Search

Bedoor Bluemoon

Everyday writing to expose the soul

Open Search
Category

Life Lessons

The Worldly Man

 

Atlas worldly

What defines a worldly man in a world where everything is a easily found at the tip of your fingers?  When a worldly man decides he needs some information about a certain country or what is the best route to get to the theater (within context), he can very easily lift his phone and find out.  However, does this make him any more precious or special than a man living his life experiences without using much of technology?  How much knowledge should a man have in his mind to be deemed “a renaissance man.”  Respectively, should we be respecting a “renaissance man,” or should we be looking for a man of one specialty?

Many people nowadays are boasting about knowing the world and venturing out to new activities but how much work does a man have to put in his days to know, really know, cultures?

I had these questions in my mind because I have concentrated on a great reading project in 2019 whereby we, as a group of readers, read books set in different countries around the world.  Most of the books we read represented heartache, pain, and suffering of people but at the end of the year, all I knew was that I knew too little about each country.  How can I expect to understand the ins and outs of lives when I am not with them?  How much understanding can I have to the Afghans or the Iranians without being submerged in the subjectivity of the author.  And then, aren’t all books flawed anyway?

Then I come back to my country, and how much do I know of it?  How much history is enough to be considered a subject matter expert, when does learning end?  Does it ever end?

Let’s take, for example, an average 18 year old high school student from anywhere around the world, how much does he know?  Is he going to find himself in his first job, first divorce, or first traumatic experience?

We humans are merely a set of experiences conditioning our minds to cope.

Are we not?

Would we rather be generalists, having some knowledge from many different areas, or would we rather be specialists in our subjects of interests?  Weren’t the geniuses of the past specialists, and therefore admired for their specialty?  How much of an individual are you and why are we all trying to fit in the mold represented to us by the social media.

When it comes to me, and I represent a large number of people, I know that  I am very comfortable in my place.  I am comfortable with my routine, with taking the same route to work, seeing the same people, buying grocery from the same places, and traveling every once in a while just to come back home enriched with a few pictures and a few new words that I will probably forget in a couple of weeks.  To me, I am worldly enough for my liking because in the end, I am content with my choices.

Let the nomads roam, I prefer to read my way into knowing people’s lives.

0

Happy Valentine’s Day

heart

René Descartes said, “je pense, donc ju suis” translated to “I think, therefore I am”. In my mind I believe it should be, “I love, therefore I am.”

The importance of love in our world is immense.  Love is not restricted between lovers, it considers all other types of love such as a mother’s love for her son/daughter, a son’s love to his father, a sister’s love to her brother, a father’s love to his daughter, a friend’s love to her friend, and so forth.

When people choose to display their love one day in the year it means that the display of their emotions is lacking in the other 364 days.  Being able to genuinely tell the people in your life that you love them, and telling them using those words, is important.

I saw a comic strip drawn by a Korean lady (I think she was Korean, I will make sure and get back to you) showing that it is very hard to say “I love you” to her mom.  I know my mother loves me but she just doesn’t say it.  Is that what we want said about us?

Reassuring your loved ones that you love them is just icing on the cake.  It doesn’t cost you anything to say those words and mean them.  Give your loved ones a hug, a kiss, a thank you for being in my life card, and they will appreciate it.

You never know if you will get another chance.  Always say you love them before you leave.

To my family and friends, I love you.

 

0

Simplify Life

Simplify

images

Humans tend to over-complicate matters.  We don’t usually give the issue we are dealing with its correct size and thus, in our minds, we are dealing with catastrophes all the time.  Are you really dealing with catastrophes all the time?

A friend of mine once told me that our day to day issues are just that: day to day issues.  We shouldn’t make a big deal out them, the real issues are those of sickness, loss of  loved ones, war, betrayal, abduction, and all the bad words we think will never happen to us.

So firstly, be grateful that you have a place to sleep, food on your table, don’t have to deal with war, and have a healthy family.

Secondly, breathe.  Spilled milk is just spilled milk.  Losing a job is not the end of the world, you have your life ahead of you.  Children fighting, shouting, having to get vaccinated is just a normal day in a normal life.  When they send a picture of two kids in a car, both holding Ipads and still crying with a sentence on top saying, “still can’t get them quiet, first world problems!” is for you to take a step back and put everything into perspective.  You have running water, some people can’t find water to drink and die of thirst.

Third, simplify your problem.  After minimizing them in your mind, your son’s bad grades are simple.  Smile and hug him, there’s not much you can do but fix the upcoming semester.  Simplify his life to simplify yours.

We are all humans in this world and the extra baggage we place on our backs will not be with us in the end.  It will not matter what your income was, only the smiles and laughter matter.

