how am I looking at the world on a day-to-day basis? what kind of images have I hold onto, and what kind of images have I overlooked? writings about my thoughts on my daily encounters and discoveries via images.
The results of today,
is what you did yesterday.
Do good deeds, and one day
you’ll have the fruits that you seed.
Everything is a journey,
to whom you eventually want to become.
Love all the mysteries,
for what you can’t control,
often are the ones that leave a big history.
Enjoy the ride,
follow the ups and downs,
Someday soon,
all there is will come around.
Nature is what it is.
Bird sings, you don’t ask why they don’t paint;
Tree grows on the ground, they don’t grow on clouds;
Dandelions are dandelions, they are not sunflowers;
Leave falls in Autumn, snow comes in the Winter;
Everything is what they are. Because that is what they are. That is the law of nature.
Human beings. They are the complex ones. Because they have the power to manipulate what are, to what may.
We manipulate our being, to what’s happening around us.
We suck at Maths, but you have to do extra classes for school;
We are told to control our emotions, but you have a wild horse inside;
We are asked to extrovert, but really you just want to stay alone;
We became having to e.g. at least pass Maths, minimise your sensitivity and to socialise…
When do we ever ask our hearts, for guiding who we truly are?
If you are a bird, be a bird. Don’t be a sheep.
If your element is Art, do art. Don’t try to be good at maths.
If you are sensitive, use your sensitivity. Don’t try to demolish it.
If you are an introvert, be that. Don’t try to outgrow yourself.
Go to the root where you are grounded. Forget the pretty branches and flowers. When you have a strong root, you will grow your own beautiful fruits.
Is love conditional? Or unconditional?
Some people say, everything you love is conditional. Either it’s because externally eg someone is being nice to you, you get something in return… or internally, you want to feel good, you want to be identified as that character of a person.
Let’s say, you love your son. The condition is he’s your son. That’s why you love him. You love him because he laughs, he makes you happy. But what happens when he cries? Do you still love him even thought you hate the fact that he’s screaming all night long? Yes, because knowledge tells you that he knows nothing, and you are accommodating to him because of that. So now, what if there’s a language that you have a way of knowing what he’s thinking as a baby? That he isn’t innocent, he was crying just to piss-you-off. Do you still love him? What was the condition then? Do you still love him based on his behaviour and his thoughts behind it? Or do you base your love with the condition that you set out in the beginning “he’s my son”?
Now the question is, if it is the latter, do you still call that conditional love?
Love is an emotion. An emotion is a constant state. Affection on the other hand, is a feeling, a fleeting state. Maybe you can’t show affection to your baby at the example above at that moment but you will still love him, because he’s your son.
Love, love is showing affection, and showing affection based on how much time you give. We all have the same amount of time every day. That’s constant and quantifiable.
To me therefore,
Love, is the time you give to something or someone by showing affection based either on external or internal rewards.
There will always be love and hate with any relationships: things, places, people and yourself. You love and you hate short hair. You love and hate Chinese food. You love and hate photography. You love and hate this person.
If you don’t have that, then you are numbed. Either because you just became indifferent or there are no other choices. When there are other options out there, during the hate time, you’ll always see better things in the alternatives. And if there are no alternatives, you can’t love or hate it because that’s the only thing you get. But this rarely happens.
So it’s undeniable, the love-hate tug of war.
But the thing is, you must love it/him/her more than you hate it. Because that is the only thing that can keep you going through the hate times. That the love is much bigger and enough to make you tolerate the hate times. So now, here’s the question,
What is it that you love the most? That no matter how bad it can be, you will still love it?
What are the fundamental qualities / reasons / values / beliefs that are core to you, that no matter what else has changed, these will still be the very things that you stand by and you love?
What excites you to get up in the morning to start the day?
What is the very thing(s) that you love so much that you cannot live without, and that’s what keeps you going in life?
Your passion? What is it?
Passion (noun)
Have you ever felt something or someone so intensely that you cannot even control your feelings? It’s like this burning fire inside you, or a roaring lion that lives inside you that’s trying to escape. It is something, or someone, that makes you feel so strongly that nothing can compromise. And that it’s meant to be. Your mission here on Earth. Your the one. In this logical world, the majority of the people see passion as something that you need to control. You have to… tame your emotions. Dial it down. Balance.
Somewhere I read and it says “Some people are not meant to be tamed. They are meant to run wild until they find someone just as wild to run with.”
If you are passionate about something, or someone, go for it. Don’t let the majority stops you because being crazy and loosing your sanity is okay. Every emotion is beautiful. Love it. Own it. Enjoy it.
Remember this: You can loose anything – people, money, courage, confidence… but you cannot loose passion. When you loose or give up your passion, you give up hope of living.
