Canada, YAY!

There is something about our entire country coming together with such pride and welcoming others onto our land that makes me feel so happy and proud to be Canadian. Goosebumps every time I watch/hear this song!

Lent

Wow! Is it just me or is Lent/Easter super early this year?!

Every year I give up junk foods that start with C:

Yes, this includes:

Cookies
Cupcakes
Cake
Chips
Candy
Chocolate

Pain

After watching Valentine's Day last night with my girlfriends I got to thinking about pain, suffering, knowledge and outcome.

When we were little, it didn't matter how many times our parents would tell us not to do something. "Don't rock on your chair," "Don't jump on the bed," "Stop eating sand!"

No matter how many times our parents would advise us to stop doing something stupid, we only ceased to stop once we'd been hurt: once our chair flipped backwards, once we fell head-first off the bed, once we choked on a seashell.

What makes us ignore advice until we figure it out the hard way?

Is it curiosity, stubbornness or plain stupidity?

The same applies for friends in dead-end relationships. "Don't call him back," "Don't let him talk to you like that," "He will hurt you again."

We tend to advise our friends as much as we can to save them from pain. In fact, we go to great lengths: threatening to cut their boyfriend's balls off, taking our friends' phones away, being totally harsh and honest with our friends... through repetition we become frustrated.

Why don't people listen?

In the movie last night, Ashton Kutcher advised his best friend not to hop on a plane to surprise her boyfriend because he had recently found out that he was married.

After her best friend told her he had witnessed this infidelity with his own eyes, she chose to go anyway.

Why?

Why put yourself through it all when somewhere, deep, deep down you know that all of this pain and suffering is just prolonging an ugly fate?

Perhaps it is the curiosity that resides in almost every human. Perhaps without pain or suffering we wouldn't realize how lucky we are when we do find something good.

Perhaps we must lose to win. We must learn the hard way.

I can pretty much guarantee that when ten good friends are telling one friend not to date a certain someone anymore she will mentally block out every single thing they say... until she is ready.

Until she's been hurt enough. Until there is absolute sufficient damage done.

So while everyone is on their own time and may have to contrive quite a few more bumps and bruises along the way, one of the most difficult parts of the whole pain/suffer experience may be having to watch your friend go through it.

While our friend will eventually understand that their relationship is in the ruins, we must understand that this process may be long and that it is now more than ever that they need us the most.

Listen Learn Love

Smartphones: Friend or Foe?

Vlove Vlog!

Forgiveness

Through life we gain and lose people. It seems this is the way life goes... we get handed friends and special people and those people can stick around for the most part of our lives or their connection to us can be cut.

Life is so short and so precious and while there are many people that we lose due to the death of the physical body, there are many instances when we lose contact with people because of arrogance, self-pride or dare I say... "snootiness."

Nobody is perfect.

I feel this is something that every single person must grow to understand. This is something that has taken me quite a long time to wrap my head around.

Nobody is perfect. I am not perfect.

I've often found myself setting my expectations too high of others. I've made remarks like "I'd never do that" or "I would have done this by now" or "I would have handled that situation so differently."

While friends and family through the course of time will most probably let us down at one point or an other, it is important to keep in mind that friendship and companionship is one of life's greatest gifts and we often take this gift and throw it back recklessly.

The heart is such a tender thing and as someone who has worn her heart on her sleeve her entire life, it is easy for me to count the amount of times it's been hurt... surprised... angered... left in confusion. While thinking about these instances hurts, nothing hurts more than the loss of someone who meant something to you.

In retrospect, is it worth losing time spent with someone because of pride or stubbornness? Holding a grudge may seem like punishment to your "opponent" but in actual fact it is both of you losing out on times spent together - laughing, loving, being yourselves.

I'm such a passionate person and it is easy for me to let my feelings of anger or spite fester inside of me and keep me silent towards people for long periods of time. But really, what does this accomplish?

This isn't to say that friends should be allowed to walk all over each other or take advantage of each other - no, that would be wrong; I am saying however that ... it's about forgiveness.

Let go of your pride.

Let go of your grudge.

Let go of your front.

You're not better than everyone else. We're all the same. We all make mistakes. We must all learn to forgive. It may take months, maybe years to really "forget" what happened, but in the meantime we must forgive.

We must forgive.

Imagine how many memories would be lost if we didn't.

Life passes by so quickly and no one can have too many friends.

Open your heart.

Unblock someone. Text someone. Call someone. Smile at someone. Apologize to someone. Accept someone.

People make mistakes. You've made mistakes. Don't let silence be one of them.

For 2010

I realize that we are nearing the end of January and that most people have had their New Year's Resolutions planned out weeks ahead of the 1st of the month but I have chosen to step away from that cliche this year.

Every year I get all ampted up for my new year's resolutions during the weeks of Christmas Vacation as I plan and throw out goals and ideals every which way... This overwhelmingly busy time of year however, is not the right time to pick out what it is I need to do differently for the coming 12 months.

This is why over the past 26 days I have evaluated my daily life and self and decided upon certain things I would like to see myself doing...

So for 2010... here we go!

Exercise: in a lazy world I may be able to do an hour of working-out each day of the week but this is not the case. With so many things on the go it is difficult to allot myself enough time to fit in a work-out into my busy schedule. This is why this resolution in particular is for me to exercise for 45 minutes at least four times a week. I realize this may not seem like much now... but I am aiming for reasonible here - as I really do want to achieve this! I have made it part of my resolution to work out longer or for extra days if and when I have the time!

Creativity: after receiving a video camera for Christmas I have made it my goal to make many more videos this coming year. In the past I have made plans to do many different variations of videos but have failed in doing so because my time hasn't been properly managed... but I will challenge myself this year to make as many videos as I can.

I have also made myself the resolution to write on my blog more often! I have clearly lacked in this area for the past few weeks but I hope to be back on track with writing regularly.

Character: I believe in giving people chances. There are many times when people let you down, or fall short of your expectations but we must all learn to understand and be patient and this is what I intend to practice. In turn, I am hoping to become a more friendly person with a loving and forgiving heart.

Travel: many students have a common predicament: money... or lack there of. I hope to save as much money as possible in order to travel this year. My destinations do not have to be on different contents or anything that extravagant but I'd love to travel and explore different areas and wonders of the world. It is so beautiful!

Alrighty. There is my list of resolutions that I hope I will be able to stick with. What are your resolutions for 2010?