Labels: architecture, design
"Inspiration, I believe, comes from an open mind. And, if nothing else, comes from the pure delight of having the privilege to be alive, able to see, taste, smell, touch, hear and sense the true wonder of the world and all of its magnificent people and entities surrounding us.
Inspiration is intelligent, not just intuitive. Inspiration is cognitively emotional, even sensual if one opens all of these human senses we are so gifted and at liberty to own.
Inspiration does not only arrive from immediate circumstances but arrives by turning to those 'photo memories' that lay, sometimes dormant, in our hearts and minds. Inspiration is science and art all rolled into one. Inspiration is allowing yourself to be free from past accomplishments, enjoying each and every time as if your first attempt.
Inspiration is breath. It is sex. It is food. It is water. It is shelter. It is a song of unity. It is the mind and body working in a kind of perfect order, even when it appears not to be!
It is the way light may filter through not just a leaf, but the insect that sits upon it. It is the magic of movement. Inspiration is a blink of an eye or a texture of immovability. It is felt by sorrow and by joy. It travels through pain as equally as it does happiness. Yes, inspiration is even portrays bordom, malise and indifference as equally as it does enthusiasm, purpose and intent.
It is anger at the way the world doesn't work, or a wish for it to be better. It is the marvel that the world works as well as it does! Inspiration is empathy. More, it is truth to ones own way of being, regardless of the consequences or temporary set-backs. There are never any failures in inspiration, even 'slow times' may mean a time to reflect what one 'knows' so that one is allowing themselves to reach even higher potentials.
Inspiration is sometimes like the wind, blowing things all asounder. Inspiration can be concrete and firm and sometimes even unyielding.
It comes through the laugh of a child or the sigh of death. It burns in every nation, in every home, in every heart, sometimes without the owner of it even aware of its possibilities.
It is science. It is math. It is chaos. It is the virtue of simplicity.
It, more than anything, is a privilege to even glimpse but once in a lifetime and have its fullment shared the world over."
was flipping through my primary school journal.. below are the little things my teacher stapled onto the journal. not to be accepted in totality given the ideal nature of these little stories but still something one may learn from.
i still need to learn from them.
=====================================
Horror gripped the heart of the World War I soldier as he saw his lifelong friend fall in battle. Caught in a trench with continuous gunfire whizzing over his head, the soldier asked his lieutenant if he might go out into the “No Man’s Land” between the trenches to bring his fallen comrade back.
“If your enemy is hungry feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for by doing this you will burn him with shame.
Do not let evil defeat you, instead conquer evil with good.”
There was once an old man who lived in South Korea.
After the war, times were hard and life wasn’t easy.
His occupation was that of a metal collector
(the lowest job possible at that time).
looking for scraps of metal which he could sell to the government.
He earned $10 and spent only $5 to buy food.
He lived in a hut which he built on the mountain side
and was a very lonely person.
He lived a sad life for his face was severely scarred
from a fire which killed his family.
No one would look at him
because he was so grotesquely scarred
and because of this he kept very quiet
and avoided people when he could.
His main goal in life was to save enough money to fix his face
so that he could live a normal life.
His parents left him when he was only nine
and because of malnutrition the boy lost his sight.
Every day the boy begged for food
but the people beat him
and he couldn’t even run away because he was blind.
The old man saw the broken hearted boy
And felt sympathy for him and took him home.
There he fed him, clothed him, and treated him like his own beloved son.
The boy was joyful and was so grateful to this person who treated him like a loving father.
Years passed and one day he said,
“I’m sorry for being so useless.
I wish my eyes become better so I could help you work.
You must be so beautiful and wonderful because
You took care of someone like me.
Maybe one day I could see your wonderful face.”
The old man became silent being too moved to say anything.
The next day he went to the hospital with the boy
And asked the doctor privately how much it would cost
for the surgery to heal his face.
He asked again how much it would be
to heal the young boy’s sight.
The doctor said $1,500 would do.
