I randomly found this dancer/musician/producer/editor/etc today while looking at some of my secret youtube channels and she rocks! CLICK to find an amazing Dubstep violin song she plays while dancing some form of modern ballet. I also appreciated her behind the scenes video which if you watch you'll see that she's much more than just the face of her art performance. Amazing cinematography, amazing sound, amazing dance, weirdo costumes but fun, great scene locations, great editing, love the symbolic storyline and play with the violin, overall awesome video and song. This is why Lindsey Stirling gets to be my first people of passion post. Thanks for the inspiration =)
"O thou my respected son: The letter that thou hast written with the utmost love became the cause of perfect happiness. Truly, I say, thou art striving with heart and soul, to obtain the good pleasure of God. It is assured that this blessed intention will have great effect. The good intention is like an ignited candle whose rays are cast to all parts. Now, praise be to God, that thou hast manifested the utmost effort so that thou mayest light a candle of guidance in that region; plant a tree of the utmost freshness and delicacy in the garden of the world of humanity; call the people to the divine Kingdom; become the means of the progress of intellects and souls; gather the lost sheep under the protection of the Real Shepherd; cause the awakening of the sleepy ones; bestow health upon those who are spiritually sick; enlarge the sphere of human minds; refine the moral fibre of the people and direct the wandering birds to the rose-garden of Reality. Rest assured that the Eternal Outpouring shall descend upon thee, and the Confirmations of His Holiness Baha'u'llah shall encircle thee. Convey to all the believers the wonderful 'Abhá greetings. Upon thee be the Glory of the Most Glorious." (Signed) 'Abdu'l-Bahá Abbás Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Syria March 31st, 1914.
That always happens to me, usually when I'm thoroughly occupied with something else, something that doesn't require my full attention which relaxes my constant mind chatter and releases a free flow of thoughts and words. I say inconvenient because I can never write those thoughts down in time and poof, they're gone. About an hour ago I had a poem fly through my head and now it's gone. It was about a black box. So this is me trying to cast out the line to reel it back in.
This picture you see here is my favorite memory with Tahereh. After convincing her I could read the story well and do different voices for the characters she agreed to let me read most of the book to her. One of my hidden passions is story-telling, I love it. My dad use to tells us stories and I remember him getting so into the characters, sometimes even playing a musical instrument to enhance the mood. I also enjoy creating the mood so on this occasion, when we were at the part where the Orcs set fire to the trees and start singing their catchy death song, a bonfire was the perfect addition. We sat around for awhile and it was a great time.
However, this is a movie review, not a book review, because I just came back from watching The Hobbit by Peter Jackson. I liked the cinematography, the soundtrack, the special effects, the costumes were great, watching it in IMAX 3D was memorable but my main issue is it's basically a different story than the book. Jackson re-interprets so many key elements of the book that you have to watch the movie as if it's a different story with similar characters. For example, in the book, I remember Tahereh commenting on how useless the Dwarves were because they kept getting themselves into trouble and Bilbo is the one who always had to get them out of trouble. In the movie (part 1) the Dwarves are always getting Bilbo out of trouble. So when they make any comments about how useless he is to the whole expedition I kinda feel sad for him. And there are so many of those slight changes that create different emotions than the book did. This would be fine but Jackson runs into inconsistency problems by trying to create new emotions while at the same time trying to stick to the original ones.
Here's an example: The beginning scenes when the dwarves make an unexpected visit on the hobbit. Bilbo is furious and we get the feeling he really does not want to go on the journey. He goes to sleep upset. He wakes up and his house is in perfect condition. He sees the "journey contract" on the table. He runs out of his house dressed to go on an adventure.
So why did Bilbo go on the adventure? There's no conection, it's an emotional void where the viewer is asked to fill in the blanks with their own illogical reasoning. I don't enjoy being illogical which is why I did not enjoy this movie. My suggestion is read the book, watch the movie and you'll understand. Otherwise if you haven't read the book and don't know much about Middle Earth you might enjoy it a little more than those that thought Tolkien knew best.
On a side note - there is a cartoon called The Hobbit which does a much better job of sticking to Tolkien's story and quite fun to watch.
