Yoga Club + Something Humorous.

Today I had yoga club after school. I went to the meeting last week, but this time my friend J. came too.

We did yoga from a video this time and the person on the TV (Yoga for Dummies video) told us what to do instead of the teacher in charge. I liked it better when the teacher was in charge.

We did these “daily dozen” poses and the last one the teacher stopped the video at. We were all lying down in a comfortable position on our yoga mats (well, J. and I had towels which the teacher said works just as well) with our eyes closed and our heads all perfectly alligned with our spine and all that awesomeness.

The teacher put on this music which sounded Japanese (I think, I’m not sure) and then sat down and softly told us to relax and focus on our breathing and stuff.

Her voice was nice compared to the lady in the video because the lady in the video has a much more disruptive voice compared to the yoga club teacher’s who has a very quiet voice. It was easier to relax.

Last week when I was told to focus on my breathing, I wasn’t very successful. There’s something about when I focus on my breathing that it suddenly seems to go jagged or something. Or I get paranoid or whatever. So this time I tried to find my Happy Place and focus on that instead.

I always wanted a happy place but it wasn’t until today that I actually feel like I’ve found it. It’s in this comfortable place at the edge of infinite, staring off into our universe. There’s stars everywhere and they are more plentiful than the stars I usually see in the sky but they glowed just as bright, like little pieces of heaven trying to peek through the dark unknown of the neverending sky. The universe is so small and distant that I can barely see Earth.

I like it because when you’re that far from the world and all its troubles, you’re finally at peace with something. And that something just so happens to be a greater picture…

Whoa. That’s deep.

It’s late.

I’m tired and relaxed thinking about my happy place, so I’ll get back to you on the humorous thingermabob.

‘Night,

Alex Violet

All I want is peace.

I’ve been feeling a little emotional over the past couple days. (View my posts from yesterday, part one and part two.)

So I was listening today to How to Save a Life by the Fray (the version with snippets of people’s voices reacting to the 9/11. I decided to watch some videos on YouTube with that song played to scenes and photos from the 9/11. (There are lots.)

Of course, I cried a bit.

Not as bad as yesterday with the lady at the assembly.

But it was still sad.

I looked at some pictures of people protesting against war and things like that over flickr and got a little upset.

It seems the gist of what these people in reaction are saying is that:

“This is the United States, as Americans, we need to be civil. War is never the answer.”

Damn right, war is never the answer. But being American shouldn’t be your excuse to be peaceful to others; you should be peaceful because the people you’re warring against are just like you.

They live, they breathe, they feel, they listen, they see, they cry, they’ve seen the same sun and the same moon and the same stars and sky as you.

They live on this earth, just like you.

They are human, just like you.

They feel pain, just like you.

You should say, rather than “These things just aren’t supposed to happen in America,” you should say, “These things just aren’t supposed to happen on Earth.”

We should be civil and peaceful as representatives of the whole beautiful and trecherous world, not just our race or religion or nation.

When the world trade centre was knocked down, it wasn’t just a knock to the United States, it was a knock to the world.

You shouldn’t do things just because as a person from whatever country (or with whatever race or religion) and say “That’s just what people like me do.”

No, you should do things because you feel in your heart and mind and soul (if you believe in souls) with everything you know and have experienced as a human being, that what you choose to do is the right thing.

Not just because someone told you that it’s right.

Especially if you’re just picking that choice or candidate (or whatever) because that’s what everyone else is choosing and you’re too lazy to think for yourself.

Now I’m not telling you to not listen to anyone else. I’m not telling you to close your mind.

I’m telling you to open your mind, open your eyes, and open your heart.

I’m not telling you to go against something just to assert your independence, either. I’m just telling you that you should only do something if you in your heart/mind feel/know that what you’re doing is right.

And if you do truly feel/know that it’s right, then you should do something, take action, follow a dream or something.

Make a blog.

I know I’m being awfully contradictory/hypocritical by saying “you should” continuously, but I’m sorry. (I don’t know how else to word what I’m trying to say properly.)

