"how are you?" has become such an inane question..
now we say it just to be moderately polite...
it has merged with "hello" and morphed into "hellohowru"..
it's not even a question anymore..

for several years now, whenever people asked me that question,
i would reply, "well, i'm alive.."
i refused to return the "fineandu?"..
cuz: 1. i'd be lying... and 2. i didn't really give a rat's behind how the other person was...

today when i was asked .. "how are u?",
for the first time in decades, i responded with, "i'm happy"...
not like instant ramen...which one could eat faster than it was made...
but all-day-feel-good-do-good-joy... even if my day has gone awry..
the kind that lasts until the next day and drools over to the following week...

and now that i've had a taste of what true happiness could be like..
i don't want to settle for anything less...
i don't want to go back to just breathing...
i want to inhale life...