Displacement

Time is our most precious resource, and I like to use mine to travel. Seeing other parts of our planet makes me feel connected to it, to our species, and to all the amazing life that lives here. 

I still wonder how much it would change the course of our world if every human being went up to a space station to view the Earth, as a field trip. Maybe once when you are ten, again when you’re thirty, and a last time when you’re seventy. The numbers are arbitrary, but it would almost serve as a check-in for us. 

We’re all part of one complicated, beautiful system. Travel, displacing one’s self from normalcy and comfort, enables you to see that.

Walking it Out

I don’t walk the streets outside my neighborhood that often anymore, working from home. Today I got the chance to walk somewhere I haven’t in a while.

There’s something to walking a place—you get a better feel for it than any other kind of transportation. It makes me wonder how much walking affects culture. In many places in the United States we don’t walk very much anymore. Maybe our sense of belonging and togetherness would increase just by walking around more. 

Focus & Consideration

It’s so easy to get caught up in the day to day, without thinking about the grand scheme of it all. Maybe that’s what we need to do more, as a society, as a species… is consider the bigger picture. Consider, and think beyond what we’re biologically predisposed to focus on. We can do it right?

Navigating Together

What is really living? Different people would say a lot of different things: that’s what I’ve learned so far at least—no one life seems to be the same as any other. 

Messaging about what livin’ good looks like bombards us from all different sources and directions, all the time. That’s what effervescence is. 

How we navigate this experience is up to each of us. We could even do it together. 

Thriving Current

Recently I’ve found a new antidote to my rising cynicism of institutions and corporations. For starters, it’s a luxury for me to even feel any resentment; I could have been born a peasant 900 years ago and be fighting starvation each moon cycle. But I also have found meaning in the challenges we face in our world today. Light will conquer the darkness, it must. Just how life has conquered the impossibility of its existence in this universe, on this planet. Everything will be okay. We have to allow ourselves to thrive. 

Love with Dinner

On Valentine’s Day the tradition is to have a fancy dinner with your date. There is something magical about having a meal with a loved one, light dancing off the walls and conversation carrying the night away. A special day like today reinforces this simple truth. There is so much love in the world… we just have to embrace it. 

Tribal Development

One thing the pandemic has granted is an expanded perspective on life and meaning. Moments with family, loved ones, and friends are precious. Developing our tribe is paramount, and we need to do it at a global scale. We can, because we can do anything. 

Traveling this Earth

I deeply enjoyed much talk about travel tonight, and it invigorated my sense of adventure. The world is vast, and grand, and diverse… and beautiful and mesmerizing and incredible. There is so much to explore. 

How lucky I am, in so many ways, to even fathom the pursuit of exploring some of it. 

None of us will ever truly fully explore the planet, and that’s part of what makes it magical. We can pursue adventure in our limited lifetime, choosing which corners of the globe to discover.

Our time is limited, and that’s part of what makes it meaningful. The Earth it seems, in my limited understanding, is not limited; and I’m grateful it’s my home. 

Time x Tribe

And all of a sudden it can slip away within a few hours. Time indeed can be of the essence, but it’s your relationships that move you through the world. It becomes abundantly clear when there’s water entering your dwelling.

Do we recognize the importance of our tribe? Do we see that we’re in fact one big global tribe?

Fickle Time

Time really is a fickle thing. I remember my dad telling me when I was young, “the pages of time turn faster as you get older.” It certainly appears to be true.

But it can also slow down in the space of an hour, even if the past year has gone by in a blur. Taming the mistress of time is one of life’s eternal journeys. 

The pandemic has made it that much more difficult for our generation, those of us going through it with the rest of our lives ahead. What are we going to do?

Rising up for Change

I’ve been pushing back against creeping cynicism for a while now. A lot of it is probably pandemic fatigue. But it’s obvious we need to make changes in our society. Can we do it democratically? Can we engage long enough to demand change? Even if we feel hopeless about it, some person some day will rise up to effect change. Why can’t it be us?

Tribal Stories

Today I listened to my grandmother tell stories about my grandfather’s family. Decisions they made according to the times, where they chose to live and why, that sort of thing. 

I wondered to myself, did my grandpa ever imagine he would have three daughters and six grandchildren when he was “all grown up?” Surely not right?

We inherit so much from our family, and we owe them what can never be paid back. Our parents who create and raise us; we will always be in their debt. Those from long before; they made sacrifices, many of which we’ll never know, that enable us to enjoy our present circumstances. 

We are the product of our family. And all these families, all around the world, are just trying to do the best for themselves and for their children. 

I enjoyed hearing those stories today, because it connected me to those I barely or never knew, and it allowed me to view my existence in a different light. 

People Power

No matter one’s political affiliation, an erosion of trust has occurred. We don’t feel our institutions work in our best interests, those of the common people. To secure that power, we must take it back. It’s the only way to ensure our rights and voices are heard. To enjoy a true democracy, the people must own the power of government. It’s time for us to seize it. 

Life Elixir

When you’ve found the elixir, it begets hesitation amongst your kin. But that is in fact what connects us, what unites us. 

We are all here, in this very place, right now, with each other. There is no majesty of thought that can replace the sheer sensory reality of it. 

What will you do? What will I? What will we commit to in this moment together?

Reality of it All

Isn’t it funny how the world seems to grow up as we do? I mean, our understanding only keeps growing as we get older? 

Reality is wild. When we acknowledge that, we enter another realm. 

It’s goes beyond changing the world. It’s the eternal connection to it. 

With the Tribe

When things aren’t going well, spend time with your tribe. For different people, that can mean different things. Sitcoms in the ‘90’s show us that much. 

I just find this to be more and more true as I get older, as life goes on. What is life without your family, without your tribe 

Embracing the Wonder of it All

We do live in an incredibly amazing world. Why do we not feel hopeful about our species’ existence?

We must not let pandemic fatigue become the new collective emotional normal. There are still millions of things to celebrate. There are polar bears in the world! And dilapidated ruins of ancient civilizations all over the planet, full of history and art. Our planet’s tilt and rotation is such that we enjoy these things called seasons, as the abundant water and air moves around and changes.

There is work to do, yes. Work we must do. It’s imperative we address some of our biggest problems. But despair does not get us out; it only guarantees dread’s foreboding. 

Fight it. Embrace all the good and wonderful in the world, all the awe that makes up our universe, the splendor that is life. If we do that, we can change the world. 

GD on 2-22

I’ve been fatigued from the forever-pandemic (or so it seems), just like everyone else, I’m sure. It can be so easy for every day to feel like every other, a never-ending trudge to oblivion. 

And yet, any “ordinary” day can be special. I’ve realized that this week. Today is Groundhog Day, an early commemoration of the seasons, a hint of change. The date was also 2-2-22, a unique marker that won’t happen again for a hundred years. 

Every day is special, and different, if we let it be. And gratitude enables us to see it. 

A New Tiger Year

Spring Festival in China evokes similar excitement and buildup as Christmas in the US, at least in my experience. It’s a time for family, for gratitude and well wishes, and of course, eating. I remember braving the cold in the northeast, feeling the anticipation in the air as nearly everyone was off work.

I think we need breaks like this during the year, special times in which we can gather, reflect, and celebrate. Much like the structure of music, culture requires some consistency, and some variation. Happy Lunar New Year to all who celebrate it. May the year of the Tiger bring health, joy, and prosperity. 

Earthly Paradise

Our planet is miraculous in its beauty and diversity. The sunset tonight on my walk was stunning, just an ordinary night in the South Bay. That happens all around the world, in various places depending on the ever changing weather, day after day. How lucky we are to enjoy such a paradise. We must not take it for granted.