January 22

Quote of the Day

I have discovered in life

that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go,

if you really want to go.

Langston Hughes

What makes me love this quote even more than its belief in will power and hard work is the "almost" in there.

January 21

Quote of the Day

Hold fast to your dreams,

for without them life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.

Langston Hughes

I am a dreamer.

To the extent where sometimes I refuse to concentrate on reality and just keep dreaming of what can be and what will be and what I'll make happen. For these dreams I luckily have my best friend, on whom I can always rely for being my dreaming companion. We have amazing plans for our future together as old cafe/flowershop/designstore/bookstore owners. Amazing.

However, my 2012 resolution, if you can call it that, is to consciously pay attention to my current life and to everything that makes it amazing. This doesn't make the above dreams desolate, just shift priorities. A few times I've stopped on my hurried way to the subway to head back home after the hundredth long day and just stood still. Stood still and looked at the view across Columbus Circle, the City lights, the Park beyond, and the people. And instantly my day was better. In those two seconds that I took the time to look at what I had right then and there, instead of rushing to my plans for the night, for the food I was going to eat before turning to the rest of the day's chores, for the places where my stress-producing masters degree was going to get me (one day), I found the solace that I so often long for in the midst of crazy busy days, weeks, and months, that just blend into that one long rat race that everyone talks of.

But going back to the quote - I think I got a little sidetracked - "Hold fast to your dreams, for without them" ...what would be the point? These dreams could mean anything from completing a marathon or learning to love yourself to having a family or a job that satisfies you. For me, though, the key dreams have been educating myself in my long-ago-chosen field of crime studies and traveling. The red thread weaving through life has been education, toward which and for which I've worked...and worked...and worked. With the dream career and knowledge keeping me on my path and keeping me sane. Traveling, on the other hand is the short term cure for life getting mundane, tough or meaningless. It's a dream that works through smaller goals. It's a break I can take amidst school.

Whatever these dreams may be, they are what make us. We dream of different things as an expression of ourselves, as a way to look forward, to challenge ourselves, and believe in our abilities to reach higher, wider, or to a completely new direction.

At their best, dreams allow our lives to soar above plains, mountains, and seas, but even birds need a land to take off from, and this is what living in current day reality provides for our dreams.

January 20

Quote of the Day

Love me and the world is mine.

Ernest A. Ball

It is interesting to look at the quotes I chose a year ago.

Rewind 365 days, and you would find us on a break from our relationship. Not really - clearly, if Im choosing quotes like this - but trying to work things out, clarify feelings, thoughts, troubles, through taking some distance. Regardless of how hard last year with everything in it was, taking the time to reconsider, putting in the effort to listen to one another and oneself, and most of all having the courage to be honest with ourselves and each other was the best thing we could have done. In the midst of all the uncertainty of what tomorrow will bring to us as a couple, or as individuals for that matter, I would've never imagined us to be doing so well in only some months.

Not that we're out in the clear right now. There is much to work on, many issues to face head on, and much that needs patience from both our sides, but what we maybe took with us from last year is exactly the message of the above quote. Not only is the world mine if you love me because you are my world, but more importantly, when I know you love me (regardless, no matter what, come what may), I can face my demons. I stand stronger when you trust in me, when you support me, and when you let me be me and love me for who I am.

Love me, and the world of my dreams is mine. Because when you love me, I love me more, and a woman who appreciates herself and has faith in her abilities is unshakeable.

January 19

Quote of the Day

In true love the smallest distance is too great and the greatest distance can be bridged.

Hans Nouwens

I come from long-distance parents, and am myself in a long-distance relationship. Well, not so long anymore, now that we share the same continent for a change.

With these long distances comes the considering of time and place in terms of a successful relationship. Considering the importance of seeing each other, hearing each other, touching each other. My mother reminds me every now and then of how they only relied on letters - good old fashioned mail - when in separate countries with my dad, and how this deepened their relationship, and how things are so different in today's world of emails, Facebook, texts, free nationwide calling, not to mention Skype and face-time chats. Yet, nothing replaces the touch of your loved one. Their smell and skin under your palms and close to your face.

I think this is exactly what it means to feel that the smallest distance is too great. The minute you are not one in the physical sense of those words, you feel like something is missing. It doesn't have to lead to tears or heartache or being unable to face the day and even enjoy everyday life. It just means that things aren't as good as they could be.

But, as mr. Nouwens points out, with true love comes the ability to overcome the distance. To still experience closeness regardless of geographical distances. I've experienced this, for example, with my best friend, with whom we see each other a few times a year, and keep in touch almost as rarely..but once we're together, its like nothing changed. Or things did change, but they didn't change us, the relationship we have and the love we have for each other.

True love overcomes even the greatest distance. And most often this is not one that can be measured in kilometers or miles. The greatest distance occurs after a fight. After you said something that hurt the one you love more than you ever intended. After what you said can never be taken back. But with true love it doesn't need to be taken back. With true love even the hurtful, push-you-away words and frustrations can be overcome, because we're all human, and it is this humanness that we love about each other. I don't love you as an incarnation of perfection; I love you for your imperfections, for the little things I can pick on, for the little things that assure me that you, also, can love me even when I would be embarrassed in front of the rest of the world. With you I can be myself in all that I am.

And this is what makes the distances irrelevant.

January 18

Quote of the Day

There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved.

It is God's finger on man's shoulder.

Charles Morgan

Amen.

I have nothing to add,

except that I'm so glad to again be on the same side of the Atlantic with my love.

