Catharsis

When you're unhappy, what do you do?

Swallow it? Let live? Laugh it off and hope you really did?

If you don't, will it start to gnaw, eat and nibble away your insides?

Symptoms include sighing, lethargy and becoming numbed to other things that ought to matter.

Ask yourself, what do you need?

Importance of Finding a Competent Partner

IPA Street Photography Asia Award 2013 Winners

In The Dark

Mortality is not the end of life. As we know it, it's all how you live. Or as I recently learnt from Steve Jobs, it's how you build your life.

Life is full of storms. Some loom large and threaten to blow everything away. Some loom far but don't get close enough. Some brew quietly inside, not visible from without but surely it spins and whirls--demand a real effort to tame it.

There're also moments when the lights seem to go out. And you panic. Perspire. Plead for help. Yet in that moment, perhaps a voice tells you to try. You're in the right place. And step by step, things will fall in place.

Who's to say you're on the right track? Shouldn't each of us be the best judge of that? Maybe not right away, but eventually yes?

Money and the lack thereof

Whatever amount we have, I think the heart of the attitude is really about having contentment.

As Paul says in Philippians 4:12,

I know how to live in poverty or prosperity. No matter what the situation, I've learned the secret of how to live when I'm full or when I'm hungry, when I have too much or when I have too little. (GWT)

Beyond basic needs, can I say that everything else becomes relative? And in crowded SG, driven by competition?

Where does contentment come from? Why are some more generous than others? Maybe it's simply learning to have enough, to enjoy life wherever we are, whatever we have, whoever we're with.

Now, I know comparison with others and focusing on things we don't have always highlight one's lack. But surely we've to remind ourselves that net worth don't determine a person's self-worth.

And if we keep focusing on our needs, whether present or future, we'll never feel we've enough. There's always something that requires money.

Can we simply learn to make the most of what we have? If we prosper, then enjoy the moment. If we don't, well, make do and be happy.

That's right, be happy.

Pursuing

There is talent, there is hard work and then there is luck. I believe in the luck that comes in the form of favour and opportunity. To make the most of these, one needs an attitude that is hopeful, positive and values networking.

Now, would others around describe you as one who pursues his dreams and priorities?

Pursuit demands energy--relentless--and sweeping aside anything that can distract or detract.

Love-like

In all of us, there is a need to relate, to connect & to feel loved & accepted. A hole in the soul results from a deficit of these--even the perception of it. A hole that, if it is not mended, will eat on the inside.

When a person reaches out but fails to connect, it's disappointing. But when a person finds not connection but exploitation, the sense of betrayal swells and engulfs. Because now the other person saw you for who you are, your vulnerable core. And now, loss, isolation & darkness ensues.

All is not hopeless. Life is not loveless. One has to hold on to this.

Perhaps it's that, even if we are carrying our own weight, the act of lightening's others' would lighten our own. Is it because it sets things in perspective? It takes the focus off yourself?

Whatever it is, we can all afford to connect. More. Deeply.

Come Running Back To YOU

Spurts of Intense Work

Perhaps it's time to do challenging work first thing in your day. Don't be afraid to try it. Make it a habit, so it becomes ingrained. This is towards becoming more effective and to grow in taking on bigger challenges.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/07/19/how-interval-training-can-make-you-incredibly-efficient-at-work/

Venus the Bringer of Peace

Time Off

Would you quit your job to do what you always wanted to do? Such as spending a year living in the Arctic Circle, enjoying time with yourself and your family?

This man did. Arctic Dream | Our Family's One-Year Adventure Living on an Arctic Island http://arcticdream.me/

Success isn't money, fame or influence (nothing wrong with these in themselves though). Success ought to be what really matters...to you.

Crepuscular

Bubbling

Arms straining at the effort, he tried to keep up with the swimmer ahead. Take a break? He asked himself. At the turn, his left calf tightened nearly to a cramp. Keep going, determination said.

Just an hour ago, the sky was arrayed in glorious orange-red. Barely anyone remarked on it, but surely all saw it.

One man asked another how his run was. A few sentences later, the other said goodbye and hauled himself out of the waters, now clear & placid.

Looking Beyond

Eric Schmidt of Google reports this of The New Digital Age:

• In Kenya, Maasai nomads live without home electricity or running water nonetheless pay for items with their mobile devices.
• In North Korea, citizens risk their lives and harsh punishment in order to obtain smuggled phones and tablets and take an even greater risk to venture close to the Chinese border so they can capture a signal.
• In Pakistan, we met a group of women who were attacked by the Taliban with acid. Their physical scars carry an unfair stigma that makes it hard for them to find work, but the Internet allows them to run businesses and interact with the world despite these challenges.
• In Iraq, following the return of looted artifacts, we were able to put the entire museum online so the world could experience the country's rich history.

Things that people of the developed, connected world take for granted are being fought for and relished in less privileged regions.

Will getting the world all wired up make it flatter, more connected & consuming more resources? Yet social, cultural & financial divides will surely persist.

Desperate for YOU

Hope & Future

Standing for what you believe in. Knowing you can accomplish something of worth.

Affirmation from people certainly help. But it's the self-belief that matters most. What you are capable of, not in another's shadow, but to be your own.

Acknowledging you're not perfect, so slips & setbacks do occur. But keep pushing on. Because you can do it. Because you do believe in that one thing.

Who matters to you? Pay attention to them. That's what you'll find rewarding.

Be hopeful. Things will work out for the better.

Currently reading

"Heart, Smarts, Guts and Luck (HSGL) is the result of research started in 2009 on what really makes entrepreneurs and business-builders tick."

Lunacy

When accused, confronted and cornered, how does one react? When outnumbered?

No one is perfectly good...everyone has faults and vulnerabilities. Is someone beckoning us to live as a good man?

Is it fear that drives us? Woe be the one who doesn't see it. Or is it desperation that grips us?

There comes a time when each is put to the trial, tested for what he is inside. While we realize it, hopefully we're given time to love and accept who we really are, and also examine areas that are lacking.

Now, what measure? Whose and how do we apply? Surely we just want to live a life well-lived. Even well-remembered.

No man will live for a lie. Neither will he stand to live for one.

Confront & Embrace

Recently I read about phantom limb syndrome, a peculiar & painful phenomenon where the affected person still feels sensations in his missing limb. Supposedly, the loss of a limb causes neurons to stop firing signals originating from it, so the synaptic firing should be silent, yet somehow the continued firing of synapses from surrounding neurons manages to convince the brain that the missing limb is sending out sensations.

The key question really ought to be: How do you resolve this syndrome of feeling something that by right should not be there? How do you initiate change in the direction of complete healing & emotional restoration?

We all want to get on with life, no matter what it deals at us. And definitely it helps immensely to have God on your side.

But first, you gotta confront what ails you. Identify it, whatever it is, and decide how you're gonna deal with it. Stab it in the foot, if that's what it takes! Keep hoping and going.

Then embrace the change you've selected. Will it work out for good? There's only one way to find out. If it doesn't, then just try another path, another method.

Make the most of what you have, who you have and when you have. You can do it.

Holding On

By Hoang Hiep Nguyen (Sony World Photography Awards)