Heart Songs

As an INTJ, I behave socially outgoing but deep down I am comfortable with the company of self.

Naturally, one assumes that I am good at inward reflection and understanding my feelings, motivations, goals, et cetera.

Not true.

When it comes to the hard subjects like the heart songs, below is how it usually goes:

TERRY:  What makes your heart sing?

ME: I don’t know.

TERRY: No, really, what makes your heart sing?

ME:  I don’t know.

TERRY:  Now, listen deeply to your heart, what is it telling you?

ME:  Not much.

TERRY: Okay, you are thinking too much.

What about you?  What makes your heart sing?

Find What Works

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Life is full of contradictions.  Do this, don’t do this.  This is good for you, this is bad for you.  What to believe, or not? On top that, the information age guarantees diversified opinions of all kinds.

Trying to consume it all, one would be totally lost by these life’s tidbits.  Too many advises, like too many chefs, is counter productive and a recipe for failure.  Perhaps the Big Data will prove me wrong on this.  But until then . . .

A more practical alternative is to, within one’s circle of influence, find what works.  Which means a willingness to be open,  to be vulnerable, and to be adventurous.  Try new things.  Foods. People. Places.  You will be surprised how much that life has to offer.

Even though what works for others may not work for you, only you can decide what fits. Open your optics, free yourself from the familiars or what your smartphone recommends, and find what works for you.

What works for you?

 

Why People Hurt Others?

From today’s US headlines:  GOP Congressman and 3 Others Shot At Baseball Practice,  and 4 UPS Employees Shot,  former on the East Coast and the latter the West Coast.  And who knows how many in between.

What makes someone decide and follow through in hurting others? As I pondered this question, I came across Mary Rose’s post which suggests the scenarios of when the pain is too much and the ego is unchecked.

Emotional pain is real and much harder to deal with than physical pain.  We can talk about setting boundary, meditation, or counselling, et cetera.  But when society at large is negative or perceived so, does it serve as a relief valve for the individuals or exacerbate the situation?

I think the latter.

What do you think?

Living Now?

Living now.  Sage advise.

Better than living in the past, or

living in the future.

Life is NOW.

But what about the “living” part?

Is “work to live or live to work” part of the living?

Not a trivial question to dismiss.

What if the work is removed from the picture?

What then?

Life is not a race.  Whatever and however you decide. Living now.

What is your living now?

Social Responsibility?

What social responsibility? You ask.

So long we are members to a group,  whether local community, city, state, country, or the world, for that matter, we have social responsibility to each other.  Why? Life is made of gives and takes.  If everyone only takes without giving, there won’t be much of a group to speak of. 

Not for long, anyway.

Clearly, the purpose of social responsibility is for the greater good and beyond self interests. Driving on your side of the line, cleaning up your surrounding, and voting for your local school board election are examples of assuming this social responsibility.  It is our de facto membership criterion and the common bond.

When someone ignore their share of the social responsibility, they are being narrow minded or simply selfish.  Case in point – telling someone to go back to where they came from is based on a narrowly defined “self interest” – the belief that you are taking resource away from me.  

But as socially responsible members, we all should be on guard of those who only act on their self interest.

What do you see as your social responsibility?

Week In Review – 11 Jun 2017

Update on my blog status – shortly after my post The Power To Be, I lost power to my internet router.  Thus no blogging.

With my fingers crossed, the electrician is coming on Monday,  Don’t know about the Power Company nor the government inspector.  I will try to squeeze in a post or two here or there [like this one], but very iffy at best.

Not complaining.  My electricity problem is an inconvenience comparing to others’ suffering.  But it makes me realize how much of my life has become inextricably tied to technology and other modern features.

For example, opening my garage door, instead of push of a button, is a workout without the electricity.  Not all bad. Instead of doing the popular things of surfing the internet, I am reading more books, spending time outdoor, and going to bed early.

Have a great week.

Suffering?

Negative emotions, as described in my previous post, are any feeling which causes us to be miserable and sad.  Instead of shunning them, understanding and embracing the negative emotions enriches our life.   So here is one.

What about suffering?

In my little corner of the virtual space, things are going well.  But the world at large is filled with examples of sufferings.   To begin, war brings casualties and destruction, especially to the civilian population.  Any lost such as life, family, or relation are difficult to face.

Then there is terrorism. With the expressed intent to inflicting pains & sufferings, terrorism brutalizes people.  Innocent people, no less. Its brutality and shock value hasten around the world, making them hard to dismiss.

Compared to the war and terrorism, hate crime seems like a horse of different color. But it too infuses suffering albeit toward a specific targeted group.  Victims, young, old, male and female, suffer indiscriminately  similar to the others.

The three examples are constant reminders in our world.  What in common among them is that the human suffering is universal.  No way around it.  We are connected to each other through the air we breathe, the earth we share.  Pretending that things are fine in our own universe and that the suffering is compartmentalized elsewhere are self denial.

Truth is the amount of sufferings around the world is  horrendous. It weighs on us.  All of our psychic regardless how much we try to shun it.  Clearly the outcome is beyond our influence.  The question is how do we deal with the suffering?

How do you cope with all the sufferings around us?  

The Power To Be

I have been having intermittent problems with the electricity coming into my house. Without any warning I would lose part of the house – no electricity, no light, not even air conditioning.  The part of the house has my internet router also.  Thus no internet either.

Needless to say an undesirable and frustrating situation when it happened.   On first incident, I notified my power company and they came out to check the line feeding power to my house.  The emergency crew said, “your problem is not the line but this” as he pointed to my electrical meter box.

The deterioration of the box (and its interior) is the culprit for  my intermittent power problem.

And he said, you need to hire an electrician to take care of it.  That, little did I know, was the tip of the iceberg.

Even though the fix is straightforward to replace the meter box, the ordeal is playing out much to my chagrin.  Besides losing service at whimsical moments, I am struggling to bring closure to my situation. The job not only involves the electrician, the power company, but also the government.  Because replacing the cable (gray colored  one on the left going into the house) requires a permit and government inspection, among other things.

Luckily, I am able to move the power source for the refrigyerator to a nearby electrical socket that is working. So I can still blog, cook, and enjoy the air conditioning whenever the electricity is uninterrupted.

At this point, I am having my fingers and toes crossed praying to the power to be on getting my meter box replaced before the summer hits.

Any suggestion?

The Fallacy of Popularity

Now-a-day, how many friends, followers, or likes on the social media gives a perceived social currency of value.  This perception is exacerbated by the speed and reach of the internet and the business ventures exploiting it.  The presumption is quantity equals quality.

Would five or ten hamburgers equal a steak?

Another implication pointed out by Seth Godin in his blog Greatest hits are exhausting is that blindly following what is popular risks missing out on what is meaningful or important to you, the individual that counts.

We are unique.  But what’s popular (i.e. most visited, most liked, most whatever’s) are marketed to suit the masses – what grabs the eyeballs.  In doing so, the normalization process kills any golden nuggets that could be speaking to you.  Gone and stripped away.

Therefore, what is popular does not mean good or important to you.

How do you discover what’s important?

Week In Review – 4 Jun 2017

Humans are unique. Each with different preferences, interests, etc.  This uniqueness offers a rich potential for human achievement. How to tapping into our intelligence and augmenting it with smart machines will be key to enable people in creating more & better values.

However, standing in our path to progress are our doubts, fears, and other negative energies lurking to sabotage our potential.  The knowing of the self and trust in others are the rite of passage in overcoming these negatives.  Says the conventional wisdom. 

Had a taste of this inner quest during an one day meditation workshop that I attended on a beautiful day in May.  It made me appreciate how much work this journey entails and the need for me to continue exploring.

Have a great week!