Your mental image

 

They say that we should be clear where are we heading to, in order to get to the place, we wish to reach. And that is true.

I am sure, most of the time you leave your home with a destination in your mind. When you take the underground, a cab or get into your car, you have a definite end point in your mind. Otherwise you will make you and other people mad very easily. Especially cab drivers, they like to know where they will take you to, instead of driving around like lost ants.

In life, it is considered a good practice to have goals to accomplish, places to go and people to love. And that is good as well.

The real problem comes when you have a “fixed mental image” of how things should happen.

Your journey

I was exhausted, the four hours walk to the pond in the middle of an uninhabited jungle had been difficult, but nothing compared to the way back.

Climbing back to the top of that valley was a daunting task for me, I was not very used to walk for so many hours in the outdoors, and the Sun was really at its peak hour, so I was really wishing to get back to the car and drive back home.

I had to take little rests from time to time and the closer to the top I got, the more frequent stops I made.

When I was about to reach the last tract, I was making my best effort to pull my body up when all I could see were a pair of perfectly polished shoes in front of my eyes.  My stunned eyes kept going upwards just to observe very well ironed beige trousers, a white shirt and a smiling face who greeted me with a cheerful voice: “Did you enjoy the trip?”, he said.

Impurities

 

Watching a Japanese samurai sword (刀, katana) is one of the finest pleasures you can experience.  Especially when you learn about the process that is needed to make one.

The steel used to build one is called Tamahagane(玉鋼) and consists of several layered steels with different carbon concentrations. This steel is full of impurities and the look of it in the beginning of the process is not very nice.

The antiquity of the steel is very important in the process of removing those impurities.  The oldest the steel, the highest concentration of oxygen making it easier to get rid of the impurities during the hammering, thus resulting in a stronger blade.

High and low carbon steel are welded and folded several times and the hammer and fire make their hard work to get rid of impurities in a very strenuous and long process where each element makes its part in forming a stronger and stunning blade.

Jealousy

We have been educated to be self-centred in many ways.  Of course, you need to have your own things, for your personal use.  And certainly, we all want to have our loved ones near us.

But have you noticed how desperate we get when they go away, even for a little while?

I believe most of us have made some crazy things to get the attention of someone we are interested in or, to keep them by our side.

Jealousy is a big illness, it has caused big tragedies in the history of humanity. It transforms us and affects our whole body and soul.

But something I have noticed and discussed with many people from different backgrounds in life, is the futility of falling into its trap.

Do not allow them

You wake up feeling wonderful, you had a good night and you feel happy and expectant about your day.

You are not feeling tired like other days and you know deep inside of you that this could be a wonderful day.

You wear your best coat and leave your home to conquer the world, you even see your street and the people walking around you under a different light. You are even smiling, but suddenly, a bus passing right in front of you splashes the water of a dirty puddle all over you, now your precious coat looks like rubbish and you just want to vanish into the centre of the earth.

You go back to your home and quickly fetch the fist garments you find in your closet.  Obviously, you get to your job late and, a furious boss asks you to present him the reports he has been asking you for since last week, just to find a ton of mistakes in them, so you are obliged to do them again.

It’s ok (Note to self)

It’s OK to wake up one morning feeling drained, without your usual joy of life on and to decide in that very moment to take the day off. Just to gather enough strength to carry on with your journey.

It is valid to decide today not to feel gratitude for the good things you have got and, to let your heart feel that nostalgia for the days and people who are no longer here with you.

It is acceptable to decide to let anger and sadness to fill your heart and soul for a while because those feelings are a part of your human nature and have a reason to exist in you.

Your journey

No, I gave up a long time ago. Those typical “Yeah, right” glances and smirks, those rolling eyes and sudden changes of topic in the conversation were just too much for me.

So yes, I did give up on trying to make the others understand me.

I don´t like to watch sports on TV but if you are a man, have you tried to tell other men you don´t like it and then they look at you as if you just arrived from a distant planet in a new discovered galaxy.

Inner wisdom II

Inner wisdom comes not only in the form of theory or intellectual knowledge. It is a more profound concept.

We can say it is a part of our inner baggage, a set of tools that travel with us all our life and constantly updates with the help or our experiences and tests in life.

It means to be true to our inner being and apply those tools in our daily life.

Cleansing

One of the best things of making up your mind to clean that spot in your home you have been neglecting for a long time is, that you might find many things that were lost and you never imagined you would find again and specially, in that place!

Once you decide to start taking things out that abandoned box, closet, cupboard, etc. You are surprised by all the things that were hidden there, the more you “explore” inside the more you will find and then, you begin to wish you had done this cleaning before.

After all the “useful” things you found, you cannot understand how you could procrastinate this cleansing for such a long time!

Begining

“If I had known all the things I had to go through to get to where I am now, I think I would have never began. Ignorance is not a bad thing after all.” That was the answer from a prominent physicist when I asked him in an interview, about the beginning of his career. He had reached the highest level in different disciplines of his field and even won the Nobel Prize in the 70s.

He taught me that day a great lesson, not in physics , but a life lesson.  We should never forget that even Albert Einstein was a complete neophyte in math and physics at one time.  He was curious, he found the answers that convinced him and found his passion in physics and began the study everything he could, devouring all the books on that subject he could get. He began that journey at some point in his life and reached very high levels.

We all have begun a similar journey many times in our lives. I am sure you are very good at something, or know more than others in a particular theme. Through years of studying, practising, reading, etc, you have reached a good level at something that you love to do. And now you are good at something as no one else is, because you have added to that your own experiences and personal baggage.  But if you were to start from zero right now, you probably would think it twice before starting that journey.

But don’t let that stop you from taking the first step into your next adventure.

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