smile please.

i met them two
ladies, at 4th and Brannan.

their face had given up
on wrinkles.
their hair was warm as
the lord’s blessing
any given Sunday.
and colored as bright as
Lucifer’s face.
their bent back pointed
towards the future
of us.
all of us.

one of them had colored
dotted socks on.
maybe they matched.
or that was the trick?
the other one had the
sleight of the bluest southern skies.

they were both out
and about at an AM in the morning
when you’d still be regretting
the existence of your loneliness
or awkwardness of last night
in your dreams.

them?

i’ve never seen a smile so contagious.

vacuum.

my heart has a place that is
never going to be filled.

you have that too.

and you will know it.

during your worst time,
and especially
during your best times

you will know
more than ever.

and we will together wait
and
wait

in that space.

that’s all we can do.

Let’s taco ’bout hope

It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my beliefs, because sometimes they seem so absurd and impossible to believe in.

Especially when everyone’s trying to influence them by listing out hundreds of reasons to not believe in them anymore.

Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that the heart knows the best.

Or intuition.

Or gut feeling.

Whatever you call it.

There is so much good in this world, and inside everyone of you, and it’s worth fighting for.

When you have lost hope, you have lost everything.

And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope.

Always.

So when life feels like a taco shell without any filling, just hold onto the hope that the beef, cheese, guacamole and optional hot sauce is coming.

Because it will happen.

Eventually.

The good and the ugly

I’ll give you
everything I possess.

the good and the ugly.

conflicting collection
of memories,
of events,
of worlds,
collide
to form the person
you see.

just take me
for who I am
and who I will be,
I swear
I’ll do the same.

even though
I took you in
the moment you asked
for my name.

Sometimes I write stupid stuff

And sometimes I write smart stuff.

But it doesn’t really matter.
You know why?

Because people don’t remember stupid stuff.

Right people.

Most of them don’t even notice.
Even if they do, they’ll stop reading it.

That’s it.

People only remember the smart stuff you do.
They will only remember your successes.
They won’t remember your failures.

Your successes are what people will talk about.
Not your failures.

People care about the good stuff.

Right people.

We talk about Steve Jobs’ successes.
Or Maya Angelou. Oprah. Elon Musk. Ratan Tata. John Lennon.

We talk about the good things they did.
How they changed the world for good.
How influential they were in our lives.

Not about their failures.
Not about people who spread violence or hatred.

Only the smart stuff.

And that’s the beauty of it all.

Whatever you do, you need to get it right only once.
And when you get it right once, everything else doesn’t matter.

You are a teacher…..yes YOU!

I just realized something…Everyone in this world is a teacher! Not literally everyone is teaching in a school or a university, but everyone is still a teacher. Now how can everyone be a teacher? Don’t we need other people also in this world? Yes, there are a lot of occupations in this planet but the one I’m talking about is not an occupation. Recently I was reading a blog on how to do something that matters, and I read these lines,

“The simple process goes something like this:

1. Know yourself. Wake up to your talents, your strengths, the things you love and hate.
2. Use it to help others in a meaningful way.
3. Offer a fair price in exchange for your help (or work with a person or company already having the impact you want to have).”

If you look at these lines closely and carefully, you’ll understand what I mean. Its saying to know your talents, help others, and earn some money! Think for a while, that’s what teacher do. They are good at their own subjects. They help their students. And they earn some good money too!  And not just teachers, every occupation in this world do the same thing. They help people and earn money.

So doesn’t that make this world a place full of teachers where everyone is helping each other, even if it is to earn money? Lawyers, doctors, engineers, burger guys, cleaners, and everyone you can think of is teaching and helping everyone around them. Now the fact that they are teaching everyone around them doesn’t sound so logical, right? How are they teaching?

Teaching is what occurs when you help someone. When you help someone, you teach that person how to do that job. Even if you don’t do that, like some would say that if a doctor performs a surgery, he is not teaching his patient how to do a surgery, and that’s right also! But he’s teaching far more important things than just doing a surgery. He’s teaching him that there are people in this world willing to help him. Your each and every action is teaching someone something. This is a really, really important thing than anything else. Because that teaching doesn’t stop at him learning it, it continues on and on to other people as well. It’s a kind of chain reaction, but this time, it’s not a harmful one!

Everyone is a teacher in his/her own way….So what are you teaching to this world? 😀