These past few days have turned to be the most wonderful days in my life ever; a series of non-stop uber-sweet moments full of loving surprises. I feel so blessed; and so loved.

The Reunion

I landed in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday and had a reunion with some good friends. It was a lovely one; as we had the chance to just chill out while sharing stories about our lives—something that we missed in several other journeys we’ve shared before. The moment reminded me (again), to embrace the opportunity to connect.

We’ll never know how much time is left, whether we’ll see the person we’re with at the moment ever again; thus, don’t waste your time to hold things back. Say the things you’d like to say, do the things you’d like to do, like what my best friend once said, “It’s better to live your life in whatever than in what-ifs.”

Malaysia Social Media Week 2012

On Monday, I was speaking at an awesome event, Malaysia’s Social Media Week 2012 at PWTC, sharing the panel on brand and storytelling with Dave Duarte, the Managing Director of Ogilvy South Africa (Dave, you’re the coolest and the best moderator, ever!), Ryan Hayward, the Asia Pacific Product Marketing Manager of Google+, and Willy Lim, the co-founder of NetProfitQuest.

That day, I shared about how the principles used in fairy tales can actually be adopted by brands/companies/organizations in designing their social media activities. Came to think about it, we all love fairy tales, right? It sticks with us until the longest time: the story, the names of the characters, the setting, the illustrations… dissecting fairy tales and learning about each elements inside it can actually help us (well, me) in designing a social media activity that—just like fairy tales, will stick. Something beautiful, simple, and memorable. Something you’d find entertaining to be retold, to be shared…

OK, enough, I’ll write more about this at the Raconteur‘s blog in a few days. At the moment, I’d just like to say thank you, thank you so much, for all the participants of Malaysia’s Social Media Week conference who came to me after the talk; especially those who told me that they have found the inspiration they need in the fairy tale analogy I shared, and gave me some big hugs! It felt awesome! I truly appreciated your appreciation and enthusiasm. I was humbled. Oh, and thank you to the MC, Terence, who was being so sweet in nicknaming me Fairytale Princess :”)

Valentine’s Day

More sweet surprises came over me on Valentine’s Day: from the lovely pink rose and fun karaoke session to Valentine dinner + movies with friends (that was full of laughter!) and some sugary-sweet gift-exchange moments with best friends: I got a dress and a cute owl necklace! *hoot*

Strings

The magnificent closing of these amazing days happened on Wednesday morning, as I reached Jakarta from Kuala Lumpur. My lovely friend, Sundus Rasheed, who worked in CityFM89 radio in Karachi, called me up to get me on-air, live, with Strings—a Pakistani rock band that I love! ^^

Hosted by the ever-friendly Khalid Malik (Khalid, yaar, we’ve never met before, but I owe you one!), I got the chance not only to talk to Bilal Maqsood (guitarist) and Faisal Kapadia (vocalist), but also, being the nicest person ever, Bilal generously offered an opportunity to do an on-air duet with me, to sing one of their most popular song, Mera Bichra Yaar (A Long Lost Friend)! :’O It was the sweetest moment I’ve experienced in my life, ever! *crying* And this is the snapshots of Khalid (the DJ), Bilal and Faisal inside the radio station, when Bilal and I were singing together, via phone :’)

So, today, I can only say thank you—and really, THANK YOU, for those of you who have made my day (and you know exactly who you are). I love you, and I’m so blessed to know you all :’)

– one morning in Jakarta, with a cup of hot coffee and some loving memories –

A DANCER.

A dancer discovers music everywhere. He knows that life in itself is an orchestra of nature’s instruments, a collection of the universe’s melodies. He sees everything around him moving rhythmically as if all things have their own cadence.

A dancer knows that this is how life works: it works in a flowing motion. Like a trained dancer, his very own reflex is to feel the beat, follow the melody and move along with the rhythm. He doesn’t fight the music, but drowns himself in it instead, savoring every note with style, as if it were the last few notes on earth. He flutters around with the music of life pulsating in his veins: the excitement, the joy, the energy: the giving away of every inch of muscles, every bead of sweat, every particle of mind.

A dancer understands perfectly that the key to everything lies in harmony, balance, and a splash of spontaneity. He knows that life is the magical tunes he had been carrying in his heart since the day he was born, and as always, he will only need to follow the tempo, surrender to the sensation and dance it away.

A SKY-GAZER.

A sky-gazer knows that looking out into space is like looking back in time. On a starry night, he’s the one who will be touched by the romantic melancholy of how the stars could have actually died a very long time ago, way before its light reached his very eyes.

A sky-gazer, thus, appreciates how his past defines the way he sees the world as he sees it now. He understands the beauty of embracing what’s gone, not to be replaced by something else (because he believes that the things of the past are irreplaceable), but to be carried inside his heart: a keepsake as he walks his way to the future. At times, it serves as a reminder—to live life to the fullest, to not holding back too much; and at other times as a blanket—to keep him warm with loving memories or to snuggle inside when things become ugly.

A sky-gazer knows that looking at the future is like gazing at the night sky. Deep down inside, we’re actually looking back in time to who we were and who we used to be. A sky-gazer receives this knowledge like something that has been written in his DNA: that life always flows to the future carrying everything from the past along, and nothing is left behind.

A LOVER.

A lover loves and nothing else matters. He knows that love isn’t pink; it can be black or white or maroon and other times bluish purple. He accepts the fact that love draws tears as much as it draws laughter, but he doesn’t mind. He understands that roses have thorns and that thorns have roses. A lover realizes the perfection that lies behind tiny imperfections, the flickers of words beneath those shy-looking eyelashes, the thirst of grape-flavored kisses inside empty wine glasses, the yearning of togetherness beyond every goodbye clenches.

A lover falls for the beauty of an unmade bed and stains of paints on a white fence, the solitude of a buzzing traffic jam and cries of seagulls above the sand, the charm of getting soaked under the rain and playing catch under the blazing sun, the fondness of plunging into a quarrel and feeling the pain of a mistake unrepaired. A lover appreciates sadness as a way to alleviate the beloved’s tears and embraces happiness as a reason to shower the beloved with marshmallow-tempered caresses and sweet-sugary sentences.

A lover knows that he has no other thirst but to love—even when he realizes that the thirst will never get quenched.

A lover loves and nothing else matters.

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*) a gift for a dancer, a sky-gazer, a lover, and a very dear friend. Kuala Lumpur, February 2012.