This may seem like a crazy title in regards to what happened
today but if you’ll just permit me a few lines I think you’ll agree.
I’ve been thinking about love for a long time now and was
going to post a different kind of comment today but in light of this young
person, Adam, I feel it’s more appropriate to adapt my thoughts.
This world is just one big love story and Adam plays a part
in it. What that part is exactly I do
not know. For I, as you, feel confused
and saddened from today’s tragic event.
My heart goes out to all those children, to their mothers and fathers,
brothers and sisters, and all the people who are angry and confused and don’t
know what to do with these feelings.
Certainly a ban on automatic weapons feels like a step in the right
direction, but we know in our hearts it’s not the automatic weapons. It’s adam and the role he plays in this love
story.
It’s a beautiful name isn’t it? Adam.
From Adam and Eve, the beginning of awareness of one another. Of vulnerability.
So why did he do it?
We would have to understand adam’s mind. We would have to understand his life. We would have to live his life. I’m no expert on adam’s life but I’m willing
to bet there was a great deal of pain associated with living it.
Adam’s pain is probably like many others out there and my
heart goes out to them as well. I can’t
imagine what it would be like to live in darkness all the time. No love, no life. How can we live without feeling love, without
giving love? What is life’s purpose if
not to love?
Adam reminded me today, or rather he shook me awake, as to
the reality of things right now, and that is we are all looking for love,
looking for ways to express our vulnerability. Some of us are wandering in the darkness, looking for
light but finding none.
I’m very sad for Adam and those he hurt, but he is a
reminder that those that can must do something, no matter how small, to bring just a little
more light into this world so next time adam can find it.
Actually I'm going to tell you another random thought before I start in on the random thought #1. You ever have a good idea, or good story, or something that you think is so original and then after thinking about it for a little while you realize that it's so unoriginal haha... that happens ever time I start to write on my blog. But who cares, if we can enjoy watching the same movie 2 or 3 times, why can't we enjoy reading about an unoriginal thought...
So I was walking on this side road, through the woods today and a friend passed by with his car and offered me a ride. I really wanted to walk through the woods, not just because it was a nice day and I love nature, but also because it was a long walk and I wanted to get that sense of accomplishment after doing something hard. But I was so used to saying yes to rides, that immediately I started getting in the car and then halfway I realized I don't want to do this, so I had to awkwardly decline his nice gesture. And then I started thinking, how often do we deny ourselves that sense of accomplishment? How often do we just choose the easy way? And what compels us to do so? And I just thought of an example which has caught me off guard because I never owned one. The "Easy-Bake oven" can answer some of these questions.
The oven comes with packets of cake mix and small round pans.
(Additional mixes can be purchased separately.) After water is added to
the mix in the pan, it is pushed into the oven through a slot.[1] After cooking, the cake is pushed out through a slot in the other end.
In total you can make a cake in around 10 - 15 minutes. And I bet there is some satisfaction after seeing the little cake pop out the back end of your toy oven, but nothing compared to making a dark chocolate raspberry filling mousse cake from scratch right? And yet we seek things, like the Easy-Bake oven to save us the trouble, to save us the time... We type now instead of write. We drive instead of walking. We read internet articles instead of the newspaper. We use machines instead of tools, ex: vacuum vs broom, chainsaw vs saw, etc. We send text messages instead of letters. And on and on. But aren't we losing our orthography skills? Aren't we less likely to meet people by driving everywhere? Aren't we getting lazier? Aren't sound bites and headlines more sought than researching and investigating? Are we becoming less personal and more informal? Yet we all have this hidden respect for things done the "old way", the hard way. Still though, the majority of us wouldn't think twice about going back to the old days of hard labor. We would consider that a waste of time and then show through the same examples that I just mentioned above how much time we've gained through those technological advances. We focus a lot on the time gained.
I guess my question is have we considered what we are losing by becoming a culture of quick and easy?
As you can see through these three beautiful ladies, the Ngäbe-Bugle people in Soloy, Panamá are some of the most special people I’ve had the privilege to meet. Their soft voices carry the wisdom and knowledge of their gentle culture.They radiate one simple principle through their words and actions: Love for all mankind.
