. They care for the bad and the good things of their own interest and that's when they turn around. That's when we turn around. 

So, again, of you have love in your heart, let it just show.

It does not matter where you 'll show it. You just have to spread it around and people will admire your bravery. Because it takes a lot of courage to demonstrate your feelings. That is why people tend to lock love inside. Sometimes behind two sad eyes, a wounded soul or memories that have gone bad.

It does not matter where you 'll show your love. It only matters who will be willing to turn around and look at it, who will feel it. As far as i know, no love at all feels that bad to be hidden.

Milano; the necessary stop

I always have to visit Italy. Sooner or later, I do believe that this country will offer me a warm home and a lovely life into one of its amazing cities. This time I had the chance to spend a few days (4 actually) in Milan. The capital of fashion. My arrival there has been a bit unpredictable since I was initially on my way home for Christmas. This means that I was carrying 40kg of luggage and had to stroll around the city like a nomad. Fortunately, people were extremely friendly to help me with the weight, especially when there were no lifts or electric stairs around. 

I do not know why, but this time Milan was extremely sunny. Maybe I was in desperate need of sun. I walked around Navigli and let the sun kiss me for so many hours that I almost got lost. But a great espresso can wake up even the most disoriented person. Yes, i was disoriented by the beauty of this city, by the smells and the tastes around, by the smiles of the locals who were spreading "buongiornos" around! The luxurious via Montenapoleone was crowded. From the China town neighborhood until the corso Como I found amazing little stores providing flavors to the curious visitors and cocktails with style. I had one or two. ;)

It might not be a city famous for its art and architecture but its an italian city. Every single one has its own artistic identity. And with all those parks breathing around, the city creates a mixture of environments where one can find it all. At least I did.   

This has been a perfect ending to a strange 2015. The year was just a huge disappointment until the moment I moved to France, early in August. I had the chance to travel around, more than usually. Met some amazing people and counted down numbers of new experiences. For 2016 I have a huge list of things I feel I own to myself. I will share many of these with you, some of them with my closest friends and some will be my personal projects. The last ones will be dreams coming true. And I cannot wait to live them. In fact, i had postponed them for so long. Now its just the time to go wild for a while. Or more...    

The Love Speech

This week I had the chance to attend an interesting and almost "strange" two-days, international conference. The major discussion was about the hate speech and the liberty of expression. I enjoyed the sessions even though this is neither my field of studies nor my professional background. But since social media have intervened so much into our lifestyle, i suppose that this is nowadays everyone's field and background. You see, there is no one around us without a single social media account. I have almost 30 and I am using them depending on my mood. If i assume that everyone else is doing the same, i expect to detect some hate speech and too much liberty of expression. 

Considering that our world has become more advanced and globalized hate of speech seems to be more of a left over. But no. This is not the case. Hate speech is everywhere around us. In our everyday life, shopping or hopping on a bus, watching a tv show or reading a newspaper, talking to a stranger or talking to a loved one. But i started wondering...Where has the love speech gone?

Are we really so busy of finding some minutes to express ourselves or we have just forgotten how to talk to each other? Are we incapable of talking with kindness to other human beings or it is just a phase where symbols and emoticons do the job? Why did we became so vulgar?What changes so significantly within us that we cannot talk freely to the people we used to share our deepest thoughts with? Is it the perception we have about them or the perception they have about us that shifts our speech from the one side to the other? And if it is none of the above, will we ever be able to speak to each other freely again? 

Mind the gaps: liberty of expression does not mean absolute truth or honesty. Love speech is not always based on feelings of love too.   

A.

A place in the sun...

Who doesn't know and who doesn't like Morrissey? Haven't met yet a person that didn't whispered a few lyrics once in a while. So do I. 

A place in the sun is all one should ask for. And this is not because I was born Greek and was used to have an endless sun on my face. It is mostly because of the sun that will warm our souls. The sun that will come into our life and there will be no more darkness, no more shadows. A sun that will make everything brighter, even if it is not supposed to be. Happiness again, it always comes down to this particular pursue. The pointless need to identify the things around us as good or bad, happy or miserable, needs and musts. A list that can fill pages with its contrasts and its different elements. 

But once again c'est la vie.

The sun. The warmth that cures it all. A little sentiment that brings along memories of summers in love, lunches with friends next to the sea, walking at the pier watching couples sharing hugs or fights of jealousy, opening the curtains and having a home full of its light, drinking a coffee and thinking nothing at all, or walking to the office for a stressful day and thinking what if you skipped that meeting...

Or simply a sun that we carry within us. One little star full of warmth and light that can brighten someone's life. The happiness we look for maybe is the one we carry inside our heart and it just waits for the right persons to find it. And then we can become their place in the sun. 

But once again that's life, sun will come and go. 

So do people.

A.

https://youtu.be/QZEGkhzvZRY

People with dreams are scary.

