The one thing you need to do, even must do, as a blogger is to read other blogs. 😉
It is so great to experience just how beautifully other people express themselves and things of their interests using words, images, sounds, even videos.
And below are some other blogs I found interesting to read:
I will update the list continually, and if you guys know some worth-reading blogs out there, please let me know on the comments.
Have a great time! 🙂
On the video, a former cancer patient challenges us to think beyond the divide “sick” and “well”.
The question she’s asking is this: How do you begin again and find meaning after life is interrupted?
King Solomon’s five truths above are really a good set of baseline—foundation, so to speak—for minimalism lifestyle.
Minimalism is not only a matter of removing clutters from your life, be them physical or mental, but deep down there is an old wisdom on which minimalism lies.
Minimalism is about focusing on what really matters. All the essentials.
It focuses on the least needed to make the most of life. In this perspective, abundance of things is not an evil. Our way of consumption is. Compulsive consumption is the real evil, of never enough.
That, I think, is the real question.
Pace e Bene. 🙂
Remember the Five Feet Apart movie I’ve introduced on a previous post?
The story is inspired by Claire Wineland, an active and inspiring young woman with Cystic Fibrosis, who died at 21. Stella Grant, one of the main two characters in the movie represents Claire, an active CF patient who falls in love with Will Newman, another CF patient.
On the video above, you could see just how positive she is about her life. She is clearly suffering, but she is channeling her energy and time to all the beauty in her life, trying to help and even inspire lot more people, while she can.
She is also beautiful, very knowledgeable, so mature and wise beyond her age. It is kind of hard to believe that she is that young but so wise.
Personally I was really impressed to see her actively involved in political campaign, posting videos on her YouTube page, playing music, studying things, even inspire people through her speech, given CF in the picture. It’s definitely not easy to be her.
I am particularly inspired by a line of her expressed on the video:
“Death is inevitable, but living a life that we can be proud of, that is something we can actually control.”
Claire Wineland
Her real life story gets me to the question worth-considering in every single day of our life in this world:
Will you continue to waste your time sweating the small stuff, or will you focus on what truly matters, like the depth of your relationships with those you love?
Life is short—far too short to chase things that don’t bring true happiness. Each new day given to us is a gift, a chance to create meaning, not just let hours slip by.
What truly matters to you?
Feel it, cherish it, and savor every moment. We all know that there will come a time when our days will end, a time when we won’t have these precious moments anymore…
* * *
Update: The following are some of her inspiring talks published on YouTube.
Her YouTube Clairity Project (what a cool title!) is on this page.
Her YouTube channel is here.
She’s totally amazing, isn’t she?
For me she is an angel, such a beautiful gift from God, a mature and wise girl far beyond her age.
God sent her for us. She is such a beautiful gift. 🙂
It is easier to appreciate something when we couldn’t have it anymore. Be it a touch from a loved one, a moment of laughter with friends, a smile, a hug, and all those little things that warm your heart and soul, make you feel happy.
Appreciate things as gifts from God while you’re experiencing it. God is putting experiences in our lives to make us stronger, wiser, and closer to Him.
That is what I believe.
The real test is our daily lives. How in life you do put priorities is the real question. Is family time over work, or vice versa? Is time with kids over time with gadgets at home, or vice versa? Is hours at office over hours at home, or vice versa?
It is all about choices made every single day.
I hope we are the ones who are making the wise choices.
Good luck! 🙂
As cited from a book titled 31 Days to Happiness by David Jeremiah, page 173 – 174:
* * *
During World War II, a man in Sussex, England, sent some money to the Scripture Gift Mission. He enclosed a letter saying that he longed to give more, but the harvest on his farm had been very disappointing because of a lack of water. He was also fearful because German bombs were being dropped in the area, and his family and farm were at risk. He asked the workers of Scripture Gift Mission to pray that no bombs would fall on his land.
