Latest Post

Seeing the light

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

A friend and I were just talking the other day about how life does not get any easier since we were kids (and we’ve known each other for over 20 years). LIFE IS SO COMPLICATED!!! Oh. my. gawd. Hah. Now that I’m writing this, I just thought about it in another way: life is not that complicated…it’s mostly the people around you that makes it complicated, OR you are complicating someone else’s life. Y’know, you could be part of the problem! There will always be disastrous and uncontrollable events and circumstances in life, but the people? The people are the positive and negative multipliers of the magnitude of effects these have. It’s scary to think that, well, your life could basically be ruined by (gasp) people. This is nothing new, but on the contrary, that also means that YOU…WE…have the power to fight them and change the course of OUR lives.

I don’t think I’ve ever thought about it that way until I started typing this. This is why I need to pour out my thoughts in writing more regularly. I get to THINK. Use my mental faculties for something other than trying to make sense of daily human absurdity.

Last Saturday over coffee my other friends and I were talking about being the damsel in distress and being the queen, or as one of them put it, “The Duchess”. I have my new beginning. They said that for months I was a damsel in distress, but then I started shedding that when I came back here. And I DO feel it. I let myself be boxed, which with my very nature, kills me. It brings me to a place where I never want to be at ever again. I enjoy thinking, feeling, and doing freely. I welcome being told what to do with seething hate. It’s just not me. Other people like being the puppet because life is easier that way — you do not have to think for yourself and you can blame others for misfortunes borne out of your own actions. Because the thinking part — they are not yours. I used to be like that a long time ago, but then I’ve come to the realization that there is no point in life if you live that way!!! What is the point? Why have a life that is not yours?!?! It was a difficult learning process — mentally, emotionally and psychologically. It’s like being told to cross the bridge and there is no bridge. You start from scratch. But it’s the best thing you could do for yourself.

I never really grasped the meaning of growing up until I went through it. I thought all everybody had to do was follow the rules, walk the oft-taken path and you’ll know what to do with your life and the next thing you know you have 2 generations of your flesh and blood in front of you, and you are sitting comfortably in your vacation home watching the sunset and tell yourself: “So these are the fruits of my labor.” I mean, you already see a lot of people doing that, so why change it now?

Sometimes I think that there are a lot of people who really just go on with their lives and not really living. Eat. Sleep. Work. Do the usual family stuff. Do the usual friends stuff. Attend a few more social events. And call it a year well “lived”.

Perhaps, I think too much. But, whenever I don’t, I hit a brick wall at some point to remind me that this is not the way I want my life to be. Somebody told me that introspection should be a crime because it’s ruined relationships and lives before. You mean, trying to know things as they are, looking at your life, is a bad thing? What makes us any different from animals, then? It reminded me of the emperor’s new clothes. There’s only so much illusion that can cushion you from reality.

So what was I trying to say? I forgot. In the beginning I was going to talk about something else, but it evolved into living. I guess that’s more important right now.

So hear ye, the call to LIVE. Live like you know what is going on with YOUR life. Think, feel, live. Don’t just do things and the next thing you know you are facing the grave. Live well, be a good person knowing that what you do affects others. Live as if others care about what they do, too. Strive to be happy and make others’ lives happy. You don’t have to make that much effort. The very least you can do is to at least not make anyone else miserable — you know, it’s simple. It doesn’t have to be that complicated.

Asides

• How The Mind Reveals Itself in Everyday Activities: Is Monday the most depressing day of the week? Does familiarity breed contempt? Is there a psychological explanation for superstitions? #
• Happiness Can Add 10 Years To Your Life: Professor Veenhoven suggests that happiness may not have a beneficial effect on the physical health of those who are ill, but it does help prevent people falling ill in the first place. #
• D and I have only been seriously cooking for less than a year now and yet we have amassed an gargantuan amount of recipes already. 80% of them are in the “To Cook” list. Two people can only eat so much in a week, really. This ‘collection’ isn’t really a collection, as much as it is a cause for a lifelong of unrepeated dishes on our table. Whew. Those that are online recipes are randomly bookmarked through StumbleUpon or Firefox. The rest are all slipped in books, inserted in folders or (gasp) lost. And some of these recipes are hand-me-down index cards and faded folded yellowed notes from more than one generation. This is where these recipe cards should come in handy. I think I should get all the family recipes and ship it to them for ‘archiving’ and we can all have a published book of them. That’s much easier than having to email recipes that I can’t even find to family and friends. #
• Fly high with wifi: American Airlines launches in-flight Internet on 3 routes. "American, a unit of AMR Corp., tested in-flight access on two flights on June 25. With Wednesday's launch, the airline is making service available for $12.95 per flight on its 15 Boeing 767-200 planes connecting New York with Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami." #
• What makes a "Checkpoint Friendly" Laptop Bag? The bag must have a dedicated section for the laptop that can lay flat on an X-ray belt; no snaps, zippers or buckles can cover the laptop; and there can be nothing in the laptop compartment other than the computer. The TSA says that butterfly- and trifold-style bags are in, as are sleeves. Accordion-style bags and backpacks are out. #
• Seldom is Heard. . . Every so often a word of discouragement has its place, too : "Where does encouraging someone, either because they're not ready or because they're just not good enough, cross into irresponsible counsel? When is just not trying--in other words, not engaging in futile effort--the better choice?" #
• Blacker Than Black: Researchers Develop Darkest Man-Made Material. "The material, a thin coating comprised of low-density arrays of loosely vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, absorbs more than 99.9 percent of light and one day could be used to boost the effectiveness and efficiency of solar energy conversion, infrared sensors, and other devices." #
• Here's a Directory of BC Farmer's Markets. If you're in the area, Granville Island has theirs on Thursdays. #
• A few years ago, a good pal of mine mentioned that the guy she was dating was a 'biker'. (more...) #
• FYI: FDA clears Florida and California tomatoes #