Playing music and living life It is not wrong to rest; what makes music beautiful is the tasteful use of rest and sound. Pausing and resting within the context of music feels like a great guideline of how pausing and resting should be in living life. Our responsibility is to articulate our being like how […]
The cost of preparedness Is there such thing as being overprepared? Or is overpreparedness simply a product of anxiety and the need to prepare for something? Today’s parable separates the wise and the foolish in terms of how prepared the former was and how “chill” the latter seemed to be. When crunch time came, the […]
What do we give up when we pay attention? Paying attention means to focus. The thing with focusing is – we cannot fake or BS actually focusing on something. We cannot pretend to focus. On a lighter note, I find parallels between focusing and the concept of flow in positive psychology. Flow is the mental […]
Can we fully know someone without relating? When we become a fan or stan someone, is it the same as saying we really know that someone? What have we really related with, the person themselves or just an impression? Without a means of relating and dialogue, we are only left with a biased impression. And […]
If our lives were a story, do we articulate its spirit? Oftentimes, the most meaning can be found beyond letters and words. It is in things left unsaid where we can somehow decipher a more complete picture. To be superficial, to be a hypocrite, to live a life of BS – these inherently make us […]
Messages require our capacity to perceive and understand I find it fascinating that in today’s information age, search engines, and social media, people merely settle for what is spoonfed. The tragedy is when the information is available but the receiver does not know how to search for it, or does not even attempt to search […]
The narrow gate is a filter We should be detached from material distractions yet attached with what we discern to be truly good. Sometimes, the process of becoming is similar to learning a discipline – forgetting bad habits and learning good skills. The process of having more is pleasurable; but the process of filtering out […]
Humility ends when entitlement and expectation begin We can operationalize humility as the outcome of (1) awareness of the limits of our thoughts and agency and (2) acting accordingly. The moment we become unaware of our limits, we either overestimate ourselves and become proud; or underestimate ourselves and become “falsely humble”. The great thing about […]
Love is and should be the primary existence Through marriage and starting a family, we come to intimately know what it means to love a person before that person existed. Through this simple story, we come to better understand that love can indeed come before human existence; in other words, love is the primary existence. […]
Many intend but few act We often receive invitations or opportunities to do good. As one of the more popular Bible verses go: “Many are invited but few are chosen.” Based from the research projects of current thesis groups, it is easy for people to “intend” to do sustainable activities. This could be in terms […]