Soloy is located a few hours from the Costa Rican border and is surrounded by tall trees, dirt roads and dirt paths, horses, cows, chickens, and all the wildlife one could expect by living in the middle of a jungle, including the rare ocelots.I’ve visited Soloy twice now; the first time was 8 years ago during my year of service for the Bahá’í Faith.What once took a 4x4 truck 2 hours to reach now can be traveled by a small car and takes only 35 minutes of your time.Development is beginning to spread into Soloy, like for example people carry around cell phones now, there are bus stops, there are nice bridges, all this has helped create small town markets and more merchandise is being sold, some buildings even have solar panels in order to have electricity 24 hours a day which is still a rare commodity.Some things haven’t changed, the people still wear their traditional clothes (mostly the women), the majority still walk long distances (+8 hrs) with bare feet, the rivers still sparkle and fish can be seen in their crystal waters, and people still mainly live off the land.I always found that aspect of the indigenous people so inherently noble and some of my best childhood memories are eating salads whose contents were picked from our garden.Those memories created a fondness for nature and mother earth that pull me now and then towards the jungles and oceans of the world.I can only imagine what it must feel like for the Ngäbe-Bugle having lived their whole life in a careful balance with nature.
There was an event held recently in Soloy where over 1,200 indigenous people came from all around Southern and Central America including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela.A thousand came by foot or horse, climbing down from their mountain ranges to celebrate a once a year occasion, Naw-Ruz, or the Bahá’í New Year.There were celebratory talks, artistic presentations, and traditional music played all night long.Of course it’s not usually celebrated in such grand fashion but this year was extra special because it highlighted 30 years of cultural evolution represented by the Ngäbe-Bugle.They’ve become a center of attraction for all indigenous people; even a delegation from China arrived to celebrate this most noteworthy achievement. What did they do?And how did they do it?
Not everyone came just for the celebration.After the festival was over, many of the indigenous people went back to their homes but the people invited from the surrounding countries stayed.They came to observe and learn how the Ngäbe-Bugle have transformed their community from feeling isolated and separated to a hopeful and loving family where action is directed towards the unity of all. 200+ participants of the 5 day seminar split up into groups in order to visit the local Bahá’í communities.What they witnessed and the feelings they shared could never be fully captured by words alone.However a few examples come to mind.Not long ago women were treated as inferiors, not allowed to be educated, not allowed to speak in village counsels, used for housework, and sometimes shared their husband with three other wives.This all changed within a span of 30 years.Women have a prominent role in community discussions, they are encouraged to be educated, families no longer have more than one wife, and women are considered equal in all things pertaining to the intellect and spirit.How was all this accomplished in such a short span of time?The Ngäbe-Bugle’s answers were unanimous; by cultivating a profound love for Baha’u’llah and by following His Teachings.One of those Teachings state that the mother is the child’s first educator and therefore her education is even more important than the father’s.This simple yet weighty Teaching has transformed the Ngäbe-Bugle’s way of life.Examples like this shone like precious gems throughout the community visits, inspiring the international indigenous people and renewing long forgotten hopes for their own communities growth.
Looking back, I realize how important this moment is for all indigenous people, and how meaningful it will be for the world’s future.There is so much more to share with you, like the level of sacrifice, the relationship between the community and the Local Spiritual Assembly, and all the growth and hope one feels from being around these servants of God. But I fear my simple writing is not adequate enough to reach the intense feelings of appreciation and gratitude one wishes to portray from observing such a historic event.Perhaps in more intimate conversations we can go deeper but for now I’ll just end with a few notes to peak your curiosity of the events that occurred during the 10-day trip.
NOTES – PANAMA TRIP 2012
-the insects must carry around wooden flutes
-hiking 2 hours underneath the stars cleans your soul
-a dark spider descending and disappearing like the wind
-tears parting from tear ducts and parting the community with parting gifts
-radio baha’íonly station that has programs in indigenous language
-children classes are well-organized and well sung
-BESIKO: a name of a women who had great vision about a region called Boca de Remedio. She gave hope to the people and told of the coming of a Great Teaching.
