it is ordinary to try to be extraordinary

this was given to me by my world religions teacher today ..


THE EMPTY BOAT

He who rules men lives in confusion;

He who is ruled by men lives in sorrow.

Yao therefore desired

Neither to influence others

Nor to be influenced by them.

The way to get clear of confusion

And free or sorrow

Is to live with Tao

In the land of the great Void.

If a man is crossing a river

And an empty boat collides with his own skiff,

Even though he be a bad-tempered man

He will not become very angry.

But if he sees a man in the boat,

He will shout at him to steer clear.

If the shout is not heard, he will shout again,

And yet again, and begin cursing.

And all because there is somebody in the boat.

Yet if the boat were empty,

He would not be shouting, and not angry.

If you can empty your own boat

Crossing the river of the world,

No one will oppose you,

No one will seek to harm you.

The straight tree is the first to be cut down,

The spring of clear water is the first to be drained dry.

If you wish to improve your wisdom

And shame the ignorant,

To cultivate your character

And outshine others;

A light will shine around you

As if you had swallowed the sun and the moon:

You will not avoid calamity.

A wise man has said:

"He who is content with himself

Has done a worthless work.

Achievement is the beginning of failure.

Fame is beginning of disgrace."

Who can free himself from achievement

And from fame, descend and be lost

Amid the masses of men?

He will flow like Tao, unseen.

He will go about like Life itself

With no name and no home.

Simple is he, without distinction.

To all appearances he is a fool.

His steps leave no trace. He has no power.

He achieves nothing, has no reputation.

Since he judges no one

No one judges him.

Such is the perfect man:

His boat is empty.

--Chuang Tzu--

then i accidenty came across this interesting translation while trying to find the poem..
http://completewellbeing.com/article/the-empty-boat/



♥

magically painted kitchen

it needed colorr
....





so the children painted.







that was all bosh. cept i made the bear cause apparently hes a "joshy bear" and the llama-y dog







my sun and moony









katies and jess's








jess's pretty











katies and then i did cute star one










katies, mine, boshs









and saved best for lastt








mister giraffepants
!

sound and silence ~ the heartbeat of life

the world is our teacher..

when i was at work yesterday..this man i worked with named micah asked me to do the voiceover for some hospital commercial so i was excited and said yess.

he handed me this script and had me practice it for a bit to get a feel for what it was saying...

apparently on average, Wilson hospital alone has 15,000 patients in the operating room each year, that's 50 per day.

micah turned on some sound editing program on the computer and set up the mic for me.

i spoke into the mic and read the script. the first 3 segments i did really good on but the last segment didnt make sense..

so i read it a couple times and then micah stopped me. He playedback my voice recording on the computer and showed me exactly where i was getting stuck..

he could tell right where i didnt know what i was saying just by the cadence of my voice. the rhythm between the words was slightly off.

it was really weird. like being able to hear one wrong note played in a symphony or something.

so then he went on by telling me about how he could zoom in on the soundwave to like 1/100 of a second or something

and showed it to me like this...

imagine the sound wave monitor and how the lines go in waves seemingly random..

one word looked like a blobby big fluffy woolybear caterpillar

then he zoomed in and it was more wavy and less dense

like cute waves on the ocean

and he kept zooming in til there were huge spaces between the wave lines

it went from fluffy caterpillar to

flowy-ish waves,

still looking arrhythmic,

and then finally he zoomed in so far, it looked like heartbeat waves. exactly.

it was amazing

so rhythmic and heartbeat-y

then with it zoomed in that close, he pressed play and i could see the lines 'beat' as my voice was talking.

it was just reallyreally weird.

and then he played the whole script with many words and i noticed between the words..it was a straight line

like no pulse.

life and death between words.

it was the most interesting experience to see my voice make that "heartbeat".

led me to realize and understand how everything really does have a life. a pulse.

the sound of the wind blowing in the trees, the birds, crickets, grass.

some louder than others.

you might say.. what about a rock..that doesnt have a "heartbeat", but it does.

just because we can't hear, see, or feel it, doesnt mean its not there. im sure theres technology even more sensitive than to just hear audible waves by the human ear

dogs hear sounds from a higher frequency than we do.

rocks emit a vibrancy that may be a fraction of a fraction on the apparent "silent" part of the soundwave between words..

so thats my lil learning of the day

:)

--------------

All these sounds, movements around us carry vibrations..








We are vibrational beings. interconnected by the "heartbeat" of life.








We live in this world of imagination. Emitting energy wherever we go..





and also taking it in. The universe likes motion. Its what keeps the flow..








Its the balance of things. The high and low.









Channels. There's channels of light and sound.
So we may hear, feel,touch,see,taste, and
just Know. just Be.
Our intuition.
"knows" things the mind cannot grasp










Thats why we can hear, and want to respond..
but become speechless
We're at a loss of words to say.



