"In fact a mature person does not fall in love, he rises in love. The word ’fall’ is not right. Only immature people fall; they stumble and fall down in love. Somehow they were managing and standing. They cannot manage and they cannot stand – they find a woman and they are gone, they find a man and they are gone. They were always ready to fall on the ground and to creep. They don’t have the backbone, the spine; they don’t have that integrity to stand alone.

A mature person has the integrity to be alone. And when a mature person gives love, he gives without any strings attached to it: he simply gives. And when a mature person gives love, he feels grateful that you have accepted his love, not vice versa. He does not expect you to be thankful for it – no, not at all, he does not even need your thanks. He thanks you for accepting his love. And when two mature persons are in love, one of the greatest paradoxes of life happens, one of the most beautiful phenomena: they are together and yet tremendously alone; they are together so much so that they are almost one. But their oneness does not destroy their individuality, in fact, it enhances it: they become more individual.

 Two mature persons in love help each other to become more free. There is no politics involved, no diplomacy, no effort to dominate. How can you dominate the person you love? Just think over it. Domination is a sort of hatred, anger, enmity. How can you think of dominating a person you love? You would love to see the person totally free, independent; you will give him more individuality. That’s why I call it the greatest paradox: they are together so much so that they are almost one, but still in that oneness they are individuals. Their individualities are not effaced – they have become more enhanced. The other has enriched them as far as their freedom is concerned.

 Immature people falling in love destroy each other’s freedom, create a bondage, make a prison. Mature persons in love help each other to be free; they help each other to destroy all sorts of bondages. And when love flows with freedom there is beauty. When love flows with dependence there is ugliness.”

Osho

Short Is The New Long

I've had long hair since I was a little girl. My mother tells me stories about how when I was a newborn, my hair wouldn't grow so she would hot glue bows to the little patches of hair I did have. (My boyfriend now calls me Patches.) Eventually though, I grew hair.. And a lot of it. At age 6 I already had a beautiful, long, shiny mane that everyone adored and complimented my mom on. In elementary, all the little boys liked me, and I know now, it was because of the hair. Long hair gives the illusion of attraction, a pretty girl will always have long hair down to her waist.. The cultural standard is everywhere; rom com movies, action movies, hip-hop songs, country songs, pop songs. 

She would use this story against me later when I pleaded to cut my hair. I had just transferred to middle school when the Rihanna-bob took over. She'd tell me shorter hair was for older women and that long hair was girly. Still, left and right every girl looked so cool and trendy and I felt like I looked the same- long, boring, brown hair. 

Later on, in high school, when everyone's bobs had gone through that awful middle bob phase, the extension craze took over and luckily, I had no need. My real hair was every girl's envy; long, beautiful, brown hair. 

These past few years, although extensions are no longer as popular, long hair has been. The Kardashians are partly to blame. So are instagram famed models and MUA's. So I grew my already  long hair to my waist and naturally, I bask in the compliments of boys and girls alike- equally about my ombré hair color and my hair length. 

About a month ago, I took a photo with my boyfriend and I noticed my hair looked really shapeless. It was long and pretty itself but it did nothing to my face and I already knew it was burnt because of all the bleach, so I entertained the thought of cutting it. I carried the thought for a while and over time I started seeing pictures of beautiful muses Izabel Goulart, Alessandra Ambrosio, Adriana Lima, Candice Swanepoel, and even Kim K all with choppy layers surrounding their face. They are all beautiful, fashionable and modern and none of them had that long hippy hair. 

Speaking of hippies though, I was also scanning through several beachy/boho Instagram pages and their models had short to mid-length hair and I came to the realization that this was the new long. 

Even hippies had shorter hair.

Keep in mind that I went through my "Texas-sized, long hair" phase and although I like big hair, I don't like the ostentatious volume anymore. I found myself doing my hair in a more tousled, less curled, undone beach hair style. 

