#lifeactually

[maiasadipun]

Let this be the September I always remember.

Let this be the September where I will have many reasons to smile, and to make people around me smile. Let this be the September where love is all around me, and make me appreciate life a little more.

This September will go differently. I won’t be afraid of being too bold or too soft, because I will be unapologetically me and embrace all that I am. I will do my best with all I have.

This September I hope I find the courage to dream even bigger, to follow what lights me up and sets my soul alive.

This September till next September will be a book full of new chapters I’m going to write. About how I’ll live my life to the fullest and striving to achieve the goals I have dreamt since many Septembers ago. And maybe until next September I will figure out that many things that didn’t make any sense before, all of the things I ached for that didn’t work out, all the hardships, missed opportunities and mistakes, are actually leading me to the right direction.

Let this be the September where I never be the same.

I will look back at this time with joy and be amazed at how I nourished and handled myself.

M 💙

[msafiyathediva]

#LIFE! Every time! #plottwist! But eventually the storm will pass and the sun will shine again. #lifehappens #lifeactually

[lilmissoreoann]

Yesterday. #latergram #lifeactually #nofilter (at Tucson, Arizona)

[life---actually]

Words cannot express the gratitude I feel today as I leave one place to another, met on both sides by such love and friendship. Thank you to each and one of you who have encouraged me and supported me in this adventure, which began some time ago and nonetheless continues.

As some of you know who have been reading, I’ve been blogging and IGing for a while now at #lifeactually, which in some way ran parallel to @vishmili as an encapsulation of the moments of the past year and a half or so. Over the last couple of months, something happened though: I no longer could quite distinguish to which profile my musings belonged. It’s as though the two sides of me melded somehow and became one perspective; no longer some new me adventuring vs some old me connecting nostalgically; perhaps because I had decided it was time to transition into something else? Or, perhaps, because the newbie perspective is no more. In either case, today, with this post, I retire one half - though in no way cut it away completely. It’ll still be here, and though I didn’t anticipate it then, this blog helped me get a little (or a lot) closer to understanding what (ironically) life actually is about. For future musings, find them at http://idefiningi.blogspot.com (yes, it’s old).

I’ve learned a lot in the last four - and especially two - years, when my life took new (good) turbulent turns. It opened my eyes to what is possible when we venture out of our comfort zones. When relationships transform, when home is redefined, the relationship we have with ourselves and how we perceive ourselves relative to our world changes. It opens up the world - as if in a lucid dream - empty, in a way, but also so full of capacity if we hone in on the juices of the present and embrace transience in all its forms.

So, as I get ready to board a plane this afternoon and make a new alteration to this dreamworld of mine, I feel light. Inquisitive and excited to live outside new comfort zones. Today, I’m not leaving home nor am I going home. I’ve found home here - part within myself, part in awakening to what is around me always. And I thank everyone - then, now and later - for playing such an integral part in this experience and my learning.

[London, Hampstead, 10:22am]