Awe

I am everybody and every time,
I always call myself by your name.

- Pablo Neruda -

Quote of the day

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older."
(- Larry McMurty -)

In order to achieve your goals, you do not need to be a genius, to have some incredible skills or to be amazing in what you are doing. You do not need to excel, you do not need to be a master planner or an expert. 

You need only to start. Action is the defining difference between winners and losers. Action will make all the difference between success and failure. 

Think about something that you always wanted to do. And start right now. See what it is and how to do it. Go on Wikipedia website. In the next month learn a bit and read a bit every day about your thing. Find the best three books about this and read them. After one month, check where you are. It this getting closer? Did you do it?

I feel inspired. I will check right now some informations about flight and planes. See you soon.

G.

Quote of the day

This seems to be a solution to our day to day nonsense and all the rising of the idiocracy. But can we try it?

The idea behind the quote of the day is:

"When I see that my thought is incapable of understanding, that its movement brings nothing, I am open to the sense of the cosmic, beyond the realm of human perception. "

- Jeanne de Salzmann -

Quote of the day

Today I am thinking about this:
" The greatest danger for most of us it is not that we aim to high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. "

We are not living up to our full potential, and our biggest enemy is the complacency.

Quote of the day

"Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous 'I don't know.' "
- Wistawa Szymborska -

Curiosity didn't kill the cat, just made it aware of other unknown dangers. But also about new rewards. Curiosity can change your life. Can turn a bland job in one continuous challenging and amazing experience. Can raise your awareness, making blind eyes to see, and deaf ears to hear. Can read a story in a heartbeat, or a life in a handshake. A love in a hug, a day in a lifetime. Just ask yourself often, with better and better questions. And see what will happen.

Quote of the day

"If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. "
- William Blake -

Our eyes often look but they cannot see. Why? Because we are often living in our mind instead of the outside world. We are looking inside when we should be aware of the outside world, but we are also looking outside when we  should be inside.  Our duality will make us to be on the wrong foot quite often, unless we are willing it voluntarily, in order to achieve greatness. Be one with your eyes, your ears or your nose. Feel the wind on your skin, but remember that, while you feel your skin, you are not your skin. While you can feel your body, you are not your body. You can feel your feelings, but you are not your feelings. You can watch your thoughts, but you are not your thought. What are you? You are the silent witness behind everything, but thinking back, you are your predominant thoughts, you are your most used feelings, your body is the mirror of your soul. You are everything and you are nothing. Unite the contraries and you are a step closer. Refine your senses and new worlds will open to explore. Be bold!

Quote of the day

"I now see how owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we will ever do."
- Brene Brown -

You are not perfect. Yes, i repeat. You are not perfect. But you can always try to be the best version of the imperfect you, or you can give up. You can choose to grow, to improve yourself (and here the 1% rule is the best - improve yourself with at least 1% daily), or you can slack through life, finding excuses. We live in a culture that is quick to blame others, but you need to know that the root of every problem and every blessing is you. Only you. As one of my favourite writers used to say: "You cannot even die if you do not agree with that.". Find who you are, relate to yourself, with your own qualities or lack of them. Come in terms with your limitations, but never accept them as a given result. Good luck!

Quote of the day

"At the deepest level, the creative process and the healing process arise from a single source. When you are an artist, you are a healer; a wordless trust of the same mystery is the foundation of your work and its integrity."
- Rachel Naomi Remen -

In order to learn how to heal ourselves, we need first to learn why we become sick. When we step aside from our natural state, in any way, we open the door to unseen troubles. Being out of sync is the real problem, because everything around us has a deep layer, where a mechanical heart is beating, behind every cell and atom. We need to subscribe to the same wavelength, and to become one with the Universe. Or we can try the easy way. Honesty. And we need to be honest with only one being, our Self. The inside or the outside journey will bring you in the same place, in the end. But it is important for you to choose your individual way. To enjoy the journey is even more important than to reach the end of it.

Quote of the day

Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.