Just because you can’t say something doesn’t mean you don’t want to.
You may very much want to.
The thing is, what you want may not be what the other person want. The same thing goes the other way round. And that’s why we need communications. You can say that’s the beauty with human beings. Or you can say that’s the frustration with people.
Some people give up and turn to art e.g. music, dance, photography, poetry etc. Because all of this is too much to take, and get good at, and strike the correct balance. Communication itself is an art.
How do you get it right? Be good at it? You practice. You make mistakes and learn from it. You try and try and try again. It’s the same with getting good at doing different things. Getting good at photography, or being excellent in woodwork crafting, or excel in doing business and stock markets. You do the deed.
But exactly how much time do you have to spend on them?
If you are lucky, or more so, stubborn, you focus on just being good at one thing. And spend almost your entire time in it. Even if you are not a master of it, you’d be good at it. No matter what it is.
When you start to have more things you want to be good at, you spread your time between them. And if you are lucky and smart, you’ll still be good at them but just takes longer, or most likely the case is you’ll just be mediocre at these things.
So, do you want to be good at something? Or be mediocre in a few things?
I, I just want to be good at connecting with my heart, whether that’s through making soulful photographs, writing my thoughts or creating melodies.
“We have more faith in what we imitate than in what we originate. We cannot derive a sense of absolute certitude from anything that has its roots in us. The most poignant sense of insecurity comes from standing alone; we are not alone when we imitate. It is thus with most of us! We are what other people say we are.” –Bruce Lee.
Nobody likes to feel lonely. And often people put being alone equals feeling lonely. So we fear being alone. We want to escape the feeling of loneliness. So we conform, and imitate, so to feel belong.
The thing is they are two totally different thing. Loneliness is an emotion. It means being sad because there’s no one else around. You feel isolated or even abandoned. It correlates with insecurity, fear and depression.
Being alone is being on your own, in the absence of others. And that, is when we originate. When we are still with being ourselves. It can be fearful too because no one is around, but that’s exactly it, everyone of us is different, and unique, there can never be a copy of you. So being alone can give a sense of joy and peace, when you are aware of it, and embrace it, because you are at present of who you really are.
So,
Do not let other people tell you who you are. You are the only custodian of your own integrity.
Be you.
“The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.” -Mortimer Adler.
There are 2 types of knowledge – knowing the name of something and knowing something. The former is called chauffeur knowledge, you know a bit of it, and you can bluff it so to make an impression. The latter is called Plank knowledge, that is, the stuff that you really know, you have paid your dues, and you have the aptitudes.
Real knowledge comes from the people who do their work, chauffeurs are the ones that don’t, but they pretend. They learned to put on a good show, but they lack understanding. They can’t answer questions that don’t rely on memorisation or explain things without using jargon or vague terms. They have no idea how things interact. They can’t predict consequences. In Chinese it’s called “throw schoolbags”.
So how do you know whether someone really know what they are talking about. Ask them “why”. Make them describe what the concept they said they know without using that very word.
Trust me. Many will just have their mouth opened wide.
Unable to discern between what we know and what we pretend to know, we ultimately become victims of our own laziness and intellectual dishonesty.
Often we say, our feelings come from the heart. E.g. when you are feeling joy, you feel the whole body electrifying and a lightness in the heart. And when you are down, you feel a heaviness in the heart, and also a crunch that seems to burn.
And then there’s the feeling of right – which often describes as the “gut feeling”. Something that people often say “follow the heart” or “follow your gut feeling”.
What does that really mean? How do you know what you are feeling is coming from the heart? or it’s a thinking that comes from the brain? Sometimes following the heart may means feeling right, and at the same time feeling scared not sure whether it’s right. Who is talking here, the brain or the heart?
And so which one do you follow? The feeling of right or the feeling of scared?
How do you know what means following the heart?
How do you know that you are talented at something?
Because people tell you that you are?
Because you find it easy?
Because you can do it better than most people?
But with reference to what?
If it’s a group of friends that tell you that you are talented, then are you talented? Or a well known photographer tells you that you are talented, then you are talented? Now. How do you define well-known? And are all well-known talented?
So you find it easy. In relation to what? E.g. I find it easy to take photographs than to read maps. But that just tells you that you need less effort to do one than the other. Now you compare yourself with others. Say I can take great pictures 5/10 frames, while others 1/10 frames. Now, how do you define great? Does easily taking great images means talented?
You do it better than most people. Who are the “most people”? In the same example, are “most people” friends? Or other photographers? And what is “better”? More recognised? More sales of prints? Winning competitions? Do all these means you are better?
So, how do you know whether you are good at something?
#somethingtotalkabout 