Quote of the week

Live each season as it passes; breather air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. Let them be your only diet drink and botanical medicines.

~Henry David Thoreau

Morning thoughts....

If we are each the center of our own universe, then how do connections occur? How would our universes overlap? Should we instead be not the center of our own universe and more like a proton, orbiting the periphery, shifting consciousness, and enlarging our universe...

However, if we are more like protons, orbiting our own universe, are we not aware of the possibilities that abound? Meaning, does our universe that we are orbiting inhibit connections or is our universe porous, so as to say connections and possibilities can permeate? If this is the case and our own universe is permeable to possibilities and connections, then we do not need to be orbiting our universe. However, it does not seem possible that our universe, a culmination of the positive and negative bits and pieces of our lives, the residue that is left at the end of each day, does not act as some type of filter.

Therefore, shall we be open, at least partially, to new experiences, as one who orbits their own universe, or shall we sit comfortably, completely enveloped in a filter, like a cosy warm blanket, keeping all the bad [and possibly good] at bay?

The fog of reality

Sails and sunshine

The Simple Abundance entry for today touched on women who read too much and how that is impossible... that a person cannot read too much. However, I wonder is that is completely true. Yes, we can constantly gain more from each new reading; however, do our brains have a maximum capacity? Perhaps some can continuously fill their heads with information, but I seem unable to access information I have not readily used. Maybe my brain operated on a use it or loose it regime.

Additionally, I wonder if becoming more educated hinders us in some way. I know, I know, how could I possibly say that? Well, it's just that it's just that when we gain more knowledge and then need to gain more, and more, and more... it's a greedy cycle and of what benefit? Does it make us happier? Healthier? More like fatter and miserable. I'm not saying that knowledge and it's repercussions are all... I just think that perhaps it clutters our lives in way... and after awhile, it can be hindering and/or suffocating.

I think it best to keep it simple. Perhaps this merely means filtering through the mountainous information and picking out only that which is necessary and implementable. A feat easier said than done.

Remembering Mr. Roger

Growing up, I was never a fan of the TV show, Mr Roger's neighborhood. I could not understand why he would change his shoes and sweater when he went inside his house and I wasn't a big fan of The Neighborhood of Make-Believe. However, while listening to a This American Life episode, Neighbors that was originally aired in 2001. In the first act of the episode, Davy Rothbart, the creator of Found magazine, goes to visit Fred Roger's. As the story goes, on a family trip, when he was a child, following a correspondence between his brother and Mr. Roger, the family stopped by his house for a visit. Some number of years later, Davy Rothbart sets up a meeting with the aged Fred Roger. While listening to their conversations, focusing on neighbors and the general goodness that seems to be what comes out of Fred Rogers, including the following answer when Davy Rothbart asked Fred Roger about why neighbours are afraid to eachother and don't get to know eachother:

"I can tell you what i hope that I would do. I would hope that I would be brave enough to visit. It's so easy to condemn when we don't know, and if I would visit you and find out that you are a reasonable person, I could tell you about my sensitivities and see if it would make any difference to you."

After hearing the sensible good hearted responses Fred Roger had to say, I googled him and came across the PBS website for the television show. Within the website there are a few links on various topics of Thought for All Ages by Fred Rogers. Under the link for Growing in Adulthood, it lists three 'thoughts':

I recently learned that in an average lifetime a person walks about sixty-five thousand miles. That's two and half times around the world. I wonder where your steps will take you. I wonder how you'll use the rest of the miles you're given.

It's not the honors and the prizes and the fancy outsides of life which ultimately nourish our souls. It's the knowing that we can be trusted, that we never have to fear the truth, that the bedrock of our very being is good stuff. That's what makes growing humanity the most potentially glorious enterprise on earth.

Please think of the children first. If you ever have anything to do with their entertainment, their food, their toys, their custody, their childcare, their health care, their education—listen to the children, learn about them, learn from them. Think of the children first.

Even though I may not have cared much for the children's show, I find it touching what Mr. Roger has to offer. I don't know if the show is still on the air, but I hope children growing up today are influenced by the mores and perceptions he offered.

Death... or something

While driving to work this morning I caught a bit of the UK broadcast discussing the airing of someone taking their own life. Apparently, it is part of a documentary that was filmed a few years ago and will be seen on the British airways sometime soon. What caught my attention, more than the content of the radio broadcast, was how those interviewed never made a statement as to "... they should not be able to air such a thing...", the persons interviewed spoke more so as to say "... I hope that the content of the footage is done in a respectful manner..."

Perhaps this is not a significant point to be made, but it got me thinking about how Americans are so quick to point fingers and tell others what should and should not be done. Americans rave about their freedoms and opportunities, yet somehow it seems fictitious in a way. More and more, others are deciding what is best the public, instead of letting them decide for themselves. The opportunities are disappearing because there is too much of a liability. What ever happened to responsibility?

Silence

There is a silence where hath been no sound,

There is a silence where no sound may be,

In the cold grave—under the deep, deep sea,

Or in wide desert where no life is found,

Which hath been mute, and still must sleep profound;

No voice is hush'd—no life treads silently,

But clouds and cloudy shadows wander free,

That never spoke, over the idle ground:

But in green ruins, in the desolate walls

Of antique palaces, where Man hath been,

Though the dun fox or wild hyæna calls,

And owls, that flit continually between,

Shriek to the echo, and the low winds moan—

There the true Silence is, self-conscious and alone.

~ Thomas Hood (1798–1845)

Ramblings

look into my eyes
what a big surprise
oh, how can this be
forever we must see
hand in hand we move
through life's uncertainties
is it you
or is it me?
together, will we make it three?
a new life
yet unstarted
distantly appearing
free from life's rigidity
pleasant in uncertainty
how else can this be
that you are I
and I are we
circles, circles
everywhere
yet we end
where we began
moving forward
to start again
a lesson
yet unlearned
to be repeated
each time anew.

Say what??

“Communication is depositing a part of yourself in another person.” ~ Unknown

After the emotional roller coaster of effortlessly trying to meet with my adviser to discuss my still unfinished thesis [although that I am working towards finishing it... hence the purpose of the meeting], I walked way midday after the meeting practically glowing... not because he praised my work, not because I came to some profound understand, merely because we FINALLY communicated. In an age when one has a multitude of communication avenues, it seems that little communication actually occurs. However, the positiveness of today's meeting has set the tone for the weekend and hopefully the weeks that follow. With deadlines and much to be done, it's a pleasure to move through it all with a head raised and a smile on one's face greeting the mac truck coming straight for ya. At least that way one can enjoy the look on the driver's face as they are inevitably thinking, "OH SH*T!!"

“The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives” ~ Anthony Robbins

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.

~Albert Einstein