My memories of you may fade, but my feelings for you remain forever.
My memories of you may fade, but my feelings for you remain forever. – Positive Masters, Jon Riki Karamatsu, 9/3/2020 –
I came up with this heartwarming quote while I was writing my first full-length screenplay in the lifestyle + competition genre that took me about 30 days to complete. I really like the process of writing a screenplay, which moves much faster and is much shorter than novels. Screenplays are a blueprint for the actors and directors to execute on to make a movie. For my unpublished novels, it took me between 4 years to 8 years to complete, so I really feel happy to be able to finish writing a screenplay within a month. I can pump out a lot more stories in this type of writing form. I love writing because it stretches my imagination and it’s very therapeutic.
Enjoy the Positive Masters universe at www.positivemasters.com for mindset and business practices, motivational podcast episodes and writing, and apparel and accessories with inspirational mantras to boost your happiness and counter any anxiety, sadness, or anger that you may be facing.
I’m a strong believer in having a positive mindset in order to be happier and more fulfilled in life. In this post, I would like to point out the importance of us having a growth mindset, which is believing that our abilities and intelligence can be developed. We can develop our knowledge and skills by reading and practicing everyday. The more we work on our knowledge and skills, the better we get. If we keep up this daily practice, over time, we may attain the knowledge and become very good at the skills we envisioned ourselves achieving.
I like to schedule in my Google calendar blocks of time to learning and building skills and I color code them according to the subject matter. I count each 30-minute period of learning or practicing as a “win” in my Count My Wins program I created for myself. This program gives me a natural high from the happy chemicals released when I finish each 30-minute self-development session. I’m a very curious person so I push myself even in areas I’m unfamiliar with. I really want to become a better person mentally, spiritually, and physically.
Have fun in your self-development! Crush it!
3 of my daily practices: growth mindset, mindfulness, and gratitude.
(I took a picture of these plants and trees in Waikele, Hawaii on March 12, 2019. They represent growth in our growth mindset practice. I’m always mindful of the beauty around me. I’m grateful to experience such simple pleasures.)
An example of nonattachment and gratitude combined. Two very powerful practices. “My love will always be attached to you, but not my selfish desires. I’m forever grateful for what I had with you. I love you.”
On that early evening, I waited by the small, shallow pond in the middle of the large field like we planned a year ago. It was dark. The clouds blacked out all of the stars above. Anxious, I began to pull at the tall blades of wild grass. Did she forget about me? Had she really moved on? In a bitter argument sometime after our promise, I was blocked out of her life. If she had wanted to reconcile with me, she would have contacted me. I was beyond wishing. Instead, I was living in a fantasy.
I waited for about an hour and gave up. Rather than heading back home, I kicked off my shoes, took off my socks, and rolled up my pants to just below my knees. I entered the pond, in an attempt to make the most of my trip there. The cool water felt nice, and I was mindful of the soft mud squeezing between my toes. I slowly proceeded to the middle of the pond, where at that point, I had no care of wetting my clothes. So I crouched down, placed my face in my hands, and let my emotions go. I felt my tears seeping out beneath my palms, making little drops that fell into the water. I stayed like this for some time.
Then, I heard something. There was a buzz. Then a second buzz. And then another and another. I raised my face out of my hands to see what was going on. There were hundreds of fireflies flying in the air, lighting up the pond like tiny flickering candles.
Further away, I heard a faint sound of grass moving in the darkness. Many of the fireflies flew towards the noise. And then I saw a silhouette of the curves of a woman near the other end of the pond. She took a step into the light of the fireflies. It was Kaylee. She was smiling at me in a fitted long-sleeve top and a short skirt. We stood there for a few moments, just looking at each other. My tears were now coming from joy. I grinned back at her.
“Sorry,” she broke the silence. “It took me longer than I thought.”
I looked at her high-heeled sandals and giggled with a shake of my head.
Kaylee followed my eyes and looked down at her feet. “Yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking.” She bent over to unstrap and take off her sandals. Then, she lifted her light skirt and waded into the pond. As she walked towards me, ripples moved across the pool of water. Upon meeting me, she wrapped her arms around my waist and placed her cheek against my chest. I embraced her body in my arms.
Strangely, the fireflies reacted by moving around us like we were star actors of some kind of show. “Uh, guys, what are you doing?” I asked them.
Kaylee lifted her head from my chest and watched them fly around us. “Let them be,” she joked.
She turned her attention back to me, and gazed into my eyes. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too,” I replied.
Still holding one another, we inched closer. I closed my eyes and felt her soft lips press against mine. My eyelids tightened firmer and quivered upon feeling a euphoric sensation that moved throughout my soul.
Life sometimes has its strange twists and turns. I was glad that we both took a chance on this one.
