Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Best Magic (Part 1)
Having done magic for quite some times, from a mere hobbyist in the very beginning till perform professionally, I'm still feeling so lucky that I came to know this art, and it's really one of the best things I learnt in life. Much of my thoughts on magic was written in the previous post, and now i'd like to share some of the best magicians that I know of, throughout my magic journey=)Best
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
miracles
I ran across this Albert Einstein quote the other day:
There are only two ways to live your life.
One as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.
I tend to be the type who lives as though everything were magical, mystical, miraculous. But when I get pushed off that wonder ride every once in a while life seems very bleak indeed. That is, until I take a step outside and walk into the woods, where it's simply impossible to consider life dreary and dismal. Frozen ice in astonishing patterns, a pine needle carpet, a hawk flying high over head. Not to mention the awareness of body heat generated from walking -- we're furnaces on feet people! It's an amazing thing.
I always say the key to enjoying winter is getting outside and into it. Although if you hate the cold, it's hard to get yourself bundled up and out there. But the rewards are invigorating. There's nothing like stepping back into a warm house!
And I'm eagerly anticipating stepping back into my studio a few weeks from now, when I'll have a week off to devote to art. Today I ordered some much needed supplies. And my mind is busy conjuring up images of the work, I should say play, that I hope to dive into.
It's been a slow slog, figuring out just how to get more art time into life again. This is a constant, ebbing/flowing challenge.
Sometimes it feels like I'm just wasting money on the studio rent, but then the cloud cover clears. I carve out some space in my life, claim it, protect it.
Little miracles are happening all the time. We just have to notice them.
There are only two ways to live your life.
One as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.
I tend to be the type who lives as though everything were magical, mystical, miraculous. But when I get pushed off that wonder ride every once in a while life seems very bleak indeed. That is, until I take a step outside and walk into the woods, where it's simply impossible to consider life dreary and dismal. Frozen ice in astonishing patterns, a pine needle carpet, a hawk flying high over head. Not to mention the awareness of body heat generated from walking -- we're furnaces on feet people! It's an amazing thing.
I always say the key to enjoying winter is getting outside and into it. Although if you hate the cold, it's hard to get yourself bundled up and out there. But the rewards are invigorating. There's nothing like stepping back into a warm house!
And I'm eagerly anticipating stepping back into my studio a few weeks from now, when I'll have a week off to devote to art. Today I ordered some much needed supplies. And my mind is busy conjuring up images of the work, I should say play, that I hope to dive into.
It's been a slow slog, figuring out just how to get more art time into life again. This is a constant, ebbing/flowing challenge.
Sometimes it feels like I'm just wasting money on the studio rent, but then the cloud cover clears. I carve out some space in my life, claim it, protect it.
Little miracles are happening all the time. We just have to notice them.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
the opposite of anger
I’m just about done reading Robert Thurman’s book Anger. It’s got a bright red cover and looks like it might be the devil’s hand book. But in fact of course, it’s just the opposite.
I picked it up at Menla months ago, while on a retreat with Dr. Thurman and Sharon Salzberg, and I’ve been dipping in and out of it ever since.
Anger is such a big ball of wax. Therapists tell us we’ve got to express it or it comes out all twisted. Buddhist teachings inspire us to rise above it. And here we are in the middle of modern life with anger-provoking things bombarding us from every direction.
(Like the jackhammer that was blasting while I was trying to watch the very sweet film, Waitress this afternoon.)
The antithesis of anger is patience, and as Sharon suggested on the retreat, interest. Which seems puzzling at first. But the whole idea of engaging with the object of our anger as a witness vs. a participant creates a distance that allows us to observe, just observe.
I ran across the following quote this week from Dr. Wayne Dyer, which I find so compelling because it addresses depression, traditionally considered to be anger turned inwards.
"The opposite of depression is expression. Expression. Express yourself. When you're depressed you're not expressing yourself. You're expressing a part of you that doesn't even really want to exist." (The Power of Intention, June 18, 2007)
I’m guessing that expression is a pretty powerful antidote to anger too. Not in the sense of a screaming jag about that all that angers us. But as a preemptive creative strike against potential anger traps. In another boring meeting the other day, and noticing resentment start to make me all fidgety and frustrated, I started drawing things I might make if I were in my studio and had all sorts of materials on hand. I was just dreaming on paper to myself, still able to follow the conversations with enough attention to chime in as needed.
