Wednesday, February 13, 2008

an old man, a young man, and life's greatest lesson

       "What I'm doing now," he continued, his eyes still closed, "is detaching myself from the experience."
        Detaching yourself?
        "Yes. Detaching myself. And this is important-not for someone like me, who is dying, but for someone like you, who is perfectly healthy. Learn to detach."
        He opened his eyes. He exhaled. "You know what the Buddhists say? Don't cling to things, because everything is impermanent."
        But wait, I said. Aren't you always talking about experiencing life? All the good emotions, all the bad ones?
        "Yes."
        Well, how can you do that if you're detached?
        "Ah. you're thinking, Mitch.But detachment doesn't mean you don't let the experience penetrate you. On the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully. That's how you are able to leave it."
        I'm lost.
        "Take any emotion-love for a woman, or grief for a loved one, or what I'm going through, fear and pain from a deadly illness. If you hold back on the emotions-if you don't allow yourself to go all the way through them-you can never get to being detached, you're too busy being afraid. You're afraid of pain, you're afraid of the grief, you're afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails.
        "But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your head even, you experience them fully and completely. You know what pain is. You know what love is. You know what grief is. And only then you can say, "all right. I've experienced that emotion. I recognize that emotion. Now I need to detach from that emotion for a moment."
         Morrie stopped and looked at me over, perhaps to make sure I was getting this right.
         "I know you think this is just about dying," he said. "But it's just like I keep telling you. When you learn how to die, you learn how to live."
        Morrie talked about his most fearful moments, when he felt his chest locked in heaving surges or when wasn't sure where his next breath would come from. These were horrifying times, he said, and his first emotions were horror, fear, anxiety. But once he recognized the feel of these emotions, their texture, their moisture, the shiver down the back, the quick flash of heat that crosses your brain-then he was able to say, "Okay. This is fear. Step away from it. Step away."
         I thought about how often this was needed in everyday lift. How we feel lonely, sometimes to the point of tears, but we don't let these tears come out because we are not supposed to cry. Or how we feel a surge of love for a partner but we don't say anything because we're frozen of the fear of what those words might do to the relationship.
        Morrie's approach was exactly the opposite. Turn on the faucets. Wash yourself with the emotion. It won't hurt you. It will only help. If you let the fear inside, if you pull it on like a familiar shirt, then you can say to yourself, "All right, it's just fear, I don't have to let it control me. I see it for what it is."
        Same for loneliness: you let go, let the tears flow, feel completely-but eventually be able to say, "All right, it was my moment with loneliness. I'm not afraid of feeling lonely, but now I'm going to put that loneliness aside and know that there are other emotions in the world, and I'm going to experience them as well."
        "Detach." Morrie said again.

Passage from 'tuesdays with Morrie', author, Mitch Albom.

An amazing, and inspirational book. Wonderful life lessons through the eyes of a college professor, Morrie Schwartz.

 

"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half asleep, even when they are busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Again.

5 things found in my bag
-brochure
-maps
-folders with documents
-receipt
-kinokuniya magazine

5 things found in my wallet
-ID
-sweeney todd tickets
-switchfoot ticket. (;
-710?
-guitar picks

5 favourite things in my room
-my 3 guitars
-air cond
-bed.
-mp3 player turn radio
-DSLR

5 things I always wanted to do
-Know what I want
-Miss call every person on my contact list (only called 40% xD)
-tour the world
-Cycle around Malaysia
-Find that certain someone. (;

5 things I'm currently into
-Chor Dai Di
-Laughing
-Burnout
-Doing nothing
-Not looking forward to tuesday

List out the top 5 presents you wish for
-Travel Around the World
-No SPM?
-someone special. (:
-A band!
-Be spiderman. =DDD

The person who tagged you is: Chew Aileen
Your 5 impressions of him/her:
-So getting braces
-Ke-juggling-ness
-lucky person who gets to play for an audience
-crazy hyper
-Shorter than meeeeeee =DDD

Most memorable things he/she has give/done to you:
Quiksilver revolution tour. =)

If he/she becomes my lover, you will:
She'll eat the stuff I don't want. She will agree to buy food. =DD

If he/she becomes your enemy, the reason will be:
She didn't do a good job at picking good food. xD

Pass the quiz to 5 people that you wish to know how they feel about you
-This is just getting boring.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Bagged and Tagged again.

5 things found in my bag

(I don't have a bag so I'll search the pockets of my pants instead)
-Nokia headsets
-My handphone =DDD
-Wallet
-Keys to noneofyourbeeswax
-A leprechaun

5 things found in my wallet
-Guitar picks
-Switchfoot ticket
-IC Contoh xD
-40 Cents in total
-Receipts

5 favourite things in my room
-Guitar
-My egg shaking thing. ;D
-Porcelain throne.
-Bed
-My amazingly cool (as old as me) orchestra CD collection

5 things I always wanted to do.
-Start doing my homework.
-Kids. xD
-Start a band and tour the world
-Yes. Tour the world again.
-Retire with lots of money at the age of 20! =D

5 things I'm currently into
-Switchfoot, switchfoot and more switchfoot. =D
-Mandarin oranges
-(Oh my goodness) Add maths.
-evil schemes to get out of the house
-Talking. ;D

List out the top 5 presents you wish for:
1. Magical fridge that restocks food.
2. To skip SPM. ;_;
3. Migrate to whoknowswhere
4. To flyyyyyy. =DD
5. I wish I knew what I wanted. =/

The person who tagged you is: Lauren Chia Yan Hong

Your 5 impressions of him/her:
1. Short stuff. (;
2. Pinkcess
3. She plays the guitar, awesomely
4. Her and Suteng are stuck together like two peas in a pod. =D
5. camwhore.

Most memorable things he/she has give/done to you:
Let me mash cake into her face. Hehe.

If he/she becomes my lover, you will:
Toss and turn in my grave

If he/she becomes your enemy, the reason will be:
She becomes my lover? xD Or maybe when we just fight over stupid things. =D We wouldn't be enemies for very long though. Haha

Pass the quiz to 5 people that you wish to know how they feel about you:
Elisa Tan (Elyssaaa. (; )
Ruth Choy! (Blog darnit.)
Aileen (Imagine this. :D)
BenJ. (Before you leave you gotta do this. =D )
Lauren Chia. (Do again. xD)

Monday, February 04, 2008

toofhctiws

Some say a picture is worth a thousand words.

If that were true, guess I wouldn't need to blog anymore! ;P

Well, pictures up first.More later. =)

switchfooot 008
Original CDs that I own.

switchfooot 014

Li Hsien got them signed for me. Thanks so much! ;P

Edit: Zhen told me Jon's signature was supposed to be where I labeled Jerome. -_-

switchfooot 016

Inside Oh! Gravity.

switchfooot 026

Darn sweet poster/ lyrics booklet

switchfooot 018

Oh! Gravity, why can't we seem to keep it together? =/

Edit: Switchfoot Tees!


Front
Back


So I lay my head back down, and I lift my hands and pray, to be Only Yours, I pray, to be Only Yours.

Cause I know that You're my Only Hope.


Currently listening to - The Shadow Proves the Sunshine; Switchfoot