Carousels

To new beginnings in familiar places…what goes around comes around.

7th June, 2016: We wheeled ourselves into a haphazard circle on a sunny afternoon in the midst of reddish dirt and wisps of dried grass. The breeze swept carefully tucked hair and long dresses up ever so slightly, teasing us all, playful. We turned like a merry-go-round in third gear, a carousel of chit chat about us. There’s just something about small talk, especially when it no longer feels so small…

8th June, 2016: Old faces in new places have made me feel somewhat dizzy, a retrospect looming. I’m beginning  to feel like the world is a little pocket, occasionally stuffed with the old acquaintance or childhood friend who once played pretend with me, scribbling with crayons just outside the box. Coincidences are funny and it’s quite a jest to welcome, even if it’s met with some old-fashioned and long learned apprehension.

9th June, 2016: An unconventional end befell my collection of books stored away in boxes 575 kilometers away, in the form of insects with an unfortunate appetite for moist pages…dampened by the careless faucet left leaking in the upstairs flat,water dripping its way down the cracked cement. Sometimes it’s better to forget rather than be maudlin and so I’ve taken to technology for my reading, an artifice in its screen and font adjustments, replacing the paperbacks and hardcovers. Although it warmed up to me, I think I like to romanticize the past and the people boxed away in it, love them as I do.

10th June, 2016: The sound of clanging forks and chit chat is the perfect backdrop for a bit of light reading, as a cup of tea sits upon the table. The breeze is dotted with drizzle as the finished paper cup threatens to totter over just shy of the large windows. Perfect weather can make for less of a dull time, ticking away in an otherwise unoccupied hour here and now. A recipe for renewal.

11th June, 2016: Thumbing pages of books and notepads has become second nature, a tell tale sign of my mind wandering. A friend asked me if it calmed me down but quite the contrary, I think it makes me feel all the more elated, alive with ideas and quaint possibilities.

My Love for Silverstein’s Poetry

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”

-Albus Dumbledore

I’ve always thought Shel Silverstein’s poetry is like little drops of magic, short and silly and always guaranteed to put a smile on your face. We can grow up and pretend all we want that we’re mature adults who only have a taste for Dickinson or Plath but you know there’ll always be a special place for those poems you read as a child. I know I do.

I can relate to each of my favourite’s even now.

Because…

I can be as active as I want but the truth is I’m a lot like lazy Jane. For me, home delivery is a god send.

And when things seem tough and there’s a job to do that you find so daunting and terrible that you wish someone else could just get on with it instead of you, you’ve got a nice little reminder that somebody has to do it. And there’s a reason that somebody is you.

Then there are times when we think we’ve done so well, ha ha, how funny those stories are when we realise what we’ve done. (How sad it is if we never realise, don’t you think?)

And sometimes, Silverstein hints at the hard parts of life, like the masks we wear and walk around.

Or how tough it is being yourself in a crowd of muggles… without a single word (Dumbledore underestimated the power of illustrations, I suppose.)

For all these reasons and more, I will always adore Shel Silverstein’s poetry. After all, who said wisdom can’t rhyme?

InuYasha was my Childhood

I’m writing this as a twenty year old college student who’s just completed binge-watching the last few seasons of an anime that has and always will be incredibly important to me: InuYasha. Today I finally watched the very last episode and the journey across 192 episodes and four movies with InuYasha, Kagome, Sango, Miroku and Shippo that began at the age of seven has come to a bittersweet end. Towards the end, my heart felt like it would burst out of happiness, butterflies fluttered in my stomach and I could not for the life of me wipe that geeky grin off my face. I cried at the ending, it was perfect.It left me wondering what to do with my life as if an emotional apocalypse had occurred which, for me, is a tell tale sign of a good show or book. It’s world consumes you. That’s the beauty of it.

