Old and New - Rabindranath Tagore

Thou hast made me known to friends whom I knew not.
Thou hast given me seats in homes not my own.
Thou hast brought the distant near and made a brother of the stranger.
I am uneasy at heart when I have to leave my accustomed shelter;
I forget that there abides the old in the new,
and that there also Thou abidest.
Through birth and death, in this world or in others,
wherever Thou leadest me it is Thou, the same,
the one companion of my endless life
who ever linkest my heart with bonds of joy to the unfamiliar.
When one knows Thee, then alien there is none, then no door is shut.
Oh, grant me my prayer that I may never lose
the bliss of the touch of the One
in the play of many.

Please. Allow my heart to let go of what must be gone. Even though I still have much to say, but no means to say it (both in courage and in time). For everything that You have deemed best to be known will be made known, whilst everything that You have deemed to be kept within this sanctuary of thoughts will forever remain so. I dare not ask more from You other than for guidance so that no matter where I may go, no matter how many people I have to part from, allow me the comfort of knowing the one certainty of this ephemeral life: that You in Your all encompassing Mercy and Knowledge, will always be there to guide anyone so long as they strive to stay along the path that You have so graciously laid out for them.

Kusudama in Pyjamas

This my friends, is what happens when you have a nice thick, idle stack of half-folded blue office paper, a tube of nauseatingly pungent rubber glue (read: the abominable Aica-Aibon type) and more than 4 hours of insomnia accompanied by an equally uneventful morning to follow. Apart from being another opportunity to use the "Flower-Best Shot" mode on my Exilim (I love the blurred background effect that it creates, but alas it really does work only with flowers and not so much when taking human portraits -.-) this little gem gave me around 6 to 7 hours of pretty refreshing relaxation. Oh, and if you're wondering why it took me such an atrociously long amount of time to finish this, well I suggest you look closer at the picture while keeping the following in mind: I started with 60 individually cut and folded petals, glued to make 12 sets of 5-petaled flowers, then glued together to make one stunning yet surprisingly labor-intensive origami flower ball, a.k.a kusudama.

I got the idea from - not surprisingly - a very Japanese-related source, i.e. Otomen. My friends and I were pretty much dumbfounded when we got our first glimpse of the thing (then again, a lot of the creations in this manga have always managed to stun us). Anyways, we all thought this was nigh on impossible to replicate and it was probably just some fantasy creation born out of the genius imagination of Aya Kanno, so you can imagine how surprised I was when I actually found an Instructable for this! I was going to challenge Anin to make it, since she's always been the crafty one (voted ter-kreatif sekelas gitu), but apparently my boredom got the better of me and before I knew it, I'd already started folding the first petal.

Half-started mini kusudama

I tried experimenting with blue post-its at first. Major fail. One side kept on sticking more than it should, and I couldn't even get the petal to open up right. So, I decided to turn to the less sticky, but rather over-sized blue office paper I had. This left me with a bit more work to do, since I had to tear the rectangular sheets into little squares first before I could actually fold them, but I think I got through that process pretty well. As a bonus, I got leftover sheets that I ended up folding as well to make these mini kusudamas >>>

I didn't think I'd be able to finish all this (I'm really suspecting I have at least a minor case of ADHD going on up here in my noggin, for a lack of being able to focus on anything quite sufficiently lately) but lo and behold, it turned out I had a lot more perseverance in me than I'd initially thought.

Finishing this gave me that nice feeling of satisfaction at having been at least a tad bit productive after such a weird and tiring night. I ended up dreaming about Queen Victoria for God’s sake. I’m pretty sure Will&Kate had something to do with this; them and my recent affinity for the History Channel as well -.-

*History tidbit: I found out today that Queen Victoria and King Albert were actually the ones who commissioned the building of the Crystal Palace; it was made famous for the fact that it housed England's Great Exhibition way back in the 19th century, but also because it contained a huge indoor botanical garden. So, I guess you could say this was keeping in line with the flower theme that'd been going on since yesterday.

 I really do need to do this more often. So much FUN~

Full scale kusudama. 
They're fun to hold for some reason :D

But admittedly prettier when dangling freely like this ^^

Warrior of Light - Paulo Coelho

Every warrior of light has felt afraid of going into battle.

Every warrior of light has, at some time in the past, lied or betrayed someone.

Every warrior of light has trodden a path that was not hers.

Every warrior of light has suffered for the most trivial of reasons.

Every warrior of light has, at least once, believed that she was not a warrior of light.

Every warrior of light has failed in her spiritual duties.

Every warrior of light has said 'yes' when she wanted to say 'no'.

Every warrior of light has hurt someone she loved.

That is why she is a warrior of light, because she has been through all this and yet has never lost hope of being better than she is..

If not for Thee,
I would have been,
Another piece of driftwood out at sea
Floating listlessly, aimlessly,
A somber reminder of tragedy

But in all this pointless wandering,
For some odd reason,
I'd found contentment in that sea,
As I relished in the silken waves each time
They heaved me up to kiss the skies.

Yet for all my wave-rolling, sky-kissing fun,
My happiness slowly came undone,
For I was still a piece of driftwood out at sea,
Unsure, unimportant, unaware
That rotting was all that'd be left for me.

That was what I had been.
What I thought I'd always be.
But then, You thrust me out!
And brought me back,
Back home upon Your shore.

You took my worthless driftwood self,
And shook me straight to my core.
And You taught me,
You taught me,
That I could become MORE

So why do I still feel as though I don't deserve this?
The gentle tickle of the waves beneath me,
The attentive warmth of the sun above,
What more could I ask for really?
The sense to not be ungrateful? Definitely..

Let there be light..

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

- William Wordsworth -

 

I've been meaning to celebrate the stupendously bright blue skies we've been having lately, but really hadn't been able to find a way to do so - until today. :)

*the backdrop should've been the clear blue sky I'd been meaning to commemorate so much, but since I couldn't reach out of my balcony far enough to get clear of the awning, this shot was all I could take. No worries though, I've got plans to take more~