Category: Not-textbook lessons

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1)Like most decisions in life, this is one best not to overthink. You just decide, stick with it, and move on.

2)The thought of how quickly things can change or go wrong in life is scary.

3)Life could change abruptly, and transform you completely in the process.

4)After it happens, the option to change the past is gone.

5)”I have succeeded in life. Why? Because I set goals.

6) The best arrow in the world is no good unless it’s directed some place.

7)What does laughter do that’s so damn mystical? It loosens you up

8)Process if what life’s all about. It’s the best the ride, and not just arriving, because we actually spend most of our lives “getting there”.

9) Fear gets in the way of love, and I’ve discovered that fear, and not hate is the opposite of love. Love and hate are closely bound emotions, they are cousins, not enemies. It’s fear that kills love. It’s fear we feel when love is threatened.

11)It’s the communication, not the speed of resolution, that’s important.

12)You devote years to creating the right conditions and the correct mixture of elements to reach the critical mass  necessary for detonation.

13)Celebrity is unstable.

14)Duality is just the way things are on our level of existence.

15) I hold on to memories because it reminds me where I’ve been. I try to learn from my history and not repeat old mistakes. I use my memories, I don’t let my memories use me.

16)Memories, retained and processed well, create wisdom. Incorrectly handled, they create confusion and misplaced expectation.

17)Love isn’t as common as they tell us in books and movies. It takes something extra to first find the right person and then to see it through.

18)Trust comes automatically wit real love because the deep connectedness wipes out ego’s isolation and fear.

19)Times passes, things change.

20)Be careful what you wish for.

21)Even the worst pain fades with time.

22)Good and evil, evil and good. They change with circumstance. We have both inside us. We choose to emphasize what. We decide the scale.

23)You can’t find something new until you let go of the old.

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1)”Unhappiness grew the more it was fed”

Emotions are like fire. If you provide them with fuel, they will keep growing. And then at one point, when it get’s too out of hand, there’s nothing you can do to stop the destruction. Having negative emotions is absolutely okay, it’s just human. And you shouldn’t be avoiding them either. Acknowledge them, feel them, take your time, but don’t wallow in them forever. You have to seek help, and work on finding a solution. No one deserves to be unhappy all the time.

2. “Every story can be told differently“

I can’t agree to this more. The narrative of the story changes, when the narrator changes. Always keep this is mind, whenever you find yourself in the respective situation. Be mindful of other’s roles and perpectives, which might save you a lot of mishaps in life.

3. “What we call love is condemned to dry out the moment there is a reason for it“

Not just love… but any feeling. They can go as quickly as they came, even if there’s just a possibility of a good reason. Keep in mind, the auxilary I’m using here is ‘can’ and not ‘will’. I’m not going to fill your head with the ‘no one ever stays’, ‘all feelings eventually dry out’, ‘there is only pain in feelings’. Because that’s absolutely dumb. Some stay, and some leave. That’s just a part of life. You need to find the balance between optimism and pessimism, that’s realism. Hope for the best, stay prepared for the worst. Always.

4. “Its good to cry. The pupils purify”

I’m aspiring to be a mental health professional in the future, but I’m going to take every single step and put efforts from now. Please erase this stigma from your mind, CRYING DOES NOT MAKE YOU WEAK. IT’S OKAY TO CRY. IT’S AS NATURAL AS BREATHING. IT’S NOTHING TO BE ASHAMED OF. Not just your pupils, but it might even help you let go of everything you have been holding in, purifying your mind. PS: Crying and whining are too seperate things, there is a difference. Crying is fine, whining is NOT.

5. “Not all children grow up alike”

Everyone comes from a different walk in life, everyone doesn’t get the same upbringing. Be heedful of this, try to understand where someone is coming from and then decide your conduct.

6. “There was beauty even in the name of the most wicked man on earth, and a piece of heaven even in the most ravaged land”

It’s all a game of perceptions. You can find beauty and peace anywhere and everywhere, if you set your mind to it.

7. “There was no favour that nature could not bestow on men“

There truly isn’t. Nature has blessed us with every last jewel of it’s. This might sound childish, but that doesn’t erase the fact that it’s true. We have to be thankful to nature every single day. We are it’s creation, but we forget that. We have equal responsibilities and duties towards our nature. Act on them, before it’s too late. Remember, if it has the power to construct, it also has the power to destruct.

