Pay it forward…the butterfly award

Years ago, I watched this beautiful movie Pay it Forward that inspired me endlessly as I am sure it inspired everyone else who has ever watched it. It’s the kind of movie that makes you want to go out and change the world. Can one good deed change the world? Yes, it can…if you pay the deed forward. The movie revolves around the obligation to pay the world back with three good deeds when you receive the favor of one good deed. Give back to the world three times the goodness that you receive from it. When someone does something nice for you, don’t just pay the person back for their good deed, find three other people out there in the world that need you and pass the good deed forward.

I was reading through the comments on one of my blogs yesterday when I noticed a really nice thing that someone had done for me. Thank you, Alok for giving your butterfly award to my Lens of a vagabond blog. It totally made my day. And while I know the below don’t really need me to brighten up their day, I think they truly deserve the niceness of the award and I’m simply paying it forward:

1. Prashant Bhardwaj (Om):
He is an extremely talented photographer. If you’re ever looking for photos to tug at your heart, check out his blog. I find the photos on his blog extremely inspiring and truly enjoy looking at the unique perspective of the world through his view finder.

2. Alok (Hello World):
Yes. Yes. I know he already got awarded. But since I’m picking blogs I truly enjoy looking at, I’ll be honest and pick this one again anyway. I like how his blog always has variety. No new post is like the one before. Journeys taken, conversations had, photos clicked, movies watched, all are fair game on this blog.

3. Diana (Expressions of Life):
She has such an interesting and unique way of writing. She could be talking about the most mundane, every day event of our lives, but her unique perspective, her different way of looking at the event makes the post so very interesting to read.

4. Cuckoo (Cuckoo’s Cosmos):
She doesn’t just own a blog, she owns an entire universe of blogs. Want a hub of activity? Go over to Cuckoo’s Cosmos. It’s always bustling with people, both new and old, with opinions on everything and anything. With three separate blogs on musings, travel and photography, you wont run out of things to read and ogle over.

5. Dust Unsettled:
When I first started my blogs and thought I was simply talking to myself, the first ever comment on my blogs came from him. Look at the first comment on my first post on Lens of a vagabond and you’ll notice it’s from him. He was always so encouraging. It saddens me to see that he may perhaps have left the blog world entirely, and it’s a pity because he is an amazingly good writer. Some of the best posts I have ever read came from his blog. I hope someday he returns to writing again because he does it really well.

I was asked to pick five people to pass the award to. If I could pick more, I'd have picked every single last one of the blogs on my blog roll. They're all very interesting in their own unique way. I wouldn't have you on my list otherwise now would I?

~vagabond~ © 2008

Wishing and hoping

Have you ever desperately pleaded with life to make things go your way? You begged, bargained and pleaded that things would turn out the way you wanted them to. Wished and hoped. And then one day, boom! suddenly all that you’ve been asking for gets granted. Exactly how you asked for it. Except that now you realize that you just don’t want it anymore and that life was perfect just as things were before.

I guess I just don’t know what to wish for right now.


~vagabond~ © 2008

The Chaos of Life

Do things happen for a reason or are they just random occurences strung out of sequence on the string of life? Does life just happen to us or do we actively choose the circumstances we land ourselves in? Am I just a natural born klutz at walking right into disaster or has disaster been stalking me all along?

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about life and the series of events that have landed me to where I am right now (in an uncomfortable tight spot) and wondering how I got there in the first place and if I could have avoided these circumstances in any way. And the answer is both yes and no. (Erm. Blame it on the dual Gemini tendencies in me. One twin says yes. And the other then has to step in and say no.)

Yes, I could have made different decisions at different stages of my life. Gone a different direction. Followed a different path. But I wonder if in some parallel universe, I would have still landed up here right in the same spot, regardless of which direction I wandered. Because all those different decisions, all those different actions would still have been guided by the same spirit of who I am deep down inside.

A while back I read a book on Chaos theory and I learnt of the butterfly effect. The butterfly effect refers to the idea that the smallest change in one corner of the world, such as the flapping of a butterfly's wings can lead to the most profound changes in another corner of the world. The notion that if we were to go back in time and change the smallest bit of anything, things just wouldnt be the same anymore. The one small change would escalate into a series of larger changes of much bigger impact and before we know it, life would move along in an entirely different trajectory, and we'd find ourselves at an entirely different end point.

And I think about it and wonder if that's truly how my life operates. Would things really be any different for me right now had I made different decisions, walked alternative paths? In as much as I'd like to believe otherwise, somehow I dont think circumstances would change a whole lot. Because all those different decisions would still have been made by the same soul. A different situation, a different scenario and I'd have still wanted what I want out of life. Perhaps I'd end up making a whole series of different decisions that would lead me inadverently along a path that is just parallel to the one I am on today. And despite walking a parallel path in some parallel world, somehow I believe that the spirit of who I am would have called upon me to still be present under different circumstances at the same junction in life. Perhaps this particular situation, this tight uncomfortable spot that I am in right now wouldnt have been a part of my life, but then there would be other situations just like this one, and somehow despite meandering along a different path, I'd someday still find myself back at the same end point.

Perhaps I just want to believe that I can change the course of my life, and perhaps to a smaller extent I really can. But truth is that even if I had the capacity to make that choice, to delete some events and edit others, the true calling of my soul would still find a way to lead me back where I'm supposed to despite a different trajectory.

~vagabond~ © 2008

Farewell

Dear Nagging thoughts in my head, Silly irrationalities, Anxieties over what-will-be, and all other assortment of bullying thoughts,

Despite the enormous amount of space you occupy in my head, you are a tiny speck in the context of my universe. And while it has been cozy obsessing over you, I simply cannot allow you to ruin my life anymore. So I'm looking you in the eye and asking you to leave.

Goodbye. And goodriddance.

Yours truly,
~vagabond~

PS. I know you'll try to stay in touch, but really, you dont have to.


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~vagabond~ © 2008