Long hair seemed outdated and going down my Instagram feed I realized that most girls had really long hair and it just seems over drawn. I've also always been one to shy away from the norm surrounding me, so I decided to cut it. My head feels lighter and healthier and it frames my face a lot better. I feel really feminine now with hair over and near my face and I needed something refreshing. Not to mention the breath of fresh air I just aided to my bleached ombré. 

Bye bye hippy hair

Here's to a new chapter in my eventful hair journal! 

UV

As you may have heard, Lana Del Rey's sophomore album, Ultraviolence has leaked a week prior to release. It was bound to happen and I am ecstatic.

The first time I was introduced to Lana Del Rey, I was enamored with her sultry voice that came in waves and waves and waves. There was something grandiose about her, everything grandiose about her. 

I hadn't heard anyone talk about her at all until I saw my then-guilty pleasure Katy Perry tweet "Lana Del Rey all day." I googled the girl, listened to Blue Jeans and then in one sitting, every other song she had ever written. I was so entranced. I loved her strong, chaotic stories and the beautiful pictures she painted in every single song. I specially loved the lyrics though; she was a slave to her loves, she sung about being a masochist, she was sad. She could be sad, she could be mad, she could be free and there was something so fresh and freeing about a woman who sung about being empowered by men- ironically, it sounded to me that she was a strong, honest enough woman to admit to her innermost feelings. There might be one lyric that sums up all of her first album and it's in the second verse of "Off To The Races": "I'm not afraid to say, that I'd die without him." 

Apart from her damsel in distress style, you still have quite the starlet. Diet Mountain Dew, Radio and Carmen give you a little taste of Lana and her relationship with herself, her American dreams, her love for her city, the women she admires. She paints a big picture of love, but in the background she includes her love for certain places, certain pop culture icons, and sometimes just beautifully-sounding words. All in all, though, Born To Die was an introduction to the world, a story about a damsel, heroine, a Hollywood starlet paving her way through and apart from the sold-out Katy Perrys, Lady Gagas and Rihannas of the day.

Ultraviolence turned out to be so much more. She had already set her creative place with Born To Die so I believe that in this album she gave herself freedom to create a different tone with more obscure lyrics and less of the sassy fluff we all came to love about her. 

 I don't include Black Beauty and I'm not quite sure if it's because it was leaked a while ago and I associate it with her other leaks or if it's because it truly doesn't sound the same.

Either way, this time around, LDR plays up her dangerous side with sexier tracks, less of the romantic swirls, more of the sensual waves. 

West Coast's californian vibes take you to a beach at night, Shades Of Cool takes you on a slow ride down the street in a Blue Cadillac, Brooklyn Baby sets you in a 70's era campfire with a guitar and your cool boyfriend.. (In which Lana's actual boyfriend Barrie O Neill joins her in singing about how much cooler she is than him.)

Guns N Roses is a song that doesn't mean to take you anywhere, Lana sings calmly and beautifully about her regrets about her "better than the rest" love and his love for the band. 

The Other Woman is a song you'd hear blasting from a cream-colored radio on a beautiful vanity in a fifties blockbuster.

Sad Girl is Lana's attempt at making the side-chick role seem glamorous.. A successful attempt at that. She croons about "being a bad bitch on the side" and warns others; "watch what you say to me, careful who you're talking to- I'm on fire." 

This time around, she's her most empowered muse, a stronger Lana Del Rey. More confident, more casual, but just as cinematic. 

It was everybody's question what she would be left to do in this highly anticipated album and she answered it proudly: still herself, still her production, she still calls the lights, the sounds, she just casted a different crew and created new stories from the embers of Born To Die and created a whole different monster..

A monster I know will become an instantaneous hit once it is released and hopefully a turning point for her naysayers, for in this she proves that she is not a posing, collagen-lipped anti-feminist hipster but an intelligent woman who uses her knowledge on literature, emotions and obsessions and turns them into magical musical art.