Views Of The World

"When I was a kid, they used to tell me that I can be anything that I want to be. No matter what. And maybe I am insane, I don't know. But I still believe that. I believe it with all my heart. Somewhere along the line, we stopped believing that we could do anything. And if we don't have our dreams, then we have nothing" - Charles Farmer, The Astronaut Farmer

A touching TV commercial for the 2005 Chinese New Year by acclaimed Malaysian director Yasmin Ahmad. She passed away yesterday from a stroke (http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/7/26/nation/4396007&sec=nation), but her memory is saying this to us...

May I, may we, never forget the values that she so deftly depicted in all her films.

The literal translation of what the grandmother told the boy is something like "Able to eat the bitter, able to let go, have love in the heart, is enough"

(Zi de ku, kan de kai, yu ai xin, jiu ke yi le)

Our parents and their parents, and some of us have known such circumstances and surroundings (yes, even my ultra-hip, ultra-modern "baby sis", Ashley). Still, no matter how hard the times, how little we had, how tough it got, it was all about love, family, filial piety, understanding, forgiveness, friendship, etc. May I remember and be able to teach my children such things.

And give them roots as well as wings...

"Cherry blossoms, falling onto winter snow, dancing in the wind,
A Warrior kneels, prays, and embraces emptiness;
Listen to the wind, it calls your name,
Look into a mirror, and see your soul,
Look into a mirror, and see...Greatness.

When I die, scatter me to the winds, the waters,
the fires, the four corners of the earth. But now I live,
and life is beautiful"

A poem I wrote more than 15 years ago, on a dark lonely night, when hope was dim, and faith was dying, and fear encircled me all around
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Through life I wandered,
I was alone,
Lost in a wilderness,
Where light never shone.
Looking for love in all the wrong places,
Looking for love in too many faces,
Hoping i things that always past,
Hoping in things that never last.

Then came You to me, You said "Come home,
"Come with Me, I'll set you free, I'll give you Life
and lead you home"

Beauty flows like a stream,
Into the River of my life,
And that River becomes a Sea,
Abounding in love for all Eternity.

And now, though the nights be long, yet a light shall shine;
A Light that shines as flames of fire, and it changes water into wine.
Now, as an eagle am I, in flight,
Winging through the greatest heights,
For You, O Lord, You gave I the Gift Of Life.

Speak to me in words of fire,
In a life cold with the frost of boredom,
Inspire me, give life to my spirit,
Make my soul scream the delights of joy.

Please, speak to me in words of fire

My heart blows cold like the winds of winter,
Winds that seem to freeze the very blood in my veins
With the dictates of a life rigid with false rules.
How fiery they rage, and yet how fleeting,
Living for a time, then vanishing like snow's blossoms.

Deleted forum threads are like life itself...

Sometimes we know why...and often times we have no inkling why. And no explanation is forthcoming from the moderators. Pretty frustrating, I know. Just like when things happen and we don't know why and we question God, or whoever or whatever it is you believe (or don't believe) in.

"WHY?!?"

And the heavens are silent.

We are then left with 3 possible options.

1. Scream and whine -- "It's unfair!" -- blame the whole world and refuse to participate anymore.

2. Take it in stride, accept the pain, embrace it, understand it and move on with life.

3. Lie down and die

In a forum, things may happen exactly like that. As the sayings go, "Life Happens" and "Sh*t Happens".

How you react/respond is up to you. Just like Life.

Now, shall we dance?

Love these songs and love the movie!This is how we should live...and even how we should sell :-)

Fun, easy-going, good times -- and sexy (Sway)

Passionate, intense (Santa Maria - "Shall We Dance" and the "Take The Lead" clip)

Elegant (Waltz - "Shall We Dance)

Romance us with such emotions and we shall become passionate fans. Think you can handle it?

And this..."Take The Lead"

My views and philosophy are simple...perhaps that of, as captain John Smith said, "savages". If to revere nature and Mother Earth is to be a savage, then so be it. If believing and adhering to the things being sung in this song make me a savage, then I'd rather be a savage than civilized.

At those times when the spirit falters, and faith flickers, and hope dims, it is the Believer who retains the strength to go on..

A man must believe in something. It is the believer who truly lives. The skeptic, the cynic simply dies inside. Actually no, he does not, because he had never truly lived. Everyone believes in something.

The "intellectual" pontificates, the believer marches. History is created and ruled by believers.

I must believe, or else I shall die, having never lived. I choose to believe in an Awesome God.

What do you choose...?

Beautiful, beautiful song. May I be such a man to my wife and such a father to my son.

When the day is done, and the hurts of life would bear her down, I will be there for my wife. When the slings and arrows of life pierces the heart and it hurts like dickens, I will be there for my son. And I will make them feel my love...

DO NOT STAND AT MY GRAVE AND WEEP
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints of snow.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.

Poem by Mary Frye, a Baltimore homemaker, who wrote this, her first poem, in 1932 to console her friend Margaret who was grieving the death of her mother. Margaret cried that she was not able to visit her mother's grave to say goodbye because she died in Germany during Hitler's powerful reign. The poem came to Mary while she was checking off a list of groceries so she gave it to Margaret written on a torn grocery sack.

