I just noticed recently that whenever my heart plummets to the pits of hell, I have this unconscious habit of keeping small things near with me, not like an amulet or something, but some kinda useful stuffs like a notebook, a small crucifix, or even a pencil.
And I can’t leave home without those things. I really have to make sure they’re in my bag or else, i have to go back home and retrieve my epektos. It’s like when you’re used to wearing your favorite necklace or your ring everyday, and suddenly you forgot that you left them at the sink and you left home without them. And then you have this queer naked feeling the whole day.
I know my choices are quite weird: a small wooden rosary, a mechanical pencil, a starbucks journal, and even the petal of a rose that I got during a mass. And during those times that I had those stuffs, I felt complete. Before (four years ago actually), I never went to bed without touching my rosary or even writing at my journal. I guess it helped me during the hardest times. But then, when the good times came, I just shoved them in the air. I found my rosary hanging at Papa’s car while my journal, well of course I have hidden it from my younger sister’s prying eyes. But I wasn’t writing or touching any feel-good-thing. Because I think I was happy.
Actually, right now I feel that I’m quite okay after all the damnest things/ events that I’ve been through these past months. (It is not just the matters of the heart, but of life as well.) Even though I have a work that sucks, no gimmick nights and elbi friends, away from my mares and my “loving and caring” housemates, I have managed to find some light (yes I see the white light dear lord!).
But I still cling to some small stuffs like my books (which I unfortunately sleep with due to lack of space), my first Parker Pen, and my starbucks planner 2007 (got it from him) which I converted to a journal. And I never leave home without them, sans the books of course.
I now faithfully write at my journal (writing actually helps, and it’s pyschotherapy), manage to keep the same pen for almost five months (yes, I consider it an achievement), and actually read good literature (instead of self help books about relationships or a bitch-in-the-making book).
Maybe those small stuffs that I keep are the bits and pieces of my old self that I desperately cling on for some strength or whatever superpower they may give. They’re not just things. And I think I have shed them some life because of the strong emotions that I have imprinted on them ( parang ghosts actually hehehe).
And I’m going to keep them. Even if i become perpetually happy.