Search through posts
-
Recent Posts
Categories
Archives
- August 2021
- July 2021
- January 2021
- April 2020
- December 2019
- September 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- March 2017
- October 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- August 2015
- February 2015
- November 2014
- October 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- May 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
Meta
Category Archives: All posts
Visualization and Imagination
Recently, I’ve done a little bit of philosophical hedge-trimming, and I found one key concept that gives our lives a sense of magic. It imbues life with a creative spark, and its application is the difference between understanding and ignorance. … Continue reading
Mountain Eyes
Let the boy go forth, and when he returns you will see the rolling plains and the green hills, the immensity of the mountains, the vast ocean reflected back in his hazel eyes and the wind in his tousled hair. … Continue reading
Rain
I love the rain, and I love the cold. I walked home from work late at night last week, after the storm, and I felt at peace. The wind was blowing cold, carrying wet air from the ocean, and the drizzle … Continue reading
Strength like a Tiger
Be like a tiger in your strength, with muscles ever rippling in the sun, ever aware—every movement, every motion strong, yet graceful and effortless. Be like a tiger in the effort that you use— just enough. Be fierce when it … Continue reading
Years
I am often afraid that the years will leave me. If I stop pursuing, if I take a break, someone will catch up to me, proving me fraud, and all the capacity that’s come to me over the years will … Continue reading
Sea Caves
There are caves hidden within each man, very deep caves, which have been carved into the stone of his soul as the water carves when it hits the cliff at shore’s edge. When the waves roll in they crash through … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative
Tagged appreciate, caves, crash, mindfulness, poetry, sea, sea caves, watch, watching, waves
Leave a comment
DO IT RIGHT NOW
I’ll cut to the chase: you will never get anything done unless you start doing it right now. This very moment. Immediately. I’m serious! Your intentions, your goals, the things you want to do or think about doing all the … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Mindfulness, Self-Improvement
Tagged action, decision, decision-making, do, do it right now, healthy, idea, ideas, it, mindfulness, moment, now, philosophy, right
1 Comment
The Shakedown
In my dreams, everything falls down around me. I try to hold it all together, but I can’t, I can’t. I pick these things back up, but only get props for taking the blame, for knocking over something clean when … Continue reading
Circles
A spinning box of rainbow rosepetals, swirling behind eyelids black with night— emotions folding inward, inward, like tired ghosts joining the collective soul. Downsize your dramas—mould like clay, until you are dense, refined and lovely, perfect in impenetrability. These are … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative
Tagged calm, dream, dreams, poetry, sleep, unity
Leave a comment
Meditations
December is meditation month! Once per day, err day. I decided to write about each session as well, to give me extra incentive to do it for the full month. The following are my journal entries based around meditation, loose … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Mindfulness
Tagged altered states, ayn rand, body, chopin, collective unconscious, illness, immune system, joints, journal, journalling, journals, love, meditation, meditations, piano, reading, reflection, reflections, sickness, stretching, the fountainhead, unconscious, william hurt, yoga
Leave a comment
Kayak
Paddle through the breaking waves. All is broken blue; shattered water, strewn clouds above. Pierce the final crest; you’re in the clear. You glide. The pull of the sea, the pull outwards. Keep paddling—left, right. You’ll make it to the … Continue reading
Wear
The clothes you love are not the newest, the shiny dresses all in vogue. Your favorite clothes have stood the test of time—they’re worn ragged, they are frayed. They’re no longer here. They get thrown away. My clothes are mostly … Continue reading
Oblivion and Understanding
In the beginning, we are given an impulse towards life, sent off like spinning tops with an initial velocity and rotation. Like tops, the paths that we carve out through space and time are largely determined by the initial force … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, Self-Improvement
Tagged awareness, death, ignorance, life, oblivion, philosophy, sleep, understanding
1 Comment
What is lost?