Hi Everyone,
I hope you enjoyed this romantic scene. To help me evoke my emotions, I listened to the songs “Sleepy Eyes” by Elohim & Whethan and “Stargazing” by Kygo ft. Justin Jesso while I was writing this, which I posted below. I found the picture shown above, of a boy and girl in a shallow pond in a field of grass at http://gde-fon.com/download/guy_girl_lake_water_night_fireflies/401727/1680×1050.
It’s better to have loved than to never have loved at all. Not my quote, but a very powerful and widely used one. Or perhaps, like my first novel, maybe we will find our true love in the realms of the dead?
I’ve always been filled with imagination since I was a little kid. As an adult, I still dream and work hard until it’s hard to believe I’m living things I’ve imagined. Fiction plays a huge role in inspiring our reality. And vice versa, writers often infuse reality into fiction. Storytelling has a way of bringing us humans closer because it draws out our emotions. I believe as adults, we should never stop imagining, and if we have a story, don’t be afraid to share it. You never know, you may change the world.
Here’s a nice music video of Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow, characters of the Game of Thrones novel and television show. The song “If You Leave Me Now” by Foxes matches the scenes from this awesome show. Last Sunday, in Episode 6 of Season 7, Daenerys and Jon’s romance blossomed. I love romance. Nothing beats that warm and fuzzy feeling you get when you love someone.
I don’t watch much television or movies that much, but Games of Thrones is the exception. I also have the books. They’re so good, and a nice break from work. Though, Games of Thrones inspires me to work harder. Author and Executive Producer George R.R. Martin is so inspirational!
We used to say this song made us feel some type of way.
It used to make us both feel free.
Underneath the covers you would grab my hand.
You’d say you’d never listen to it without me.
My dream is to take you by the hand and dance with you on stage in front of tens of thousands of people as my friend DJ G-Spot and I play a set. This fun song “Recess” by Golden Coast would be one of the songs in my set. I’m not sure who you’ll be but I got a target date of 2017 or 2018!
Picture of the high technology and special effects stage at the 16th Annual Love Festival Hawaii on 9/27/2014.
You don’t know, you don’t know, know.
Your eyes glow in the dark, they glow.
You got friends all around, around.
It’s just you and me, you and me are going down.
Baby if you follow me home, I’ll follow you forever.
If you’re not going out in the cold, I’ll wait for better weather.
If you’re tired of walking alone, I’ll walk with you and watch the sky.
No matter where you are, no matter where you are, I wanna hear your footsteps in the night.
My sisters are princesses. My nieces are now princesses. They rule the world. Since I was young, I’ve wanted to save everyone from evil. I keep coming up with ideas and mix them with other ideas – some good and some bad. Then I pursue them until I live my imagination. But every now and then, my fantasy comes crashing down. Like a child, I create another dream and do it all over again.
With my nieces Sophie and Elyse on the early morning of March 7, 2016, just before flying from San Francisco, California to Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
My niece Elyse with Princess Belle of Beauty and the Beast at Disney World on March 8, 2016.
My sister Mia, Elyse, and Sophie with Princess Anna of Frozen at Disney World on March 10, 2016.
My niece Sophie in her Princess Snow White dress and younger sister Lara at the hotel in Disney World on March 10, 2016.
My sister Lara holding my niece Sophie at Disney World on March 10, 2016.
My niece Elyse and I in the dining hall of Princess Belle and the Beast at Disney World on March 11, 2016.
A fun song fitting for this journal entry called “Crushin’ My Fairytale” by Celeste Buckingham.
“500 Days of Summer” is one of my all-time favorite movies. I like it because it’s so real, filled with all of life’s strengths and weaknesses. As much as we want our heart to act, sometimes it won’t, no matter how hard we try. On the opposite side, sometimes we fall in love, but the other person just can’t feel the same no matter how much that person cares for you. In the end, it hurts so much between the two of you. This movie is based on an experience that the screenwriter went through. The song “Sweet Disposition” by The Temper Trap really hits you in the right emotional spot and matches the movie.
This song “Ka Pilina” churns my heart. It’s a romantic Hawaiian song about a woman attended by native Hawaiian birds that are singing beautifully. The song is accentuated when danced by hula dancer(s).
When I hear this song, my imagination is as follows:
I move through the forest and hear the elepaio chirping. As midnight approaches, the ‘apapane sings with his beautiful voice. At dawn, I listen to the song of the ‘i’iwi polena. Now approaches the woman attended by the birds. Our eyes meet and we smile. Our love and intimacy.
When I listen to this song, I can picture us in the worlds where only my characters exist – Walking through a Japanese garden filled with white and pink cherry blossom trees and a trickling stream with a crystal clear waterfall; Dancing to a song on a cliff overlooking the dark blue ocean with two small islands placed in it; Swimming in the warm ocean as the shooting stars streak across the sky; Admiring the snow capped mountains from the white palace’s balcony; and Running and stumbling through the snow past the glowing ice sculptures and into the forest so we can lie on our winter coats to gaze at the stars beyond the evergreen trees.
