in vino veritas
This was about five years ago. At this moment in time, I was less than a week away from returning to California after a year abroad living in Sydney, Australia. I’ll reflect on my thoughts on rereading, but I want you to go on and you enjoy it first 😉
I’m quite the happy drunk.
Last night was glorious.
I spent the whole night complimenting and having a laugh with one friend complete with real bear hugs, and then having the same thing happen with someone else, or sometimes in groups.
I loved watching people slowly light up and get so happy to hear me speak well of them, to them. I absolutely got the best and happiest and most sociable version of them. I only told the truth of what I thought of each of them.
No neediness, no desire to impress; I had already complimented him or her. It was so refreshing, they were now transformed into the vehicle of their own expression.
The alcohol was a factor, of course. So was the environment. But the company I keep is the real reason.
I genuinely like my friends and I genuinely like these things about them. And I just want them to know that there is some really fucking awesome stuff about them.
My social confidence and openness and assertiveness are all things that I’ve worked quite a lot on since the time I was about 20 years old. I remember I had just come back from a month abroad, wandered into a second hand shop and bought a real gem by Shakti Gawain. After that, I began to think of myself in completely new and different ways.
I used to be a little unsure of myself in most social situations, sober or drunk. I didn’t know “how to be cool.”
It’s funny how we want ourselves to fit into a certain type of box and measure up, but the thing that we most want from others is to be the vehicle of their own self-expression.
So if we each just serve as the vehicle of our own expression, we are literally changing the world.
How awesome is that?
Reflection
It’s incredible to me how much I still relate to this, on a pretty deep level. This moment in time was a certain flavor; I loved it then and I love it now.
I later painted this thing:
My Favorite Passages
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It’s funny how we want ourselves to fit into a certain type of box and measure up, but the thing that we most want from others is to be the vehicle of their own self-expression. So if we each just serve as the vehicle of our own expression, we are literally changing the world.
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…they were now transformed into the vehicle of their own expression.
I have the feeling that I will have similar feelings when I actually leave Portland too, it’s kinda weird to say that but I know it’s true…