It is not without solid “jabs” when I say that 2016 is by far the most unbearable year in my life, and generally for everyone in the whole world too, it seems.

But hey, now we’re here on the last day of the year. Bruised and all, but we made it.

This year, I learned even more that no one really knows nor will ever understand the magnitude of one’s struggles to oneself. I’m not gonna go on about how tough and complicated my year was, though it hit every aspect of my life. Everyone had it, everyone dealt with it their own way.

Instead, I’m gonna share with you some very inspiring remarks from one of my favorite celebrities who I finally got the chance to watch him perform live this year, Chris Martin. In his radio interview with Ryan Seacrest last 2015, Ryan asked him about this poem that the band included as an interval inside the album (listen to Kaleidoscope in “A Head Full of Dreams”). Chris said it was actually a poem written by an old Turkish poet called Rumi (who died in 13th century) and was translated by an American poet, Coleman Barks, for Western audience. He said this poem he read 4-5 years back has changed his life and the way he looks at the world. And I thought, this guy must have been through SO MUCH in his life to reach this level of wisdom and maturity that he has such an open heart and mind.

And it somehow changed me too.

There is no way I’m gonna be positive all the time, because I’m a just a normal human being, made and built out of mistakes and emotions, but I’m gonna die trying to be better, better, and better each day. 

“…this poem is about how every feeling that we have as humans is ultimately a blessing even though it doesn’t seem it at the time sometimes. … it really changed my life and the way I’m looking at the world.  And so we put it in the middle of this album as a sort of ‘thank you’ to that poem and that album.” -Chris Martin

I’m gonna give you the poem later below by the way. Right after I watched that video, I watched another interview of his and was in awe once again. He was on a radio interview with Elvis Duran when this guy asked Chris this question.

“How are you with the universe?”

(makes you wanna question yourself, eh?)

To which Chris answered,

“How I am with the universe is trying to accept that everybody goes through many challenges everyday on whatever level, and you can never compare your challenges to someone else’s… so it’s understanding that everyone goes through that, whether you’re a pop star or whatever. It’s all how you look at it in my opinion, that you can turn anything around… My relationship with the universe is that I trust that it’s more positive than you might think.”

That probably sounds like basic stuff you’ve already read in some self-help books or Thought Catalog articles or whatever, but to be able to be firm, accepting, and hold on to that way of thinking, I think, is something. Again, somebody must have gone through so much in their lives to hit that level of maturity, without forgetting the fact that he/she too, is just a human being.

So yeah. I’m gonna take Chris Martin as my “spiritual guru.” It amazes me how an unreachable stranger like him can bring so much impact to one’s life just by listening to what he says, and I’m not gonna keep his wise thoughts to myself. Hence this post.

Happy New Year, my dearest friends. 

Together we’ve been through so much in life, whether we know each other or not. We love, we laugh, we learn, we got hurt, we hurt other people, we make mistakes, we cry, we’re depressed, we’re desperate, what have you. Whatever trials and tribulations this year have thrown you, whether you managed to handle it well or not, I hope we step into to the new year with an open heart and mind.

Cheers to a better year, and a stronger us.

Start new.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

— Jellaludin Rumi,
translated by Coleman Barks