I’m just trying to open some minds.

And maybe I should feel empowered by writing all this, but to be honest with you, I feel miserable. But that may just be since I feel ostrasized.

Somedays it feels like the world is made by Americans, for Americans.

Well, not everyone is American. (And I’m not saying all Americans are selfish and ostrasizing either.)

Minority matters, minorities are worth mentioning. And for crying out loud, other majorities, too.

I’m Canadian. As much as I love being Canadian, (and I truly do) I am also a human being, a citizen of this earth. So I feel in my heart and soul and mind that I should treat everyone I meet as such.

But every time I’m reading a magazine (sold and bought in Canada) and it offers an exciting contest, only to discover it’s only open to American citizens, you’ve got to understand why I can’t help feeling disappointed, left out. If you’re going to exclude me, at least don’t rub it in my face.

I keep coming back to, “We’re all citizens of the Earth.”

But really, the more I consider these words and the more I think about it, the more I realize it’s true.

It shouldn’t matter who you are, all that should matter is that you’ve lived on this earth, and that, at least, we have in common.

Even if you just so happen to be an alien (lol) we’ve all had the experience of being alive, right? And we all have some grasp of how life works, maybe just our version of life, but still.

Knowing only about your life doesn’t give you the right to be selfish to others, does it?

Once you make an effort to understand someone, to walk a while in their shoes, you’ll realize their true intentions aren’t as harsh as they seem.

If everyone made an effort to understand each other, where we’re all coming from, than world peace would be a lot easier to achieve.

Less people would blow things out of proportion if they know the real size of the situation.

At least, that’s the way I see it.

Have a nice day,

Alex Violet

Maybe I’ve scarred for life… or maybe I’m blessed with the truth. Pt. 1

Today I got permission from my second-period (drama) teacher to go to the auditorium for an assembly instead of class.

The assembly was for people in my history class and the grade 12 history class (actually, I think it’s world studies or something, but it’s technically history). A lady who experienced the holocaust (as in was a victim- she was thirteen years old at the time and much of her family died) talked with us.

It was very emotional; we saw a slideshow. Several pictures had what looked exactly like skeletons covered only by bare skin, piled on top of each other. Another photo had a soldier bulldozing the bodies. The lady explained to us that their heads were shaved at the beginning not to prevent headlice- but to be collected and made into socks for the Nazi soldiers.

What really got to me was one particular slide with a photo of people (adults waiting patiently, children horseplaying, a little girl of something like three with a straight face staring straight into the camera) all with yellow stars attatched to their clothes, waiting to go into the gas chamber.

“Look at them,” the lady said. “What was their crime?”

Needless to say, (but I’ll say it anyway) I looked directly in the eyes of that long-gone little girl, thinking That little girl meant the world to her parents; I wish I could have saved them, I would have saved them. and cried silently.

Have you ever seen the movie Marley & Me? You know that heart-wrenching scene, where that monumental event happens? (If you’ve watched the movie you’ll know what I mean- I’m just staying ambiguous about it for the sake of not spoiling it if you didn’t.) What about Bridge to Teribithea? How to Train Your Dragon? (I didn’t cry during the dragon movie but my brother did.)

Well, none of them were as monumentous, heart-wrenchingly unfortunate and upsetting as this assembly. Because these things happened for real. Real people had these things happen to them. And each and every one of those people was just as human as you and I. One of them was standing right before me today.

“I don’t judge you based on your religion, whether you’re Jewish, Christian, Muslin or Hindu; I don’t judge you based on the colour of your skin, whether you’re black, white or asian; I judge you as a fellow human being.”

We’re all citizens of this Earth.

After a thousand tears and (the lady got a little teary-eyed too when she was talking about her parents) a thousand frail people (either dead, dying or barely hanging on) shown on the slides, the assembly was over.

It ran a little into lunch, but it was well worth it. I needed to know her story.

