When I was a child, we like to stay outside at night due to the tropical climate.  I was fascinated by the moon following me wherever I walk or run.  My brother and I, sometimes with Dad or Mom or neighbourhood friends, will search for the small and big dipper, and other constellations and it was difficult.  I liked most of all waiting and seeing a shooting star to make a wish on. 

Since then, night sky gazing for me has been truly magical. Spent half an hour just last night, not searching for any constellation, but just standing there and staring, smiling, being awed of the vastness of outer space, the twinkling of so many stars that made me sing this song that I like a lot:


So Many Stars
by Sergio Mendes & Brazil'66

The dark is filled with dreams
So many dreams which one is mine
One must be right for me
Which dream of all the dreams
When there's a dream for every star
And there are oh so many stars
So many stars
The wind is filled with songs
So many songs which one is mine
One must be right for me
Which song of all the songs
When there's a song for every star
And there are oh so many stars, so many stars
Along the countless days, the endless nights
That I have searched so many eyes
So many hearts, so many smiles
Which one to choose, which way to go, how can I tell
How will I know, out of, oh
So many stars, so many stars
http://www.free-lyrics.org

- Musical Interlude -

Yes, the wind is filled with songs, so many songs
Which one is mine, one must be right for me
Which song of all the songs
When there's a song for every star
And there are, oh, so many stars, so many stars
Along the countless days, the endless nights
That I have searched so many eyes
So many hearts, so many smiles
Which one to choose, which way to go, how can I tell
How will I know, out of, oh, so many stars
So many stars, (so many stars) oh, so many stars
(So many stars) oh, there are so many stars
(So many stars) lots and lots of stars, oh so many (so many)
Oh, so many (stars), many
So many, many (so many) stars (stars)...

Sharing this appeal from Avaaz.org

Signatures' Update 04 June 2008
329,170 have signed the petition. Help us get to 500,000

"Dear friends,

An emergency summit of world leaders is addressing the skyrocketing food crisis. The head of the United Nations will receive our call to action at the summit this Wednesday. Help us hit 500,000 signatures!

Sign the petition
The world food crisis is skyrocketing – steadily rising prices are squeezing billions and triggering food riots from Bangladesh to South Africa. Aid agencies say 100 million people are facing starvation.

In response, the United Nations is convening an emergency summit of world leaders in Rome this week. There is a real danger that rich country leaders will push half measures and band-aid solutions – we need a huge global outcry to demand rapid, massive, coordinated action.

The head of the UN, Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, will receive our petition at the summit at 9:30AM on Wednesday morning. This is a huge opportunity for our voice to reach our leaders directly, but we need half a million voices in the next 60 hours. Click below to sign the petition if you haven't yet, and forward this email to everyone you know:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/world_food_crisis/5.php?cl=94374162

Already over 200,000 Avaaz members have joined our call for emergency food aid and deeper solutions such as investing in food production in poor countries and fixing harmful rich country policies such as burning food as biofuels. Our campaign was launched in response to a personal video appeal to our community from the foreign minister of Sierra Leone, where 90% of the population are facing severe hunger. Click above to watch the video.

The food crisis, like the climate crisis, is a planetary emergency. It's another sign of how interdependent and fragile our world is. And how we all need to work together, across all our borders and divisions, to save it.

With hope,

Paul, Ricken, Graziela, Galit, Iain, Ben, Pascal, Veronique, Milena and the whole Avaaz team

PS – here's a link to see past Avaaz campaigns: www.avaaz.org/en/report_back_1

And here's some more background information on the food crisis:

The Director of the UN Human Development report warns in the Guardian that the Rome summit could just put a band-aid on this crisis:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/02/food.globaleconomy

The BBC analyzes the 'Silent Tsunami' of the food crisis:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/world/2008/costoffood/default.stm

The US will face criticism at the summit for 'burning food' as biofuels:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/business/worldbusiness/30food.html?em&ex=1212379200&en=7893996338e2f455&ei=5087%0A

ABOUT AVAAZ
Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Paris, Washington DC, and Geneva.

I feel comfortable with myself, just like how my friends feel comfortable with me and how I feel when with my true friends.

Best use of my imagination would be for spreading love to as many as possible in my lifetime.  At the core of this endeavour would be just being and evolving into my highest self.   And at its peripheries: living sustainably; being a good wife, parent, and global citizen; celebrating life - dancing, singing, laughing, giggling, crafting poems, making and keeping friends, etc.; evolving my enterprise; advocating and collaborating with others for a good cause....

How does one know one has been really listened to?  One can only assume. It is up for the other person to answer and perhaps that other person may or may not even know for sure.  When I'm my real self, I do listen from the heart (which is what true listening is all about) but at other times I'm merely partly listening and partly hearing.  When I listen from the heart then naturally I communicate better and I feel that this encourages the other person to also listen well, and there is true connection and a feeling of caring for one another.


