More

I got inspired to write this post by watching a TV program. It was about life in Hong Kong and one of the interviewed people was a British man who has been living in Hong Kong for the past 15 years. When he was young, he had a dream that one day he would have a coffee shop by the sea. His dream came true. I had a feeling it was about two by two meters in size, nothing big, but the way he was talking about it, I  thought he was a very happy man. He could ride his bike to work, he had time for his dog and long walks on the beach. This man said he didn't need more. 
How did he manage to pull the line? How could he stop himself from wanting more? Why is it that we always want more? I understand that it was a good move on early humans to move from the trees to grass, I understand that it was a good thing to invent a language and tools. To learn and grow is what makes us human. And as our ancestors were hunting for food we are now hunting for knowledge. Knowledge that should improve our judgement. Knowledge that would give us a pleasure through new experiences. But does it? Or is it just wanting more that gives us pleasure? The "more" we are wanting always seems like "more" when we don't actually have it.  Wanting more for the sake of more seems to be part of human nature too. Learning and growing as a part of our nature and wanting more don't seem to be in agreement. We spend so much time in belief that we can have something. We may not have that something but we have belief that we can have it. We put our hopes and ambitions and in our mind we make our dreams alive. But what about things that we already have? Are we grateful for them? Think about the time when what is your life now was just a dream? Did it worth more then now? Is that a future of every fulfilled dream of ours? That once it comes true it loses its value? Maybe we should aim to have less?  Maybe then we could see real value in things we already have. Or maybe then we could think about what truly makes life better. Is it just stuff, empty, soulless and worth nothing actually, or people and experiences, actual knowledge and understanding. And not blame the world we live in, but look at ourselves and change how we react to things around us.

Miniature Art

Vlagymir Anyiszkin is a Russian artist who took a miniature art on absolutely new level. For his art you can not even say "See it, believe it" as it is impossible to see it with your naked eye. He uses microscope for making his miniatures. Wakes up early every morning to work on his projects before he goes to his every day job. He says, heart beating is what cause the biggest problem during the creating of miniature piece of art. He overcomes this problem by working only between two heart beats so that his hand wont shake. The other problem is static friction that can occur between material and the tool. Other problems he doesn't have:) Here are some examples of his work...

This is the flea Vlagyimir found on his cat and decided to make shoes for it. Shoes are
 0, 05 mm wide.

 

Sorry for the bad quality photo but you will understand...The whole ABC on the end of one piece of human hair 0, 09 mm. thick.
The human hair is anywhere between 0, 05mm and 0, 13 mm thick.

3, 5 mm chess table with 0, 15 mm chess figures on. Made out of one matchstick.

Christmas-New Year decoration standing on half of the poppy seed size 0, 055 mm.

Rose on one piece of human hair. 

Create

Do you feel sometimes that you are not giving enough to this world, that you are just consuming and not creating? Maybe you feel you are to old to learn new things or that if you had not made your big mark in this world until now, you will never? And that you are just not one of those people history is going to write about. Even if that is the case, there are still many, many things you can do that can possibly change you from consumer to creator in your own small world. Just think, whatever you start now, learning or doing, in a year or two you will know much more about it then you know now.  Here are some suggestions:

• Help someone nobody else cares to help
• Learn about another culture
• Learn to cook another culture's food
• Learn new language 
• Write poetry, share it with others
• Take photos
• Meet new people, make new friends
• Learn from others then pass it on
• Get to know your neighbors
• Make clothes
• Make something new from old
• Learn to play instrument
• Start ongoing project
• Make surprises for people
• Paint a picture, the bigger the better:)
• Volunteer for something you feel strong about
• Observe people around you, be open minded
• Plant a tree 
• You must have some talents, use them 
• Talk to children, talk to old people
• Instead of buying make presents for others
• Help somebody achieve their dream
• Dare to be different
• Start a blog:)

Best job of all

"We don't stop playing because we grow old, 

we grow old because we stop playing"

