Life is

Life is beautiful for only those who know how to celebrate the pain.  Enjoy this time, every moment is precious in life.

 

Some enlightening words... 

Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave. – Mary Tyler Moore

Being strong means rejoicing in who you are, complete with imperfections. − Margaret Woodhouse

Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...
It's about learning how to dance in the rain.
– Vivian Greene

The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced. – Art Van Der
Leeuw

Your life is your life.  Know it while you have it.

Life is a beautiful struggle.

Peace.  Love.

What I Do

Shout out to my homie Maestro

Word.

RISEOFTHEDANDELIONS Pt. 2

Beasts of the Southern Wild

This was a beautiful film, an American fairy tale of five-year-old Hushpuppy and her unhealthy, hot-tempered father, Wink.  As an approaching storm nears the southern Louisiana bayou community, the Bathtub, the two are optimistic about their life and their future. I suggest you best check it out, after all it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture among countless others. Simply, spectacular.

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!”

“Gone Where?”

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!” there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: “Here she comes!”

-Henry Van Dyke

Throwback Thursday

These two songs pretty much defined my junior year of high school.  Listening to them pretty much everyday.

Tupac - Me Against the World

 

Tupac - So Many Tears 

"I know it seems hard sometimes but remember one thing. Through every dark night, there's a bright day after that.  So no matter how hard it get, stick your chest out, keep ya head up.... and handle it."   - Tupac Shakur

RISEOFTHEDANDELIONS Pt. 1

Everyone and everything is interconnected in this universe.

Stay pure of heart and you will see the signs.

Follow the signs, and you will uncover your destiny.

 -Jeff

The first step to finding your destiny is leaving your mother's basement.

Something about the winter time, where I don't feel comfortable.  I was starting to doubt myself, then on the night of December 30, 2012, I was instilled enlightenment.  Two days before an end and a beginning to a year, I was wondering why there was a Netflix ad on Facebook after I logged out.  So I clicked on 'About This Ad' on the top left corner of the ad.  Then it directed me to the Netflix page and the first thing I saw was a post promoting Jeff, Who Lives at Home.  In the dead of night around one a.m. my freaking mind was blown... again!

As I was watching this film, it was touching my heart and spoke to me as if I was Jeff.  Thinking to myself that this film is speaking the language of my mind.  I knew as I was watching this film smiling that “all this randomness [was] leading towards a perfect moment.”  All these realizations where overflowing in my mind and I knew it wasn't just by chance, but for a reason that I clicked on that Netlfix ad on Facebook.  Guiding myself, as a being continuing to open my mind to the puzzle of the universe.  Trying to understand the ways of the world.  This is one of my favorite movies that I'll have a pleasure to watch over and over again anytime.  It's a soft film, speaking a beautiful truth.

This enlightening film, Jeff, Who Lives at Home is about two brothers Jeff (Jason Segel), a 30-year-old unemployed stoner, living in his mother's basement and his older brother Pat (Ed Helms) who struggles with a failing marriage.  Their widowed mother is disappointed with Jeff and with her unfulfilled dreams.  You have to watch the film for yourself, and you'll get a different experience and effect on you, cause your a different person (duh)!

Today is the greatest day in the history of the world! - Jeff's dad

Wonderful World

"Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty."  - Albert Einstein 

 

Easily we get caught up in the ills and hustle n bustle of this world that we forget to take the time to appreciate and see God's beauty in nature around us.  Take the time to notice the beauty of nature around you.  Thich Nhat Hanh once said, "People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle.  But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes.  All is a miracle."

This is a picture I took of a flower at Cal State L.A. last summer.  Its not the best of qualities, but it's the quality time that went in to appreciate, stop, take a step forward and amidst all the hustle smell the roses.  Live in the moment.  Put your troubles in perspective, slow down and enjoy the beauty of life.

"Smile, breathe and go slowly."  - Thich Nhat Hanh

Summertime

“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” - Henry James

The Dove Shack - Summertime in the LBC

Sublime - Summertime (Doin' Time)

As I am highly anticipating the approaching summertime, I have already been blasting to these tunes which are timeless! These two videos hold the best qualities of their respective songs that I found out there.  Something 'bout the summertime where I feel like a free man!  Sit back, kick it back, and enjoy!

Happy 1st of tha month!

Gambling

For all the Fools out there....