It has been a full week for me. Full of sentiments, changes and obligations. Usually this type of week is never a good period for thinking. But still, the human brain is so multitasking that fits it all inside. And that is so annoying. Especially when all you want to do is close your eyes and dream. 

Dreams, a favorite habit. Most people do that but the ones that are seriously dreaming are the scariest people alive. It must be the easiness with which they plan everything or the ability to walk through nightmares totally safe and sound. These little scenes of imagination are a piece of personal confessions never said and never written. Silent needs that demand their realization and we try so hard to make them go away, so hard that we make ourselves wake up in the middle of the night. That's why most of the dreams never have an ending, eternally hanging on to be continued during the next sleep or remaining a faint memory that no one can list in the real life or the subconscious part of us.  

People with dreams are not worried. They can see their dreams falling apart and at the same time they can make them work again or create new ones from scratch. They can share their dreams, they can mingle them, they can change them or they can offer them to someone who needs it more. In any case they are creating their own world and they settle inside until the real one is safe for them. People with dreams are afraid to meet the truth. They dare to jump in fiction and walk through streets of the unknown but they are threatened by the darkness of the world. The darkness that fills the human brain, that multitasking brain that never stops finding ways to ruin a dream. People with dreams are afraid that they might lose their ability to dream. Too much blood comes out of the great dreams that died.

People with dreams, glorious and amazing dreams are usually the ones to be laughed at. People with dreams are the ones that still search for the perfect piece that will fill their puzzled life and make everything work out magically. People with dreams do not need to close their eyes, they do not feel sorry for missing something ordinary, they do not hesitate. People with dreams chase the things that we cannot imagine. They are the people that we are feeling jealous of and yet we do not applause them because it is too romantic, to vain, to pointless to dream in a world like ours. 

People with dreams are never alone. They have friends in their little universe, friends that are caring and are always present. They have perfect houses and huge families. They have careers and they have "eaten" the world. Many things to do in the everyday life and no hurt feelings at all. 

The people that have dreams have also happiness. Lot of happiness. Because they know that they have something to search for. They know that they have still something to hope for. They have still faith in life. People with dreams are never alone. 

But that's the scariest thing about them; Happiness is always pending.

A.

The need to stand

on your own feet. How can you become the person you want to unless you don't manage to stand on your own two feet? Difficulties will appear, fears will keep you company, many times you will feel lonely but in the end you will be proud of your little self that managed to become independent, fearless and so strong. You will meet people that will hurt you, you will lose friends and you will feel disappointed by others that you have trusted and supported. But it's ok, cause its your own feet you need to stand.

Sometimes you will find the ones that will be willing to stand by you. These will be other independent and fearless people who will not be scared by your freedom, who will share their experiences with you waiting to hear yours as well. These will be amazing people who survived the same disappointment and loneliness. They wont be willing to stand by you, they will be meant to do so. You will keep these people.

You will be forced to stand in front of your fears too. You will not be able to avoid this. It is not as difficult as it sounds. Usually we realize how easy things are when we already try them. And you have to try a lot of exciting things. 

And when the years pass, and you are able to consider yourself an adult, you will need to stand for what you believe in. That's a virtue not many people share. But in the end it is the only thing that you need in order to stand on your feet proudly and with no shame, to stand by the people you love without any guilt or hypocrisy and to stand in front of your fears without feeling threaten or weak. Stand for what you believe. Especially when it makes you extremely happy.     

Enjoy your weekend

A.

Never skip a cup of coffee...

It is sociologically proven that coffee is not only a beverage we enjoy. Besides the benefits (some say the opposite) it is a habit that makes people gather around it's blend and share love stories or professional details. It is a way of communicating, socializing and of course de-stressing. I know, i know..There is nothing like a nice cup of tea to soothe any type of pain! But this is another story, one a true coffee lover would not share at this point.

You know, usually coffee wakes us up but what it really does is to give us a sense of potentiality. The belief that we can do everything and that something amazing is going to happen to us. Each brand new day starts with a coffee. Most of the love affairs start with a coffee date. Friends are meeting upon a coffee mug. We hold up an espresso before opening a newspaper or a book. We post or tweet with a cup of cappuccino next to us. We like it macchiato or corretto or even cortadito for intense flavor!Coffee is a minor habit that brings us together. We wait in cafeterias for our friends, we have coffees and share the news, the secrets, the pain together. 

These minor details can make our greatest relations ever stronger. The need to create a way of communication, the need to have a place full of memories we shape with our people, the desire to have a social presence and participation, the wish to share something from our life and receive a sentiment, a feeling or a smile. All in a sip of coffee. So, never skip a cup!Especially one that is enjoyed with a great friend.

A.