He had saved up for 10 years
and had around a little more than $1,500.
He went up to the young boy and said,
“After you receive your sight I can’t be with you,
yet I shall always think of you.
I want you to be happy and live a good life.”
After these words he paid the doctor
and the tired man left
knowing he could never truly reveal himself to the one he loved so dearly.
After the surgery the boy could see again.
He was filled with joy
and wondered why he couldn’t see the one he loved so dearly.
He left and started looking for a job
and soon found one at a restaurant.
He became a waiter there
and worked fulltime earning a good amount.
The next day the old man came looking for metals to collect.
He started searching around the garbage can of the restaurant
when the manager came to tell him to leave
because he was scaring the customers.
The boy soon came to his side threatening the old man to leave also.
The metal collector looked at the boy
and he smiled a warm smile at the boy and left not wanting the boy to see him cry his happy tears.
Later at the restaurant, the manager said to the boy,
“What an ugly man!”
The boy’s reply was, “I know, I hope I’ll never see him again”.
How many of us can actually do the same as what the old man did?...
And how many of us actually did what the boy did…
------
One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon
To help drain the fluid from his lungs.
His bed was next to the room’s only window.
The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.
The men talked for hours on end.
They spoke of their wives and families,
Their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service,
Where they had been on vacation.
And every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up,
He would pass the time by describing
To his room-mate all the things he could see outside the window.
The man in the other bed began to live for those one-hour periods
Where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity
And the colour of the world outside.
The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake.
Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats.
Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every colour of the rainbow.
Grand old trees graced the landscape,
And a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.
As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail,
The man on the other side of the room would close his eyes
And imagine the picturesque scene.
One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by.
Although the other man couldn’t hear the band he could see it in his mind’s eye
As the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.
Then unexpectedly, a sinister thought entered his mind.
Why should the other man alone experience all the pleasures of seeing everything
While he himself never got to see anything?
It didn’t seem fair.
At first thought the man felt ashamed.
But as the days passed and he missed seeing more sights,
His envy eroded into resentment and soon turned him sour.
He began to brood and he found himself unable to sleep.
He should be by that window – that thought,
And only that thought now controlled his life.
Late one night as he lay staring at the ceiling,
The man by the window began to cough.
He was choking on the fluid in his lungs.
The other man watched in the dimly lit room as the struggling man by the window
Groped for the button to call for help.
Listening from across the room he never moved, never pushed his own button
Which would have brought the nurse running in.
In less than five minutes
The coughing and choking stopped, along with that the sound of breathing.
Now there was only silence-deathly silence.
The following morning the nurse arrived to bring water for their baths.
When she found the lifeless body of the man by the window,
She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take it away.
As soon as it seemed appropriate,
The other man asked if he could be moved next to the window.
The nurse was happy to make the switch,
And after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.
Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow
to take his first look out at the world outside.
Finally he would have the joy of seeing it all himself.
He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.
It faced a blank wall.
The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased room mate
To describe such wonderful things outside this window.
The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.
She said, “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.”
Epilogue: You can interpret the story any way you like.
But one moral stands out:
There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite out own situations.
Shared grief is half the sorrow, but Happiness when shared, is doubled.
If you want to feel rich, just count all of the things you have that money can’t buy.
---
With a huge marble statue displayed in the middle of the lobby.
Many people came from all over the world just to admire this beautiful marble statue.
One night, the marble tiles started talking to the marble statue.
Marble tile: “Marble statue, it’s just not fair, it’s just not fair! Why does everybody from all over the world come all the way here just to step on me while admiring you? Not fair!”
Marble tile: “Yeah! That’s why I feel it is even more unfair. We were born from the same cave and yet we receive different treatment now. Not fair!”
Marble tile: “Yes, of course I remember. I hate that guy! How could he use those tools on me, it hurt so badly.”
Marble statue: “That’s right! He couldn’t work on you at all as you resisted being worked on.”
Marble tile: “So???”