Our hearts speak louder than words..










with love.

=)






photocredit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorchuck/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/i_travel_east/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilinas/

SARDINES AND SOUP~

the bowl of soup.

resist the urge to be a slave to your
[animal] instincts


had a fun lil bouncy-ball experience
with my instincts just now.
just goes to show us how
fickle our wants are.
thought i wanted spaghetti o's, opened
the cupboard, saw soup & instantly wanted soup. went to get the soup & had to
lift a can of sardines off it, craved
the sardines. I could taste them, I wanted
them so bad.

put the soup on the counter &
opened the can of sardines.
took one lil fishy out with my favorite fork
& felt this completeness come
over me as i took the first bite.
more & more, emotions flooded my mind..
it was soo good.
just as they always
tasted. childhood memories filled my mind..in that one bite.
as if i were young again
sitting on the back porch with my dad
eating those fishies.
just me & my dad
with the food to connect us.
:)

took another fish and ate it.
& as i forked for a third, how quickly
my thoughts shifted when I saw the insides..
remembering how after all those
years of eating the best fish ever with my
dad, I came to find most people thought
sardines were disgusting.
my friends..mom..brother..family..everyone I talked to said
sardines were gross.
except for my dad.
& my gramma said most
people don’t like sardines because they're so fishy.

suddenly my attention
reverted to the soup so
I opened it and put it
on the stove.

I kept eating the sardines..as
I'm thinking these thoughts, and notice the taste
gradually begins to change.
I bite and feel the
crunches..taste the "fishy-ness"..see
the brown-ness of the insides, and then start
to envision guts.
finally, I reach for one last
sardine and grab the spine with my finger, thinking
it would be squishy & it was hard

an instant flash of
this one Spongebob episode where the gramma
fish is just a skeleton backbone and head in a
wheelchair filled my mind and I
threw it into the sink.
it was wayy too much.
so I wrapped up the sardines and put
the rest in the fridge for dad to eat
later.

After all that, I see the soup bubbling
on the stove & pour myself a bowl.
soo warm
I'm still warm from it now
as I write.
I decided to go eat the soup outside in the
dark.
it's fairly cool out, so I wanted to
test my body & the cold.
sat out there with my dog
Cookie & noticed she wanted the soup.
thought to myself.. would it be weird to share my
spoon with her..give her a taste?
then remembered there was alil left in the pot, so I went inside
and poured her a bowl.

put extra crackers in it.
it was really hot and watery.
went back outside. set my bowl down &
set the bowl for Cookie next to me.
pointed to it and said 'here'.
it was hot, so she took
licks occasionally
As I'm sitting there enjoying mine as
my body
warmed inside my core
noticing this chill come over my whole
body.. as goose bumps
just on this very, very thin outer
layer of my body.
the bitterness didn’t feel internal for once,
or even skin-deep.
so as I’m eating, enjoying each bite, Cookie's
devouring hers right next to me.
I set my bowl down
and try to tell Cookie to slow down. but her whole
being was set on that food.
As she was eating I became this
observer I hadn't encountered before.
I felt as if I were watching
myself in Cookie, eat that bowl of soup.

when we want something, we
want it ALL,
now.
we cant get enough.
nothing can
distract us away from it.
we become this
animal.
After Cookie finished, she looked up
at me.
As I continued to eat my
soup spoonful by spoonful.
She had this stare in
her eyes.
Strong as a full moon.
almost demonic though..
fixated on this
desire.

scared of being known.
I looked her in the eyes
& she would
nervously look away. still staring
with that look.
she wasn't looking at the soup, but everything
inside her was fixated on it.


how much does it take
to let go?


so she's just sitting there & I continue to
eat my soup.
pondered about life. emotions.
expressions...

I had given Cookie equal
amount of soup as
I had for
myself.

As she sat there scarfing it down
I watched a part of myself.
the
extrovert...
just devouring that food.
obviously plain to sight,
enjoying and engulfing
in the
taste.

then I sat there..
still..
As the introverted
observer.
enjoying the soup just as much as Cookie,
if not more.
just because I didn't show it,
didn't mean it wasn't there.
This is something I struggle with
seeing in other people..
thinking if they don't show
they're happy, then they're not.

There's an old Zen saying "you see your reflection when the water is still, not running"
same goes for your mind.
once its still, you can
awaken.
when its running, you
run.
Cookie didn't see anything
but the soup.
was the taste even there for her?
who knows.

Lesson to myself on expression.
the introverts & the extroverts.
which enjoys more?

So I finished my soup & Cookie
closely trailed behind me.
still with that gaze in
her eyes.

I'd look at her & she'd freeze.
ready to obey anything
from her "master"
for the food.
hope?
is it too anthropomorphic to call it hope.

So finally came to my room & started writing
& she eventually walked away.
realizing there's no more food.


.:
let go
and fly
:.
♥