Memories

Shine

It’s amazing how people are doing things in such a tempered manner. It seems like it’s always a matter of life or death and we end up placing high values on things that are, otherwise, ordinary. 

We push and shove as much of life into small little frames of time as possible. We stop along our journey just long enough to take a picture. Instead of stopping Nd taking it all in.

We end up creating physical memories instead of living them. It’s like our minds are so full of other crap that we are constantly using “immediacy” as a hard drive. The difference is, this one gets full.

There are some amazing moments I remember from way before cameras were a constant…  others I forgot because I was too concerned with wether or not it was good enough. I don’t want to take all the credit from this fantastic piece of tech, some other memories I have are saved in a picture, but I end up remembering what led to it.

We were careful taking pictures then (revealing them was expensive) but it was a different thrill. We had to wait for the roll to be over and when we finally had them revealed, it was like re-living those moments again and again – with good or bad angles. Now we just take as many as we need, we pose, delete, filter… until what was supposed to be save becomes unrecognisable.

When we finally “wake up” and finish capturing the attention of others, we are onto the next thing. And in a blink… a year goes by.

You’ve travelled , seen a lot of things, been a lot of places but there is no recollection of the moments that were felt.

We try so much to see everything that in the end of the day, we end up seeing nothing. Our lives aren’t movies and they don’t have to look like one either. And since we’re not actors, there’s no need to pretend. 

Take it slow and steady because the rest of your life will come and go soon enough. Enjoy every bit of it. Share the photos that came out perfect (the one that makes you look at it and laugh, the one that makes you think: what the hell was I doing there) and not the “perfected” ones.

Share one with me. I’d love to see the real side of you 🙂

Perception

30 seconds. That’s all it took for him to fall asleep that afternoon. He never sleeps well, always fidgeting. He says he doesn’t dream but, as creepy as it sounds, I’ve watched him and it isn’t true: facial expressions, talking, laughing.

Micheal White is a man that will make you wonder. He doesn’t need much, lives one day at a time. Doesn’t worry about savings or getting paid huge sums. Actually, he doesn’t worry about anything.

“As long as it keeps me going” – he says.

Sometimes I think he knows something the rest of the world doesn’t.

Funny character… a simpleton and complex in so many ways. He makes my heart race and head spin. Makes me unsteady and uneasy.

Needless to say, I’m in love with the man and all I’m telling you is absolutely biased – but I think you should all know him.

Without sounding too clichê, I want to share with you all this mans madness and sobriety, and how he changed my perception and my life.

So here he is.. No filters.

Maddening

#dailyprompt #perceptions #maddening

The Journey

Conundrum

(…)”The accumulated clutter of day to day existence – the lapses of conscience, the unpaid bills, the bungled opportunities, the dust under the couch, the incapable prison of your genes – all of it is temporarily forgotten.”
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

There are three things that I hate with a passion:
– Quotes without references;
– Wasting food;
– Bash my little toe against furniture.

Glad I got it out of my chest.

We all strive to get somewhere and we’ve traced a hypothetical path in our minds. BUT, when you finally get there, you’re either too old to bother and it’s not even worth dying for, or you ask “now what?” Or “this can’t be it” – so you start scrutinising your work and thinking that something isn’t right, that you’re not that good…
But then it hit me… there are plenty of incredible things that go unseen, unheard and unshared, why do we denigrate our own? RELEVANCE IS RELATIVE! There are so many things to fight and strive for… why do we do it so hard for a pay check?
BECAUSE we need money and it’s easy to stick to what works… I’ve done it, we all have.

Coming to England was my way of “sticking to the man”, do different and move on. It was a big change in my life and if you’re not constantly challenging yourself you will stop in time.
But… Was it a quick fix? Was escaping the real world of: “No work for you after you spent all your money on a degree”, the easy way? I wasn’t trying to escape reality… I was trying to find it!! Surely there was more to life than what I was doing…
I tried to fool myself into believing I wanted to stay in Portugal, I wanted to make the difference in the country that saw me grow and turn into this fine specimen. What I really wanted was a change! So what I did was victimise myself and become an immigrant.

I didn’t know what I was signing up for… Countless times I cursed myself for coming to the UK. My patients constantly ask: “Why would you do that?”. (because I love rain and English tea, what else?!)
Nothing comes without flaws, failure or frustration. It pisses you off and tears you down, and if you’re lucky you have good friends to pick up the pieces. If not that you have to DIY the shit out of it.

In the end it’s all about looking at what you achieved, the people you touched (easy here) and the life you’re longing to get. If you leave your shell behind, hold on to your coins and work hard… It all works out in the end!

#conundrums #intothewild #liveyourlife

 

Male or Female?

Tough Questions

Endings don’t have to be emotionally wrecking if you believe you did everything you could, you enjoyed yourself and you’re prepared to let go.
Ending is another chapter and it will be the permanent state of everything
Valete: Yes, it’s chapter…the last one.
Me: Still a chapter! Bear with me, trying to be philosophical here.

