Push those buttons

2012-02-14T17:44:00.000-08:00

Have a look at the smiley face and see what words pop out. Apparently, the first 4 words you see describe your character. The first one I got was dramatic. I'm not sure that I'm dramatic. Am I?

Taken from here.

Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work.

2012-02-02T20:32:00.000-08:00

Shawn Achor with some positive psychology.

This is a great talk! He's funny, concise and insightful. Lots of poignant thoughts in only 12 minutes.

"...90% of your long term happiness is predicted not by your external world, but by the way your brain processes it."

Want to rewire your brain to be more positive in 21 days?

Creating lasting positive change.

3 gratitudes

Journalling

Exercise

Meditation

Random acts of kindness

New Year Resolutions

2012-01-16T01:08:00.000-08:00

Have any?
Most people around me haven't made any this year, or have even thought about making one.
But as the year has begun anew, I think it is a good opportunity to think about what you want out of the year to come. What exactly do you hope to achieve this year? Or overcome? Or even just finish?

There are a million things I want to do this year, and as some people say it might be our last, I say we make it the best year, ever.
No more dreaming of this or that. Time to make it happen.

A few words somewhat related..
Article in Being a Broad.

2012-01-10T15:35:00.000-08:00

Top 5 regrets people make on their deathbed.

2012-01-07T21:31:00.000-08:00

The following article was written by a nurse working in palliative care. I enjoyed reading it, especially as the 5 most common regrets were not exactly what I was expecting. Some poignant pieces of advice scattered through, too.

We cannot control the reactions of others.

and

...they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again..

I love this one, I'm a big fan of keeping the child within, happy and alive. Anyway, here is the article. There's a link to the page it came from at the end.

Top 5 regrets...

People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality.
I learnt never to underestimate someone’s capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected, denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Every single patient found their peace before they departed though, every one of them.

When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.

It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.

2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.

This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.

By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.

We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.

It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships in the end.
That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again. When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying.

Life is a choice. It is your life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.

Article

Tell me all your secrets, I'll never tell you mine.

2012-01-02T22:49:00.000-08:00

Brighten me, enlighten me...

That's the beauty of shuffling up your songs. Gems you'd long forgotten about, pop up.

I've had a wicked weekend of long, interesting conversations with lovely individuals. I love these moments of truly being present with another person, swopping stories and ideas.
What's better than completely connecting with someone?

2011 in pictures.

2011-12-30T23:23:00.000-08:00

What a year.
Riots, earthquakes and protests.
Things are definitely quickening.

News that shaped 2011.

Different Stages of Meditation

2011-12-28T18:25:00.000-08:00

In this essay, originally included in The Collected Works of Ken Wilber: Volume IV, Ken offers an in-depth description of each of the major state-stages of meditative practice—ranging from psychic absorption, to subtle illumination, to causal transcendence, to the ultimate nondual embrace of Form and Emptiness.

Q: We would like you to describe the experiences of several stages of meditation. But first, tell us about meditation itself—the different types and how they work.

A: It is common among scholars to divide meditation into two broad categories, called “concentration” and “awareness” (or “insight”) meditation. Or, “opened” and “closed”. For example, let’s say you are looking at a wall that has hundreds of dots painted on it. In concentration meditation, you look at just one dot, and you look at it so fiercely that you don’t even see the other dots. This develops your powers of concentration. In awareness training, or insight meditation, you try to be as aware of all the dots as you can be. This increases your sensitivity, awareness, and wisdom, in that sense.

Full Article

Pulling back the veil

2011-12-28T17:18:00.000-08:00

Although I long had an interest in paranormal phenomena, I held these conceptually at an arm’s length, not knowing how to include them in my worldview, influenced as it was by secular 20th century European philosophers who had no (admitted) interest in such things. Then, in 1988, I read Whitley Strieber’s bestseller, Communion, about his frequent and bizarre encounters with alien Others who would take him away against his will. Strieber’s effort to make sense of these “abduction” experiences in terms of mind-brain disorders, such as temporal lobe epilepsy, made the book all the more compelling. He concluded, however, that he was in fact encountering an Otherness that could not be explained away in terms of materialist categories. The veil had been drawn back for Strieber.

