My master and I – Boredom

by Paulo Coelho on March 3, 2012

(these notes were written in August 1986)

We are sitting in a garden in a French town.

– Deep down, people complain, but they love routines – I said.

– Of course, and the reason is very simple: routines give them the false sensation of being safe. Thus, today will be exactly like yesterday, and tomorrow will bring no surprises. When night falls, part of the soul complains that nothing different was experienced, but another part is content – paradoxically, it is for the same reason.

“Evidently this safety is completely false; no one can control anything, and a change always appears at the moment one least expects it, taking us by surprise and with no chance to react or fight.

– If we are free to decide that we want a uniform life, why does God force us to change it?

– What is reality? It is that which we imagine it to be. If many people “think” that the world is like this or like that, everything around us crystallizes, and nothing changes for some time. However, life is a constant evolution – social, political, spiritual, on whatever level it may be. In order for things to evolve, it is necessary for people to change. As we are all interlinked, sometimes destiny gives those hindering evolution a push.

– Generally in a tragic way…

– Tragedy depends on the way you see it. If you chose to be a victim of the world, anything which happens to you will feed that dark side of your soul, where you consider yourself wronged, suffering, guilty and deserving punishment. If you choose to be an adventurer, the changes – even the inevitable losses, since everything in this world changes – can cause some pain, but will soon thrust you forward, forcing you to react.

“In many oral traditions, wisdom is represented by a temple, with two columns at its entrance: these two columns always have names of opposite things, but in order to illustrate what I mean, we will call one Fear and the other Desire. When a man stands at this entrance, he looks at the column of Fear and thinks: “my God, what will I find further ahead?” Then he looks at the column of Desire and thinks: “my God, I’m so accustomed to that which I have, I wish to continue living as I have always lived.” And he remains still; this is what we call tedium.

– Tedium is…

– Movement which ceases. Instinctively, we know we are wrong, and we revolt. We complain to our husbands, wives, children, neighbors. But, on the other hand, we know that tedium and routine are safe havens.

– Can a person remain his whole life in this situation?

– He can be pushed by life, but resist and remain there, always complaining – and his suffering will be useless, will teach him nothing.

“Yes, a person can stand for the rest of his days facing one of the many doors he should go through, but he must understand that he has only truly lived up to that point. He may continue to breathe, walk, sleep and eat – but with less and less pleasure, because he is already spiritually dead and does not know it.

“Until one day when, as well as his spiritual death, physical death appears; at that moment God will ask: “what did you do with your life?” We must all answer this question, and woe betide those who answer: “I remained standing at the door.”

If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track, which has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living.

--- Joseph Campbell

Banana Song

Laugh trip!

Trying my damn best not to visit my blogsite daily but it's like passing by my home and not entering the door. Sheesh! I have A LOT of important stuff to do. So help me God. Today, a very special book was delivered to me. I've been searching for it for ages and ages. It's always out-of-stock. I just wanna say a BIG THANK YOU to the person who looked all over the world for it. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. Will update you if it works. I'm sure it will. :-)

Have a Laugh

Haha! Sometimes this happens ...

Source: Have a Laugh

The Road Ahead

3 months ... 3 options ... Which to choose? Let Thy will be done. The road ahead ...

"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."

- Thomas Merton

Things to Do Today

HAHAHA!



Source: Have a Laugh

I Have a Dream

Last August 28, 1963, Mr. Martin Luther King Jr., a prominent leader in the African-American civil rights,  delivered a very powerful speech entitled "I Have A Dream" at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. Decades after this speech, people are still clamoring for freedom from racial discrimination and social oppression.

ONE WORLD. ONE VOICE. ONE DREAM.


Let's stop the fighting and start the loving ...


"Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.


Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

                Free at last! Free at last!

                Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
And the rain fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again may God hold you in the Palm of His Hand.

An Old Irish Verse

Siesta Time

(singsong voice)
Mishka: How about we play now?
Me: How about we sleep now?
Lola Carmen: Time to sleep!
Mishka: Time to play!

Remember when we were kids and our parents had to force us to go to bed and sleep? Now I want to go to Spain and experience the real siesta. Hehehe.

Don't Stop Believing !!!

The Ruins - Taj Mahal of Negros

I've always been fascinated with the Taj Mahal of India. Great to know that we have our very own Taj Mahal in the Philippines. It's said to be one of the 12 most beautiful ruins in the world. WOW. It's located in the borders of Talisay and Bacolod City. The mansion was built in the early 1900s. It was an ancestral home given by Don Mariano Lacson to his first wife, Maria Braga, a Portuguese from Macau. This Italian-inspired structure survived the Japanese occupation.  

Pic by Kevin Bok (@123potatochips)

Andy Capp

Sometimes I feel that my daughter is a woman trapped in a girl's body ... And I'm the exact opposite. :-)

To Where You Are

April 19, 2012

A year ago, our family lost a great man with a beautiful soul. I know he's watching over us. He's in a better place now. Missing him and praying for him everyday.  See you on the other side someday.



Mishka Bakes At 3

Mishka participated in the Bake-A-Bon Event sponsored by Cinnabon, Abu Dhabi Mall last night. She wore a chef's uniform and baked a batch of mini chocobons. Ain't she a darlin'? :-) :-) :-)

We Are Young - FUN

Remember the times when we were young and reckless and free? When we did not have to please anyone but ourselves? When we could be selfish and downright self-centered? When we could just focus on the moment and forget about tomorrow? Those were the days, my friend ... :-)

From – Twenty Poems of Love

The voice of Pablo Neruda's poems is a voice that haunts your soul ... It's the voice that persists days after the last line was read ... A voice so powerful that you cannot help but go through the same torment, the same love affair ... You fall in love ... You fall out of love ... You get lost in a trance ... Such is the voice of this great Chilean poet ...  

 

From – Twenty Poems of Love

　

I can write the saddest lines tonight.

Write for example: ‘The night is fractured

and they shiver, blue, those stars, in the distance’

　

The night wind turns in the sky and sings.

I can write the saddest lines tonight.

I loved her, sometimes she loved me too.

　

On nights like these I held her in my arms.

I kissed her greatly under the infinite sky.

　

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.

How could I not have loved her huge, still eyes.

　

I can write the saddest lines tonight.

To think I don’t have her, to feel I have lost her.

　

Hear the vast night, vaster without her.

Lines fall on the soul like dew on the grass.

　

What does it matter that I couldn’t keep her.

The night is fractured and she is not with me.

　

That is all. Someone sings far off. Far off,

my soul is not content to have lost her.

　

As though to reach her, my sight looks for her.

My heart looks for her: she is not with me

　

The same night whitens, in the same branches.

We, from that time, we are not the same.

　

I don’t love her, that’s certain, but how I loved her.

My voice tried to find the breeze to reach her.

　

Another’s kisses on her, like my kisses.

Her voice, her bright body, infinite eyes.

　

I don’t love her, that’s certain, but perhaps I love her.

Love is brief: forgetting lasts so long.

　

Since, on these nights, I held her in my arms,

my soul is not content to have lost her.

　

Though this is the last pain she will make me suffer,

and these are the last lines I will write for her.

　

Pablo Neruda

Post-birthday Thoughts

Life does throw in a a couple of surprises along your way when you least expect it. I thought my birthday would be an ordinary day but it was far from that. I got my birthday wish plus lots more. Thank you to everyone who made this happen. Hugs and kisses !

Passing Time

Your skin like dawn
Mine like musk

One paints the beginning
of a certain end.

The other, the end of a
sure beginning.

--- Maya Angelou