Marble statue: “When he decided to give up on you and start working on me instead, I knew at once that I would be something different after his efforts. I did not resist his tools, instead I bore all the painful tools he used on me.”
Marble tile: “Mmmmmm…..”
Marble statue: “My friend, there is a price to everything in life. Since you decided to give up halfway, you can’t blame anybody who steps on you now.”
The Moral of the Story: The more hard knocks you go through in life, the more you’ll learn and put them to use in the future! Do not be discouraged by setbacks and failures.
Don’t Be Afraid to Fail
You’ve failed many times, although you may not remember.
You fell down the first time you tried to walk.
You almost drowned the first time you tried to swim, didn’t you?
Did you hit the ball the first time you swung a bat?
R.H. Macy failed seven times before his store in New York caught on.
English novelist John Creasey got 753 rejection slips before he published 564 books.
Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times, but he also hit 714 home runs.
Don’t worry about failure.
Worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.
---
A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a %50 bill.
In the room of 200, he asked, “Who would like this $50 bill?”
There were giggles and hands were raised.
He said, “I am going to give this $50 to one of you but first, let me do this.”
He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up.
He then asked, “Who still wants it?”
Still the hands were up in the air.
“Well, what if I do this?” And he dropped it on the ground and started to crush it with his shoe.
He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty.
“Now who still wants it?”
Still the hands went into the air.
“My friends, you have learnt a valuable lesson.
No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because of its value.
Despite its appearance, it is still worth $50.”
Just like the bill,
There would be many times in our lives when we fall,
Get insulted and are crushed by others
Or by the circumstances that we go through.
During these times, we feel as though we are worthless.
But remember that no matter what happens,
You are not worth any less because of it.
---
A woman was sitting at an airport one night,
With several long hours before her flight.
She hunted for a book in the airport shop,
Bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.
She was engrossed in her book, but happened to see,
That the man beside her, as bold as he could be,
Grabbed a cookie or two from the bag between,
Which she tried to ignore, to avoid a scene.
She read, munched cookies, and watched the clock,
As the gutsy “cookie thief” diminished her stock.
She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by,
Thinking, “If I wasn’t so nice, I’d blacken his eye!”
With each cookie she took, he took one too.
When only one was left, she wondered what he’d do.
He took the last cookie and broke it in half.
He offered her half, as he ate the other.
She snatched it from him and thought,
“Oh brother, this guy has some nerve, and he’s also rude,
Why, he didn’t even show any gratitude!”
She had never known when she had been so galled,
And sighed with relief when her flight was called.
She gathered her belongings and headed for the gate,
Refusing to look back at the “thieving ingrate”.
She boarded her plane and sank in her seat,
Then sought her book, which was almost complete.
As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise.
“If mine are here,” she moaned with despair,
“Then the others were his and he tried to share!”
Too late to apologise, she realized with grief,
That she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief!
---
Some Principles in Life
I once told a man a lie.
He responded by telling me this.
All of the decisions that he made were based upon the words that I spoke.
I have long since told the truth.
I once became upset over a gift I received, because it wasn’t what I wanted.
The giver saw the disappointment in my eyes and told me this.
He chose this because he felt I should have it.
I am since very joyful over each gift that I receive.
A man once told me a secret which I quietly whispered in another friend’s ear.
The man told me this, after hearing his own secret repeated.
The reason he told me the secret was because he trusted me, not my friend.
I no longer take trust so lightly.
I once gave a gift to a friend and she cried.
I told her it was just a small gift I had found. Her response was that it was not the gift, it was that I had thought of her.
I now give gifts very often.
When it was discovered that I had stolen the coin, I was quietly taken aside.
The owner of the coin told me this.
Integrity is given with a choice.
I have since chosen to stand with integrity.
I wanted so much to merely be myself, going unnoticed and not draw attention.
And I was told this.
The fact that you do not conform makes you stand out all the more.
I’m still thinking about that one.
Labels: quote, reflections, trash
Labels: trash
Labels: others