- Edward Abbey -

Why? Because change is good, helping our stress level, immunity and even our brain. We need different kind of noises that the ones we usually hear, but more than that we need silence. We need recovery, and the nature is uniquely prepared to help us with these problems. Go out, far away from any city, go into the woods, go into the dessert. Of course, you need to be prepared, but remember: the boats are made to sail the seas, not to wait in the port. Same with our souls. They need to expand, always and often.

Quote of the day

"In a gentle way, you can shake the world. "
- Mahatma Gandhi -

Gentle means caring. Gentle means remembering. Gentle touch can create a ripple effect lingering in the world long after you finished your action. Kindness is a must, in our day, when hate try to win a never-ending war. Even if the darkness is at its peak, one candle can bring the much needed light, banishing every shadow within its reach. Be that light, a candle or a pillar, but do it like a whisper, unknown and without pressure. Be good, do good, and then just follow your way. In or out, depending of the need.

Quote of the day

"You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely."
- Roald Dahl -

Is this true? Our society is more than ever insisting in abnormal, impossible ideals of beauty, which often are not even true (Photoshop anyone?). Even the men, but especially the women are targeted by media and impressed with models that want to be skinny and gracious. But this is not always true. The ideal of external beauty is changing through the centuries, and couple of hundred years ago the ideal it was the voluptuous, fatty kind of woman. Small hips versus big hips. Generous bust versus small bust. There are many ideals of beauty, possible and impossible. And i will not start to talk about the male one, sculpted body, with six-packed abs (which can be obtained by everyone, given the time, training, diet and motivation). But even as we look at the entertainment industry (i know, i know, the bar lowered a bit too much), we are longing for the Uomo universalis ideal of Renaissance. What the heck, we live in a society which believe that beauty and intelligence in the same time is almost impossible. How did we get here? What changed? It is the fault of our education system, or is just the daily bombardment on advertising? In this run after our desires, we keep forgetting to take a peak inside of people, to see that pearl hiding within. Try it, today look around and talk with others, until you find something fascinating in the other person.

Quote of the day

"Let go of your mind and then be mindful. Close your ears and listen!"
- Jalaluddin Rumi -

With this one we go to explore the mystical side of life. What is mindfulness? How can we let our mind go? First of all, we say 'my mind', so the mind is ours and we are not the mind. We are not the body either, we are a whole of all the things defining us. And our mind, or our way to process thoughts, to be more exact, is one of the primary stress generators in our life. Think at the moment when you are in the rush and everything is going by, as you are absorbed in some kind of tunnel vision, compared with the moment when you are just sitting on a bench, watching boats on the lake. These are two sides of the same rope, but Rumi will give us a hint, to go even further. The key is to slowly retreat from the outside world and to start to explore the inner world. We need to learn how to listen to our body, to the response which is given to different stimuli, such as emotions or thoughts. There are whole books, videos and phone apps about us. But all the informations is useless, if we do not start to practice. Because the knowledge, as inspiring as it is, is nothing without the action. Find 5 minutes, close your eyes and just listen to your breathing. Do this now. And see if you need more of it.

Quote of the day

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."
- Helen Keller -

Let's talk about ideas. Some ideas can be contagious. They spread around. And, if you want to help others, it is good to learn how to do that. Let's say that you want to bring food to some people in need this Easter. By yourself, you can make one, or maybe 10 bags. But talk to your friends, explain to them what is behind the idea, be inspiring, and then maybe very easy you can do 20, or 50 bags. It is still your idea, but you make it worthwhile. It is much better to reach others, in any major project you do, and ask for help. Especially is it is done for the benefit of the humanity.

Quote of the day

"Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson -

It is known. From many, many years, but some of us still live for the ancient 'eye for an eye'. Even if i remember somebody saying that one humanity looking for an eye for an eye will end up with a world full of blind people. Understanding conflicts is difficult. You need to get immersed trough a whole culture or two, to learn about the past mistakes and the future hopes. You need to think about what you are doing. You need to wake up. That why most of the times the schools, the writers or the teachers are the main targets in a conflict. Because, for the ones gaining something from a war, they are fully aware that words are more powerful than bullets. We've seen that often, not many years ago, the final blow to some totalitarian regime was not done by a mighty army, but by a 12 years girl talking about it around the world. And the examples are many. Let's get in touch with our hippie side, and for a moment try to be love, not war.

