Allowing your mind to stay busy isn't easy when things start to stack up. its as if there is clutter and noise and garbage sucking you into a vortex. But one must get on with life, even though the vortex winks and pings back at you, begging for precious attention.
'Living is the least important activity of the pre-occupied man' once said by the Roman philosopher Seneca in a warning to his friend " yet there is nothing harder to learn'
Sometimes you just have to deal with things that life deals you, you may cry and be aggrieved by what comes around. Sometimes you encounter the wrong kind of people that hurt you but consider these questions:
In what direction will you throw the full force and passion of your energy in the new year?
What, in other words, is your truly authentic, personal ambition.
To be truly who you are, wise men and women all through the ages have all urged one thing:
'Know Yourself'
Be the legend and value what you have done - Remember and value those minutes of life.
James Dean, died in the way legend needs some of its heroes to to succumb; young and boldly. he was a talented racing driver as a well as film star and his life ended when his Porsche Spyder convertible crashed as he zoomed to get to a race meeting in California. At 24, he only made three films but each was a blockbuster.
The man who wrote the screenplay for "Rebel Without a Cause" wrote to Dean's parents and reflected upon the tragic loss of their son, his friend. He found consolation in the life that Dean had embraced in every moment he lived it. He had lived fully in his few years and was a lesson. He told them:
"From Jimmy I have learned the value of a minute. He loved his minutes and I shall now love mine".
The minute hand ticks by even as you read this. Every day it circles the clock 1,440 times and so how many minutes will you value. Every year it swings by another 500,000 times.
Each of these minutes are yours. How many of them will you love?
My new year message is remember the things that made your minutes worthwhile and work out what really matters to you.
Appreciating life while you are still in the thick of it is in my opinion the most intelligent and the most important thing that you must do
Perhaps watch those movies you loved in your youth - I have always taken a leaf out of Ferris Bueller's book.
This story is about a kid that fakes being sick, outwits dopey grownups and gallivants around Chicago with pals. When he rings his friend Cameron to come out with him and hangout Cameron declines saying he is sick. Ferris repeats his demand and hangs up.
“I’m dying,” Cameron whispers.
The phone rings again and Ferris mutters, “You’re not dying. You just can’t think of anything good to do.”
Later we see Cameron standing before Georges Seurat’s pointillist masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. We discover his inner most angst. The camera begins zooming in on the little girl in white at the center of the canvas. We cut back to Cameron, closer now. Then back to the little girl. We see his growing anguish as he realizes that her mouth is wide open, that, in fact, she is wailing.
Okay, good enough: Cameron recognizes himself in the figure of this little girl whose mother is holding her hand but making no effort to comfort her.
But then the director (John Hughes), takes us even deeper. He gives us an extreme close-up of Cameron’s eyes, then cuts back to the canvas, to the girl’s face, then to her mouth, then to the specks of paint that make up her mouth, until we can no longer resolve those specks into an image; they are just splotches of color on coarse fabric. This is the true nature of Cameron’s struggle: his anxieties have obliterated his sense of identity.
We then cut, somewhat abruptly, to a German street parade. Cameron is fretting. He needs to get his dad’s Ferrari back to the house. Ferris objects. He wants to have more fun. But he also knows that his friend needs to loosen up, to conquer his fear and experience life.
The movie's message and quote by Ferris is "life moves pretty fast. if you don't stop and look around once in a while. you could miss it.
POEM
We remember our loved ones, our past
In a world that’s changed our outlook forever
In a time of surviving the winter, others fighting just to last
We remember our times of laughter and joy
The smiles of children opening gifts, from the tree
Feeling the spirit of Christmas, no memories to destroy
We remember our heroes, our kin, our queen.
The sad times, the bad times, and even mad times as well
No snow, just drizzle and rain, seems the most that’s ever been
We remember that happiness is achievable, if we continue to believe
Another year is now with us, hoping for something believe?
Believe in yourself, fight the good the fight
This year will be the one of value, no ifs buts or might.
Remember it’s you that succeeded not them
Sometimes it cost you such pain,
Such angst more than once, just rise up and think of those memories,
Minutes you valued, just place value in more, there's more to come
As a boy, then a man remember you worked hard, dont dismiss it -
You'll get Good times -sometimes bad times yet life’s journey finds ways to weave, stop look around - don't miss it!
Want to see more John Hughes?
Then you have to go back to the eighties!!
