A different view

A close friend of mine called a few days ago. We chatted for almost 3 hours and she was telling me of her problems. Surprisingly, as I hear myself talk, I can tell that I'm giving her sound advices -- things that I know that I, too, should learn to practice.

Have you ever been in a position wherein you actually tell someone what to do? Telling them how to solve their problems? Yet, quite ironically, your life is such a mess either! Wondering why it is easy to understand and analyze when seen from a different view?

I was outside, looking in.

I saw a different perspective. I've become fully aware on how lucky I am to not experience the same fate. And yes, I did compare. In my mind, I thought that maybe God planned it that way. Realize your blessings at the expense of one's sorrows. Begin to accept the things you are grateful for over one's regrets. You start to count the gifts one by one. And learn to live with what you have. Feel blessed. Be thankful. But at the end of the day, it's never simple. It's always easier said than done. Maybe that is why anyone can actually give an advice.

Or it could also be that if you are inside, you feel the love and the pain. These things that people from the outside are not able to feel. They can never comprehend what you are actually going through, cannot even come close. Your true sentiments, your emotions, can never be revealed but only to yourself alone. They are merely outsiders trying to relate -- just looking in.

As I sit and write this, I wonder, can i ever step outside from my life? Detach with all the emotions and look at it from a different perspective, to teach my inside self how to go through life the way I saw how it should be lived? Then to go back and apply all my outside self had preached?

Ah life, whoever said it's easy?

In writing a non-fictional story

You are the author of your own story.

You make all your actions and behavior reasonable, willed it to be correct or thought it to be good all the time. You have the power of consciousness to do the right (or the wrong) things, yet being the author, you of course want your stories to be picture-perfect. In your mind, you are the protagonist, the main character in your story’s twists and turns. All other characters that help you in achieving your goal are considered allies while those who block the path are the enemies.

I would give it to the fact that you are human who is capable of screwing up. We step on someone’s toes unknowingly or sometimes, on purpose. Yet, I will cling to Socrates’ philosophy that no one knowingly commits evil. I will try to believe that you have not perpetrated the lies on purpose and betrayed a friend for your own advantage.

Does your right hand always know what your left hand is doing? Or do you always turn a blind eye to your own faults to suit your needs and desires? Which part of your story does the hero begin to hurt and betray, to aim your victory towards the end?

Sometimes, the way you write your story reveals your real persona, no matter how hard you try to hide it. Like some other stories, the conclusion can already be interpreted in the first few chapters. You are supposed to make it clean and accurate that readers will finish reading it up to the last chapter. Your weaknesses as a person help reveal your interwoven lies in your own plot’s twists and turns. It can quickly reveal your morals and principles. The intent behind your actions, however, will remain a mystery, no one ever admits how scheming and devious they are, especially if motivated by a selfish ambition.

I hope as you continue to write your story, you will make an effort to do check and balance. Being the author means being in control. But being in control doesn’t give you the right to step on anyone’s toes.

Don’t take the word “plot” literally.

As captain jack sparrow said: "It is easier to trust a dishonest person because you know that he tells nothing but lies but you can never trust a trustworthy person because you can never tell when he will tell a lie..."