Acknowledgment: I first read this at Janet Lanier's blog at http://janetlanier.com

Facebook | Stand On My Grave And Tell Me The News Of The World's Notes: "There is turmoil in the world because there is turmoil in our hearts. Yet we know not what to do to remove that turmoil FROM our hearts. We only know how to act out that turmoil, driven by nothing else but the demons and dragons of our inner fears.

We need help...

Whether from ourselves, from a higher power, from something. Else we may end up destroying each other, all in the name of nothing.

That, Traveler, is the state of much of the world today. But there is yet hope. Not all the world is afire. Much of it still remains the beautiful world that it is. We can still keep it beautiful...if we put forth the thought and the effort.

May we be courageous enough to walk this path..."

...President Hinckley, that is. President Gordon B. Hinckley, late leader of the Church Of Jesus Christ Of the Latter-Day Saints.

He died on January 27, 2008. And with his passing, I feel some part of me has chipped away, just like that poem by John Donne said...

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

We, the world, have a lost a great man who stood for something.

Integrity, faith, love, etc. -- all the good "stuff" of life.

I am not nor have ever been a member of the Latter-Day Saints church; I have only read one book by President Hinckley ("Standing For Something"), and I find his views, values and principles are as sound and warm as any great and spiritual man's who ever walked this earth.

May we live up to the standards he preached and lived. God knows we need more men, more leaders like him.

Goodbye, Mr. President. Rest in peace...

Since the first fuel price hike over here my B & M business has been experiencing a slow down in sales. Even after fuel prices fell for what seemed like the umpteenth time, people just weren't spending like they did before.

Many pundits today are saying that this is one of the worst recession in the economy worldwide, predicting that it will continue well into next year, with a little recovery come mid-2009. Maybe, maybe not.

Whatever it is, you need to be cautious and conservative in your spending in the coming months. If you're not a big-time "guru", and you'd like to begin/continue operating online, a good bet is some kind of service that you offer to fellow entrepreneurs or businesses, even if it's in the Internet Marketing "niche". Product-based ventures in the IM niche, however, are another story. It would not be easy to pull off (although not impossible). Your best bet, as already mentioned, is to offer some kind of service.

Article writing, social marketing, blog-commenting for pay, graphics design, web design, script installation, etc. These are always in demand by the IM crowd. If you do good quality work and have reasonable pricing (throwing in the occasional special deals), you'll find business.

Remember not to spend indiscriminately on all those Internet Marketing courses, programs, products, etc, etc. They involve not only monetary spending but also require time-expenditure. Be realistic. Ask yourself if you're really going to 1) spend all that time reading/listening to that 500lbs of content and then 2) really go out there and apply it? If not, you can afford to pass on that course, because if you're not going to have the time nor inclination to do anything with what you MAY learn from it, it's not going to do a dang thing for you.

New courses or products always involve a learning curve - both an information-acquisition curve (reading/ listening and/or watching) and an actual learning curve (learning to do the methods recommended in the products, and all these learning takes time.

Pretty soon, you might start feeling desperate, thinking "Man, I ain't got time for this. I've got things to do. The bills are piling up".

And then you go do whatever it was you were doing before you bought the new course. But, guess what? Pretty soon you're going to start feeling stuck again and then you'll try to force yourself to get back to that new-fangled course to try to get inspiration/information. And in a while, you're going to feel its taking too long...and then whole cycle repeats itself over and over and over again.

You might even think that THAT OTHER new-fangled course you just saw in your email might hold the answer and waste more of your money buying THAT course.

Stop it. Just stop it, and get to work with what you already know and have.

Save your money instead.

One other thing. If you're a member of a forum, start participating. In the end, it's the friends we have and how we pull together that will ultimately allow us to rise above the economic storm. Look at the Warrior forum. It started with a handful of people posting (really posting, not just lurking) and have been through numerous reincarnations of forum software until it reached its current incarnation. Look at the deals and money that are being made there. It has become a destination of choice and a very valuable tool in every IMer's arsenal.

Participate, help others out, etc. In time to come, your membership in the forum may come in very handy in the months ahead when (or if) the recession really hits full force. Learn from the resources/posts/members in the forum. Make friends, make connections. If you're absolutely new to online business, THIS is the time to learn and gear up. There is no time to lose.

Increasing Your Exposure With Guest Blogging | Small Business Trends: "Blogs are powerful. As a small business owner, you can use blogs to build exposure for your business, to attract new customers and to establish yourself an expert in your niche. And you don’t even have to have your own blog in order to do that.

If you can’t invest the time in daily blogging or are just looking for another way to increase exposure and awareness, guestblogging on other blogs is a great way to attract new customers, create business partnerships and to introduce your brand to people who may be naturally inclined to like you. The trick to guestblogging is learning how to find the opportunities that will get you the most targeted exposure.

You don’t want to be guestblogging everywhere. To get the most benefit, you want to pick and choose the blogs and industry resources that will help you gain the most authority, exposure and goodwill. However, the sheer volume of blogs out there can make this process a bit like finding a needle in a haystack.

Here are some tips to help you locate powerful guestblogging opportunities."

Economist: U.S. may see double-dip recession by late 2010 - Sacramento Business Journal: