We got a kitten just over a week ago and I've already learned alot from him.
He's an orange tabby and we named him Bastet (after the Egyptian godess of cats). He's very playful and quite smart and he has become the joy of our life.
He has brought to life for me what Master Brinker has been talking about living in the moment. Every second he is discovering new things, playing or just being. He never spends an afternoon watching t.v. or reading trashy magazines. Every day is full of adventure and play, rejuvinating naps and great food and he makes use of every moment.
I've been trying to learn more about living in the moment from little Bastet and tonight I learned a special lesson.
There was a thunder storm tonight and we had the back door open to the screen to let the air in. I had walked away to go back to my t.v. show but I caught Bastet going to investigate. I stood and watched as he stood at the screen watching the lightning and trying to catch the stray drops that landed at his feet. It was so adorable watching him wrinkle his nose as droplets hit him. I walked over and stood with him, t.v. show forgotten, and together we watched the storm. It was quite a light show and I'm glad I didn't miss it.
I have little Bastet to thank for that. Tonight he taught me to keep my eyes open and to see the wonders of the world around me. He's teaching me to live in the moment and I'm so grateful we got him..
What a good little cat! ( He came from Sifu Freitag, breeder of Kung-Fu kitties, and she still has one kitten left I'm pretty sure:)
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Blogging again...
I read in the paper today (Edmonton Sun) about the funeral for that boy who was murdered on the grayhound bus.
The story wasn't about how tragic the situation was or how touching the funeral had been. It was about a group of protestors who had threatened to show up and picket the funeral. The group was (from what I got from the story) from a Baptist church in Kansis, USA. They were going to picket the funeral because they believed that the murder was God's punishment for Canada's liberal views on issues like gay marriage.
I have to say, I was shocked and aghast. All I could think of was how insensitive and inappropriate that protest would have been and I was angered by the idea.
Fortunatly, the protest did not occur, although hurt had already been caused by the threat.
After I got over my disgust, I got to thinking and two issues came to my mind: Method and Motivation
The group's methods were obviously not very effective.What good would that protest have served the group's message? Their goal is to raise awareness and promote their message, but this protest has brought them nothing but bad press and hurt alot of people.
Everyone has an opinion or message or view they believe is right and often people try to persuade others. But you have to think about how you're going to persuade people. You don't do it by offending people or upsetting them. You do it by convincing them that they will benefit from that viewpoint. You convince people by your own happiness and success. When people see you living the good life, they want the same and are therefore willing to listen to your advice or suggestion. You must woo them with your words and actions.
Their lack of empathy also had me questioning their motives. When we protest something or try to raise awareness about a cause, we must remember our ultimate goal: to make the world a better place for everyone, not just ourselves. It should be an act of love for the human race, not an act of hatred. So a situation like this causes one to think, are they promoting this message to better the lives of others, or to legitimize their own point of view?
It comes down to selflessness verses selfishness. Someone acting selflessly will try to help others lead a better life and isn't afraid of standing up for what they believe in because they know it is right and good. Someone acting selfishly acts out of a lack of confidence in their own beliefs and a need to find validation; the aren't trying to help others, they're trying to feel good about themselves.
So I'm going to try to keep this in mind as I try to raise awareness for issues I find important. I need the right Methods and the right Motivations.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of that poor boy. What a tragedy.
The story wasn't about how tragic the situation was or how touching the funeral had been. It was about a group of protestors who had threatened to show up and picket the funeral. The group was (from what I got from the story) from a Baptist church in Kansis, USA. They were going to picket the funeral because they believed that the murder was God's punishment for Canada's liberal views on issues like gay marriage.
I have to say, I was shocked and aghast. All I could think of was how insensitive and inappropriate that protest would have been and I was angered by the idea.
Fortunatly, the protest did not occur, although hurt had already been caused by the threat.
After I got over my disgust, I got to thinking and two issues came to my mind: Method and Motivation
The group's methods were obviously not very effective.What good would that protest have served the group's message? Their goal is to raise awareness and promote their message, but this protest has brought them nothing but bad press and hurt alot of people.
Everyone has an opinion or message or view they believe is right and often people try to persuade others. But you have to think about how you're going to persuade people. You don't do it by offending people or upsetting them. You do it by convincing them that they will benefit from that viewpoint. You convince people by your own happiness and success. When people see you living the good life, they want the same and are therefore willing to listen to your advice or suggestion. You must woo them with your words and actions.
Their lack of empathy also had me questioning their motives. When we protest something or try to raise awareness about a cause, we must remember our ultimate goal: to make the world a better place for everyone, not just ourselves. It should be an act of love for the human race, not an act of hatred. So a situation like this causes one to think, are they promoting this message to better the lives of others, or to legitimize their own point of view?
It comes down to selflessness verses selfishness. Someone acting selflessly will try to help others lead a better life and isn't afraid of standing up for what they believe in because they know it is right and good. Someone acting selfishly acts out of a lack of confidence in their own beliefs and a need to find validation; the aren't trying to help others, they're trying to feel good about themselves.
So I'm going to try to keep this in mind as I try to raise awareness for issues I find important. I need the right Methods and the right Motivations.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of that poor boy. What a tragedy.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
A thought...
A memory from this past school year has been on my mind of late and I thought I should share it. It is a lesson one of my professors taught me about priorities.
The class I was taking was called Natural Resources and the Environment. We learned about regulations, case studies, environmental history and such. I have to say it wasn't my favorite class; I didn't like it at all, but it was a requirement of my program and so there I sat three times a week in a giant lecture hall of at least 100 people listening to this guy try and teach us about the environmental movement.
He was pretty good at keeping our attention usually. He did things like show video clips or bribe us with timbits. One day though, he particularly got me.
He got on the subject of priorities, what we all value and count as important. He put up a list on the power-point and told us to put everything in order from what we thought was the most important to the least important. Here's the list to the best of my memory:
education
your left arm
your television
the lives of two African children
your computer
nice clothes
health
a big house
new car
So we each took a sheet of paper and began to order the list (give it a try yourself right now).
After about five minutes, he told us to stop and share what we had put down. Being idealist university students, we all put down the Africans as number one or two, followed closely by education, health, etc. We all put "material goods" at the bottem of our list because we, as enlightened educated individuals, knew that these things just weigh us down.
Our professor nodded and smiled at us as we congratulated ourselves on picking out what was obviously the most important in the list. Then he told us a story.
He has spent quite a few summers in Africa doing his research. He was doing alot of work with very poor communities, studying how they live and he told us that every summer he goes there, he meets alot of children. While he is there, he does what he can to help out, but every summer he returns, many of the children he met the previous summer have died of curable ailements. They die of water born diseases or malnutrition or other things.
The sad thing is, he continued, is that if he just sold his big screen t.v. he could have saved at least two more African kids in that village by buying them medicine and food. But, he said, he really, really likes his big screen t.v.
So he made us look at our lists again and said, be honest with yourself, put your tv, your education, your material things above the Africans because that is the reality.
He told us to continue to watch our t.vs or play on our computers, as he does, but don't kid ourselves about our priorities.
His point wasn't to guilt us into selling all of our stuff, because he said it's a hard thing to do; his point was merely to show us how it is our actions and lifestyles that reflect our true values, not what we like to tell ourselves to make ourselves feel good.
I've been thinking about this and trying to figure out what my real values are and how I can start reflecting them through my actions.
Just a thought...
The class I was taking was called Natural Resources and the Environment. We learned about regulations, case studies, environmental history and such. I have to say it wasn't my favorite class; I didn't like it at all, but it was a requirement of my program and so there I sat three times a week in a giant lecture hall of at least 100 people listening to this guy try and teach us about the environmental movement.
He was pretty good at keeping our attention usually. He did things like show video clips or bribe us with timbits. One day though, he particularly got me.
He got on the subject of priorities, what we all value and count as important. He put up a list on the power-point and told us to put everything in order from what we thought was the most important to the least important. Here's the list to the best of my memory:
education
your left arm
your television
the lives of two African children
your computer
nice clothes
health
a big house
new car
So we each took a sheet of paper and began to order the list (give it a try yourself right now).
After about five minutes, he told us to stop and share what we had put down. Being idealist university students, we all put down the Africans as number one or two, followed closely by education, health, etc. We all put "material goods" at the bottem of our list because we, as enlightened educated individuals, knew that these things just weigh us down.
Our professor nodded and smiled at us as we congratulated ourselves on picking out what was obviously the most important in the list. Then he told us a story.
He has spent quite a few summers in Africa doing his research. He was doing alot of work with very poor communities, studying how they live and he told us that every summer he goes there, he meets alot of children. While he is there, he does what he can to help out, but every summer he returns, many of the children he met the previous summer have died of curable ailements. They die of water born diseases or malnutrition or other things.
The sad thing is, he continued, is that if he just sold his big screen t.v. he could have saved at least two more African kids in that village by buying them medicine and food. But, he said, he really, really likes his big screen t.v.
So he made us look at our lists again and said, be honest with yourself, put your tv, your education, your material things above the Africans because that is the reality.
He told us to continue to watch our t.vs or play on our computers, as he does, but don't kid ourselves about our priorities.
His point wasn't to guilt us into selling all of our stuff, because he said it's a hard thing to do; his point was merely to show us how it is our actions and lifestyles that reflect our true values, not what we like to tell ourselves to make ourselves feel good.
I've been thinking about this and trying to figure out what my real values are and how I can start reflecting them through my actions.
Just a thought...
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Have you hugged your inner ninja today?
For anyone who doesn't know, I'm in university right now studying geology. And it was while standing bent over a 5ft long cross section, correlation well logs in my stratigraphy lab, that I became reaquainted with my little inner ninja.
Now I believe that everyone has a little inner ninja, at least everyone that trains in the martial arts. He's the voice you hear whispering in the back of your head, "you should practice today," or "you can do one more push up!" He's also the one who catches the glass that is knocked off the table.
I must admit, lately, being back in school, my little ninja and I have fallen out of touch. A sad state of affairs, I know.
But while hunched over the seemingly endless well logs, trying to find the picks for the formations of the western canadian sedimentary basin, one of my lab partners asked me what I do in my spare time.
I said Kung-Fu.
And that's when my little inner ninja stirred inside me.
I could feel the exhileration of it coarsing through my viens as I told them about my "hobby". Memories of trials and tribulations, of taking a hit and giving one. The excitement of it took my breath away.
Sometimes, when your around martial artists for alot of your time, you forget how special Kung-Fu really is. It has made my life what it is and I am so grateful.
It was a great reminder of this when my lab partners said "Wow! That's so cool!"
It's great to be back in touch with my inner ninja. I missed the little guy and I was taking him for granted.
So...have you hugged your inner ninja today?
Now I believe that everyone has a little inner ninja, at least everyone that trains in the martial arts. He's the voice you hear whispering in the back of your head, "you should practice today," or "you can do one more push up!" He's also the one who catches the glass that is knocked off the table.
I must admit, lately, being back in school, my little ninja and I have fallen out of touch. A sad state of affairs, I know.
But while hunched over the seemingly endless well logs, trying to find the picks for the formations of the western canadian sedimentary basin, one of my lab partners asked me what I do in my spare time.
I said Kung-Fu.
And that's when my little inner ninja stirred inside me.
I could feel the exhileration of it coarsing through my viens as I told them about my "hobby". Memories of trials and tribulations, of taking a hit and giving one. The excitement of it took my breath away.
Sometimes, when your around martial artists for alot of your time, you forget how special Kung-Fu really is. It has made my life what it is and I am so grateful.
It was a great reminder of this when my lab partners said "Wow! That's so cool!"
It's great to be back in touch with my inner ninja. I missed the little guy and I was taking him for granted.
So...have you hugged your inner ninja today?
Thursday, January 24, 2008
The "Bucket List"
Imagine yourself sitting on your sofa, enjoying a nice cup of tea and watching some television when all of a sudden, you see the secret to your life's success splashed across the screen in the form of a commercial.
The offending commercial I speak of is for the movie, "The Bucket List".
The commercial says, for anyone who hasn't heard of it, that "The Bucket List" is a movie about two old men who decide to make a list of things they want to so before they die; then they go do them.
So, since the "cat's out of the bag", I guess I'd better explain.
One of the secrets I attribute to my success in life is having kept a "Life's to do List". This is a list of things I have wanted to do during my life.
Now I know this doesn't seem like a life altering, problem solving solution to all of life's problems. But just hear me out.
It's not the list itself that has made my life better. I mean it does help to keep me focused and remind me of my goals, but that's not the point. It's the stuff I get to check off of the list that really makes the difference.
It gives me confidence.
And confidence is one of the keys to being successful.
One of the most satisfying things I've ever done is put a check beside "Math 115". That class was nothing but a nightmare for me and I get alot of joy from seeing that little check mark beside it. I look at that when I need a confidence boost.
When I look at that little check mark, I remember all of the sweat, all of the tears of frustration and all of the work that I put into that class; and I remember how I passed it. That little check mark tells me that the things I'm trying to do now are a peice of cake. It makes me realize that I can do anything if I work hard enough at it.
That little check mark gives me confidence.
I've posted my list from my journal on the side to remind me of my new goals and keep me focused. I also posted it so I can look at it when I need a boost.
I think everyone should take the time to sit down and write down everything they want or think they want to do. Just make sure you include things you've already done so that you'll have the confidence to tackle the rest of your list. Nothing is to far-fetched or too impossible, you just have to buckle down and get it done.
Take a little time and invest in yourself. Fill your own "Bucket List". It's worth it!
The offending commercial I speak of is for the movie, "The Bucket List".
The commercial says, for anyone who hasn't heard of it, that "The Bucket List" is a movie about two old men who decide to make a list of things they want to so before they die; then they go do them.
So, since the "cat's out of the bag", I guess I'd better explain.
One of the secrets I attribute to my success in life is having kept a "Life's to do List". This is a list of things I have wanted to do during my life.
Now I know this doesn't seem like a life altering, problem solving solution to all of life's problems. But just hear me out.
It's not the list itself that has made my life better. I mean it does help to keep me focused and remind me of my goals, but that's not the point. It's the stuff I get to check off of the list that really makes the difference.
It gives me confidence.
And confidence is one of the keys to being successful.
One of the most satisfying things I've ever done is put a check beside "Math 115". That class was nothing but a nightmare for me and I get alot of joy from seeing that little check mark beside it. I look at that when I need a confidence boost.
When I look at that little check mark, I remember all of the sweat, all of the tears of frustration and all of the work that I put into that class; and I remember how I passed it. That little check mark tells me that the things I'm trying to do now are a peice of cake. It makes me realize that I can do anything if I work hard enough at it.
That little check mark gives me confidence.
I've posted my list from my journal on the side to remind me of my new goals and keep me focused. I also posted it so I can look at it when I need a boost.
I think everyone should take the time to sit down and write down everything they want or think they want to do. Just make sure you include things you've already done so that you'll have the confidence to tackle the rest of your list. Nothing is to far-fetched or too impossible, you just have to buckle down and get it done.
Take a little time and invest in yourself. Fill your own "Bucket List". It's worth it!
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