My meeting notebook is starting to look a lot more interesting.
I picked it up at Menla months ago, while on a retreat with Dr. Thurman and Sharon Salzberg, and I’ve been dipping in and out of it ever since.
Anger is such a big ball of wax. Therapists tell us we’ve got to express it or it comes out all twisted. Buddhist teachings inspire us to rise above it. And here we are in the middle of modern life with anger-provoking things bombarding us from every direction.
(Like the jackhammer that was blasting while I was trying to watch the very sweet film, Waitress this afternoon.)
The antithesis of anger is patience, and as Sharon suggested on the retreat, interest. Which seems puzzling at first. But the whole idea of engaging with the object of our anger as a witness vs. a participant creates a distance that allows us to observe, just observe.
I ran across the following quote this week from Dr. Wayne Dyer, which I find so compelling because it addresses depression, traditionally considered to be anger turned inwards.
"The opposite of depression is expression. Expression. Express yourself. When you're depressed you're not expressing yourself. You're expressing a part of you that doesn't even really want to exist." (The Power of Intention, June 18, 2007)
I’m guessing that expression is a pretty powerful antidote to anger too. Not in the sense of a screaming jag about that all that angers us. But as a preemptive creative strike against potential anger traps. In another boring meeting the other day, and noticing resentment start to make me all fidgety and frustrated, I started drawing things I might make if I were in my studio and had all sorts of materials on hand. I was just dreaming on paper to myself, still able to follow the conversations with enough attention to chime in as needed.
My meeting notebook is starting to look a lot more interesting.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
WeeMee "Darren"
Woohoo..weemee Darren! Wanna try creating a miniature of yourself? Everything can be customized and every little thing can go in details..and the avatar made can be used in Skype and MSN. So how's my weemee look? A doc who's always carrying his deck of card has become my trademark image..hehe. So, go get a virtual mini-you today at weemee world!=)
Saturday, January 12, 2008
rhythms
With my resolution to blog more, comes opportunity. There’s a new Facebook app for bloggers which means access to gazillions of readers. Since I’ve been reading more blogs lately, I realized this morning that the Law of Attraction is in action. When we create and hold an intention,
things come to us. But we’ve got to have our hearts open, and recognize what’s coming our way.
It’s so easy to get weighed down in the drama of our lives, as I have been the last several days. But these are passing storms. Ultimately the air clears. The creative process is like this. Things get stirred up, dirty, chaotic, then still and sometimes torturously so.
In my book Magic Medicine I have a chapter about Wild Crafting our lives – based on hunting and gathering for survival.I’ve been ruminating lately about the idea of Circuit Training our lives, which seems like Wild Crafting’s polar opposite, but really is just another manifestation of going with the cycles of life.
In the elevator this morning, I noticed patterns: the actual number of the elevator, holes for the emergency speaker, Braille. Cycles are patterns. Even when they aren’t regular, but random, there’s rhythm.
things come to us. But we’ve got to have our hearts open, and recognize what’s coming our way.
It’s so easy to get weighed down in the drama of our lives, as I have been the last several days. But these are passing storms. Ultimately the air clears. The creative process is like this. Things get stirred up, dirty, chaotic, then still and sometimes torturously so.
In my book Magic Medicine I have a chapter about Wild Crafting our lives – based on hunting and gathering for survival.I’ve been ruminating lately about the idea of Circuit Training our lives, which seems like Wild Crafting’s polar opposite, but really is just another manifestation of going with the cycles of life.
In the elevator this morning, I noticed patterns: the actual number of the elevator, holes for the emergency speaker, Braille. Cycles are patterns. Even when they aren’t regular, but random, there’s rhythm.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Apex Group Annual Dinner Night
Performed for the Apex Group annual dinner magic night on 11th Jan, my first show of the year! Thanks for the invitation from Brendan, as his cousin brother, James is the chief organizer of the event.