Effective 2-way communication demands that we capture both content and intent and learn to speak the languages of logic and emotion... Of the two, the language of emotion is far more motivational and powerful... This is why it is so important to listen primarily with our eyes and heart and secondarily with our ears. ~ Stephen R. Covey

Genuine listening means suspending memory, desire, and judgment, and, for a moment at least, existing for the other person.~ Michael P. Nichols

Well, now that you've put the question, I remember some random questions that I do ask often - What is the new learning or unlearning or relearning from this particular experience or adventure? How can I spread more love into this world?  What would be another way to do this or that? How can I improve this relationship with______? How can I move my enterprise further?

Change is a constant in my life that just happens before I could even dare to handle it. It comes, it goes from the moment by moment body sensations as I breathe in and breathe out to the mood changes due to the weather or the environment (whoever or whatever's around me) to minor or major life's transitions.  They may come announced, though mostly they appear unannounced.  As an unannounced guest that comes, change is always welcome to the open door of my heart.  What do I say to someone experiencing change, nothing.  It's up for each person to experience change and in time as each person awakens deeper in the self, change will flow in rhythm with ONE.

When I am my spriritual self, when I'm with my family and/or friends, when I'm engrossed in my passions, and those other times when I feel complete, give and receive love are when I feel the wealthiest and don't need anything else.

Adapted from Why is God Laughing? by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2008)

Courtesy care2.com

The values that drive the material world must be reversed entirely if you want to realize God. In the conventional view, self-worth comes down to having a strong ego. People who possess strong egos feel self-confident. They enjoy asserting themselves against obstacles. They meet challenges, and in return life gives them money, status, and possessions-—external rewards for external accomplishment.

In that light, it’s almost embarrassing that Jesus teaches exactly the opposite–to be loved by God, one must be innocent, humble, a servant to all men. But Jesus’ view accords with the great wisdom traditions, which hold that a person’s worth doesn’t change depending on external success and its rewards. A person’s worth is the value of a soul, which is infinite. Since every event in your life isn’t happening just to a person but to a soul, everything in life should be cherished.

We all know that life has its ups and downs, and that our sense of self-worth rises and falls accordingly. Napoleon was a titan when he won victories on the battlefield but a dwarf after Waterloo. In a world of change, we ego-driven people seem to be puppets to every whim of circumstance. Yet from the soul’s point of view, change occurs against the backdrop of non-change; the basis of existence is eternal, unmoved, steady, and all encompassing.

How can you shift your attention away from change? I am largely unconvinced by people who say that they feel the real, immediate presence of God, Jesus, or their souls. Those are extremely advanced attainments on the spiritual path, certainly not among the first doors that open on the journey. But I do know that I can experience myself, so now my job is to find the part of myself that doesn’t change. Clearly my mind changes all the time, as quickly as the next thought, and so does my body, as quickly as the next skin cell sloughing off or the next heartbeat. So the search for non-change must take me elsewhere.

This is where meditation proves most useful. When you meditate, you shift your focus. Instead of paying attention to the surface of the mind, which teems with constant change, you go deeper to experience silence. In and of itself, silence is pointless. Life is about action and response, not silent detachment. But inner silence is something far more profound: It is awareness being aware of itself, also known as wakefulness, or mindfulness.

In its silent depths, your mind knows everything that’s going on. Time collapses into a single focal point, where the one unshakable thing you know is “I am.” This isn’t passive knowledge. It is the center of everything, the source of all the activity that springs forth as thoughts, sensations, and external events. Silence, it turns out, is the womb of creation. Therefore, meditation is a creative event through which you are reclaiming authorship of your life.

Now we see what meditating 24 hours a day actually means: You retain your alertness and wakefulness all the time. Once you have authorship of your self, you come out of silence into activity to write your own story. Now there is no difference between sitting in meditation and living in the world. Both are expressions of awareness, the one silent, and the other active. Now you maintain two types of attention, one devoted to change, the other to non-change. This is the shift in consciousness that allows you to live from the level of the soul.

Am a work of art, am living art, am evolving and constantly co-creating art with you, I, we, and the ONE.  Art is in heART and in eARTh, and it's not just by coincidence. Art emanates and is experienced from our hearts and nature is teeming with art.

Feel most free when I just go with the flow, like a waterfall gushing forth in wild abandon, without a care in the world, then meandering along in its path of discovery, delighting in the experience and the surprises, until I merge with the one source and just be.

In spirit, am alone and yet never alone.  In my human experience, I give priority to solitude so I can connect with my inner self.  Lately I have realised that I can be alone, even when in a crowd.

Stop trying hard to be a good Dad!  You already are, just be.  You are love and are loved!

Hmmm...perhaps, I'll change the question into what I find not mysterious.  From the invisible to the partly visible - every moment, DNA, cell, breath, spirit , wind, life, you and me, nature, love, emotions....and everything else - they're all a mystery to me.