0

The First Week on the Job- Bewildered

Bewildered

deer

Congratulations on your first job!  You are fresh in the workplace with many many many assumptions about what goes on.  You’ve been chosen from a list of candidates and impressed the bosses.  You’ve jumped through this hoops and finally got initiated into this wonderful place. Do you think it’s going to get better?  Well, it can’t possibly get worse, right?

Wrong.

Because now the real work starts, and I’m not talking about the tasks on your job description (if you’ve been given one), I’m talking about the merging of yourself with your social surroundings: your colleagues.

Similar to your first day in school, there are people who will accept you and people who wish you never set foot in the company.  There are people who will help you and people who will try to make your life a living hell.  Well, welcome to the real world, it’s a thousand times worse than school, you can’t take a sick day just to run away from a test, and above all that you’ve got your career at stake.

You will feel bewildered, lost, clueless, and will wonder what you are doing there.  You will question yourself, your knowledge and skills, your upbringing, and you will definitely have a little bit of inferiority complex to top it off.  In the end, you can use the “smile and nod” technique, play the “strong and silent” role, or chew gum.
Smile, this too shall pass.

0

Back To Basics

Dominant

peaceful-warrior

In the midst of the craziness, we lose ourselves.  We get caught up in the urban life and the shine of everything new that we forget who we are, we forget what we are.  We forget our origins: where we started and what we’re doing in this life and once we forget our origins we no longer know where we’re going.

Seriously, who cares what designer bag you hold and what jewels you wear.

Everything builds up on top of ourselves, hiding our true soul away from the mirror.  When you look in the mirror, is it you who looks back?  Is that the same person you remember?  Is this who you wanted to become?

Remove the layers hiding your true identity and focus on your core.  understand that the craziness is entering from every sense in you and take it away.  Remove the excess baggage that hunches your back and release your tension.  Savor your life and utilize your senses the way they were meant to be used.

Taste.  Go back to basics and taste the givings from mother earth.  Look at the colors, reach a point where you can differentiate the shades of the sky and the subtle greenness of the trees.  Listen to “white noise” you so readily purchase off stores and find its source from around you.  Listen to the drops of the water, the laughter of children, and the buzzing of the bees.  Touch everything with the tips of your fingers, sense the difference in texture and imaging yourself blind.  Speak no more, reduce your speech to utter silence and balance your words on your tongue before addressing anyone.  And finally, be here.  Focus your mind into being where you are and breathe.  Breathe out the clutter, breathe the mess, and breathe out the numerous ridiculous choices you have to make and just be.

Reset your senses back to basics, let your soul dominate your body.

0

Blink- A Mother’s Fear

Blink

blink

Don’t blink or you’ll miss it.  It seems like it was yesterday that I gave birth to my first born and just delivered my second this morning.  It seems like I was holding onto them in the hospital wondering how I can do this, how and when did I become a mom.  Cradling them in my arms and holding on tight in fear that I miss a blink.  Watching their face and lips and fingers and promising that I will always be there.

Then I blinked.

And here I am planning my first boy’s birthday party.  You see, he wants a pirate themed party because at four years of age he can talk and decide.  He comes to me with feelings and ideas and jokes and pranks.  Wasn’t he just my newborn?  Wasn’t I rocking him to sleep and trying to figure out how to put his diaper on?  Wasn’t I scared to give him a bath all by myself and felt that great achievement when I finally summed up the courage?  Where did that baby go?

Then I blinked.

And my second boy was walking and talking.  He’s a funny fellow who imitates everything he sees and loves to dance.  He too has things he likes and he too can decide whether he wants to go out or stay in (he always decides to go out of course.)  Where did my baby go?  Wasn’t I crying for fear of not being there for him, for fear of not giving him the care I gave his brother, the undivided attention and the hours spent alone?  When did he grow up and what did he eat?

And now I am too afraid to blink.

Too afraid to miss a milestone, too afraid to miss out on a smile or a tear.  I am too afraid to be unavailable, to not know what they feel or what they like.  I am too afraid to miss out on the hours of the days that make them happy, too afraid to have someone else influence them.  There’s so much to do and so little time.

How can I schedule music classes, self defense classes, homework, and fun time when they’re older?  It’s all fun time and I barely seem to be holding on to my sanity.  It’s all fun time and I miss them at the end of every single tiring day.

Oh yes, the days are long… sometimes much too long… much too tiresome but in the end they are limited.  Create memories one day at a time and honestly, try not to blink.

2

The Frog Princess- Truth

via Image Writing Prompt #39

‘Are you a frog or a prince?’

‘A princess actually.’

‘I was just kidding I didn’t expect you to talk.’

‘Why not?’

‘This is not real!’

‘Define real’

‘Anything that is tangible. Anything we can use our senses to identify’

‘I beg to differ. There are intangible things that are real too. Things we know in our minds which cannot be clearly conceptualized’

‘Such as?’