Good night.

Quote of the day

"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul."
- Elder Uchtdorf -

We all want to be remembered, and no one want to be remembered as a bad person. We all have dreams, and we see ourselves as creators, being that writers, painters or movie makers. We want to do something great, to put our heart on a plate, for everyone to see it. Some of this efforts are only children play, some are more serious.

I will give you homework. For the next 7 days, do a paint or a draw (the bigger the better), write one poetry and one short story. After all these tasks, observe yourself and see what you feel regarding yourself. Good luck.

Quote of the day

"In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it."
- Marianne Williamson -

We are divided. By race, by religion, by political beliefs, by place of birth, by gender, by physical and mental health, by our wage level. So many things, objects and beliefs to create a rift between us and Others. Every late news seems to focus on this. Brexit, Trump, meeting and anti-meetings, Russia, China, fall of the Ashanti Empire. Some of them are familiar to us, some of them not. We cannot analyse and learn about everything. Or can we? But this is not the main question today.

How we gonna heal the rift that is separating us from everybody else? Listen to this song, and maybe you will be inspired.

Quote of the day

"I hope you will go out and let stories happen to you, and that you will work them, water them with your blood and tears and you laughter till they bloom, till you yourself burst into bloom."
- Clarissa Pinkola Estes -

I will start with a complain. Modern stories are not satisfying me. They are just twisting and redecorating the old myths, legends and fairy-tales. The children of today will see a movie and accept it as reality, before learn to read the classics. We are guided and teached their way of the story, without asking questions, without seeing the other half of the tale. We know what happened five minutes ago in a small town from Italy or on a Californian beach, but we do not have the time to listed to our old neighbour telling us about how they managed to stay alive in the WW2, in London. We are informed globally, but we will be underdeveloped emotionally. We forget to look inside. To stop for a moment and admire the Moon reflection in the lake, or to listed to that morning birdsong in a lazy Sunday. We are pushed out of the body, but this is not an experience, it is a way of life. Go further than that. Create your own stories, live a life worthy to be shared with your nieces and nephews. Go outside. Go inside. Just go.

Quote of the day

"Trust is the glue of life...It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships."
- Stephen Covey -

Trust is alive and changing. It is a living organism, taking different shapes and meanings, according to that specific era. In our grandparents' time, they trusted banks and an employer whom will give you a job for life. In the times we live right here and now, we stopped trusting banks and employers, but we become more trustful in other ways. Airbnb and Uber, and many other ideas, all successful because we learned how to trust a stranger. We are evolving, slowly, despite the general distrust and separation that is actively promoted in the media. We became part of the humanity.

Quote of the day

"A little magic can take you a long way."
- Roald Dahl -

Awe - one underrated emotion, with the potential to change our lives and to bring greatness, happiness, stability and timeless fuzzy warming sensations in the heart area.

Awe - that moment when the mind stops and we are really looking around, instead of watching with a lifeless-like expression, our attention deep inside following a horde of stressful thoughts.

What you can do? Bring a bit of magic in somebody else's life, do the unexpected and make them to fall in awe. A scrumptious cake for a neighbour, her favorite book left on top of her shoes, a nice new toy for a poor child. The only limit is the one set by your imagination. Try it today and observe what others and yourself feel during those special moments.

EnJOY !

Quote of the day

“Those who are determined to be ‘offended’ will discover a provocation somewhere. We cannot possibly adjust enough to please the fanatics, and it is degrading to make the attempt.”
― Christopher Hitchens

I couldn't find better words myself. Because if someone is unhappy, he or she will project their own unhappiness outside. The only way to avoid the conflict is to not take it personal and get to their level. Stay where you are, and be happy with your life, even if this is one 'rara avis' these days. Especially because of this.

* rara avis = latin term for a rare bird, something similar with the actual concept of black swam.