As I sat there on my bed, I thought back to when it all began. I remember I was introduced to the show by my neighbour and we would role play it in our backyards (she was Kagome and I was Sango). Suffice to say, I loved the show a great deal. But over the years, I’d forgotten about it, left off half way through the series and when I resumed it last year, it was if I’d never left. This left me wondering why things we associate with our childhood never leave us. InuYasha gave me the answer.

Source: Google Images

If you think about it, our hearts are like the Shikon Jewel. There is both good and evil battling within them. As children, our hearts are pure but as we dwell on this planet, growing older, they become tainted with worry and hardship. But that tiny ray of light from those days of playing hop-scotch and marbles is still there, shining ever slightly though we may not know nor remember. If you revisit parts of your childhood like a book or a show, that ray of light beams stronger until the whole is purified again and for that nostalgic, reminiscent period of time, it’s as if the darkness had never been. I think that’s why the things we connect with our childhood will always have a special place in our hearts, no matter how old or mature we believe we are. They’re safe little pockets to be tucked into. For me, InuYasha is one of them. While it may sound a bit over the top, I assure you it’s not. On scrolling through tumblr and reading KagoMay posts where people describe how they were first introduced to the show, many people resonated with this feeling. I think it’s only understandable if you watch it for yourself (which I highly recommend you do).

Source: Google Images

The characters are unique and heart-warming. InuYasha is one of those protagonists you’ll never forget. He’s hot headed, impulsive and moody but when coupled with that soft spot for his friends, love interests (Kikyo and Kagome) and Ramen noodles, it makes him endearing and badass all at once. He’s so multidimensional. Sango is my favourite female character with her amazing demon slaying skills and sense of moral righteousness.

Not only are they humorous but the characters are also troubled with their own pasts and their own individual challenges looming ahead of them which makes their journey even more intriguing. InuYasha’s life was always complicated what with his tragic love for Kikyo, his being an outcast as a half-demon and so much more and he comes to learn what it is to trust and rely on others, something he never quite understood before. Kagome struggles with the comparisons between her and Kikyo, attempting to assert her individualism and harnessing her own powers. Miroku’s wind tunnel curse and Sango’s troubles about her brother Kohaku are their own burdens to bear. I love how they all overcame their struggles together. One thing this anime teaches us is to keep fighting the demons (literally and figuratively) no matter how hard it is.

I’m aware of the shortcomings of the show but truthfully, I don’t mind. Yes, the fight scenes can get quite repetitive but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Contrary to popular opinion, I enjoy the fillers a lot. They’re a nice little does of humor after a couple of intense battle episodes.

So thank you to Rumiko Takahashi for creating InuYasha and to everyone involved in making the anime as brilliant as it is.

Magic Never Dies

Image Source: Google

The Times said “J.K Rowling has woken up a whole generation to reading.” And this could not be any more true.

I find it difficult to imagine a childhood, any childhood for that matter, without this series. They would be replete and demotivated if a travesty like Harry Potter deprivation were to occur. Although the Harry Potter books were not among my initial reads as a child, they reassured me that reading is a habit that will pay in full…especially if you land on the right series. Because it is a gold mine sitting at the end of the rainbow, just waiting to be discovered.

There is more magic to the Harry Potter series than you would assume on reading it (although with Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans and Quidditch, it may be difficult to imagine). There is something magical in itself how words can create worlds. How we grow with fictional characters, maturing and developing a special bond merging fantasy and reality.It’s amazing how magic can be found in pages and I am grateful to have been on the journey with Harry, Ron and Hermione along with countless other characters, like many others of my generation.

Years into the future, maybe if I’ve got little tykes running around the house, gasping for breath, in need of a break from their shenanigans, I hope they stumble into my library ( because I’m hoping that I’ll have a mansion with a room for just my books). I hope they’ll find one of my old copies of Harry Potter and they’ll spend some time reading them…

and reading them…

and reading them.

I hope they will grow up with these characters as I did (but if they’re not inclined to reading on their own, I may intervene and read to them before going to bed to ensure their dreams would be filled with pumpkin pasties and Hogsmeade trips, leaving the basilisk and Lord Voldemort to take a slot in their nightmares).