January 17

Quote of the Day

Name is a fence and within it you are nameless.

Samuli Paronen

I am not sure what it is about this quote that stops me in my tracks whenever I read it. I don´t know what to make of it, but it gets me thinking. And rethinking. And thinking some more.

What´s in a name?

And by a name I don´t necessarily mean just our first, middle, and family names, but our religions, races, ethnicities, the cities and countries we come from, the sexual orientations we hold, or whatever else could be used to define us or to box us.

What does it really mean to be white? or black? or mixed?

Who am I because I am called a Christian?

What does the fact that I have a mixed ethnic background make me?

Does it mean anything, really?

I won´t go into my answers to these thoughts, but just looking at the questions in black and white seems to somewhat point at the triviality of such lables.

But how am I nameless within the fences of my names, and what does that mean?

That no one can see me behind those fences?

Tomorrow I fly back to my life as a New Yorker.

What does that mean?

NEW YORK CITY DOESN`T HAVE TO BE A HEADACHE.

Who knew?
Being four months into City life, I find myself constantly reminding myself to
STOP.
I don´t HAVE TO rush. I don´t have to WALK FAST. Everywhere. All the time.
I don´t have to BE PLUGGED IN - iPod, cellphone, laptop, you name it.
I will not go about my daily life with a constant TO-DO LIST blinding me from the beauty of Columbus Circle and the Park beyond it at night.

This year I´m vowing to breathe easy.
And to listen to more Ingrid Michaelson while people-watching
(outside of the compulsory subway-rides).

January 16th
Quote of the Day

Nothing can bring you peace
but yourself.
Ralp Waldo Emerson


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cD_hbD8fSU

A year ago I turned 25.
25! unbelievable. So this means now I´m 26 and - as my boyfriend reminded me - losing muscle agility and fertility by the day. Nicce.

So with all these good news I thought I need to at least keep my mind busy and working, and stick to my 25th Birthday resolution. All last year I collected amazing quotes. A quote a day - well, more or less so -, and the plan is to post a quote matching today from the quotes I collected from alongside my year of being 25 - and still young, agile, muscular and fertile! Haha. With each quote there´ll always (or should I say hopefully) be a little something more...a picture I took with the quote in mind..some thoughts...prayers..whatever seems to match today´s quote.
I´m thinking this will be a sort of diary-poetry-book for my aging soul (again, thanks bab!), but if anyone´s loving the quotes, feel free to keep coming back and reading.

None of these quotes are mine, unless specifically stated, so all glory and praises to the wise minds of our time and history. I love every single one of these, and I hope you will too.

So here we go (already with a day´s delay, but hey, I´ll post two to catch up!):

January 15th
Quote of the Day

The difference
between the right word and almost the right word
is the difference between lighting
and a lightning bug.
Mark Twain

You know when you´ve thought of saying those three words to that special someone, and you sweat it and you´re nervous, and finally you get the courage to say them and....s/he says something along the lines of "thanks!" or..."oh, that´s so sweet!" In theory nothing wrong with either of those lines, but....seriously??
Note to self I wrote a long time ago after my boyfriend of now four years said "I love you": Never, never answer to that line with: "You´re a good man." Just don´t do it. It doesn´t leave a good impression. Or, who knows, maybe it does, since we´re four years into this and going stronger than ever!
But seriously, think before you blurt just any flow of words out of that mouth God gave you. It can make a serious difference, whether at a job interview, when starting (or ending) a relationship, or just speaking to people in everyday life.
Officially my first lesson for this year.

Hehee.
Tästä ei tule tapaa - vielä [aktiivisesta postailusta siis], mutta on ihan pakko tehdä Marjuskan postaama matkakohdehaaste:

Valitse 5 paikkaa kuvineen, joissa haluaisit käydä. Voi olla mikä paikka tahansa, vaikkapa Jäämeri tai Tokio.

Jos haluat, niin voit vielä kirjoittaa jotain valitsemistasi paikoista.

Paikkojen pitää olla sellaisia, joissa et ole vielä käyny.

1. Cape Town, South Africa












2. Nepal (Mount Everest)


3. Machu Picchu, Peru


4. Easter Island


5. Dubai, The United Arab Emirates


Mutta mun on ihan pakko huijata sen verran että mainitsen Kamputsean, Pohjoisnavan ja Rio de Janeiron Brasiliassa...ja onneks Uutta Seelantia ei enää tarvi mainita ku matka sinne on jo varattu :) :)
Ahh. Ahh.

KOULUT ON OHI!

Mul on ollu taa viikko ihan lassynlaata ku ei oo tarvinnu tehda mitaan. Kahen viikon paasta lenna kotiin, mut sita enne on pakattava ja selvitettava asioita Kaliforniaa varten. Onpas nyt muka jotenkin niin hankalia kaikki kaytannon asiat ku pitais muuttaa maan toiselle puolelle. Jee suomeen pian!
Tassa pari kuvaa viime kuukauden Puerto Ricon matkalta. Vaikka olikin vaan 4paivan reissu, ehin tekemaan vaikka mita -- ja saamaan nuhan ja flunssan mika on vaivannu mua kohta nelja viikkoa.. :(

Morsiamen kanssa just ennen haita.


Nakyma Yanissen (mun kaverin ja morsiamen ja mun vierailun syyn)takaovelta.
Ja tassa kuva viime viikon valmistujaisista kullan kanssa <3.

Associates in Science with Associates in Arts...and more is yet to come.