Anyways…

In Latin based languages, everything has a male and a female: objects and feelings, planets and countries, animals and minerals (You get the idea).
Sometimes I ask Tom what he thinks a certain word is and he has a theory: “everything that has some sort of beauty related to it, will be female.”
Me: Tom, is the sea male or female?
Tom: Female… temperamental as f”#$
(He actually got this one wrong. It’s male.)

Me: Tom? What do you think LIFE is? Male or Female?
Tom: Female – he says – it’s painfully beautiful”

And I should’ve asked straight away what he though DEATH was… You would’ve thought they’re opposites but it’s also female.
Death can be beautiful sometimes, it can be liberating but the process is far from ideal…
In the years to come we’ll all die with some form of cancer (the ones that don’t get run over or blown up). If you do get to that age, when your bones can’t keep you up vertical, your wrinkles are a road map of experiences and you can’t make out what that tattoo on your lower back is anymore, because your mind starts playing sick tricks on you… When that day comes, Death will be like an old friend bringing that eternal rest you deserve so much…
Epicurus once said: “Death is nothing to us, since when we are , death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.”

So I guess that one of the toughest questions out there is:
“Are you prepared to let go?”

#epicurus #dailypostchallenge #toughquestions

A job

Second post in 1 week! What an achievement. My first post was a little bit unorthodox so I thought I’d let you guys know what you’re dealing with.First things first – am I the only one who takes about 2hrs to write a post? I’m still trying to figure this whole blog thing out. What to write about and how to put it.

I’m just another human that is onto the illusion that knows exactly what she is doing. (I’m just guessing really!) And this game of life is absolutely frustrating.

There’s an obvious path that most of us follow (or not):

• Finish school – Check
• Go to work/uni – Check
• Make money – Check
• Stay close to friends and family – Only 2hrs 30 min away… by plane!
• Get a mortgage – too soon
• Have kids – too young
• Find time for yourself – ahahahah
• Die with regret that you should’ve/ would’ve/ could’ve done things differently – On my way there…

So. I’m a Clinical Physiologist and I torture people with breathing issues. (And boy, do I enjoy it)
“Oh.. are you a nurse? a doctor?” – you ask. Not a nurse, not a doctor. Just one of those jobs you only find out about when you’re applying to go to University – which of course it wasn’t my case (ahahahah, yes it was). And I work with some funny old machinery and see some funny old people.

Most of my patients ask (and picture this with most annoyingly patronising voice you can): “is this what you do all day? Don’t you get bored? It’s amazing what you can do with computers these days”

– Nooo – I say, rolling my eyes until I can see the back of my neck – it’s not ALL I do, its most of it! And yes! Whoever invented this machine must have been BORED out of his mind. I mean, at what point in your life do you stop and think: 

“I know what I’m going to do! A machine to blow into that tells me how your lungs work. And to make it more fun, you put this exceptionally large mouth piece and a nose peg” 

“That’s perfect”

Lovely isn’t it?

#lungfunction #clinicalphysiology #job

#everydayinspiration

The Beginning

I remember the day I first fantasised with the idea of having a blog:

It was New Year 2014 and I thought
“How much more inspired could I be? Loads of resolutions ahead, a new country to explore and a raging hangover”.
And even though it was raining, I was adamant to start it.
“Why wouldn’t you start it just because it was raining” – you ask. Because I don’t function very well without a bit of sunshine.
RAINS and I’m a miserable cow.
SUNSHINE and I’m possessed by Shakespeare.

ANYWAY, I quickly got going…and I didn’t get far. I must admit: I’m one of those people that, if it doesn’t go as planned the first time, then I wasn’t made for it. (I once said this during an interview… I didn’t get the job. I’m sure they missed my point of view). AND after a few minutes I quit, for the single idiotic reason: all the names I wanted for my blog were taken. Guess there are a lot of intelligent and charismatic people out there.

Nearly 3 years have gone by and “Why today?” – you impatiently ask.

Me: “BECAUSE I CAN! I’m a woman of the 21st century!”
Valete: “Was it because you were bored to death and with too crap of a internet provider that wouldn’t allow you to stream anything?”
Me: Yes, but that’s not of the matter now.

Because I’m sick of waiting for the next Monday, the next month or the next Year! Thursday, I choose you! No more:

• Let’s search for a good, catchy name;
• Let’s look for the best app compatible with your phone;
• Let’s decide what to write/ talk about before hand;
• Let’s talk with everybody on messenger;
• Let’s scroll through some 9GAG posts;
• Let’s have a bath;
• Let’s wait for a deep Kafkaesque existential revelation;

Some of these never happened (others obviously did), because I’m a lazy ass always trying to find excuses for my idleness.
So it’s with a lot of pride that I present to you my dear Valete.

______________________________

Valete Fratres means Farewell Brothers, but sounds a lot more poetic to write it in latin, don’t you think?

#valetefratres #thebeginning #ididit

 #everydayinspiration