Mr. Ashley Baker wrote back from the mission and said that while he did not feel led to pray that exact prayer, he had prayed that God’s will for their lives would prevail.
Shortly after, a huge German missile crashed down on the farm. None of the man’s family or live-stock was harmed, but the bombshell went so far into the ground that it liberated a submerged stream. The stream yielded enough water to irrigate the man’s farm as well as neighboring farms. The next year, due to a bountiful harvest, the man was able to send a large offering to the mission.
* * *
The falling bomb might seem as a bad thing initially, but what happens next is definitely not.
The labels our mind puts on things happening in our lives are not what the things themselves often reveal in the end.
The labels are not the things themselves. What matters is what something reveals to us in the end. The end is better than the beginning.
So, good things or bad things, who really knows?
🙂
Remember “The Fault in Our Stars“, a love story between cancer patients, Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters?
“Five Feet Apart” is quite the same kind of story.
It is a story about two people, Will Newman (played by Cole Sprouse) and Stella Grant (played by Haley Lu Richardson), both with a disease called Cystic Fibrosis (CF). Stella in particular is a character inspired by Claire Wineland, a real and totally inspiring CF patient, whose entire life is so well lived; a real blessing for many. I have also posted a note on Claire.
Back to the movie, Will and Stella, having the same common ground, complete each other in a nice way. They both have a good sense of humor, and that adds more to the story.
On the movie, you can see two cheerful teenagers who are deeply in love, however fragile and sick they both are.
Stella Grant is a very disciplined girl. Even with CF she is suffering from, she actively shares her stories via YouTube videos, reads books, studying things, trying to help Will with the treatment, even creating apps! 🙂
Will, on the other hand, is a more relaxed guy. His philosophy is ‘enjoy this moment while you can‘ and this mindset kind of waking Stella up to a new realization, that to really live is far more important than just trying to survive.
And the two makes a great love story! 😉
I do love this particular kind of movie, not necessarily due to the love story, which is also great, but to the fact that the story reminds us to what really matters in life.
It reminds us also just how valuable our health is; more than anything we could have earned.
Above all, it reminds us to enjoy any moment in life while we can.
So while you’re given a chance to live on this world, enjoy this life as a huge blessing.
🙂
PS. You can actually watch the movie online on many sites, and here is one among them.
What if life itself is wonderful and messy at the same time?
What if things happen not for any clear reason, or, no reason at all?
What if bad things (actually) happen to good people? Shouldn’t good things only happen to good people, and vice versa?
Well, it seems you don’t need reason for everything in life. Stuff happens, as many people say. They’re just beyond our control. Sometimes reality hits harder than what we’ve anticipated, and so what? We move on.
Watching the video above, you don’t see Kate Bowler per se. Instead, you could see yourself, as one who is also struggling with deep questions of life.
What if Kate’s life is yours? How would you deal with it?
Life, in its philosophical view, is a journey with such questions.
Enough sleep, in fact, is an unnegotiable biological need. That is one among the bold points made by Matthew Paul Walker on the following embedded video.
There are positive benefits, to our body and our brain, even to our psychology, from getting enough and quality sleep.
On the other side of the line, negative impacts from lack of sleep are so damaging, affecting our health to an extent worse than many of us have expected.
On the video above, Matt Walker explains the real benefits of enough sleep and the real impacts caused by the lack of it in a clear language complete with easy-to-digest analogies. Aside from 8-hour sleep rule for adults that many of us might have already familiar with, the room temperature requirement of 18 degree Celcius for optimum sleep is what I believe to be useful.
Having seen the video, I think it is now becoming so clear to us just how crucial a good and enough sleep is. It should be fully appreciated as Mother Nature’s way to ‘recharge’ us, so to speak, making sure we are fully energized to face another day.
