even during an experience filled with such immense joy, the pain seeps through. will my heart ever learn better? if not here on a spiritual retreat, when will i be able to accept what I've learned the hard way time and again? why does being human require this emotion? and if I am to grow from the experience, how many years will it really take...

"Painted Love" - Air (Cartier)

...if only

Let there be bright-energy-efficient-non-poisonous-recyclable light!

Fiat Lux :)

An interesting Houzz.com article on the pros and cons of different types of lightbulbs.
Hopefully the price of LED bulbs will decrease soon.

Photo Ref

Gotta love it

I walked into two coffee shops just now... in one, all the Phillipinos were gathered, entranced and reverently cheering on their national hero in the Manny Pacquiao vs Marquez fight as if it were the biggest event of the year.  I let them enjoy their moments and instead, went to the other coffee shop where I walked in on the barristas singing the high notes to "Winds of Change" by the Scorpions.  They then looked at me, held their breath for a second, and then without skipping a beat the three of us sang the rest of the song together, high notes and all. :)

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams
With you and me

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
in the wind of change

Oh, and Manny won! :)

...there's no map and a compass wouldn't help at all...

...but logic does exist, though it may not be understood by all...

and what you want may not be what you want... logical?

11/11/11 11:11:11

We all carry around so much pain in our hearts. Love and pain and beauty. They all seem to go together like one little tidy confusing package. It's a messy business, life. It's hard to figure--full of surprises. Some good. Some bad. 
Henry Bromel, Northern Exposure

"Not merely an absence of noise, Real Silence begins when a reasonable being withdraws from the noise in order to find peace and order in his inner sanctuary."
Peter Minard

"Do not worry about what others are doing! Each of us should turn the searchlight inward and purify his or her own heart as much as possible."
-- Mohandas Gandhi 

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.” 
-Mother Theresa-

“The wind lashes the surface of the sea and makes it rough and turbulent,
but in the deep there is calm.”
~ Cardinal Basil Hume

"...in the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom from our past, from the known,
which is the prison of past conditioning.
And in our willingness to step into the unknown,
the field of all possibilities,
we surrender ourselves to the creative mind that orchestrates the dance of the universe."
-From the Chopra Center's Spiritual Law of the Day

"I hope it is true that a man can die and yet not only live in others but give them life, and not only life but that great consciousness of life."
Jack Kerouac
 

~Happiness comes when you take every situation as a blessing,
no matter how difficult it seems.~

OnVidi

A great new site that promotes videographic talent.  The videos currently available to view are the top-20 ranked from a recent student contest.  http://www.onvidi.com/student_winners/top20/

There are a ton of great videos, but my favorites (from what I've seen so far)...
Anchored (above)
I'm Sailing Away
Burn
Be Near Me
Be Strong, Move Along
Polka Face
Love will Conquer the Rawest of Seafood
On a Park Bench