’The truth’

‘Is the truth real?’

‘It depends. Is it my truth or your truth?’

‘My truth, of course.’

‘Your truth is real for you but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s real for me’

‘Give me an example’

‘Flies, to me, taste good. This is the truth I reached have used my sense of taste. I don’t think you would prefer flies over whatever you had for breakfast this morning’

‘Why isn’t there one truth for us all?’

‘Because that means we have to conceptualize things the same way, but we don’t have the same senses nor do we share the same thoughts.’

‘How is it that we need to use our limited and subjective senses to conceptualize and define our personal intangible truth, and then hold onto it without questioning the lack of logic behind our theories? If we need to define the truth with our senses does it mean that our senses are superior to the truth?’

‘It means we are blessed with the tools to think but what we do with these tools are entirely up to us. Some people use these tools to live their days and some use these tools to find out more about what we are doing on this world and the truth we all seek.’

‘Do all living creatures seek the truth?’

‘Some already found their truths and are living happily’

‘What truth should we be looking for?’

‘A good truth to start searching for is why you stopped to talk to a frog? What truth are you coming from?’

‘Ah but that is not the question here, princess. The question is why do you consider yourself a princess where I can clearly see you as a frog’

‘Is that true?’

‘It’s true for me’

‘If I see myself as a princess then that’s my truth regardless of what you see’

‘You are a frog’

‘And you think so because you see that using your subjective biased and limited sight?’

‘Yes’

‘And you are basing your theory on your subjective, biased, and limited senses?’

‘Yes’

‘Then, my dear child، you have learned nothing’

0

Self Perception

Elegance

model-clipart-womens-7

With the bombardment of young, skinny, and tall girl pictures on every conceivable media, we normal people start questioning ourselves.  The idea that these images are photoshopped just helps us sleep at night as we try to ignore the gorgeous girls we meet face to face in reality.  Well, guess what?  It doesn’t matter how these women look, it matters how you perceive yourself.

Right?  Isn’t this what we are told to teach our daughters?  Aren’t we supposed to show them that inner beauty is all that matters even though snapchat filters are great for your pride?  Images of 14 year old girls then vs. 14 year old now are hilarious and yet, so not hilarious because of what they represent. Maybe she’s born with it?  Maybe it’s makeup or maybe it’s plastic surgery.

In my brainwashed mind, I’ve come to perceive tall and skinny as beautiful and elegant.  When a tall and skinny lady wears a dress, it looks good.  It basically falls on her with so much grace that the short and stubby will never have because when she wants to wear a long dress she needs to have it first altered to be her length and then she needs to buy grandiose heels to compensate for the lack of height.  She also needs a corset or a ridiculous diet for a few years in advance.

Also, tall girls have longer legs.  Do you understand that?  They have more “leg”.  They also have more “arm” and more “torso”.  So their weight gets divided around and the 150 pound tall girl looks great but when it comes to the 150 pound short girl she “needs to lay off the carbs.”

Well, in my mind, I am tall and skinny.  I will always love to eat my carbs and I will always have less “leg, arms, and torso” to distribute my weight.  Because of my predisposition towards elegance being for the tall and skinny, I think I have altered my self perception to that of a model because I don’t hate myself.  I actually like myself very much and don’t mind the extra pounds around.

Yes, in my mind I’m tall, skinny and elegant.  #grateful

2

Relocate

Relocate

 

tree

The world is vast and the opportunities endless.  It is our perception of values that keep us planted into areas we no longer wish to be.  Roots that no longer exist in this age where every person watches out for himself.  Gone are the days where neighbors cared to watch over your children as you get yourself a haircut and gone are the days where you can expect people to care about you.

Family ties are weakening.  It is the naive who think otherwise and who hold onto the hope that Sunday family dinners make a difference.  What difference when we are distracted by the outside on the tips of our fingers?  Children stopped visiting their mothers and don’t ask about their fathers anymore.  Days go by, weeks pass, and months turn into years if we let them because we think that we can easily relocate into somewhere with less responsibilities.  Yes, the world is vast and the opportunities endless, but where would you relocate?  And if you choose to relocate, would it really make a difference where you go?

Humans are social creatures and the lone wolf cannot survive without a pack, one way or the other.  We are not sole survivors nor can we delete all roots that connect us to our past.  We can relocate our bodies but can we relocate who we are in the midst of the hazy lines between cultures, races, and countries?  Are we turning into global citizens or are the homogeneous clusters we see around a representation of the roots we ignore?  Can we really merge or will we always have our differences?

Are we ready to relocate our minds before our bodies or is breaking new ground the hip thing to do?  Yes, we are not trees and we can move but we must move our perceptions to understand that sometimes relocating does not necessarily mean forgetting who we are.

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