Prescribing Life Lessons: Message In a Bottle [Excerpt]

So I'll shove my message in a bottle and send it to the stars. Or should I throw it into the ocean of lost dreams? Like so many have done before me, I don't think so. In a world like ours, who is the hero and who is the thief? Blurred lines deviate black and white. You're the only one who can answer that. Feel the truth in your bones like a freezing wind on a mid December morning. I can, and I know you can.

What does this all mean? Who can define these feelings? I'm sick of asking questions that can't be answered by a blank page. I stare at the page with a full head, yet there are no seashells found on this empty beach of white sand. I was once told that I can be anything besides nothing, so I plan on becoming something. It's the last day of winter and I won't change with the seasons. Spring won't be any different. I don't think so. Actually, it will. Spring will be different, but I won't change. I'll grow like dandelions in the sidewalk. Interpret that notion as you will.

I can hear the coyotes howl in the distance, the sound has more emotion than most music that's released now-a-days. That's sad. Our expression of emotion is supposed to be what sets us apart from animals. I thought that human beings were the superior species, yet a coyote's howl echoes through the darkness, and touches me deeper than the top 100 Billboard songs.

What about you? What gets your heart racing and mind running? Honestly think about it.  If you are unable to answer that, you have some serious studying to do... but a textbook won't help you this time around. Forget everything you learned in classrooms at your fifty-thousand dollar a year university, I want you to dig deeper than that. Think back to your childhood - to the summers spent with your family and friends at the Jersey Shore or Lake George. Before you knew the truth about the world that we live in, way before you found out that the earth can be a cold, dead place. And way before you heard the Explosions In The Sky album that told you it wasn't. I'm talking about the days that were filled with real innocence and unscathed emotions. For most of us, at least. We're better off searching for answers in words than in the end of a syringe. That's for damn sure.

If you feel as small as a mouse, live as big as a mountain. If you always take 'No' for an answer, you'll never hear 'Yes'. Reality doesn't need to be permanent and dreams don't have to be temporary. Don't run away from the past, sprint towards the future. Times change and so do people, don't get left behind with the wrong ones. Grow up like trees and stay grounded like roots. You will not be happy unless you truly love what you do. Money doesn't grow on trees but neither do real friends. It's cliche to say, but don't follow the money, follow your heart. Sometimes you have to sacrifice in order to do so, it won't last forever. Love is the only currency that's accepted everywhere. So don't let your heart run dry. Hate is the cheapest thing that we can't afford to have.

If you feel like drowning, just keep swimming. Contrary to what you may believe, you are the conductor on this train, not a passenger. No matter how many people get on or off, the train will keep barreling down the tracks. You'll see new places and new people, most will fade away into the sun like the memories from summers so long ago. Small towns with small houses and smaller ideals. Big cities with big buildings and bigger personalities.

You'll see it all.

There's somebody just like you, and you'll probably never get to meet them. Be yourself. Express yourself, don't second-guess yourself. In life's game of poker, don't gamble with emotions. Even if you win, you'll eventually lose. Always. Cast your sorrows out to sea and don't reel in your line. A message in a bottle is a fortune cookie for those that don't have faith in luck. This is for the girl with the plastic smile who created the guy with the broken soul.

Cause you can fix a broken heart and you can change a burnt out brain, but a soul that's broken stays that way forever.

When the tides of change wash up on the shoreline of life, this message in a bottle will teach you everything you need to know. So whatever you do, don't let go.