George Bernard Shaw

I have the best job of all! What else could I say about a job where you smile and play all day? No day is same, and you see results of your efforts constantly. You get hugs, kisses and presents every day. Conkers and dry leaves in autumn, flowers in spring and mud and sand cakes all year long.  What can I say about a job where I would pay to do it?! (I am sane enough not to say this publicly) :) But with this job comes the day like today when I had to say good bye to one of my little friends. For me this is the hardest moment of all. Once somebody told me, "You must never get attached to children you work with, they grow up and leave". I answered, "My own children will grow up and leave, should I not be attached to them either?" (Yes, I always say what is on my mind). In whole honesty I believe that person like this would have very hard time before children would grow up and leave. More precisely, any person  would have very hard time working with children if not attached to them to the some extent. Carpenter gets attached to the piece of wood he works on. How could you not get attached to the alive being, full of love and trust? And yes, they do leave your life, they move on. Things are changing fast when you are child. I have been complete mess today, I am never prepared for the emotions that come when the moment to say good bye is there. Tears were running my face but I smiled as I look at confused face of the gorgeous girl I had a pleasure of working with for two years (sorry, playing with for two years). I smile because I know it is time to say good bye. It is time for change. And I am grateful for trust of her parents, I am grateful for being part of her life, for being right there at the beginning of her schooling time. And I am happy that she left us ready for new challenges and feeling that school is great place to be. 

Perfect just the way we are

Why do we want to be somebody else? Why do we want to change something that is already perfect? We spend so much energy trying to be better instead of using it to except ourselves as we are. And why is it that we need energy to except ourselves, why is it not a natural state of ours to love the way we are, our abilities and our uniqueness? We are in constant pursuit of improving our looks, our financial affairs, our place in society and in same time we ignore or take for granted abilities we are born with, to see, hear, walk, feel, touch...If we would just use those abilities to their full potential, we would never miss anything! Simple reason behind why there is never enough money, why we are never beautiful enough etc, is because this is not our natural road to happiness. It will never fulfill us. No amount of money, plastic surgeries, diets or beauty regimes can fill up the emptiness in our heart and life. How about trying to help others to see beauty in themselves? How about giving smiles, words of encouragement and appreciation to the others? Maybe then they wouldn't feel anymore that they have to be someone else in order to be excepted and loved. Maybe then the whole world would change. I know how this sounds...but I, for myself choose to believe in possibility of it. I don't think I am better off believing that there is no chance.

If we would stop for a moment in our "pursuit of happiness" and focus our attention on what is right in front of our eyes, see a beauty of it and let it find reciprocal place in us, we would never again think of ourselves as not perfect just the way we are.

Demonized Sexuality

Passion is our life energy, it keeps us alive, it props us to act on something. But with the true meaning lost, passion is not seen as a positive thing anymore. In the culture that suppresses their sexuality, all you have to do is attach sexuality to anything and we notice it. We sell everything with it. There is a schizophrenia in our culture about it. 
It started long ago with the movement in the West, mostly in Europe. In order to control the lives of people all you have to do, is to control their access to spirit. This is religion. Religion is probably the biggest business on the planet. Essentially what they had to do was convince human beings that something was wrong with them and that they needed to be redeemed. The church's business is redemption. One way they did this was to demonize sex. Well then, you are demonizing the energy that created you. When people bought into this, they really started feeling bad. They needed to get help, they needed to be saved and the church was saying, we will do it for you, if not in this lifetime at least in the next. They got people to totally surrender their energy, and the ones that suffered the most were women. A woman's entire body is erotic, so when a woman suppresses her sexuality, her entire body suffers. 
For thousands of years prior to this sex was considered to be a legitimate path to healing and enlightenment. Most of the healers at this time were women or were dominantly a feminine energy.( In the Native American tradition, for example, whenever a male child was born who demonstrated feminine characteristics, they would take him up and train him to be a shaman, because he had a healer's perspective.) Were does this leave us, living in the world that teaches us that our main energy is our ticket to Hell? And however you look at it, it is. We live in a living hell, abusing sexual energy or using it as a weapon aimed at others or ourselves. Being brainwashed by the institutions or individuals pretending to do work of God, we negate probably the most sacred attribute of our beings. 

Happy Thoughts

Sometimes it takes only happy thoughts to bright up your day:) Here are mine for today:)


                             Lying in bed, listening to the rain softly fall...

                                           Feeling sand in your toes....

                    Touching the tiny fingers and toes of a newborn baby...

                                   Blowing bubbles with small children...

                        The smell of fresh baked cookies just out of the oven...

Zen Garden

I am absolutely amazed by the Zen Gardens. It is enough to see a photo of one to bring feeling of calmness in me. I decided to make one. Indoors. The one that you can make yourself can hold it own meaning as long as you keep to few rules. In needs to be on minimal side and what you place in your garden has to have a meaning for you. "The main concept behind  Zen Garden is that of peace and openness, bringing together good luck and prosperity . It is about celebrating humanity's place in the universe." 