Still, sleep deprivation remains a problem for many. Shift workers, for example, who basically work ‘against‘ their own biological clock, which is found by science far less than effective in terms of performance. There is no good answer to this, I think, but the science of sleep explained by scientist like Mark above gives us an insight to really understand a part of our nature as human beings: We do absolutely need a good and enough sleep.
How’s your sleep? 😉
Pernahkah Anda membaca sebuah buku berisikan pergumulan jiwa seseorang, dan Anda hampir seperti bisa menyatakan dengan pasti bahwa Anda pun mengalami pergumulan yang sama?
Well, tidak banyak buku yang bisa melakukan itu, apalagi kalau bukunya ditulis bukan dalam bahasa sehari-hari kita. Tetapi barangkali kita semua setuju bahwa menemukan makna hidup dan kebahagiaan sejati adalah pencarian kita semua. Semua ingin hidup bermakna dan merasakan kebahagiaan yang sejati, a meaningful life and lasting happiness.
Dan bagaimana kalau tokoh dalam buku itu, setelah pergumulan yang panjang dan tak mudah, pada akhirnya sampai pada Sumber Kebahagiaan Sejati?
Tentu saja buku itu cukup berharga untuk dibaca, bukan? 😉
Baiklah, sedikit intro.
Raja Salomo – yang sering disebut sebagai Guru atau Sang Pemikir – menuliskan buah-buah pikirannya dalam Kitab Pengkotbah (Ecclesiastes), salah satu Kitab berisi hikmat dalam ajaran Kristiani. Isinya adalah tentang pergumulan batin Salomo sendiri untuk menemukan makna kehidupan dan kebahagiaan sejati. Dengan tidak melibatkan Tuhan dalam keseluruhan rangkaian perjalanan hidup, hidup itu sendiri menurut Salomo hanya menjadi “kosong dan sia-sia”. Kekosongan (emptiness) yang dirasakan Salomo berusaha diisinya dengan kemewahan dunia, ilmu pengetahuan, kesenangan hidup, tetapi semuanya, pada akhirnya, tetap bukan merupakan jawaban yang tepat. Kekosongan itu tetap ada.
Pergumulan Raja Salomo dengan kehidupan untuk menemukan kebahagiaan sejati, sesuatu yang berusaha ia pahami dengan berkat kebijaksanaan yang diberikan Tuhan padanya, juga adalah pergumulan kita. Itu sebabnya membaca kisah Raja Salomo ini sama seperti kita membaca perjalanan diri kita sendiri.
Dalam buku 31 Days of Happiness yang ditulis dengan sangat indah oleh David Jeremiah ini, kita akan menemukan pesan-pesan yang merupakan buah-buah kebijaksanaan Raja Salomo sendiri.
Secara pribadi saya sangat merekomendasikan Anda membaca versi asli buku ini dalam bahasa Inggris, agar tidak kehilangan keindahannya. Menikmati rangkaian kata demi kata yang ditata dengan sangat apik dan berisikan tentang kebijaksanaan dan menjadikannya sebagai bagian perjalanan spiritual pribadi adalah suatu pengalaman yang tak ternilai.
Dan pesan saya, don’t rush it. Bacalah buku ini dengan tenang, satu bab saja tiap waktu. Yang terpenting adalah kita sungguh “melihat” diri kita sendiri dalam pergumulan-pergumulan Raja Salomo.
It’s basically seeing yourself through the book while experiencing the journey.
Buku ini pada dasarnya adalah tentang perjalanan spiritual kita sendiri; suatu perjalanan yang telah ditempuh Raja Salomo yang bijaksana, perjalanan yang membawanya kepada eksistensi Sumber Kebahagiaan Sejati.
Untuk saya, buku ini adalah suatu investasi penting dalam hidup. A book for life.
Anda dapat memproleh buku ini dalam format PDF dengan mengakses link di bawah ini:
Semoga bermanfaat untuk Anda dalam menjalani hidup, menemukan makna dan kebahagiaan sejati yang hanya berasal dariNya.
Pace e Bene. 🙂