What is lost? When you are five minutes late, and your friend didn’t mind waiting; When you rush somewhere and in doing so forget about where you already are; When the place you were going to ends up not mattering … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, Mindfulness
Tagged beauty, gained, lost, mindfulness, slow
Leave a comment
Balance
Balance has been occupying my thoughts recently, both the physical act of balancing and balance as a metaphor. Balance is stability, awareness, and controlled movement during chaos. We think “Oh, how I should love to live a balanced life.” Eat … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Mindfulness, Snippets
Tagged annoyance, balance, equilibrium, mindfulness
Leave a comment
Travellers
To be human is to be hungry. Our life, just like our metabolism, is a perpetual cycle driven by temporary satisfaction. We are born hungry. We find food, and the body digests it, giving enough energy to continue searching for … Continue reading
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
I read some excerpts that resonated with me last night: “Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speed up. If … Continue reading
Posted in All posts
Tagged motorcycle maintenance, zen, zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance
Leave a comment
may i
Everything is falling out. Pages in my sketchbook. No more lines or boundaries. But that doesn’t bother me. Eventually I will learn. The month is May. If I ever want to see how many days my streak has lasted, I’ll … Continue reading
Skeletons
Sometimes when I get too caught up with the weighty beauty of the physical world, becoming breathless, enamored, enraptured, I envision everyone around me as an animated skeleton. I strip away all their flesh and picture a gangly lattice of … Continue reading
smd
Time marches inexorably on, and soon I will die. What are the most satisfying things you do in a given day? That first stretch when you wake up? Eating? Taking a shit? Going back to sleep again? I’m here to … Continue reading
The Sea at Westcliff
Every day during my senior year of college I would walk along Westcliff Drive. The first thing that struck me was the view—there’s about a mile of exposed cliff face overlooking the Boardwalk, the beach, and the bay between the … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, great
Tagged cliff, climate, emptiness, life, lighthouse, ocean, santa cruz, santa cruz wharf, substance, water, west, westcliff, whales
3 Comments
The Mantra
Every minute of every day I will make the choices which are right for me, and I will not fear the consequences, for I know they are a reflection of my truest self.
Weightlifting Logs
I’ve decided to start logging my weightlifting sessions. Hopefully this way I can share some of my journey, help out other people as they progress with tips of my own, and pose questions about form and diet that I want … Continue reading
Posted in All posts
Tagged bench press, compound exercises, deadlift, lifting, logs, mark rippetoe, nutrition, overhead press, power cleans, squats, SS, starting strength, weight, weightlifting
8 Comments
On Discomfort
There was one major experience in my life that helped turn my perception around. In the summer of 2010, my life revolved around Super Smash Bros. I played every day, listening to music for hours on end and clacking away … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Mindfulness, Self-Improvement
Tagged acknowledge, acknowledgement, comfort, discomfort, games, gaming, health, homies, injury, pain, party, recognize, shoulder, videogames
1 Comment
On Comfort
In Peace is Every Step, Thich Nhat Hanh describes walking meditation: “Although we walk all the time, our walking is usually more like running. When we walk like that, we print anxiety and sorrow on the Earth. We have to walk … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Mindfulness, Self-Improvement
Tagged body, comfort, discomfort, exercise, growth, mindfulness, social skills, thich nhat hanh, walking meditation
1 Comment
Three Simple Rules for Changing Yourself
I can’t say it enough: Say yes to the right things, so no to the wrong things, and do it as soon as possible. This one sentence is a moral compass you can use for the rest of your life. … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Self-Improvement
Tagged acceptance, alan watts, change, choice, decision, decision-making, eckhart tolle, emotions, growth, health, healthy-living, judgment, mental-health, mindfulness, moral compass, morals, no, now, positivity, power of now, rules, self-control, simple, thich nhat hanh, three, willpower, yes
1 Comment
Remember this?
Both menial and significant things are worth tackling this way. Chores evaporate, and the big tasks become easier when you don’t give yourself time to worry about them. We all know the logic behind these things: doing things is the … Continue reading
Posted in All posts
Tagged arthur the aardvark, monster, now, power, present, scary, willpower
2 Comments
Creating Positivity: the “Yes” Inside
Awhile ago, when I was slacklining in Santa Cruz, the topic of psychedelics came up. A few people I know took acid and went to a nice nature spot to enjoy themselves. One of them, a friend of a friend … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Self-Improvement
Tagged experience, human, joy, lsd, meditation, mindfulness, now, positivity, yes
2 Comments
Balm
Sometimes it seems like the best things are just a balm, which soothes the ever-burning question: “What now?”