Here is what you need:

• Container
• Sand
• Rake
• Objects that hold some meaning in your life

Step 1: Decide on a Location

 It can either sit in a living area, a bedroom or even a patio. 

Step 2: Building a Frame

Once you have decided on the location, you need to build the frame for the garden. There are no hard and fast rules regarding the frame structure or type. You can make anything as long as it holds some significance in your life and makes you feel good.  A bottom panel will be required to complete the indoor frame for the garden. 

Step 3: Sand and Objects

 Fill the box with a sand. Add a few calming, soothing objects to your garden. These could be pleasantly shaped and colored old, weathered rocks or stones, or any other object you please. It is advisable to keep plants on the minimum since the sand will not nourish them appropriately. The zen garden has to be open and have a feeling of tranquility about it. 

Step 4: Raking the Sand

Using a rake, rake the sand in curving patterns, much like ocean waves. You do not need to rake deep inside the sand, There is no defined shape you need to rake it in, do what feels best to you.

Enjoy your very own Zen Garden:)

Forgiveness

I already learned how to forgive. I did it from entirely selfish reasons. I know, it doesn't sound right. But it is! Carrying in yourself disappointment and hate it is one of the most self destroying feelings you can have. I wanted to live my own life, not a life of person I hated because that is exactly what happens. If your mind and your heart is obsessing about hurt and hate, and knowing that every thought affects your life and shapes your character, at the end you become what you hate. And natural cause of the things is that you will do same thing, if not to the person who hurt you, then to somebody else. And the most likely you won't even notice that the same pattern acquired. Not letting go of hate or disappointment is hurting you more then what originally caused the unpleasant feeling. Often we say, I can not forgive, because it would mean that I forgot it and I can not let myself forget. We learn and grow. Even if we forget on the rational level, somewhere in us,  knowledge is deep imprinted. I just don't see the reason for keeping the feeling that goes with the knowledge. Let the feeling of hate go, you have no use of it, you already learned your lesson.

Intuition

I have a problem I need to resolve. Maybe it is not a problem but certainly whatever it is, it needs resolving. I tried different approaches, I tried to work on it, I analyzed it almost to do point of developing another problem (insomnia) , I listened to others, I even tried to ignore it! At one point I released that I am asking somebody invisible "And what do YOU think about it?" And everything took unexpected turn...I recognized  that saying YOU I actually asked something deep in me. I took some time to relax and move out of the way every obstacle in form of "I know it all" and silence my mind  (few days actually) but battle was worth loosing. New insights came forward and now I just need to act on them. All people have intuition, some say women have it much more developed then men. However, women or men it seems neither of us like to trust our "feeling" of knowingness. We have been taught the value of logic and how to reason things out but as we know, our rational minds can not always provide all the answers. I just hope I will remember it for the next time.

13 Love Commandments

Promise is the best gift.  How about making a promise today to your partner and to yourself and try your best to keep it until next Valentine's Day:) Or you can call it Valentine's Day resolutions. Here are are some qualities that guaranty you, not only staying in love until next Valentine's Day, but remaining in love for a lifetime.

1. Listen actively to your partner
2. Ask questions and give answers
3. Stay attractive 
4. Grow intellectually 
5. Include your partner 
6. Give him/her privacy 
7. Be honest and trustworthy 
8. Tell your partner what you need 
9. Accept his/her shortcomings
10. Give respect 
11. Never threaten to leave 
12. Say “no” to adultery
13. Cultivate variety 

