Be Authentic

 Photo by Alice Karayianni

'I think I fall in love a little bit with anyone who shows me their soul. This world is so guarded and fearful. I appreciate rawness so much.'

Emotion

Raw

Sincere

Authentic

Emotional nakedness is the sexiest state of all

If only we had the courage to always be real with each other, genuine; how much deeper our relationships with others would be. Food for thought :)

Cold Front

Cold Front by Hammock

Now you're so gone
And it's so wrong...
Did I know you?
I get lost without you.
Where did you belong?
Now you're all gone...

Eternal Sunshine

Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes by Beck

Happy Thanksgiving

I'll be cheating a bit today by giving you this link which is basically a blog post I'd written last year. BUT, it wasn't for Thanksgiving, so I wouldn't be cheating in that sense! I'd written it on a day I felt particularly thankful about the people in my life and if I were to type something up today, given the occasion, I'd probably type up the same thing with a bit of rephrasing here and there...

Thank you, and, I love you :)

Just Moping

 Morning Breaks by Craig Armstrong

This time of year always brings me back to you,  

But of course, so does the summer.

It hurts, being in the dark.

Not knowing how you are,

Not knowing where you're at.

I wish you'd given me a clue, some sign,

Sometimes I try to read within the lines.

How did we come to drift away,

Talking less, breathing stress.

We've changed and it just seems...

I've lost you on the way.

When will I learn?

By Alice Karayiannis

The Forest

Photo by Alice Karayianni

I am there now, lost in the forest, dwarfed by the giant trees. Find me.

High Hopes

High Hopes by Kodaline

Seems to me like I'm just scared of never feeling it again

 I know it's crazy to believe in silly things
But it's not that easy

But I've got high hopes, it takes me back to when we started
High hopes, when you let it go, go out and start again
High hopes, when it all comes to an end
But the world keeps spinning around

How this world keeps spinning around 

Just Sometimes

Just one of those days

Hiding in my headphones
Drowning myself in music.

From time to time
I've got the need
To relive (relieve)
Certain emotions.

Just trying to feel the beat

By Alice Karayiannis

Lost Memories

Eet by Regina Spektor

Feeling disconnected today...

Happy Halloween

Photo by Alice Karayiannis

So this year we carved a pumpkin... I'd forgotten how much fun it is :)

Happy Halloween!

Evensong

Evensong by The Innocence Mission

Oh, the lives that brush against us, pass us by and by,
The friends who may or may not come if we would first invite
Oh, to open doors
To always gladly fly and fly
Into the sting of the cold
And prick of the barbed wire

Just This

All I Want by Kodaline

So you brought out the best of me
A part of me I've never seen
You took my soul and wiped it clean
Our love was made for movie screens

Autumn Leaves

Autumn Leaves by Eva Cassidy

Mood today.

The Mist

Photo by Alice Karayiannis

(Listen to this while reading)

There is an eternal mist

So dense

It covers most of this town.

Part of it (One with it)

I'm hiding in it

Losing myself (Finding myself).

Wet and dark

In this quiet stillness

I find peace.

Strange how even in the mist

The beauty of Nature

Overwhelms.

Fadeaway

By Alice Karayiannis

Just Nature

Timekeeper by Michael Brooks

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal. 

 ~ George Gordon Byron, 

There is a Pleasure in the Pathless Woods

Together Invincible

In My Own Words by Craig Armstrong

We sprang ourselves into fields of gold,
Above us the eternal blue with an occasional puff.
Wide awake and carefree,
Ready to conquer the world.
Together we were invincible!

For hours on end we talked, we laughed;
We re-discovered eachother.
Our thoughts and passions trailing away,
Disappearing into a silence of deep understanding between us;
Finally, we were known; we were loved.

And nothing could mar the perfection of it.

By Alice Karayiannis

Iron Sky

Iron Sky by Paolo Nutini

You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful,
to make this life a wonderful adventure

You just got to hold on

Footfalls Echo

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.