Michael Zimmerman
full article here

Another article on possible explanations

Resumé

2011-12-17T22:55:00.000-08:00

Need one?
Well here, you would need a re-jus-me
Jus. As in, the posh gravy you get at nice restaurants.

I'm in the middle of refreshing mine at the moment but still get taken aback when I hear the word pronounced here.

The first time I heard it, I thought, maybe just a speech impediment? Perhaps an individual nuance? The second and third time, when it came from different people, I thought, OK there's a trend here. What is the deal with the french sound inserted in the middle of a word said with an ozzie accent?

No one knows.

Street Art

2011-12-10T14:23:00.000-08:00

Slinkachu

Isaac Cordal

This one reminds of an installation I saw in Nagoya once. As I walked in, in the distance, was an old man in a wheelchair moving around in the entrance slowly. Something didn't quite feel right and his head was at a bit of a strange angle. As I got closer and turned the corner, there were about 7 more old people in electric wheelchairs slowly moving around. It took me a few seconds to realise they were in a cordoned off area and some of them were going around in circles.
Got a little bit closer still and saw that they were very realistically done mannequins. Complete with stubble, tweed suits and different expressions. The initial sight of 8 wheelchairs with old people asleep, aimlessly moving around in their automated wheelchairs was a bit freaky. When I saw they weren't real, it was a frozen moment of panic replaced by gentle trepidation as I walked away, very slowly.

dolk

More here

Fear or Laziness?

2011-12-09T17:11:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favourite all time clips from a great film. I feel like I need to watch it every now and then, just to get a little focus.

Why do we meditate?

2011-11-28T16:02:00.000-08:00

“Why do we meditate? We meditate precisely because this world of ours has disappointed us and because failure looms large in our day-to-day life. We want fulfilment. We want joy, peace, bliss and perfection within and without. Meditation is the answer, the only answer.”~ Sri Chinmoy

My friend is asking for the loving kindness meditation, what the Buddha called his antidote to fear:
May I be safe, may I be happy, may I be healthy, may I live with ease.
I first read about the lovingkindness meditation in Learning To Breathe: My Yearlong Quest to Bring Calm to My Life by Priscilla Warner. My own meditation practice had been less than regular when the Twitter Yoga Book Club chose this as their new selection. The lovingkindness meditation was just what I needed to jump-start not only my personal meditation time, but it was also a safe, non-threatening way to introduce meditation to many of my yoga students.

Full article here

by Jennifer Fields

The most dangerous drug?

2011-11-21T16:38:00.000-08:00

I'm a lightweight; always have been. I didn't get properly drunk until I was 25, on a night out which culminated in a spectacular public vomiting in a Chinese restaurant. Ever wondered what the clatter of 60 pairs of chopsticks being simultaneously dropped in disgust might sound like? Don't ask me. I can't remember. I was too busy bitterly coughing what remained of my guts all over the carpet.
Full article here..

By Charlie Brooker.

Tina

2011-11-19T20:31:00.000-08:00

A picture I took a while back in my sister's car. We were on our way to York, I think..
I was trying to fulfil a brief for some pictures in the theme of "Move" and this one didn't make the final cut, but it's still one of my favourites.

Bento me up.

2011-11-16T03:19:00.000-08:00

Some everyday lunch boxes in Japan.

Shy's

New Paintings

2011-11-05T20:17:00.000-07:00

Some beautiful new work from Brian Jones.

From Occupy Wall St to St. Paul's Cathedral.

2011-11-03T18:27:00.000-07:00

The Occupied Times online newspaper, issue 2.
Pirates, Anarchy, the homeless, legal action of the Church and some underground Hip Hop.

Another piece about the Occupation and Noam Chomsky's involvement.

And 6 things already accomplished.

Meals Ready

2011-11-01T21:34:00.000-07:00

A touching short film by Nithuna Nevil Dinesh.