Words I Like
God is a silently beaming benefactor.
the coziest universe
They make the universe look so comfortable in all the science shows; clouds of dust and gas rumple up like celestial drier sheets while awesome music plays in the background. They present a cosmos that you cannot help but want … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, great, Snippets
Tagged alive, blanket, comfortable, into the wormhole, morgan freeman, universe
4 Comments
The world truly belongs to God, for his fingerprints are all over it
So over the last few days, I’ve just been writing out all the ideas I’ve had in my head. I figure it’s good practice! You probably noticed I have a bunch of recurring metaphors: inner fire, scale and patterns, big … Continue reading
The Perma-Stoke
As the years have come and gone, imparting me with new knowledge and experiences, my life’s goal has become increasingly clear: to achieve the elusive perma-stoke. It’s self explanatory. To be perma-stoked is to be stoked as hell, permanently. Take … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, Self-Improvement
Tagged beauty, chimney, coals, fire, perma, perma-stoke, stoke, zen
Leave a comment
Cross-eyed
My favorite point of the view is the too-close, the cross-eyed, where the frame of your own body alters the thing you’re looking at; the uncommon times when you can see yourself in relation to something else. Under the covers, … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative
Tagged awareness, body, covers, cross eyed, details, grass, heavy philosophical shit, perspective, rainy day, sleep
Leave a comment
A Secret
In the bathroom of the house I grew up in, there was a peculiar light fixture. Four or five lightbulbs were mounted on a brass backboard, above the sink and mirror where I saw my reflection each morning. Long glass … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative
Tagged adolescence, count of monte cristo, details, fantasy, nbd, secret, swordplay
Leave a comment
Highlining and Willpower
I went highlining yesterday, at Garrapata State Park, with a group of good friends of mine. Highlining is probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. It’s slacklining, but really high. It involves stretching a piece of webbing between two … Continue reading
Uncorking
It feels like I have way too much pent-up energy these days. Emotions are bottled away, and I’ve gotta uncork them. This blog in particular exists in a weird place in my mind. Everything I’ve written so far has been … Continue reading
Long time no see
Hey everybody. I’ve been timid, and for that I apologize. Change is the scariest thing in the world; sometime around the turn of the new year, I felt myself changing, and I got scared. So I stopped writing, talking to … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Self-Improvement
Tagged don't be a pussy, ennui, forsheezy, greezy, grind, grizzly, it's not worth it, melancholy, motivation
8 Comments
My Furiously Beating Heart
My furiously beating heart pumps blood like punches as I lie and try to sleep. I can’t succumb to what I’m not; it demands to take hold of this moment like a prisoner. The pressure of each beat is a message … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative
Tagged blood, heart, insomnia, pressure, veins
Leave a comment
Words of Encouragement
hey everybody I just wanted to say that I love you all. Each of you is beautiful, amazing, funny, awesome, and the world would be much worse if you weren’t around. Don’t do shitty, stupid things to yourself, because you … Continue reading
Note to Self
I took some time out yesterday to make this reminder for myself, and it lives on my computer desk now. If you’ve been thinking about something, forget about any distractions and just do it. It’s really that simple. If it’s … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Self-Improvement
Tagged distraction, do, it, just, just do it, note to self, productivity, reminder
1 Comment
Bits and Pieces
When you first meet someone, it’s only a glance. You fall in love with a sidelong gaze, a vague peripheral impression, fleeting eyes on the bus. Your first idea of someone is a disconnected image which floats around in your … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, great
Tagged acquisition, distance, emotions, existentialism, knowledge, love
1 Comment
Folds
I want to swallow you up like a pelican encase you in the warm folds of my neck and, stretching, yield to all your struggles until you stop moving. This was a poem I … Continue reading
One-Day Fiction: Part 1
My sister is wise beyond her years. She challenged me to write a short story in one day and post it ASAP. The goal of this exercise was to get used to writing and not worrying about the result. Overall … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative
Tagged author, awkward, college, fiction, kids, romance, short story, writing
5 Comments
jejunejesuit 