My general takeaway from the story: Our entire lives are woven around perceptions, to see and be seen. Every action of ours has a consequence. Sometimes we aren’t meant to see something, and sometimes that’s for the best. We have to be calculative with our curiosity, we never know when it turns into fatality. Also, the world is still unkind to difference. We need to be more kind and considerate in our actions towards someone who might be different. Everybody is already fighting their battles, if we can’t provide them with an armour, the least we can do is reward their efforts (with our conduct and deeds of course).

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1) “It was not the thorn bending to the honeysuckles, but honeysuckles embracing the thorn”

We all have faults, and they don’t make you any less of a person who deserves respect. Don’t be hard on yourself over them, learn to accept them. The sooner you do that, the sooner you’ll become the best version of yourself. Now of course keep in mind, when I say faults, I don’t mean toxic behaviour traits. You can’t accept them, you have to work upon them.

2) “I want you to be aware that I know you have treated me infernally! And if you flatter yourself that I don’t perceive it, you are a fool; and if you think I can be consoled by sweet words, you are an idiot.”

There are quite a few number of things these lines teach us. First, never tolerate disrespect from anyone. You have to be mindful and analytical of people’s behaviour towards you. This is very subjective, no doubt. You have to know what marks as disrespect for you, and when someone crosses that line, don’t resort to silence. Secondly, stand up for yourself, always. Don’t be afraid to communicate. Now keep in mind that your conduct and choice of words make a huge difference, specially if it’s someone elder (unlike what’s portrayed here). And lastly, always remember when you have wronged someone who is aware of it, no amount of sweet words can make it right. Neither should you also let things go just because someone is being incredibly sugary. Apologies and careful steps in future are the only solution.

3) “The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don’t turn against him, they crush those beneath them.”

I think this sums up such a huge characteristic of common human behaviour. It’s not surprising at all to see someone exploit/maltreat someone inferior to them. And that’s where we go wrong, don’t we? We are always prone to forgetting kindness, specially to those who we consider ‘beneath’ us. And it’s a never ending chain, in order to escape the frustration from suppression, we indulge in further suppression. Is it really correct though of us, as the most developed species? Is it worth it? Give it a thought.

4) “Any relic of the dead is precious, if they were valued living”

Even after we’ve left the world, we will be remembered. Our actions and the memories we made with people will always be remembered by them. And they will be held dear by those who truly valued us while still alive.

5) “Treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends, they wound those who resort to them worse than they wound their enemies”

This is the most meaningful quote in the entire book, according to me. And honestly, it doesn’t need much explanation either. We might not think about it while giving in to either of them, only to realise much later that it affects us on an extreme level too. So the most rational path to take is always the one which excludes the two entities mentioned here.

6) “My soul’s bliss kills my body, but doesn’t satisfy itself”

Soul’s bliss. It refers to desires here. Our desires are endless. It’s almost impossible to fulfil every single one of them in this lifetime. Given how far they extend, which is again very individualistic. But often in the rush of quenching our desires, we neglect the negative effects it might have on our body, relationships and life in general. If we keep running behind them, we might just end up destructing our lives.

7) “Cruelty often arises from misery”

Yet again, this differs from situation to situation. But it might draw your attention to a certain fact, that there is often some sort of story which leads to a person’s behaviour. If nothing as dramatic as a story, but at least a hidden reason. In case of cruelty, its often misery. It’s a mammoth task to be kind and stay level headed when you are undergoing hardships yourself. And I guess that’s why, many times, the most distressed are also the most harsh. Keep this is mind the next time you find yourself in such situation, you might be able to handle it better.

8)“No books?! How do you contrive living without them?”

Okay this is just me being a highly partial book nerd😛 But books are the sole reason of me being here with a blog. So I am going to take every opportunity I can to promote reading. If you feel you dislike reading, you might just haven’t found the right type of book for yourself. It’s all about exploring and then just being hooked. Trust me, once you’re established, you won’t ever regret it.

My general takeaway from the story:

The moral I takeaway from the story is that our lives are really not just our own. We live in a world where our lives are interlaced with many others’, and we can’t avoid that. One wrong move, and everyone’s world might come crushing down. So I feel we should be very calculative and heedful of how our choices might affect the lives of the ones closest to us. We shouldn’t get blindsided by passion, be it in love or anything else, and forget practicality. One of the most toxic things I’ve heard is that “Love is a blind”. NO. I’m not sure if it’s love when it’s blind, and creates mayhems in your life. Choose love, not some infatuation labelled ‘passion’. Lives of Hareton, Linton and Edgar from the story are perfect examples supporting my thought. Imagine what would have been if Isabella and Catherine would have been more sensible with their choices? I mean of course, we wouldn’t have ever received the raging gothic classic we are talking about, but just correspond the thought into the real world, and think for yourself how sound it feels?