Hairy memories

2011-10-24T00:05:00.000-07:00

Living in Australia for an English lass is a bit scary sometimes.
However gorgeous this country is, with its beautiful landscapes and oceans and all the colourful wildlife, I can't help but think of the many other things that might want to bite / hurt me in some way.
You know, like Sharks, Jelly fish, Snakes and even Crocodiles up north. I recently found out that the humble looking Platypus has a potent toxin that dissolves flesh stored in little spurs on the back of its legs. Dissolves flesh, people.
Yeah, not so cute now, with their little beaks, flippers and flesh melting venom.

This semi-irrational fear of certain creature here is a fairly recent phenomonon.
When I was 14 and no real concept of mortality, I even swam with sharks in an aquarium once in Florida on a family holiday. It was cool to see the funny looking hammerheads mosey on by underneath me.

There is one thing here that freaks me out more than anything else.
Spiders.
Yeah, you knew that I'd left one out.
Now, I'm not an arachnophobe by any means, but if there is a spider above a certain size and it happens to be coming towards me at a certain speed, you will see just how fast I can move.

In England, there are some pretty big spiders in the countryside but they're usually not too bad
Here, on the other hand; not only are they much, much bigger, they can kill you. Or at least cause a whole lot of pain.
This just adds a whole other dimension to the usually illogical fear of something a fraction my size.

So, you'll understand that when I say I freaked out in said story below; you can understand that I really freaked out. Like properly. With high pitched noises and arm flapping.

Anyway, it was night time and Shane and I were driving back from visiting friends who live in the countryside. Their house is a property and at the back of it is tropical rainforest, dense with greenery and living things that hoot, call and rummage around. Lots of nature basically, you get the idea.

This may or may not have been lurking in said woods.

So, we're on our way home and had been in the car for about 20 mins. Shane was driving.
Suddenly, in the corner of my eye, I see a very long leg slowly stretch its way into a big step towards me. It was almost theatrical the way this leg moved. Slowly, carefully, with purpose.
Shane said that I moved like an eel and in one fluid movement that took about half a second I was in the back seat behind him.

In my best, 'trying to be calm but panicking inside' voice I told him to pull over. We were driving on the motorway so it took a long minute or two.
I didn't want to tell him what it was until we had pulled over. In my mind it would have been dangerous as he may have freaked out like I did.
An eternity later, when we finally manage to pull over and the light goes on, we can properly see it.
Right between the window and the windshield was a massive, enormous, gigantic huntsman spider.

It was so big it almost barked at us.

We tried (when I say we, I mean Shane) to get it out of the car gently with a stick but it scampered away into a nook. They have a very large leg span but can become freakishly flat when they want. Allowing them to hide out in tiny spaces waiting to ambush at their own leisure.
So, after succumbing to our new little friends stubborness / shyness, we got back in the car (me in the back) and drove for another 30 minutes. In the dark. Not knowing where he was.
Somehow, we made it home in a relatively calm state cradled by the what you can't see can't hurt you theory.

The next morning we got up early to go for breakfast out and I said that I wanted to drive because Jeff (Yeah, we named him Jeff) had been on the passenger side when he had tried to 'play' with us.
I had a quick look in the car and could see no hairy legs poking out from anywhere (discounting Shane's) so I jumped in and made the optimistic / flimsy conclusion that Jeff must have gone on to greener pastures.

It happened when I was just about to pull away from the kerb. Thank god I wasn't actually driving.
It was the tone of Shanes voice that made me stop more than actually what he said.

"Don't move"

I turned to him slowly and saw that his gaze was towards me yet not quite on me. It was focused on something just behind my head.
So, in about 0.25 of a second, I undid my seatbelt and poured my floppy self out of the car and shut the door.
As I turned around to look at where Shane was looking at, I see him.
Jeff, our new friend, giant arachnid and play mate.
With his set of uber long, over friendly legs and disarming smile.
Just perched on my seat, hanging out.

After some fairly girly squeels, aforementioned arm flapping and solid heart beating from me, I manage to get my act together. Now, apologies to my braver sisters out there before I make this comment, but thank God for boys.

