Little Life Hacks- A Diary Extract

Road to Delhi from Manali
6:5 p.m.
July 2nd, 2016
(Extract from Diary)

Last Day

Sometimes you don't need an eternity or a forever to be happy.
What he kept telling me- live in the moment-seize the day-
But 'cest la vie'.
Sometimes bravery is not in doing great things- it is in doing the little thing- the mundane, tiny things without losing hope or motivation. Every day. Without being swallowed by the tide of routine.
A simple act of determination to be happy- no matter what- to go on- to never give up.

Throwback to 2009.
" It is so easy to be sad. To dwell on the negatives. But Happiness... that takes courage."

To make sure that you wake up, dress us, show up- every day. To not drink your coffee too black or smudge off the red lipstick with the back of your hand when you look in the mirror and can't remember how to smile. To not forget that the highest walls might have scalable windows.
I have been taught this by unexpected people.
Tiny little life hacks.
It is so true, you find people in the strangest of places.
And love,
maybe in the strangest of places.
Like yourself,

Last day of Summer-2016

I sit up on the mattress and
crack my neck slowly.
First one side and
then another,
Next come the sullen knuckles
and with the 'pop',
a smile.
It is the last day of Summer
but still the feeling of Summer lingers on-
May with all it's parched- to -the- bone nights
and sudden, silly romance.
June brought new heartbreak and
feet spiced with wanderlust,
counting shooting stars with new friends,
July and the rains breaking over me like
they knew I was waiting for it-
 a day's delay and it would have been too late.
Discovering new horizons-
immersing in petrichor
and dreaming of brilliant blue peacocks
on Monday mornings.
It has been eventful, the last few months.
I milk each day for a feeling or an image and
store it away,
behind the broken bits of forgotten kisses
and stolen glances.
I gather all my memories
and compress it in a blood-seed.
Maybe someday it will sprout the
essence of Summer-
Happiness, Life and Hope
when I need it the most.

Spring 2016

How easy for them to say
Unbreak yourself today;
 because it is Spring
and everyone is happy.

You must be too.

Because the birds are flying in the sky
and the air is warm and wet
and the flowers-
they roll on by
as far as the eye can see.

But I feel my soul is splintered.
And my body remained broken and never healed
 the last time that they stamped my heart into the ground
with unforgiving, heavy feet.

And it's been too long

This...
Wave.

Up and Down.
Crest and Trough.
Happiness and Sadness.
Sanity and Madness.

It goes on and on and on and on and on and on ...

January Nights

Cut yourself slowly on starry tips in a night sky.

Rub stardust roughly on your scars.

Make them beautiful.

 Seaweed entangled in dark hair 

drowning in the dark waters of his eyes

that shine through your past erroneous ways.

Sometimes you can't see past the smoke of your dreams turning to ashes-

and the fateful spark that lit it up remains forgotten.

Halogen lamps blind you on empty highways

as you speed past the place where he fell in love with her faithfully.

Fateful lines on your hand criss-cross into future  somehows and maybes-

just waiting to happen.

Snaking past reason and logic-

inept words for a Saturday.

What is to be -will.

And Love is the four letter word tonight-

but then again, wasn't it always?

Burn

 I once lost my final sliver of hope in the corner of  the street where I used to meet him after the winter rains.

It happened all at once.

Like eating honey out of a broken glass jar-
the sweetness and copper dab of blood blending into an unimaginable nectar that lingered for an eon on my darkened tongue...

I kept my head firmly under the waves-
waiting for the final breath to pass-
dreaming of  shattered rainbows bursting in colour under my tired eyelids
but my body was not willing to give up.

And I am grateful.

For now I am enmeshed in lives and loves and goodness
and my dying breath now flames again
and scalds me with its willingness to live and love and hope .

The December skies open up-
 The rain falls in torrents from the moonlight.
And I burn my heart again on the dying embers of an ancient passion.