in point form

My attention span is a pinwheel. Spun around distractions, it just crab walks away from clarity. I said I will write everyday in December. I didn't. I can beat myself and pity myself and remind myself that I always screw things up as if I were my own long term partner in a tedious relationship surviving on the lowest common denominator: mutual bitterness.

Alas, no. Today I feel particularly tolerant. I have a few things to say to myself. This blog, with its irrelevance, may not speak much to others. I'm not promoting products or a lifestyle. I am not giving advice or hope. I'm not an astrologer and Tarot could be a word in Tagalog. I'm here for the heck of it. I come and go as I please. Like the home I always imagined but never had, this blog is airy and there is a hammock icon on which you click, off you end up in Apotheka beach, Chios. Mais non.

Because internet knows the world is full of wandering attentions, it provides knowledge in point form. 10 things you never thought about when you ate a banana. 5 ways to avoid nuclear exposure. 20 life hacks that honestly won't get you very far. Sipping my cold instant coffee -an acquired taste in the land of people claiming to connoisseurdom of coffee-  I venture into the world of point form.

• Never make decisions out of fear. Never consent, yield, look the other way out of fear. Do not let fear guide you, even if it's posing as caution. Sweetheart, you are a fool, albeit a benign one. Make most of it. Fear is incapable of fixing you but it does paralyse you given room and credibility.
• First come food, sleep and a smile. Everyone can tell you otherwise but these are the essentials on your life-list. In any circumstance, feed the ones you can feed including yourself, with the freshest and tastiest food possible. Sleep well and let sleep work its magic. Smile as much as you can. Force a smile sometimes and see if it turns genuine even if sad. A smile solves most of your problems. You know it. Wipe that frown off your face. 
• Before hissing at someone, putting up a fight, pouring venom with your tongue, take a deep breath. Look at the other party. They may be an overworked salesperson, a taxi driver and a father of two, a security guard with mommy issues, an insecure friend, a disappointed lover. Look at them again. See them from way farther than where you two are. Zoom out like that NASA animation. There, in the middle of the cosmos, you actually are not even in the middle of the cosmos because you cannot fathom it. Precisely. You don't know the other party. Then don't have all the answers, best solutions, most reasonable things and the best argued bullshit. Let them be.
• Do not try too hard. I know it's hard to believe I say this to myself. I of the lethargic masses. I, who hardly puts any effort in striving for something. It's trying too hard when I aspire to make someone like me while, out of her constitutional right and basic instinct, she simply does not. Baby, there is nothing you can do. Oh, but yes. Keep away. In the wildest and healthiest way, you will be drawn to some people and guard against others. Keep in mind you can be guarded against too. Likewise, don't try too hard for a job, a favour, an interest-driven offer, recognition, validation, appraisal and finally, love. You know deep down, what comes to you comes without beckoning or bickering. Take it. Cherish it.   
• Don't let the passing of time, the achievements of your peers versus your stagnance, the nagging of your next of kin, the glances of the lady at the bus stop, the words of your supervisors, bosses, the point of view of the well-to-do, the failed attempts at romance or a fair chance discourage you. Like cousin fear, discouragement penetrates through your pores. You wear your impermeable smile and take a walk in the mud. Nothing compares to you. With your eyes caressing the gray skies, your hands combing the wind, you are a thing of beauty. C'mon! 

Merry Christmas! December and I, we'll work it out this time.