Entering into a vehicle
Sitting down,
Uncertain of the outcome of the ride.
Banknotes and loose change fall and roll into the slot,
Gears, levers, and motors,
Flashing lights, blinking vivacious novelty noises,
Treble lanes, many possibilities,
The odds improbable,
The one-armed bandits leave the passenger penniless.

WAKE UP!

It's that time of the month again.  1st of tha Month - March

Lately I've been getting lost to Bone Thugs pretty much everyday.  Really soothing music.  Kicking back and getting much needed rest.  That's how I've been rolling lately.  Pausing in this bussy bussy bussy life.  Helps me to boost my mood in the hustle n bustle of this world.  With that said, it's now time to WAKE UP!

Note to self: Spend this time to focus on myself.

"If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up." - J.M. Power

Do you like Walrus?

The Beatles - I Am the Walrus

This is the best quality of the song I found and it coincidentally was part of the Magical Mystery Tour remastered full album.  You can forward to 6. I Am the Walrus - 14:28.  This song struck me with its effervescent playfulness and lovely nonsense.  Absolutely brilliant!  My advice: enjoy the rest of the album as well.

Because two is better than one,

Jim Croce - I Got a Name

I always play this song over and over again.  It always puts me in my place and uplifts my spirit with its grandiose melody.  A great feel good song by the legendary Jim Croce.

The reason Croce chose to record the song, according to Norman Gimbel was due to the fact that "Jim liked it because his father had a dream for him but had died before his son's first success."

I try to live out my dream every day.  It also helps to be a future-oriented person.  As Roy Goodman puts it, "Remember that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination."  Travel often; getting lost will help you find yourself. 

An interpretation of this song is about the narrator's pride for his family name and how he will use it to live his dreams and be free.  He will live each day to the fullest by "Moving ahead so life won't pass me by."

"All our dreams can come true - if we have the courage to pursue them." - Walt Disney

Where I Wanna Be

I want to grow through life, not go through it.  Pause and take deep breaths.  We can sometimes get caught up in the grind of life struggles and obstacles and not take the time to  nurture ourselves.  We need to take the time to create moments of peace in our day especially when things are frightful. 

In a meditative state.  

Friday, September 21, 2012 

Breeze.  White sand.  Crystal blue water.  On the shoreline looking out onto the sunset on the horizon.  Me in solitude.  My personal rebuilding, recharging of batteries – escaping the rain and pain.  My fortress of solitude, unfortunately this is not a reality for me now, I belong in the mad concrete jungle.  Little to no movement, just pondering the mysteries of life.  The only place where I can find peace in solidarity.  No one, nothing, no noises, for miles – only the sound of the ocean breeze and serenity.  Body on floor, crouched sitting, then sitting on back, my legs relaxed.  I am at myself and awe with nature and God, enlightened.

Energy in Motion

Enjoy this time, every moment is precious in life. 

"If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place" − Nora Roberts 

Around this time last year, I forced myself to have a conversation with Mr. Fillmore, my design instructor at the time in his office.  I was pressed with so many huge decisions and I didn't know what direction to take.  This was regarding my commitment if I was to be part of an internship program that lasted the whole year.  The decision was mine.  One of the drawbacks was meeting every Saturday from 9-4 pm at Cal State L.A.  With this as one of the handicaps, I was turned off.  Then Mr. Fillmore told me about inertia.

Inertia:

Newton's first law of motion states that "An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force." Objects tend to "keep on doing what they're doing."

He told me to not think of it as a sixth day of the school week.  "Think of it as something you do on the weekends" - a different insightful perspective.   I committed and finished this program last calendar year.  I gained content from having completed it, as it was even more monumental in a pivotal time in my life. 

If you stay at rest, you will stay at rest.  If you are in constant motion, you will stay in motion.  You won't stumble upon something if you are sitting down.  Food for thought.

strut your stuff

strut [struht] verb. To behave in a confident or expressive way.

A blog about growing through life in an expressive manner.  An adolescent trying to eMANcipate myself.  Trying to free my mind.  Opening my mind to the puzzle of the universe.  Trying to understand the way of the world.  Beautiful somewhat random, but organized thoughts that pop up in my head.  Overflowing with thoughts, ideas and emotions.  Hoping to someday scream and shout on top of a mountain summit.  Jump up and kick and punch the sky at the same damn time.