We all have histories that made us who we are today.

What does it take to be a beautiful butterfly?

We meet countless people in our lives. Everyone has their own personality, their own history that made them what they are today. We cannot take away the fact that what they encountered in the past could have changed what they are now.

Behind a beautiful smile, there could be a dark past. That pleasant someone you have met could have their very own story that they wouldn’t want to recall and share. For someone who doesn’t have a strong mind and heart, that ugly past could consume them, making them vulnerable, making them feel that the world is constantly going against them.

What does it takes for a caterpillar to become a butterfly? How much struggling does it need in order to grow wings, and be able to fly with grace and beauty? Even though it’s wings might not come with stunning colors, or mesmerizing patterns, but I bet, it has gone through a hard process like every other butterfly, from hatching from an egg, hiding itself in a pupa, and then transforming itself into a butterfly.

We humans might not go through such complicated process, but many things happen in our lives, and each event can change us in a particular way: changing the way we think, changing our perspective on life, and so on. And my humble opinion is, all these tiny and big events have shaped us what we are today. These are the things that made us unique.

It isn’t easy to forget something significant in our lives, no matter it is something good, or something bad. The more we try to forget it, the more we think about it. I think the only way is to accept everything that had happened, and take advantage of every second we have in our lives to make everything better for the future.

Even though, from time to time, when we look back in our past, we might see unpleasant history of ours, all we can do is utter a sigh, and live on with it.

Imperfection

Imperfect clovers

Summer is here, and when most of the flowers are dying away under the heat, the clovers are still standing, imperfect, but proud.

And yes, those are clover flowers. I was surprised to find out that those are clovers. I had always thought clovers were love-shaped leaves, and when someone told me that the flowers in this photo are clovers, I confidently argued with him. Wikipedia proved me wrong, and I was really surprised, with something I had always thought to be sure off.

Well, this proves that sometimes, someone might be correct, even though you think that you are pretty sure about what you have in mind.

This little clovers, might not be perfect under the beating sun, but they are certainly strong. Maybe we should always embrace imperfections; nothing is perfect. Sometimes we are being so judgmental that some small imperfections could ruin something or someone. They could be beautifully imperfect.

Someday, we might find out that we couldn’t live without one’s imperfection in our lives.

There are no miracles, there is no such thing as fate, nothing is meant to be.

Love? Luck, or fate?

These are some random clovers found in front of my house in Malaysia.

Frankly, I was trying my luck to look for any 4-leaf clover around the front yard. I guess my luck proved me wrong, and I couldn’t find any of the so called luck-bringing 4-leaf clover.

But instead, I found these, which I think were kinda cute. 3 clovers, with 3 love-shaped leaves, with nothing distracting around them.

Looking back at this photo reminds me that I am kinda desperate for love sometimes. Maybe I need some luck in finding my “perfect someone”?

I am someone who always believe in love, fate, and love in first sight. But interestingly, I had just watched a movie recommend by a friend, called “500 Days of Summer”. In this comedy/love movie, boy meets girl, boy falls in love with the girl, but the girl doesn’t. One memorable phrase that I couldn’t get it out of my mind is this: There are no miracles, there is no such thing as fate, nothing is meant to be.

Do you really think so? Does fairy tale love story only happen in movies and dramas? I hope not.

Maybe, I do really need some luck in this.

Dreams and reality.

Ready to fly, but rooted forever

Life is so contradicting, funny at times too. Like this particular plant that mimics the looks of a bird.

When we yearn for something we really wanted, we wouldn’t get it. Sometimes, we do not wish for  anything, there would be too many choices out there. Life is always about choices you make, deciding your future. Our fate is in our own hands.

We always wanted to soar for greater heights, reaching the pinnacle of our lives with astounding achievements that we had ever dreamt of. In reality, we are just rooted to the ground, forced to strive all day round, working hard just for a decent living. All these could be very different: either success or failure. If we could make the right choices, believe in the choice we made and work hard for it, with a dash of luck, we might just be able to accomplish anything.