~ T. S. Eliot, The Four Quartets

We have this stubborn habit of continuously attempting to grasp what is not here, be it in the past or future. The truth is there is only the present. What has happened, whether we regret it or not, will always remain in the past and is not redeemable. So why do we allow ourselves to suffer? I think regrets play quite a decent role in keeping us from letting go. We ceaselessly reflect back to what could have been had we chosen another path, over and over, as if this endless contemplation might miraculously change what has already happened. It is inevitable that we will sometimes wish that we could go back and relive certain moments, perhaps in order to act differently or to take action even for an inaction we regret. We keep replaying events in our minds, pondering on all different possibilities, as if we can actually change something now. Regrets are a part of life; the best we can do is learn from them. Whatever is done is done and shall remain in the past; I always say that it is for the best, no regrets. We might not be able to see how just yet, but everything happens for a reason, or so I believe. All that we have is the present; the future is not ours to see either. So let go of the past, make the most of the present and que sera sera :) 

Photo by Alice Karayiannis

On Kindness

Kindness.

A little kindness can go a long way, isn't that what they say? A simple smile; smiling to strangers is what I like doing best, and it feels so good when they smile back. Encouraging others; it is so rewarding to see that we have managed to boost someone's self-esteem.

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

 ~ Plato

Little acts of kindness to help someone in need, a form of connection with the people we encounter in our daily life. I'm mainly talking about the ones we do on the spur of the moment; it is so fulfilling to feel that we have gone a little out of our way in order to help someone, made their day a little better, and opportunities lie everywhere. What is best is that every act of kindness seems to have a ripple effect on the universe; observing kindness in others helps us tune into our own feelings of compassion.

The beach I went to this morning, at Latchi (Paphos), had a special facility for people with mobility problems: a seat that enables these people to enter the sea by slowing moving them across a wooden ramp and into the sea where they can then be lifted off it. A woman was trying to get her husband into the sea via this device. However, it would get stuck once it reached a certain point down the ramp and this was caused by pebbles and sand trapped within the gaps on which the seat moved. The woman realised this, stopped the device, and began removing pebbles and sand from the gaps. She tried the device again but to no avail. To my surprise, the person on guard today did nothing. Slowly, however, people began to notice. A man went to give her a hand, followed by a woman, followed by her husband and eventually a couple of others. They all started removing pebbles and sand, more pebbles and sand. They kept trying the device, it wouldn't work. Two more women went to see if they could help with their own ideas. This was clearly a ripple effect! Amazing. Positive vibes all around, I could feel it. And it worked, it finally worked! They all let out a relieved cheer as they watched the device move past the point where it would get stuck, eventually transferring the man into the sea. It must have felt so good for all of those who had helped in the process. 

No act of kindness ever goes wasted, however small. But it's not only about doing a good deed and getting it over with; it's about doing it genuinely, developing kindness and compassion within us.

"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible"

~ Dalai Lama

 Photo by Alice Karayiannis

My Selves

This is All: The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn by Aidan Chambers

I came across this in the book I'm currently reading and it is spot on so I had to share. 

Now you know a little more about me, although I'm sure we all share these different selves from time to time :) Goodnight!

Summer Finally

Le temps de l'amour by Françoise Hardy

C'est le temps de l'amour,

Les temps des copains et de l'aventure...

Crane Dance

The Crane Dance by Ludovico Einaudi

Been listening to this on repeat all day. Its melody is so soft and soothing, it kind of brings you down to earth. Helps me focus on revision. Weird mood today; worried about exams yet too tired to actually feel anything. Meh... 12 days to go.

Have I ever mentioned that I love observing birds?

Blue Space

 Photo by Alice Karayiannis

Maybe they'll talk
Soul to soul head to head heart to heart eye to eye
Rise up to that blue space above the clouds
Where troubles die
And tears dry

Separate Realities

 

Photo by Alice Karayiannis

 We each live in different realities.

No matter how much we've been around certain people, observed their reactions and approaches to different situations and watched them grow, we'll never be able to understand them as fully as we think. No matter how close we are with certain people, to the extent that one would believe that our realities may be interlocking, our realities are, indeed, different.

Our experiences are never the same; each of us sees things differently. So much effort is wasted in trying to make others see things the way we see them. We argue with them, trying to prove our point, and become disappointed when they don't seem to understand something that is so obvious to us. 

That is why we must realise that every pair of eyes is different; each of us interprets the world the way we want to, the way we've learned to as we were growing up. There is no one, single reality which is consistent to all of us and we must respect this in order to understand other people and situations better.

***

"It is neurologically obvious that no two brains have the same genetically-programmed hard wiring, the same imprints, the same conditioning, the same learning experiences. We are all living in separate realities. That is why communication fails so often, and misunderstandings and resentments are so common. I say "meow" and you say "Bow-wow," and each of us is convinced the other is a bit dumb."

