Orion's Belt

After a long and exhausting day and whenever I have free time, I would usually solace myself by sitting alone in one corner under a dark sky illuminated by twinkling, little stars. Whenever I get lucky, I would usually spot a falling star which will be gone long before I close my eyes to mumble a wish. Most of us would agree that the joy of childhood prompts us to believe in the beauty of wishes. But our childhood never taught us that the power of making our wishes a reality lies in our own hands, if only we are committed to dramatically turn it into a stunning reality. When I was a little, I remember myself wishing of things like “choco bread,” “brake grames,” or a “bicycle.” Later, these would be like “good grades,” “good health,” “a complete and happy family,” or even “knowledge,” following a hard-day struggle with algebra. Everybody in the class would agree that I have a hate-hate relationship with Mathematics, to the fact that I am cursing it to death. Looking back, it made me realized how simple dreams transformed into big ones. The star-gazing sessions stroked a chord in me to dream and to dream big time.

Just a little while ago after eating my self-prepared dinner, I stayed for about an hour looking up to the astronomical wonders twinkling in a backdrop of a black sky. Just like the old times, it elicited that sense of relaxation—finding yourself waiting for a star to fall then make a snappy wish. I never sighted one earlier but the sixty minutes I spent outside with pesky mosquitoes gave me the idea of the universality of making wishes and the elicit pursuit for happiness. All across the globe—may it be in Korea, in Europe, in the States or even in the forgotten corners of Africa—young and old ones alike would testify to the veracity of this claim.

I am writing this piece twenty four hours after I was asked if it’s bad to be happy, even if it seems the whole world is against the one who makes you happy. I am writing this piece twenty four hours after I fumbled for a decent answer and long before I uttered a word, tears dropped from her left eye. A part of me died. I felt the pain. A deafening silence environed the room we were in. Laughter then dominated the air though I know she’s faking it.

This is the girl who projects a happy persona in public but has a faint heart, who displays a perfect smile, who owns the most beautiful eyes I’d seen in my entire life and the girl who thinks she is in command of the times of her life. This is the same girl I fell in love with five years ago, my first love in fact. Eight years later before my eyes met hers, we became the best of friends who finds happiness in sitting in a coffee shop, in indulging on a very crazy food trip, in smelling a brand new book, in calling each other funny and sometimes annoying names, in staying on a library browsing travel books, in walking, in browsing exciting stuff over the internet and in dreaming of traveling the world.

A while ago while watching the stars, it brought me back to the time when this girl named Zyzle (or Zee, whatever) introduced to me one of the most famous constellations that dot the sky. It’s called the Orion’s Belt, a line of three stars visible each night. I don’t know if she can still remember this, but I can still remember how she related to me how she would look up to the Orion’s Belt whenever she’s got a problem, a bad hair’s day or even days of notable triumphs.

I don’t know if she’s still doing it now. But never mind, I did that for her tonight. More than what my officemate would tag as a “poignant reminder of a distant past,” the Orion’s Belt along with the many stars in the universe symbolizes the importance of making a wish, of dreaming and of making this wishes come true. The happiness as a by-product of our desire to transform our wishes into a reality lies solely in our hands. And there are plenty of ways to do it as there are many ways to kill a cat. Fairytales don’t exist just to tell us that dragons exist. Fairytales exist to tell us that dragons can be killed. As what Professor Albus Dumbledore said to Harry Potter, happiness can be found—even in the darkest situations—if one only knows how to turn on the light.

This picture is taken from the Internet. Thanks to Google, providing me happiness since I met her.

But how do we find happiness? We don’t find them, really. Instead, we create them. For me, it could be loving your work and be proud of it, bonding with your family, helping others in need, doodling or writing or blogging, scribbling a love letter, participating in a community effort to help educate street children, taking wonderful photographs or just sitting in a cold, dark night gazing the stars or watching the moon at its brightest with your lover. Creating happiness means taking away the worries and looking forward to a bright tomorrow. Get rid of lonely thoughts and heartaches; the world had enough of this. The times of our lives compels to create strings of happiness, pass it to others and make this place the happiest place on earth, despite the dilemmas we are facing. Finding happiness, after all, is human nature. It sparks the human in us and thus it had cursed the ebb of melancholy.

I am writing this piece for everyone, especially to the ones who depict a magnanimous spirit, a brave heart and a firm believer of their dreams. I am writing this for myself to remind me of the past, because like many of us, I am looking for happiness that will complete me. I write this for my best friend, too. As I gazed the Orion’s Belt she introduced to me five years ago, I wished that life will bring her a taste of happiness that she has brought to mine.

Louie.
19 January 2011, 11:00 PM