Do You Know?
Do You Know?
What was the first thing you did without having to ask for permission?
Who buys your attention and who earns it?
Do you really care as much as you would like to, and are you going to end up with who you want to or just who you can? Do you really know yourself or are you living in a stranger?
Do you want to know yourself? Is having ‘knowledge’ really the lack of ignorance?
Don’t try to be what they want you to. Who is ‘they’ anyway?
If you could live your absence, would you like what you heard?
Are you listening or are you thinking? … Are you listening or are you waiting to be listened to?
Is there a significant difference between the two? Are you free? Do you make your own decisions?
Are you aware that you make decisions constantly and was the last decision you made the right one?
If you made the decision on how you really felt within, then it was the right one.
If it took you to the wrong place, then you were there for a very good reason and it will probably seem the right place only when you finally leave it.
A perfect life situation only looks that way from the outside looking in.
Do we ever get anywhere in life or are we always going somewhere?
Our task is to evolve. Time is the key to our happiness.
Time is the key to our sadness. Time is everything… Time is like a silent god.
But aren’t they all silent? Do you realize that sadness is a power?
It is the power that gives you happiness. We have to know what grief is, to enjoy the feeling of completeness.
People are the most significant cause of our happiness, and sadness.
We can’t read up on our life’s lessons, we have to live them.
People, are like volatile chemicals: bring them together, and you will always get a chemical reaction of which the full result can never be pre-determined.
We can’t declare love or name it, we breathe it in like the air we had nothing to do with creating. Love is an emotion we can feel and experience: pain, joy, despair, sorrow, fear … love is, not one thing but many.
Do you love yourself?
Do you love anyone?
Does anyone love you?
Did you ever wonder…
… Why?
© Ryan Koriya
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5 September 2015
When I was about 17 years old and growing up in Zimbabwe, I wrote the words above, they just came out, introspective and questioning life, like most of the writing I did as a teenager, and still do. These words however, nearly didn’t make it past a few minutes of existence, but they did, thanks to Hemal…
I was visiting one of my best friends, Hemal, who lived a road away from me in Belvedere and we cycled to Prince Edward school together everyday, (till we were over 16 then Hemal drove to school. I had a driver’s licence but wasn’t fortunate enough to have a family car at my disposal). Nor did we have a computer at home, which is why I was sitting at the desk top (tower) computer in Hemal’s dining room one day. We studied computer science at school and I would practice my typing skills when I had the chance. A, S, D, F, G etc.
I would therefore sit at Hemal’s computer (his dad’s computer really), and just type out random nonsense to work on my typing speed. After accumulating said nonsense, I would delete it all and log out. One day, Hemal took a peek over my shoulder at my nonsense of the day and said…
“Dude, I hope you’re not going to delete that! It’s awesome!”
I’d never really thought of keeping my digital ramblings since I didn’t own a computer and I’m sure those were the days of CD-ROM or stiffy drives. But saved it I did! I may have just emailed it to my Yahoo account using the dial up connection they had. I do wonder what other gems I deleted various times before that day.
The funny thing is even after all this time, I still keep finding myself coming back to various bits of this written work when in deep and meaningful conversations with people. I imagine I will one day use parts of it in my songs or maybe do a ‘Sunscreen’ type mantra to a cool dance beat. lol
The African Alchemist