~ Robert Anton Wilson

A Postcard

Postcards From Far Away by Coldplay

 I could feel it go down 

Bittersweet, I could taste in my mouth

 Silver lining the clouds

Oh and I

I wish that I could work it out 

...

Oh and I

I wonder what it's all about

Happy April

Photo by Alice Karayiannis

Drifting Apart

Sometimes we drift apart from people whom we thought would be with us for quite some time, for years to come even. I'm not saying forever because nothing lasts forever, after all. Life's all about learning how to let go; it's the only way to find peace and balance in the present moment since we can't always control what is happening. 

So why do we drift apart? 

People change as they go through different phases of their life, feelings change, things that were once common bonds, common ground, cease to be. Distance separates people (although I tend to disagree with this one because where there is a will there is a way). Sometimes friendships come to an end because one end realises that the only reason they were holding on for so long was because they were hoping for something stronger, love maybe. There's a fine line between friendship and love.

It's sad when long friendships fade out. The people who knew us best, with whom we'd talk every single day, no longer occupy the same space in our life. Strangely enough, though, most of the time these are the people who'll make us feel that not one day has passed since the last time we saw them; they'll always be a part of us no matter what.

Marooned by Pink Floyd

 

Goodnight :)

The Swan

"For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it."

Photo by Alice Karayiannis

You flew gracefully towards me and past me and I gazed in awe;

Your elegant bearing confirming that you were not just any bird :)

~

Our encounter may have been brief, but my mission was accomplished!

By Alice Karayiannis

I'm Back

And I'm back; back in St Andrews but also back to blog-writing. It's been a while - 25 days to be precise - and oh so many things can happen in such little time! Doors close, new ones open; people walk in and out of your life; life happens. Everything happens for the best :)

Time flies when you're enjoying yourself! I was free and carefree...and FREE. I realised, yet again, that amazing things can happen once you get out of that comfort zone. Life is full of little miracles, you won't regret it; surprise yourself! The past weeks seem like a distant, blissful dream; like those dreams you never want to wake up from, the ones which suddenly end and plunge you back into reality. 

It was about time though, I guess; let's get this semester over with! I'm ready.
 

Photo by Alice Karayiannis

New Year

I came across this last night. I think it perfectly captures everything I would want to wish to anyone - and myself included - for this new year; I couldn't have rephrased it better. A new year always brings with it a chance to make a new start, a brand new beginning. It may not feel like it yet; after all, 2013 was only yesterday, but we could start by thinking about some new year's resolutions and making some effort to keep them this time.

'Today is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.'

Let go of everything and anyone that makes you unhappy, that doesn't serve you in any way. Try to forgive the ones who have done you wrong and move on, they don't deserve your time. Learn to accept what is; surrender to the moment, even if it's not a pleasant one. Acceptance is hard but it frees us of a huge burden. There is no reason for resistance, just let it be. Always remember that when one door closes, another one opens.

Let your soul shine!

Trust in your heart. 

Be brave. 

Have courage. 

Be fearless. 

Be true to yourself. 

Embrace simplicity.

Create a life you love.

Never stop dreaming and never let go of hope

Believe in miracles :)

* Happy New Year 2014 *

Holding On

This place has become awfully silent lately... Most of us have already left while the few of us who still remain are (idly) preparing for their last exams. Who are we kidding, after all...

The brisk sound of rolling suitcases on the path beneath my window late at night, early in the morning; people leaving. That will be me in three days, finally going home. 

Hold on, keep strong.

Special Date

And just a little something I forgot to mention in my earlier post.

I'm sure you've all noticed today's date! 

 

*~ 11/12/13 ~*

It's the 11th day of the 12th month of the 13th year of the millennium. 

And it's a once in a life-time date... 

Also, the sum of 11, 12, and 13 is 9. 

The number 9 is considered to be ‘lucky’ 

in the Chinese culture as it means 'long lasting'.

I hope that today brings good luck to all of you!

Keep positive, awesome things are always on their way :)

One Down

And yes! My first exam is over with; only one to go. The paper was decent. A lot better than I'd expected. Surprisingly enough, I hadn't even stressed over it. I was surprised at myself, that was pretty unlike me. Those who know me can definitely confirm that!!

I was scared a while back, yes; but then, nothing! Absolutely nothing. You know those times when you start getting worried just because you're not worried and you're wondering what's wrong with yourself? Well, not even that! I was completely chill. And I'm very proud of myself for that. No sleepless nights whatsoever this time round. 

