Mindfulness

The biggest life lessons are actually quiet, gradual, and you will be sitting randomly drinking a cup of Earl Grey as it slowly creeps to the conscious part of your mind. Or at least that's how it happened to me. One of the most common questions on journaling topic lists are: What is a lesson you wish you could go back in time and tell your sixteen year old self?  What is the biggest lesson you have learned in life?  So as cliched as it seems, I decided to take this topic on, because I believe this is a lesson that would work in any phase of life.  Phases of Life:  Curious Kid:  Life is a journey and when you start you are open to everything. You are a kid. Everything around you is exciting and unknown. So you seize the day and do crazy dangerous things like put a key in a socket, because you were pretending to drive the DeLorean. You are excited about school and you can imagine yourself doing anything. Life is mystery and it's fun.  Disson...

I am fascinated with language. Always have been. Might have been my socratic training approach to philosophy, which teaches that in order to discuss a concept in depth you need to check your own knowledge of what IT is. Take the example of when Socrates was accused of impious acts and behaviors. He started by asking a simple question: what does impious mean? This led him to realize he was asking the wrong question at the wrong time and where he should start is to define piety. This might seem like an exhausted pointless exercise, but really it tests how well you understand what you know and what others know. Also language is a tricky thing where meanings evolve and societal misuse or misunderstanding can be  prevalent for big concepts like truth or justice. I have done this with the word 'happiness' and now I want to examine the word 'hope.' Definitions:  So what is hope? According to Merriam dictionary it means, "a feeling of expectation and desire for a ce...

Another year has passed and therefore another reflection is to be made and another chapter of my life needs to be titled. These are the chapters of my life so far as a re-cap before I get into my reflections of this year.  1987-2001  CHILDHOOD 2001-2005  ADOLESCENCE  2005 the year of  DOUBT 2006 the year of  LOSS 2007 the year of the  HOPE 2008 the year of  ABANDON  2009 the year of  UNKNOWN 2010 the year of  RISK 2011 the year of  LEARNING  2012 the year of  PAYING DUES  2013 the year of  ISOLATION  2014 the year of  DEVELOPMENT 2015 the year of  HOME 2016 the year of  EXPANSION 2017 the year of  FOLLOW THROUGH   I have honestly never had a year like this year. I think this is why I am having a hard time naming 2018 any name, because I feel like no matter what direction I go the word misses something important. Normally, I tell you the chapter title an...