Love Facts and Trivia

• In Bali, men believed a woman would fall in love if her suitor fed her a certain kind of leaf incised with the image of a god who sported a very large penis.
• A four-leaf clover is often considered good luck, but it is also part of an Irish love ritual. In some parts of Ireland, if a woman eats a four-leaf clover while thinking about a man, supposedly he will fall in love with her.
• The maple leaf is a symbol of love in China and Japan—and in North America, it was often engraved on beds of early settlers to promote peaceful sleep and pleasure.
• Many cultures use knots as symbols of an eternal love that has neither a beginning nor an end. Young Muslim women would send love messages to their lovers using intricate knots.
• Scholars recently returned from New Guinea said they noted a lot of elderly natives there had missing fingers. Research revealed that it was the custom some years ago for a young fighting man to give his lucky girlfriend a finger cut from the hand of an opponent. And said girlfriend wore that finger on a string around her neck.
• Copenhagen, Denmark (AP) - He just called to say he loved her. The problem was he did it over and over, running up a phone bill of at least $117,000 to his sweetheart in India. Now the 24-year-old Dane could face jail for fraud because he can't pay the bill, police said Friday. The lovesick Dane, whose name was not released, has never even met his 18-year-old flame from Madras, India. They got in touch through a magazine that publishes names and phone numbers of people all over the world who want to know foreigners. But the Dane clearly couldn't resist the sound of her voice. Police said the long-distance lovebirds once spent 21 of 24 hours on the phone to each other. He got away with it for so long by switching telephone companies.  
• When Buster Mitchell's girlfriend walked out on him, he went back to his beloved and decided to make it legal with her. Mitchell, 28, went to the county courthouse in Knoxville, TN., and started filling out the marriage license application. He listed his fiancee's birthplace as Detroit, her father as "Henry Ford" and her blood type as "10-W-40" before the clerk stopped him -- Mitchell was trying to get a license to marry his car, a '66 Ford Mustang GT. "Why can't we do the good ol' boy thing and marry our cars and trucks?" he lamented later. He plans to try again elsewhere.
• A lover on the island of Trobriand customarily bites off his lady friend's eyelashes. He would never take her out to dinner, however, unless they were married. To share a meal with her would disgrace her.
• King Ferrand of Portugal was held captive from 1213 to 1226 by the Turks. They demanded ransom, but Portugal's Queen Jeanne refused to pay for her husband's return. She had beaten him in a chess game, and he had therefore hit her on the nose with his fist. It upset her considerably. (Perhaps this is why many women don't play chess, and why we need to deal with pent-up anger before the game begins.) 
• In medieval Italy kisses weren't taken -- or given -- lightly. If a man and a woman were seen embracing in public they could be forced to marry. 
• The German language contains 30 words that refer to the act of kissing. There is even a word, Nachkuss, for all the kisses that haven't yet been named.
• The primary ambition of a Zulu's wife is to help her husband acquire sufficient means to buy another wife...  so they can split the chores. 
• What does "getting a Valentine" mean in criminal jargon? Receiving a one-year jail sentence. 

Not so keen on Valentine's Day

I am not very keen on Valentine's Day. One of the reasons is personal, it was my mother's Birthday. She used to say that she was born on Valentine's Day because she was such a loving person... but lets not go in to details here, as it may turn out to be "everything but not about love post". If I could I would enforce a law that says, only people who express love to their partners, friends and family every single day of the year, are entitled to celebrate Valentine's Day! ( I am afraid only children and dogs would fit in this category). It could be compared to having a family dinner only on the Christmas Day, the rest of the year we eat from the trays in front of the TV. Heart shaped cakes with pink icing ( I always thought its just cake shop decoration ), red roses ( Not everybody likes red roses ), Cupid pendants ( who would wear THAT? ), Be Mine, and Your Valentine?!... I came across an interesting fact about Chinese people.  Apparently Chinese do not say I love you. Sometimes they say ‘I love you’ in English, but it’s like touching someone’s arm who is wearing a coat. That is not so serious.  If they say it in Chinese it’s like touching the skin, it’s very sensitive. ‘Wo ai ni’ is very specific. It means responsibility, commitment, loyalty, if you say it.”
In Chinese people’s eyes, if you say ‘I love you’ too often, then maybe you don’t really love because you say it so much. Chinese also have a saying: ‘Xin you ling xi yi dian tong,’ which means we have common points beyond language. Even if we don’t speak, you can sense what I sense; you can feel what I feel.” (Interestingly, the oldest sex manuals were published in China 5000 year ago)  Wondering what do they think about Valentine's Day? Once I heard somebody saying: "I am very disappointed, I didn't get Valentine's Day present from my boyfriend". Does it mean? a). He doesn't love me, but at least he is not hypocrite.  b). If I got from him everything I needed during the rest of the year I wouldn't  miss present today. c). At least he could show some "love" today. d). Why we are together at all? 

So... do not make a mockery out of Love and if you do celebrate it today, do it for the rest of the year too, mean it and do it with style.