I think that's what happens when you know you've done everything you could've done; you know that it's not up to you anymore because you've tried so hard. You know that if there's some form of justice then you're bound to get something out of it. Although I don't know if that's the only case because it's not as if I don't do this every time before an exam. I always try my best.

Maybe it's just the realisation that you never gain anything from stressing. It's just an exam; it's important but it's not a matter of life and death. You've tried and you'll definitely be trying your best. The day will come, you'll take the exam and yes, you'll have gained your freedom once again!

I don't know why we stress so much. I mean, it's not as if I'm completely over stressing, I was worried about how to fit things into my suitcase last night. Such an irony! But I really need to get this word out of my dictionary. Well, I definitely feel closer to doing that :)

Oh, and I woke up to this today:

Photo by Alice Karayiannis

Life is good!

Funkadelic Night

It's late and I'm in a psychedelic mood tonight :) I've been listening to this instrumental song on repeat all night, loving the atmosphere it's creating. It's deep and soulful. Low volume, low lighting; feels pretty good. I'm all for these kinds of nights; if only I could also open the window, but I figured that wouldn't be too wise of me in December(?). But it does kind of remind me of the long, carefree, summer nights in Cyprus...

Well, here it is; enjoy!

Maggot Brain by Funkadelic

Goodnight!

Hello December

December already!

Time passes quite slowly when having to study for exams while you'd rather be at home; but, I must admit that the first semester of my second year at uni has flown by! I remember feeling a little overwhelmed at the beginning; another year, having to re-adapt after a long, long summer... I remember September as if it was yesterday, but at the same time some things seem so far away... Oh, how time flies!

So, happy December everyone! May it be a wonderful month for all of us, with the cosiest of memories :)

 

(and make my wishes come true!)

Thank You

The Universe is everything; everything surrounding us in our little world. The things we see, the people we meet, our loved ones, our home, our thoughts, our ideas, our dreams... It is all that exists and all that could exist! I like to believe that everything happens for a reason and that all things happen when they're meant to happen. Things always fall into place eventually, the Universe keeps proving it over and over again; we must never lose hope. 

"Do not lose hope, miracles dwell in the invisible" ~ Rumi

There's magic everywhere, you just have to believe in it. You never know what the next moment will be bring... The Universe works in mysterious ways but it's always for our own good, we just need to trust it. And never forget the Law of Attraction; think positive and positive things will come your way; life is meant to be abundant!

"When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." ~ Paulo Coelho

Since it is Thanksgiving today, I just wanted to take some time off revision (...) to thank the Universe for always having my back :)

 (and thank you for all the good things coming my way which I've yet to find out!)

Say It

It's so sad how we sometimes leave important things unsaid. What is it that holds us back? Why can't we just express ourselves freely? We always regret it in the end but it might be too late to go back, or the time might not be right. The time might not ever be 'right' though, if we just sit and wait for the right moment life will pass us by, and then what... Life is too short and unpredictable to leave important things unsaid. It is easy for us to say the things that need to be said when we know we have no time, why not now?

When you're given the chance to say something, say it, don't delay it.

Christmas Countdown

Dear Universe, 

There'd better be a good reason for me having to wait 9 whole extra days in order to take my second exam which is on the same syllabus as the first one. I mean, come on, I have the chance to go home so early for Christmas (first exam is on the 10th of December) and you're holding me here for this! So not cool. 

I guess I'll be returning home on the 20th of December. Listening to Christmas carols isn't helping the situation when having to study for exams, but hey, I get 5 weeks of carefree holidays after this...perhaps I should be less greedy. Just 4 more Fridays left, yeah, that makes it sound better. Just a couple of deadlines and a couple of exams. Am I being too impatient?

I won't forget, Universe, I'll be waiting for that reason!

Yours sincerely,

Disappointed Student

Feeling Thankful

 Photo: Alice Karayiannis

There's always something to be thankful for. 

Today I'm feeling thankful for all the people in my life; those who matter to me. Those who love me and support me in their own way. Those who believe in me. Those who are always there for me for the good times and the bad times (coping with the mood swings, haha). Those who know how to put a smile on my face when I need it most :)

And, last but not least, those who have had an impact on my life in one way or another, making me who I am today. 

Thank you, and, I love you :)

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”

~ Albert Scweitzer

Full Moon

Photo: Alice Karayiannis

Full moon tonight... 

 

Don't forget to make your wish!

 

:)

Outer Space

Meet me in outer space
We could spend the night
Watch the earth come up
 *

Won't you come with me?
We could start again 

:)