Shane managed to catch it this time and once it was in the safety of a tupperware container.
I could satisfy my curiosity and get a close up. Jeff was pretty big. He was pretty hairy but he was also kind of chilled and didn't seem to mind so much when we relocated him to a nearby tree.

Jeff

Shane said that just before I had pulled away from the kerb he saw Jeff on the side of my headrest with one leg, tentatively in the air just about to set off on an exploration in the curly mess that is my hair.

Apparently, as I read later on that day when I was torturing myself with pictures and information on huntsmans; I found out that huntsman spiders have a 'cling reflex' when startled or threatened and once they clamp on it is really hard to get them to let go.

I think I was about 1 second away from becoming a traumatised, fully fledged arachnophobe.

Replaced memory of Jeff due to combination of traumatic memory relocation and Shane's impressions of a slightly morose spider who just wanted to play.

Crazy beards

2011-10-13T20:22:00.000-07:00

Art produces ugly things which frequently become beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.
Jean Cocteau

When my friend Ang came to visit NSW from Melbourne a while back, she commented on how there is a Newy (Newcastle) look. Bit scruffy, usually in flip flops / thongs and often sporting a beard of some description. She mentioned this in comparison to the Melbourne look of shaved sides, asymmetrical hair and skinny jeans.

I thought that was pretty interesting. Local styles and all that. Except that here, not sure about England, there is a weird juxtaposition of people thinking that being a "hipster" is very uncool. Try hards, over doing it and just generally being pretty vain. I've never really understood this kind of prejudice towards people wearing certain clothes. Yeah, yeah, I get that a lot of people choose to wear stuff that matches their frame of mind / point of view and in and out groups and all that, but come on. Better to direct your energy towards something a bit more interesting.

Like this or even this...

I did find this interesting picture on the net describing the evolution of aforementioned hipster style.

Anyway, back to beards, cos they're funnier than all this fashion malarky. Especially when people get obsessed with them like these fellas.

And finally, a moose and the Norweigan flag. Brilliant.

2011 Nobel Peace Prize

2011-10-07T19:37:00.000-07:00

"It is the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s hope that the prize to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman will help to bring an end to the suppression of women that still occurs in many countries, and to realise the great potential for democracy and peace that women can represent."

Full article here

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

24th and current President of Liberia
Read more

Leymah Gbowee

African peace activist responsible for organising a peace movement

that brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003

Tawakel Karman

Yemeni politician and human rights activist who heads

the group Women Journalists Without Chains.
Read more

Striding ahead

2011-10-06T00:03:00.000-07:00

In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves. Buddha

Scratch that Jeep

2011-10-04T23:19:00.000-07:00

Scratch not far below
roots run deep
- all the way
in a matter of months
strong similarities
straddled on either side

Disappointingly, almost invisible
people asking how it copes
comfort zone
we would say it's doing well

Some things are less comfortable
soft remote
result in a wallowing experience
try to shake apart
whistles and growls.

This is the first poem I've put together since I was about 16. I say put together because I didn't really write it per se.
Last week, off I hopped to an editing workshop and this was the result of one of the exercises. We were each given a random bit of newspaper and a black marker.
Make a poem, be creative! the workshop leader spouted at us with enthusiastic smile and high expectations.
Mild panic arose. I hadn't gone near poetry since I was in my teens and still had trouble focusing whenever I optimistically opened a book of poetry.
So, instructions were to read through the article you were given and cross out any words you didn't want to include. The words you left would end up being aforementioned poem.
Relief. Yeah, I could do that. Take credit for rearranging someone else's words? Sweet.
The poem that I finished with, not so sweet.
You'd have thought it was an article about depression or perhaps even a cultural piece about refugees.
No, my scrap of newspaper was from the 'Drive' section of the SMH.
All Jeeps and cruisers and numbers I had no interest in.
What the hell does "a decent 360Nm of torque" mean anyway?

Pete's mascot on the combi.

24 hours a lifetime.

2011-09-28T00:39:00.000-07:00

Used to weigh people's souls, honoured for symbolising victory and eaten with fried onions.

Pretty diverse list for a beautiful insect.