Case of broken glasses

Yesterday I broke five glasses. All different glasses in proximity of one hour and not related in space and time to each other. Here I am, talking about glasses as they would have personality. And no, I am not a clumsy person and no, this is not a hobby of mine. Why do we think that there is meaning to situations in which things are repeating themselves? Why do we think that it is more likely for something to happen once then five times? Why do we tend to become superstitious when we can not explain? And that is exactly what happened to me. I started thinking that there must be reason behind this all, it is sign and if it is, it must be the bad one. To my relief I found out that I was wrong. 
To break uncolored glass in any form but that of a mirror or a bottle is a fortunate. 
This is just a theory, this symbolic associations, but occasionally there might be some coincidences that are hard to explain, so on that note, here is symbolic meaning for broken glasses:
Someone or something, is calling your attention, you are being summoned, or thought of regularly, by someone from your past, eg. relative, family, best friend. The matter is urgent, as they are sick, or need assistance.
Regularly dropping something may be explained by something more mundane but going along with the symbolic meaning, it may be "stop what you are doing, you are not where you are supposed to be".
Ok, now from the medical point of view. Your last three fingers (middle, ring, and pinkie) can loose voluntary muscle control when the shoulders they are hanging from are painful or frozen in any way.
I am relived and in same time am not. Nothing bad is going to happen and I just needed Google to tell me that.  But much worse, how could I find a hidden meaning in braking glasses on first place?! And last sentence is only here because I found some answers, otherwise I would be still very ignorant of my own stupidity. And that makes me feel really bad!

It takes so little

We wait every day of our life for big things to happen that will make us happy, give us something to remember, replace all bad stuff. While we are waiting millions of "small" things are coming our way, and more often then not we miss to even notice them.  Would you rather have big and rare happy moment and rest of the time spend in misery or be in permanently happy state thanks to so, so many beautiful things that surround us, and the only thing we need to do is to open our eyes.
Somebody said, “It takes so little to make people happy. Just a touch, If we know how to give it, just a word fitly spoken, a slight readjustment of some bolt or pin or bearing in the delicate machinery of a soul.” 
Here are five of my happy moments today...
                                           Children Painting

                                                     Children Playing

                                                     Drops of rain

                                                     Touch

                                                     Sign of Spring Coming

Smile!

Once out of boredom (ashamed to say that), I decided that I will test power of smile. I decided to test it on the first stranger I am going to get in touch that day. It is easy to smile at family and friends, isn't it? Internet people came knocking and bearing in mind what I previously decided, I opened the door with a big grin on my face. I am not so sure as I was busy concentrating on perfect smile, but I think there was a shock on their faces. What did they think? Oh, no... another nut case. During their time in my place, I think they changed their mind (at least I hope), and result was that I was not even charged for their service! On occasion they met me on the street some time later they greeted me as their friend, and why not? Why is it that if you walk on the street or travel in the public transport and you look at the people with a smile, they think that something is wrong with you? Is it only our culture? Are we afraid of getting another wrinkle? Why is it that we need to make decision to smile? And when did it stop to be a natural thing?

Slaves of Habits

Do habits serve us or we serve them? How much they shape our every day life and with it our personality and take our chances that may come our way unexpectedly? How often we are stuck in safe but meaningless set of life patterns that when the new, possible more meaningful is offered to us we reject it without even considering it? How much time, how big part of our life goes filled up with repetitive actions? How many times it happen that when you don't  know what to do with your time you automatically start with well known little actions? Can you count it? Unfortunately or fortunately those are not life threatening habits, they don't eat our body up, they don't brake our families and put us on the streets, but in my case at least, they eat my soul. I repeat them every day and every day become one day and one day become one life and there is no memory what so ever of what filled those days. It feels like that those are the moments of waiting for something to happen. I believe that something always happens. Shall I make that something part of my life or not, it is a decision I need to make and hopefully I will be stronger then...my life???
Today I am going to brake at least one of my little patterns. When I feel it coming to take charge of my time and life I am going to choose something completely new to do. Decision made.

Wasting time

What does it mean wasting time? Do you think that time spent on what you would consider is doing nothing worth less then time spend on sitting on meetings or planning next world war? Those are serious jobs done by serious people and in order for you to be serious you may think you need to take up on their example. Take time and waste it. Stand by the water, look at the stars, and appreciate all the things that are bigger than you. It gives a whole new perspective on where time is wasted and where it should be celebrated.
Today I am learning more about snowflakes and will attempt to make some on my own. Here is how...

Or if you have no time but do not want to feel that you miss on something you can have snowflakes made in minutes here:)))