Partner up again with my good friend, David Lai. The last time we performed together was in DiGi's party quite sometimes ago. I was supposed to do the show with another mentalist who
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Interesting Research
Fat spreads! A recent New England Journal of Medicine study declared that people can actually "catch" obesity from close friends. A research done on 12,067 people over 32 years, concluded that those of us with very close friends who are obese have a 171 percent higher chance of becoming obese too. The theory goes: you're influenced by your friends, and if they overeat, you may unwittingly follow
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
exploring surrender
I was sitting in a meeting at work earlier this week, trying to look as though I was taking notes when in fact, I was writing down a question. What is the intersection between engagement and surrender? Where do apathy, disgust, interest/disinterest, anger and joy cross paths?
We all come to places in our lives where we feel as though we just can’t keep doing what we’ve been doing. I don’t necessarily mean it in a desperate sense, although it can feel that way too, but in a knowing way. The question is: how do we change things up? We want life to be more than moderately bearable, we want it to be joyful. And when it isn’t, we are frustrated, outraged, sad, and yes, sometimes even desperate.
I have to admit that’s how I’m feeling as this new year takes hold. So after the meeting, I walked over to the Open Center to sit in their meditation room, because I honestly couldn’t think of anything else that would help me climb out of my desperation.
An hour or so later, I did in fact feel lighter, more present, less completely freaked out. But the struggle rises and falls in me. I need change. And yet, I need life to get back to normal after the holidays and the death of Larry’s father. So I throw myself into karate, meditation and walking outdoors – 3 things I can count on lifting my spirits by bringing me into the present exactly as it is.
And when I take the time to sort through these feelings by writing, I realize that the screaming in my head during a meeting in which I am bored beyond sanity isn’t any different from the screaming in my body after hundreds of squats and punches in a karate class, or the mental and physical anguish of holding a pose longer than I think I can stand in yoga.
In yoga I take refuge in child’s pose. In meditation, I take refuge in my breath. In karate I take refuge in power that rises from hidden depths.
So today I refuel and recharge, noticing what relieves the boredom and desperation of meetings and minutiae that simply don’t matter to me in big life ways. And I form an intention to surrender to there too, to stay present and aware, to find the places of refuge in even those seemingly unbearable moments.
We all come to places in our lives where we feel as though we just can’t keep doing what we’ve been doing. I don’t necessarily mean it in a desperate sense, although it can feel that way too, but in a knowing way. The question is: how do we change things up? We want life to be more than moderately bearable, we want it to be joyful. And when it isn’t, we are frustrated, outraged, sad, and yes, sometimes even desperate.
I have to admit that’s how I’m feeling as this new year takes hold. So after the meeting, I walked over to the Open Center to sit in their meditation room, because I honestly couldn’t think of anything else that would help me climb out of my desperation.
An hour or so later, I did in fact feel lighter, more present, less completely freaked out. But the struggle rises and falls in me. I need change. And yet, I need life to get back to normal after the holidays and the death of Larry’s father. So I throw myself into karate, meditation and walking outdoors – 3 things I can count on lifting my spirits by bringing me into the present exactly as it is.
And when I take the time to sort through these feelings by writing, I realize that the screaming in my head during a meeting in which I am bored beyond sanity isn’t any different from the screaming in my body after hundreds of squats and punches in a karate class, or the mental and physical anguish of holding a pose longer than I think I can stand in yoga.
In yoga I take refuge in child’s pose. In meditation, I take refuge in my breath. In karate I take refuge in power that rises from hidden depths.
So today I refuel and recharge, noticing what relieves the boredom and desperation of meetings and minutiae that simply don’t matter to me in big life ways. And I form an intention to surrender to there too, to stay present and aware, to find the places of refuge in even those seemingly unbearable moments.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Female Magician
How many female magician (known as magicienne) have you seen? I came across the profile of Angela Funovits some years back and I was profoundly impressed by her: Take a look at her portfolio, she's a Dean's list medical student in Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Miss Teen USA AND a professional magician/ mentalist. And she's only 20. Truly incredible. And what's more,
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
another resolution
To blog more consistently and attract more readers to the blog. So if you're reading this, please consider sending a link to your friends. And let me know what's inspiring you in 2008.
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