A little girl once asked me why some friendships end and some do not. I told her that some things are not just black and white. We are humans. We like to hold our lives in our hands and try to mold it into shapes that suit us. But life is not clay; it is sand, and sand does not hold water. 

There will be days when all you want to do is stand at the balcony of your house and watch the sunset and listen to birds call out to one another as they return to their nests. Then, there are those days when you hear a bird's voice and you know it's not chirping. No bird chirps after a hawk has taken their child. You return home from work to see the broken remains of a plate that existed before you were born and you want to cry. Your mother asks you "What's wrong?" and you tell her it's the plate. Well, it's a half-truth because there are a lot of things on your plate that you just don't know how to handle. On days like this, you miss the cat that always comes by your kitchen window, looking for food. You miss hearing it's soft meow and you realise that being able to hear these sounds, to soak yourself in their melody is a huge blessing. 

You don't understand why you don't feel enthusiastic about some things the way you did when you were younger. You worry that you are abandoning your dreams. But, I hope you realise that dreams and people are somewhat like birds; they can perch wherever they want to, whenever they like. So, the next time you see another dream or another person walk away, remember that birds always return to their nests. You cannot be every bird's nest. 

~Of home and abstract places.