Green Thing is a new community that makes it easy and enjoyable to be a bit greener. Every month you'll get a different Green Thing to do. All you have to do is do it.

Do June's Green Thing.

Every month you get great videos to inspire you to do the Green Thing. If you love the video but don't do it, that's not great. If you throw tomatoes at the screen but then do it, that's much better, strangely enough.  More >>

Whenever I journey within, I'm bound to meet peace and we have a great time together!

Above Image: "Journey to your heart" by Myrna Shoa

Not yet, but it's getting there.  Yes, I feel it reflects the world in the sense that many minds are still works-in-progress into becoming safe places to be.

Healing is a journey we all go through in life. Everyone could be a healer and rely on another or nature for healing at certain points in time in different areas of one's life. Everyone has access to the gift or power of healing which lies in the ONE, and what each one has to do is to open up and let the power come through for self-healing as well as for sharing with others.

Also, I read and would like you to do the same Rev Om Bastet's blog on healing  

I guess am either just balanced or not, no comparative levels.  Feel balanced when I'm centered, connected, focused and in the flow.  That's also when I'm happy and full of loving energy to share all around me and within.

by Annie B. Bond. Adapted from Face Value, by Hema Sundaram (Rodale Press, 2003). Courtesy care2.com

It seems to be hard-wired into our genes to want to be attractive and beautiful. The cosmetic industry knows it, and so do cosmetic surgeons–and their profits continue to pour in. But there are secrets to an ageless and infinite beauty that is within reach of all of us, without makeup, chemical peels, botox, or the surgeon’s knife.

These six principles of transcendent beauty are worth being passed along to your friends: they are real keepers. Read them here:

1. You must feel beautiful before you can look beautiful.
As the old saying goes, “There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.” When we connect with our inner beauty (which we can do with meditation), we connect with an ageless, infinite, and divine beauty that exists within all of us.

2. Get past the ordeal by mirror.
We need to get past the compulsion that drives us to root out our tiny imperfections and then feel guilt and shame when we see our reflections as inadequate. We need to get rid of negative feelings that cloud our vision of ourselves and instead begin to see ourselves the way our loved ones see us. And it also wouldn’t hurt to get rid of all our magnifying mirrors, which magnify “flaws”, and instead use lighting that enhances our reflections when we look into our non-magnifying mirrors!

3. Take responsibility for your own happiness.
Think of your inner self as a lighthouse standing steady with a constant beam despite the buffeting of the surrounding ocean. How powerful it is to envision your inner self as a sanctum protected from the vagaries of the outer world! It can also be empowering to analyze our situation, choose to be happy despite the aspects you can’t control, and take positive steps to change what you can control.

4. Live in the present.
One of the often overlooked ways to recognize the beauty within you is to concentrate on living in the present and to avoid basing your actions and feelings on thought and memories of the past. If you can become aware of this tendency, even for just for brief moments during your life, you’ll come to understand that others’ reactions to you are the result of what you project. If you want to elicit positive reactions from those around you, you need to express positive emotions and perform affirmative acts. From the beauty viewpoint, living in the present means accepting yourself as you are while not denying yourself as you were or might be.

5. Surround yourself with beauty.
Surrounding yourself with beauty–both tangible and intangible–is a time-honored technique for nurturing your soul. Keep living plants and animals in your home. Clothe yourself in beautiful garments–or, rather, garments that make you feel beautiful. Keep company with people who elevate you rather than bring you down–people who love you and show their love. Whether you believe in fortunes or fate, your life is yours to shape. And the most important and positive decision you can make is to bring beauty into your life.

6. Do at least one thing a day that inspires you.
We draw oxygen from the air we breathe, but we draw life from our passions. Keep your passions at the center of your days, whatever they may be–music, sports, cooking, reading, or writing. Whatever feeds your soul and makes it sing.

When I'm in the now, then waiting is irrelevant.  There's no past or future, just the present.  So what does one wait for? Not even the next moment, as it just comes then goes and give way to the next, and the cycle goes on.  But when I'm not in the now, then waiting could either be bearable or not, a true test of one's patience.  If one fails the test, then it could create an imbalance.

In our human experience suffering comes inevitably and for a reason. So when it comes I face it and trust my inner wisdom that I can get past it, learn from it and realize that it could turn into something positive for myself and others.  During times of suffering, it is tempting to wallow in self-pity and depression, so I keep watchful of that.  When someone is suffering, I offer support in the form of prayers, presence, cheer, resources, and anything else that my instincts tell me might be helpful.

Looking at my watch and wondering if I have enough time left to do this or that. Gladly I misplaced it, don't mind and am managing without it.

I was just listening to The Partridge Family in youtube when I read this question. Call it synchronicity or whatever, I felt that this music (COME ON GET HAPPY!) is my answer to the question right at this moment.