“Oceans Where Feet May Fail” by Without Words: Synesthesia
Death has always loved Life like a boy who knows he can never be with the girl he loves. Rather than being jealous of us for having Life, he wants us to appreciate her.
I really like this band, The Naked and Famous. I’m feeling the lyrics.
They’ll get through.
They’ll get you.
In the place that you feel it the most.
When you’re cornered.
When it’s forming.
In the place that you wish was a ghost.
For many of us, dreams and goals make life exciting. I enjoy coming up with ideas, expanding my skill-sets, and building relationships. However, sometimes in the midst of our hustle to do well in our lives, we forget the importance of having gratitude for what we have now and accomplished thus far. We get too fixated on what we want and get frustrated when all our efforts are not taking us there. We all love success, but with every dream and goal we pursue, there will be challenges and even failure. Some statistics say 8 out of 10 businesses started will fail. Many have pursued the path to become a U.S. Senator or President of the United States and have fallen short. Others have attempted to reach the highest levels in their field of work but have failed to attain that level. Failure is only failure if we don’t appreciate what we currently have and what we have gained. Shoot to be number one in the world, but number 50 is still pretty darn good. We can make peace with our mind knowing that we did our best, and won’t have the pain of wondering “What if I had given my idea a shot?” Through failure, we gain knowledge in areas we may have not been familiar with; build new relationships; and even come up with more ideas to pursue. With failure, we change and evolve, often leading us to worlds we’ve never experienced. When we embrace failure as part of success, we can keep moving higher to a level where we can keep failing until we succeed, and keep succeeding until we fail.
Today April 23, 2016, I finished my 15th draft of my Writing Project #1, a fictional story that I created back when I couldn’t sleep on October 11 to 12, 2006. In the story, the young male protagonist Ken whose health is ailing meets a girl named Kaylee in his dreams who suffers from memory loss, regret, and deep sorrow. As his relationship develops with her, he realizes that his strange dreams are much deeper than ordinary dreams. While in the dream world, he discovers a powerful secret about energy that can not only help Kaylee with her memory loss and sorrow, but save his life and bring balance between good and evil. However, by helping Kaylee attain happiness, Ken realizes that he would lose her forever.
The love between Kaylee and Ken will empower us to play a role in making our universe more positive. I dedicate “Us” by Kaskade & CID to all of you.
A couple of days ago, while taking a break from my work, I watched the ending part of the movie “Serendipity,” which I haven’t seen in awhile. Here’s the song “When You Know” by Shawn Colvin with clips of the movie in the video.
After 32 days of non-stop work on a development project in Kona, Hawaii and an EB-5 Regional Center based in Hawaii, I’m typing my 15th draft of my first novel that I started in October 2006 that currently consists of nearly 80,000 words, a love story between a young male protagonist and a dead girl that brings forward our fears of being alone, not finding true love in our lifetime, losing the battle against negative people, and dying without resolving the pain resulting from heartbreak and broken families. This weekend, I’m also going to continue working on my novel based in Iraq during the U.S. occupation – a love story that is sure to draw controversy because it is surrounded by violence, something you may either understand or disagree with, depending on where you stand on certain political issues. Nonetheless, the bottom line is that love can guide us through anger, death, and our darkest moments. I began writing my second story in May 2013 and it has just under 44,973 words.
The song “Unconditionally” by Katy Perry describes the emotional depth that the characters in my novels have with with each other despite their flaws and all the craziness around them. Even if the world is burning around them and their fate seems doomed, you yearn for their love to succeed. This music video has a ballroom scene. Likewise, my first story has a climax chapter with a ballroom scene. Such a powerful song.
Today, I just listened to the song below “Graduate” by Handsome Ghost and I immediately liked it. The song connects to my stories because the characters in my novels have enormous obstacles that’s preventing them from being together.
“Swept Away” by Christoper Cross is one of my all-time favorite love songs ever, so much so that I wrote it into my first novel. Every time I listen to it, it brings out this warm feeling in my chest, and when I’m alone or writing a love story, it bring so much emotions out of me.
“Seeing for the First Time” by Britt Nicole is another song that represents the love that the characters in my novels have for one another.
I hope you enjoyed this entry and the songs! Take care and may happiness be with you always.
With my nieces Sophie and Elyse on the early morning of March 7, 2016, just before flying from San Francisco, California to Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
My niece Elyse with Princess Belle of Beauty and the Beast at Disney World on March 8, 2016.
My sister Mia, Elyse, and Sophie with Princess Anna of Frozen at Disney World on March 10, 2016.
My niece Sophie in her Princess Snow White dress and younger sister Lara at the hotel in Disney World on March 10, 2016.
My sister Lara holding my niece Sophie at Disney World on March 10, 2016.
My niece Elyse and I in the dining hall of Princess Belle and the Beast at Disney World on March 11, 2016.
JON RIKI KARAMATSU 