If I were to tell you how I usually write my stories, I envision them in my mind first, i.e. I paint a picture of it in my head before I write it down which explains why my stories are/were terrible to begin with. A written story is meant to portray the story and the characters through the words written not through the author’s vision for a video or a movie because a movie and a book are two separate things. What I’m still struggling with is translating that vision onto words and from words translate back to the reader’s visual interpretation of it in her/his head effectively.

Anyway, that was a random thought of the day as I remembered the reason I write stories was also because of Wong Fu productions. Did I mentioned I adore them? Yes, indeed. The time I supported Wong Fu coincided with the time I came to Australia. So, there is some sort of connection there, the usual association by time and coincidence memory effect. I was so fascinated by their shorts that I had always wondered, “How cool would it be for me to make a video again that is able to inspire while being funny and relevant?” There’s that. So, they came up with a short two days ago, titled appropriately, “Accumulated” which was inspired by Phil’s personal blog post. Have a read at it. It is much profound and eloquently written.

The take home question was, “Remember when “I like you” was enough?

They say love is complicated. They say love is strange. They say love is crazy. Can love ever be simple?

I went through a phase where I didn’t dare to express my feelings for the girl/girls that I like. Har har. For a long time, I feared a lot of things. I feared if her parents would approve of me. I feared where we would be five years from now. I feared if things are going to work out. I feared if I will have time for her and dedicate my heart to the relationship. I feared if I carried any accumulated feelings from the past and was probably just looking for a rebound. Ultimately, I found out that, I feared, my heart being broken again.

Sometimes, a person lies to himself long enough that he can’t recognize the difference between truth from lie, the fantasy from reality and the courage from cowardice. He begins to assume that it’s all these other factors and reasons that stops him from taking the next step when the biggest barrier was indeed just, himself.

I have always written about optimism and that the rewards reaped from loving someone is so much that it far outweighs the risk of being dejected and isolated but I don’t think everyone can afford to think that way. Can they? Barriers are set up for a reason. Just as in war, barriers are set up to defend oneself from being damaged, again.

As a person grows older, he or she goes through more heartbreaks and relationship troubles. Hence, the word, ‘accumulated’. The accumulation of the past comes to a standstill that you feel you can’t breathe and that you are at a point of no return. It’s a similar concept in life as well. When one has been through so much and looked at war more than peace, can one ever revert to the ideal that loving is simple?

I can’t speak for others as some go through much more severe situations but I can speak for myself. The answer is yes. Yes, you can. The nature of love is so beautiful because its purest form is to give yourself selflessly to others. There is no love or true love. Love is not love if it’s not true to begin with. When a child offers you his only bar of chocolate left, is that not simple? When a child gives you his biggest smile, that’s love. It’s when we make love such a big thing and that it’s over weighing and a burden, we forgot that love starts with small little actions. Every complicated action, when broken up to its core components becomes simple again.

Some of us stopped loving not because we don’t want to but because we forgotten how simple it was to begin with. I took a long time to remember that it’s alright to put my heart out there. My heart would most likely be broken a thousand times between now and the end of my life but it would also be mended a thousand times and more as well because as much as love hurts, it also gives and breathes life into you.

It would always be enough.