An Introduction

*See footer

This photo is affixed to a drug rehabilitation clinic in Canada. I saw it while mindlessly scrolling through Instagram one day, and the power of this simple statement woke me up. Life, as most of you will know, is not a static routine filled with predictability. It is a chaotic mess that often takes our nicely laid-out plans, crumples them into a ball, and then throws them in the trash. Life can be rather rude sometimes.

However, as we are weeping in the corner with a bucket of cookie dough over the loss of our plans, something beautiful happens within us: we change. As animals, especially intelligent animals, we are able to adapt to almost any situation. 

My friends are aware of my mild (a.k.a. intense and possibly creepy) obsession with Viktor Frankl, a psychologist who survived a concentration camp during WWII. He stated that when everything is stripped away, taken from us, or just simply lost, we still can control one specific thing: our attitude to the situation. If you've ever seen V for Vendetta (yes, the book was much better and very different, but I love the movie anyways), one of the characters write about that "last little inch" that no one can take away from us. 

That willpower and conviction goes by many different names: human nature, a soul, a spark, a fire, or a defiance towards suppression of one's free will. Whatever you may call it, that "humanness" allows us to change, allows to us to be free, even when burdened with unplanned situations.

Thus, this blog is born. I have recently faced a series of events that has led me to not only explore my attitude and willpower towards things beyond my control, but to expand even further by developing myself physically, mentally, spiritually, and fiscally. Hey, girl's gotta eat. 

Throughout our time on this blog, I hope to see change. I hope to see that I have made the above image true for me and for the people that read this. While this sounds like a rather serious task, I believe in above all else a quote from "The Tao of Pooh" which states; "When you discard arrogance, complexity, and a few other things that get in the way, sooner or later you will discover that simple, childlike, and mysterious secret known to those of the Uncarved Block: Life is Fun." Oh yeah, there's going to be Taoism up in this bitch! 

Little disclaimer on that: any religious ideologies I explore are not meant to be demeaning or harmful to any other religious ideology; they are simply my thoughts while trying to find my own path.

To make a long post, short: Life is a mess, life is fun, life is change, and there are lessons to be learned from our mistakes and our triumphs. I just hope that some of mine can help someone else.

Until next time,

Alfie Marie

*For the life of me, I cannot remember who posted this picture on Instagram. I do not take credit for it, and if you are aware of who did post it, please let me know!