In the spirit of Throwback Thursday, I’ve decided to share with everyone this little gem that I found on my computer.
This webisode was shot back in 2012 in collaboration with my great friends Jenni Ruiza, Maribeth White and William Carabano.
Go on and check it out and have a laugh on me.
Yesterday I broke a mirror at work. I went to go put a dirty menu away in our coat check room and without noticing, I slid the mirror off the table it was on. The lights were off but as soon as I heard the shattering noise, I knew it sounded like something I was going to be picking up shortly.
As I bent down to start cleaning the mess I had just created, I started remembering of that old “breaking mirrors” superstition. As I gently picked up the bigger pieces first, I wondered if I could possibly be staring into 7 years of bad luck to come. I mean, I wouldn’t say I’ve been going through a bad luck streak lately because things have been pretty great, but for the last few weeks, I have been in a slump that I’ve been trying ever so desperately to get myself out of.
Before I was done picking up all of the bigger pieces, I heard someone say “Excuse me Miss…” It was one of our customers. I didn’t know his name but he was tall, impeccably dressed and had hair that reminded me of John Stamos circa “Full House”. For a moment I forgot all about the mirror on the floor and floated off to fantasy land. As I was halfway to a Caribbean destination with him in my daydream, he said: “My coat is right behind you. Would you mind passing it to me?” Sigh. That sobered me up real quick. So I passed him the coat and he left, but not before tipping me $3. I suppose that if none of my goals come true, I have a promising future in coat checking.
So I went back to picking up my mirror. I picked up every last piece, swept the floor and put the debris in a plastic bag and threw it in the garbage. I think what happened next is what therapists like to call “The Breakthrough”. I realized that some relationships are like broken glass, it’s better to leave them broken than to harm yourself putting them back together. Maybe that’s why I’ve been in this slump recently, I’m trying to mend what I can’t.
I went back to the hostess desk and quickly replayed what’s been going on in my life the last few weeks. Then and only then, was that I noticed that the worst moments in my slump were triggered by the same group of people. Now I realize that it’s time to cut ties. The last time I had an energy sucking vampire in my life, I cut her off and life has never been better. So why am I allowing others to merely substitute this person as the bane of my existence?
Enough.
My mother always says that when something around you breaks, it’s because it absorbed a negative energy that could’ve caused a greater harm later on. So maybe my broken mirror isn’t a sign of bad luck at all, maybe it’s a sign that I need to pick up the pieces to the relationships in my life and just do away with the rest. When you’re done trying to fix things, it’s best to just let go, regardless of how strong the bond was once upon a time. After all, even if you did succeed in putting the mirror back together again, you wouldn’t be able to see yourself as clearly as before, would you?
-Ori
Friendship is one of the fundamental principles we learn as children. Our cousins/siblings are our first set of friends or we meet a friend in pre-school, maybe a next door neighbor. As adults we learn to value our friendships even more (it is very necessary to have a loving friend take your phone away from you before you start drunk texting). Our perception of friendship slowly changes as we get older and we begin to realize that what we once considered worthy behavior has lost its luster and friends whose company we once enjoyed now have become the bane of our existence. Before you start telling yourself that you do not have people like this in your life, think twice. You do have a friend like this; WE ALL DO.
Are you still in denial questioning whether or not you have an individual like this in your life? Well then, how about this? I’ll give you various characteristics a person I am talking about might exhibit and you can decide for yourself:
1) Have you ever had a friend who was angry/upset/disgusted at someone and bad-mouthed that person repeatedly YET one day, out of the blue became best friends with the very same person that they trash-talked for so long?
YES □ NO □
2) Have you ever had a friend who one day encourages you to engage in a certain type of behavior, but the moment they are mad or upset with you they chastise the VERY SAME behavior they once applauded you for?
YES □ NO □
3) Have you ever had a friend who vigorously advocates that you break up with the person you’re with or is always insulting your partner YET that very same friend is entangled in a crappy relationship of their own with some loser unfortunate soul who they’ve threatened to leave for the 17th time yet keep going back to?
YES □ NO □
If you have answered “yes” to any of the above, CONGRATULATIONS, you are a lucky winner!!
Now don’t get me wrong, just because you may have a friend who possesses the traits I have mentioned above, doesn’t mean they are a bad friend or a bad person. It just means that you should be much more careful about the information you disclose to them or how you behave around them. Unfortunately, this may ultimately lead you to remove your friend from your life indefinitely, regardless of how much it may hurt you.
Friends are the family we choose for ourselves and we often look at them for guidance and support, but we must also understand that sometimes our friends’ hearts aren’t in the right place nor do our friends always have our best interests in mind. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it is that as much as we value our friends’ opinions about our love lives, jobs, families, and lives in general, sometimes we just have to block them out and follow our instincts. Why? Because no matter how much you love your friend or respect their opinion at the time that it is given, you can never be absolutely sure as to where they’re really coming from or what the state of your friendship will be tomorrow. Value what your friends have to say but still do what is best for you.
What type of friend are YOU?
– Orisel
OriWithAStory 