I am now re-reading the series almost ten years from when I picked up the very first book and there’s something ineffable about the experience of reading the same text as both a child and adult. One thing I have learned is that time passes but…magic never dies.

InuYasha

How I love InuYasha, a great anime 🙂 I first started watching it when I was eight years old and now it’s quite nostalgic when I re-watch the episodes today!

-VD

Photography Challenge Day 5- Comfort

If there’s one season I adore, it has got to be winter, when you can cuddle up in bed wearing a bunch of layers and read a good book. Comfort to me is defined in the fibres of sweaters that make you feel all warm and cozy 🙂

No matter how many times I go shopping I can’t resist the urge to buy sweaters, hoodies, cardigans and coats because I love how warm they are! (This may be an unhealthy shopping obsession considering I live in a very warm country!) But just look at them! They’re irresistible!

Yesterday I went shopping and bought a pair of these bad boys 🙂 They make walking around the house for absolutely no reason totally worth it 🙂 I remember all the pairs of slippers I used to wear as a kid and they’re an instant flashback to my childhood and how much I loved them!

Book a Day (Days 1-5)

Day 1: Favourite Book from Childhood

I always enjoyed reading Roald Dahl but The BFG was quite easily my favourite of all his books.

Day 2: Best Bargain

I was feeling a bit low so I headed to the nearest bookstore and lo and behold, I found one of my favourite childhood books on sale. If you convert the price to British pounds it’s exactly 1 pound and a little over $1.

Day 3: One with a Blue Cover

There’s an interesting and illegal story behind this. A friend of mine shoplifted it and gave it to me as a joke. I still have it…I’m sorry bookshop? If it’s any consolation, I didn’t enjoy the book all that much. It resembled paperback porn, if I were being honest. Anyway, I thought it was funny about the title saying grey and the cover being as close to blue as grey could be. (I didn’t have a proper blue cover.)

Day 4: Least favourite book by favourite author

I really loved The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and in all fairness, it did set the bar quite high for the sequels so as a consequence they did end up falling short. The last of the Millennium trilogy was a bit bland for my taste.

Day 5: Doesn’t belong to me

A friend gave me a copy of The Book Thief that was left on a British Airways flight and her aunt happens to work for the airline and she gave it to me knowing I wanted to read it. I’d just like to tell the real owner that I’m taking very good care of their copy and that you needn’t worry, I promise.

 

Day 3: A Song that Reminds you of your Parents

“Parents are the bone on which children sharpen their teeth.”

I grew up in Ottawa, Canada and there was a milk carton contest where if the carton moos you win some pretty cool prizes, I don’t know how many of you guys know about this.(If you’re curious you can find out more here.)

Anyway, I finally won after buying a milk carton at a local Wendy’s; a very exciting time for an eight year old. I won three free song downloads, not the coolest prize but hey it was still something I won right? And this was also the time when I didn’t really appreciate music the way I do today so I just asked my dad if he wanted to use the free downloads. So he did.

The only song I remember that he downloaded was Dido’s White Flag. I’m personally not much of a fan of the song but it’s the first one that pops into my head when I think of my dad.

Now as I listen to it, it’s not so bad.

Day 1: A Song from your Childhood

To this day I still love Toy Story and I remember how special it was to watch it for the first time when I was a kid, running around shouting, “To infinity and beyond!” even though I loved Woody over Buzz.

More importantly, the theme song ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me’ is fantastic, a real feel-good tune reassuring one and all that there’s a great life to be lived as long as you’ve got the right company along for the ride.

In the age where everyone I know seems to value relationships and the notion of love, I think friendships are more special. Your friends will certainly be around longer than a crush and sometimes the best relationships start out as friendships.

I’ve got some great and especially weird friends who I wouldn’t trade in for anything. It took me a while but I’m glad I found them.

And if anyone needs it, I’ll be the Woody to your Buzz 🙂