I've always loved dragonflies and was happy to snap one today in the garden.

Here it is! What a cutie.

But first, a bit of info. In the Triassic period, fossils of them reveal wingspans of over 2 feet!

Loads of mad superstitions and tales involve dragonflies too.

In Japan, legend has it that the Emperor of Japan was once bitten by a horsefly that was later eaten by a dragonfly.

To honor the dragonfly, he named Japan "Akitsushima," or "the Isles of the Dragonfly."

In Swedish folklore, dragonflies were called "Blindsticka" and were rumoured to have had a penchant for picking out human eyes. Ouch. The Swedes also believed that dragonflies were used by the Devil to weigh people's souls, and that if a dragonfly swarmed around someone's head weighing his or her soul, that person could expect great injury.

Bad Kitty chan

Not always just in stories though, in Asia they can make it to the dinner table.

In Japan and other parts of Asia and the East Indies, dragonflies are considered a delicacy.

Dragonfly Nymphs
Num num

Children of the island of Lombok are said to catch dragonflies on long polls that are smeared with a sticky substance and then fried with onions. In Bali, dragonflies are fried with coconut oil, vegetables and spices. And in Thailand, Laos and other parts of eastern Asia, dragonfly larvae are served roasted up.

Something a bit more metaphysical..

Native American tribes believed and still believe that dragonflies are the souls of the dead.

My fave..

Eat, Smoke, Meditate: Why Your Brain Cares How You Cope.

2011-09-25T17:25:00.000-07:00

Most people do what they have to do to get through the day. Though this may sound dire, let’s face it, it’s the human condition. Given the number of people who are depressed or anxious, it’s not surprising that big pharma is doing as well as it is. But for millennia before we turned to government-approved drugs, humans devised clever ways of coping: Taking a walk, eating psychedelic mushrooms, breathing deeply, snorting things, praying, running, smoking, and meditating are just some of the inventive ways humans have found to deal with the unhappy rovings of their minds.

But which methods actually work?

Article continued below...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2011/09/21/eat-smoke-meditate-why-your-brain-cares-how-you-cope/

The Long White Cloud.

2011-09-21T05:10:00.000-07:00

My first time in New Zealand. I found the people really friendly and warm and I loved it that the Maoris and immigrants had completely integrated. It's not like that in Australia unfortunately. Since I've been here I could count on 1 hand how many Aboriginal people I have seen.

New Zealand had a lovely pacific island feel to it and from what I could see in my short time there, they seemed very proud of their heritage.

When we booked the tickets I had no idea that the Rugby World Cup was starting up and the opening ceremony was scheduled to be in Auckland 2 days after I arrived. Well, the fireworks, party atmosphere and traditional dances/performances were a lovely surprise.

We were staying right on Auckland harbour, so we had a fantastic view of the fireworks.

The streets were mayhem!

I heard figures of up to 100,000 people had descended on the harbour for the opening night.

The first match was between the All Blacks and Tonga.

We went to Auckland Museum, which had a really impressive collection of Maori artifacts. Including an enormous, beautifully carved canoe carved out of one massive tree.

This is one of the entrances of the museum, by the gift shop.

View from our hotel on the North shore.

We went to Waiheke island for a few days. It was so gorgeous! Really lovely little place.

This is little Oneroa beach..

This is the view from Mudbrick Vineyard where we had a super nice lunch! Very recommended. Doesn't it look like there are too many letters in recommended?

Reiko and I at dinner on Viaduct harbour. People were quite confused by us as we didn't look related and there was a fairly big age gap. Reiko didn't speak that much English during the trip and I translated a lot. In hindsight, I should have encouraged her to speak more. Oh well, you live, you learn! We still had a fantastic trip and loads of little sparks of luck followed us around. Looking forward to going back and seeing more of a lovely place.

Compassion

2011-09-18T17:37:00.001-07:00

A beautiful talk by an incredible woman.
I love that she says about compassion being the opposite of moral outrage.
I was witness to a perfect example of this, this past weekend.
May we all have the patience to see ourselves in others and the awareness that everything is a reflection.

http://www.ted.com/talks/joan_halifax.html

What surprises the Dalai Lama?

