"Some people are settling down, some people are settling and some people refuse to settle for anything less than butterflies."

settle; to render quiet; to still; to calm;

i have always hated that word, settle. add down to it and we'll be at war. it's not that i am afraid to commit, not that i can't be loyal to one person alone, and neither is it any fear of becoming stale. nope, it's not those, it's just that something about that word infuriates me, kinda strangles me till i'm at a loss for air. why the strong reaction? i'll tell you in a bit. . .

to render quiet. now, quiet is nice right? no disturbances, no noise, one says go, you go, one says stay you stay, sit, roll over, play dead? hahahaha, kinda like a trained pet? yeah, my point exactly. in a lot of ways, quiet is good, in fact we all seek quiet sometimes, but quiet allthroughout? nah, just not my thing.

to still. ever seen a spinning top suddenly put to a stop? it careens, it does not automatically halt, if it is stopped abruptly it spins out of control. very similar to someone so used to being carefree, speaking her mind, not leashed, untamed, suddenly you put a rein on her and what do you think would happen? yeah she'll struggle, she'll try to break free, pull away, fight until she is so tired, and then she settles.

to calm. like a raging storm. it's meant to be watched, in awe. how a tempest could flatten even the most sturdy tree is a mystery to me, it was meant to stay a mystery. to attempt to calm it is madness.

my point?

to me settling implies giving in. it connotes raising your hand in surrender, it signifies defeat, i can't do anything about it anymore and so i settled. like i had no other choice. most times settling also indicates that there should have been something better but you were not able to reach it and so you just accepted what it was that you can. ever heard the question, why settle for less if you can have more? do i need to even elaborate?

maybe some people embrace settling, it is safe, steady, predictable. if you can tell what will happen, if you know what to expect, then it's less disappointments, less heartbreaks. i understand the need to protect one's self, i did that a few times. the desire to veer away from the chaos, the mess, to be the one in total control is indeed very tempting. you have to realize though, that life is never neat, orderly, cut and dried. it is never black and white, it's gray most of the time. to be disillusioned that you can arrange it in a way that suits you by settling is a huge mistake.

there are those who look at settling as accepting their fate. it's what life threw at them and so they have to agree that it's what they deserved. no attempt to fight, or even argue, struggle a bit, no, they are convinced that there is no alternative. that's crap. you always have a choice. the easy way or the hard way, the tried and tested, or the adventurous path, to stop at a barricade or to go around it, find another way.

but the ones that i pity the most are those who were wild and unrestrained for the first quarter of their lives who suddenly lost their drive. got bitten, was hurt at one point, or just lost any hope of finding someone else to run wild with them and so they ended up relinquishing their might and yeah, settling.

a wise man once told me that there are too many mediocre things in life and that love should not be one of them. i don't think there are any truer words.

some people believe that we reincarnate, that we are supposed to live multiple lifetimes. until someone can prove to me that we indeed do, i would approach mine as though i only have this one to live. and i, most certainly, won't spend it settling.