Even in reality, it seems that we are forever stuck on the ground; but maybe dreaming of soaring to the sky could be just possible, if we really believe in it.  Who knows one day this bird flower will spread its wing and fly away?

All we can do is pray really hard, and try our best, so that everything goes smoothly…

They say this plant has a meaning: the birds bring luck and wealth to the owner. Hope this tiny little bird brings luck to anyone of us.

Do you like being watched?

Somebody is watching you

Do you like being watched?

No matter where you are, no matter who you are, no matter you like it or not, some one might be watching you all the time.

Can’t we live in a place where we are granted with all the freedom we want, not being bounded by watchful eyes?

I guess it ain’t easy. Is freedom such a hard thing to have? Or to give? We all might never know…

RGB, the representing colors of life.

Flying colors

Just how colorful can one bird be? I wonder how this bright bird can hide from it’s prey, or maybe, it has no prey at all.

I just like how the bright colors were shown in the feathers. And the bird seems like posing to me for this shot. What a valuable shot indeed!

It’s not easy to find 3 main colors: red, green and blue, at the same time, represented by the nature spontaneously.

Rusted mind

Rusted, one way only

My mind is now as rusty as the gear, and being forced to turn one way by a cock. Turning back isn’t an option, until the cock is lifted up.

I sometimes hope that I don’t have choices, so that I am forced to take any given thing, not being complicated by choices, not being afraid of choosing the wrong thing, and be brave facing anything thrown at me.

Isn’t life much easier without choices?

Another tribute to lomography

Lomo-grass

Another tribute to lomography, a fake one of course.

This shot was actually pretty flawed, in a good way, that it made this photo special. First of all, it was far away, and there were soft winds blowing that time when I tried to take this photo. In the mean time, I was sitting inside a car, shooting through the car’s side window. So it gave a soft-contrasting photo, with slight blur because of focus error and motion.

If you want everything to be flawless, this would be a total reject. But after you look it from the lomo-way, it seems perfect. Just right.

Everything is flawed, but it could be so perfectly flawed that it became special. Can you find someone who is perfectly flawed just for you?

Budding, yet afraid of growing…

Slowly budding, baby steps

I’m not actually very young, nor old. But I wish I could just be like a budding flower, expected to bloom soon, to shine it’s glory. But never for long.

Sometimes, I just want to be in the budding state forever, looking at the world with baby eyes, blurred with imperfections which I never knew about.

Just being who we are, not being judgmental, without feeling insecure, not knowing how bad this world is, or how lonely one can be: are the things one might long for when they started to feel empty and meaningless.  Maybe, being naive is the best way to grow up.

Maybe this doesn’t make any sense at all, but I know in some point in life, anyone of us might feel that way.

Maybe, I’m just weak inside. So weak, making everything meaningless at times.

“Shut your eyes, a new day would come, and everything will be alright.”

Face the future with full confidence, and everything will be fine, just like a budding flower, showing it’s true beauty to the world while blooming gloriously!

Blooming gloriously

Contradiction

Vandalized, wantonly

This is more of a thought rather than to showcase a photo. This photo shows a street sign taken in Muar, my home town in Malaysia, located in the state of Johor.

The street sign says “Jalan Sayang”, which directly translates into “Caring Street”, or “Loving Street”. “Jalan” means street in the Malay language, and you might already guessed what “Sayang” means.

I don’t know what’s the pink stuff on the sign, but it’s pretty clear that someone had took the “initiative” to vandalize it. This pretty much shows how contradicting life is. It says “Caring St.” , yet, it wasn’t taken care at all. You could even see some illegal advertisements sticking at the road signs.What a shame.

The irony of this picture, to me, is that this road is located just in front of my old primary school (primary school is just the same as elementary school) that I had studied when I was very young.

I guess, contradiction in life is inevitable. When you try to do something your heart tells you to, your brain will do other wise. Sometimes we know we shouldn’t do it, but yet, we did it. I especially hate contradicting choices that we sometimes have to make in life.

Life is all about contradiction and lies…