2011-09-02T16:33:00.001-07:00

The Dalai Lama was asked a question, recently during a talk,

“What thing about humanity surprises you the most?”

His Holiness replied,

“Man

Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money.
Then he sacrifices his money to recuperate his health.
Then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present,
and as a result he does not live in the present or the future.
He lives as if he’s never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived.”

A robot that flies like a bird.

2011-08-30T23:38:00.000-07:00

A robot that flies like a bird | Video on TED.com

This is a great TED talk, just 6 minutes long.

Copying good design from nature.

Legendary photographer: Henri Cartier-Bresson.

2011-08-19T18:30:00.000-07:00

Classic!

2011-08-17T05:24:00.000-07:00

The Lost Thing.

2011-08-15T05:53:00.000-07:00

This is one of the most impressive short films I have seen in a long time.

It is based on the book The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan.

"...the pictures reveal a freakish tentacled animal in a surreal treeless world of green skies, excessive plumbing, concrete and machinery."

I was given one of Shaun Tan's books for my birthday this year 'The Arrival' and was so impressed by the beauty of it. A true work of art. I've never seen anything like what he does. The Arrival is about the journey of an emigrant and the struggles he goes through living in a strange foreign land. It's a complex, beautiful story that is told only in images. Letting you linger in each exquisite frame to fully absorb the enchanting storyline that gives you a real window into a journey that so many have taken, myself included.

Highly recommend checking out his work.

A Blueberry Girl.

2011-08-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

Written for Tori Amos' daughter.

2011-08-12T20:09:00.001-07:00

Why do doctors leave the room while you change?

They're going to see you naked anyway...

My mum was never this cool..

2011-08-12T19:50:00.001-07:00

Tasty Tunes

2011-08-05T03:43:00.000-07:00

Some tasty tracks to chew on!

Toffee origami.

This Moloko track is delicious.

Smoky molasses.

Amazing tune with some tidy lyrics.

Excuse me, are you lost? I propose.

No, just following my nose..

Cinnamon sugar.

Mellow popping candy.

Dark chocolate granola delights.

Some very beautiful women dancing here.
Copper blood belle.

Inspired.

Meditation

2011-08-03T21:05:00.001-07:00

Here is an article I wrote a few years ago about the meditation I practice.

People seem to be either a bit curious or a bit wary about meditation and rightly so!
I know that before I started I was both. Very curious and more than wary.
I had some kind of morbid fascination with it, only not so dark and creepy. A real sense of ambivalence held me in its grasp. The simple idea of meditation pulled me towards itself yet I held off from even giving it a go for years. What was I afraid of? It was obviously fear (and maybe just the smallest amount of laziness!) that had kept me from indulging my curiosity. Fear of what though? It wasn't until a few years later that the answer came to me.
Anyway,eventually an opportunity arose at a good enough time and I had no ready excuses to save me, so I gave it a go.

It would be hard to even attempt to describe how much of an effect it has had on me and my life. The calm and grounding it has encouraged and cultivated in me.
It has unequivocally become a guiding force and source of support, both internally and externally. I love it!
I'll be forever grateful to Nithu chan and Sriram for being in Nagoya and starting me off on this path.

What is Sahaj Marg?

Sahaj Marg is a Sanskrit term meaning 'Natural Path'. While this system of meditation originated in India, its purpose is spiritual and universal, without religious or cultural bias. As its name implies, it is a simple and natural practice. Moreover, it offers a means by which we can, with capable guidance and self-effort, evolve from our present condition towards a future that realizes our full spiritual potential. The method is taught worldwide at no cost, the only qualification being an individual’s willingness to follow a daily meditation practice.

2011-07-31T00:36:00.001-07:00

You can feed the fish!

Previous work.

2011-07-30T23:01:00.001-07:00

Pictures taken in Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong

Onward and upward..

2011-07-30T22:05:00.000-07:00

Kids and Kidettes,

Some buttons beg to be pressed.
Literally beg, with puppy dog eyes reaching up and surrounding your chest with a gentle tug.