I actually saw someone texting and telepathically, I told them, How DARE you!?!? And they were doing a really crappy job of being subtle, too, flitting their whole head up to the speaker lady and down to their phone within milliseconds. Once again, I had to resist the urge to grab their phone out of their hand, throw it to the ground and stomp several times out of respect for a fellow human being.

But just because you’re a teenager doesn’t make disrespect excusable.

I promised myself; something like halfway through the assembly, that I would go up to the speaker lady after the assembly and ask for a hug.

“Of course you can have a hug!”

Today, I hugged a halocaust survivor.

I’m going to make a promise to myself to hug people more often.

Last year someone in my drama class who I guess is on the more social side of the spectrum kept nagging me for a hug. It creeped me out at first seeing as I’m not even really friends with this person, so I rejected it for days and days until I finally asked him why he wanted me to hug him so badly. He told me he read somewhere that people who are quiet/reserved could use a hug more because it makes them feel more positive, like they belong. So I gave in. I did feel like I belong.

Alex Violet

Why am I so happy?

I don’t have the time for a longer post, but I’ve got something I feel I need to say.

Why am I so happy, when I, myself, write depressing sonnets about the world around me metaphorically crashing down? When everyone is telling me I can’t do something or I won’t do something or I’m not somebody and take every oppourtunity to prove me wrong, why haven’t I just given up already?

I’ve got big dreams and always have had them. I thought I’d be more legendary by now. (No kidding; I put a lot of pressure on myself.) Especially in the broken town I live in. Here, there’s practically no oppourtunity to be monumentous.

So I try to take every single oppourtunity that I see.

Maybe I should be cheesed off at the world around me for being the way it is, and maybe I should be sitting around complaining about it like every other teenager in [insert name of my town here] seems to be. Maybe I should be emo since I’ve probably considered enough of the world to make me that way.

But I’m not; I’m not because I’m doing something about it.

I haven’t lost hope that I’m going somewhere notable with my life.

Last year I was admittedly sad to not see my face in the yearbook as much as I wanted. I either wasn’t social enough or not in enough clubs.

So what did I do? Well, I’m going to surrender and say that last semester I didn’t really do much. (I signed up for Students’ Council, but that’s about it. I was mostly focussed on pulling up my mark in math class.) It’s as if my soul was hibernating, but this semester woke it up.

On the first day of the semester, I was so excited for all these classes I have (my first semester was the toughie, with math and civics/careers, science and vocals- civics/careers would’ve been bearable if I had a more pleasant teacher and friends in the class, science more bearable had I not sat in the back corner of the class and rendered mute since no one talked to me, and vocals would’ve been better if it wasn’t a class with several grades lumped together and also if I had more positive and supportive friends taking the class with me) that I almost peed my pants. And I realized that for a first time in something like a year that I didn’t have a headache once the day was over. This is what high school is supposed to be like.

I’m living in my days again instead of moping through them. Because I know, that as bad as the times get (and there will ALWAYS be bad times in life) those times will fade as long as I work to keep myself out of them. I’d rather do something about my problems than complain about them.

I refuse to live in the shadows anymore.

So I work hard and thrive on everyday achievements.

When Franz Ferdinand was victim of a terrorist attack, a world war was started.

When the entire World Trade Centre was victim of a terrorist attack, much of the city rushed to help and the much of the world showed their sympathies. (Okay, and maybe another war began, but not a world war, right? And really, whether or not you’re willing to point it out, George Bush was, indeed, president of the United States at the time.)

You see, everyone has their misfortunes, their trageties. It’s all in how you react.

So don’t loose faith and don’t mope around, because your wildest dreams are right there waiting for you to reach up and grab them. Even if it means you have to gather and pile a thousand chairs atop of one another. If it’s worth enough to you, you won’t hold back.

“A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.” – Helen Keller

“Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” -(also) Helen Keller

My motto to being happy: Either get over it or do something about it. Sitting around is something stereotypical teenagers do.

Maybe this is why I sign up for so many clubs and councils. I need to do something worth being proud of.

Alex Violet