Depictions of a night..(or a pause in Colmar)

Sometimes taking a break is not what we want but what we basically need. Even if we do not realize it. There comes a moment in our life that everything turns into a routine, a common schedule we have to follow in order to be more productive, to be on time, to succeed, in order to fill each minute with a sense of usefulness and importance. And then, there comes a moment when we pause. Unwillingly. There is no inspiration, no creativity, no mood to get off the bed, no will to smile to our beloved ones, no dreams to chase. Exhausted people striving to make the living they had planned.

How can we forget what our inner child used to wish for? Well, i suppose that people tend to neglect anything childish. Living on a pace fed only by anxiety and stress does not really offer space for memories and happy times. Is it worthy? I could strongly support people seeking a career, i would justify people aiming to a promotion rather than creating a family and i could surely understand people who enjoy their jobs. But most of all i do admire people who make their careers based on the things they love. I read about such success stories and feel the need to track my own way doing what i most certainly like to spend my time on. But i also understand how difficult this is and even if those people love their jobs, they still have to work some sleepless nights in order to achieve that.

Anyhow, it is a personal pursue and this is always the challenge;never to set aside the things one has hoped for, cried for, struggled for. Between the months of endless work, among the days of stressful meetings or in between the hours of boring or uncertain meetings one should always search for a pause of happiness. If you have been spending hours in front of a computer or memorizing pages of academic books, if you have missed your friends or your partner, if you have forgotten when was the last time you played with your pet or if you just want to catch up with your favorite sit com then do so. I know, you have heard it before. I did so. But i came to a point in my life where i found myself far from my dreams. And it was not a pleasant discovery. Instead of a break though i preferred to shut down for a while. Then eventually, since i was always multitasking and with a bit of life-exploring curiosity, i filled my program so much that i could barely have a coffee with those who matter. That was a solution. The things i' ve learnt during this period are a treasure i will always keep inside me. It was a much needed period in order to find new interests, to re-find my rhythms, to throw away the social vampires i came across, to talk and mostly to listen.

As i was listening, i realized that i had found things that could make me happy but there were also things i had to do before embracing those. You know, there are nights when you feel helpless, when you try to find solutions but instead you end up watching another episode on replay. There are these nights when you stare the ceiling and you think of all the moonlight you never saw, when you recall moments of your life and you change some with the ones you really wanted to live, when you are too tired of sleeping because waking up is taking you away from your dreams.

It is like always living in your hometown and reading travel guides that remind you places you have never been. But if you finally find a ticket for your dream destination? You would go, that's the plan. But before that you have to stop somewhere else. You have to let everything linger, your old habits, the people that you leave behind, the memories..There is the need to let it all behind, to make room for the new ones to come.

That's a pause. A period during which you will not erase a single thing but you will just turn some blank pages. And then you will be ready for the next chapter. The in between time that will take away all your worries. It might be more than a year or just a single night where your ideal life comes into bits and pieces and forms depictions of your blissful time.    

Life is made out of sparkles, let's twinkle.

A.

Rebonjour..

It has been kind of a longish period of time since my last post here. In fact it has been a long time since my last post anywhere i used to write for. But most of you really know how tricky life can be and how strangely it changes. This happened to me as well. Now i'm back in another language, from another country and with many new stories and experiences to share with you. First things first though! Let's have a brief summary of how things have been lately...

I come from a country that nowadays faces a severe financial problem and incredible political instability. This has affected significantly any aspect of our everyday life there. Young people have been migrating to other countries searching for a job that would suit their academic qualifications and criteria, and believe me when i say that most of the Greeks are highly qualified and skilled (pretty sure you have heard it before). I have not yet become one of these, since i will be living abroad for a short period of time, but the truth is that if someone gets a real job back home it's considered to be a miracle.

So, while i was searching for a job -you know, a paid one- i came up with a fantastic Master's program which i really enjoyed and offered me a new perspective on arts and humanities. I had the chance to study a region that has been full of archaeological monuments and important historical events. Studying the past really changes your way of thinking. At the same time i got the chance to meet interesting people from all over the world, people who i really miss now but still consider them friends.

In the meantime i had to move out, not from one but from 3 different apartments, and finally got one that really feels like home. In this home which seems far away now i have a small creature waiting for me full of joy and love in his little heart. That's a story you will hear a lot about in these posts. It's the story of how i loved animals (even more than i thought it's possible). We have the little bulldog for 2 years now and it has totally changed my life. I turned vegetarian again and have a new sense of what patience really is and how cruel our society can become.

#argos_frenchbulldog

I always believed that living abroad, even for a couple of years, is an open-minding and rich experience each person should seek for. I was a "late bloomer" as this is concerned so now i have the time to explore France. As much as i enjoyed travelling before, this is totally another kind of adventure; being on my own, with no friends and a bad accent in my never-used-before- French. 

But, as they say, if you don't chase your dreams, one day they will chase you.

Enjoy your Saturday!

A.