愛、生活、人生系列

To Act and Be a HeroA Psalm of LifeHenry Wadsworth LongfellowTell me not, in mournful numbers,Life is but an empty dream! —For the soul is dead that slumbers,And things are not what they seem.Life is real! Life is earnest!And the grave is not its goal;Dust thou art, to dust returnest,Was not spoken of the soul.Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,Is our destined end or way;But to act, that each to-morrowFind us farther than to-day.Art is long, and Time is fleeting,And our hearts, though stout and brave,Still, like muffled drums, are beatingFuneral marches to the grave.In the world’s broad field of battle,In the bivouac of Life,Be not like dumb, driven cattle!Be a hero in the strife!Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!Let the dead Past bury its dead!Act--act in the living Present!Heart within, and God o’erhead!Lives of great men all remind usWe can make our lives sublime,And, departing, leave behind usFootprints on the sands of time;Footprints, that perhaps another,Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,Seeing, shall take heart again.Let us, then, be up and doing,With a heart for any fate;Still achieving, still pursuing,Learn to labor and to wait.“It is not the years in your life, but the life in your years that counts,” said Adlai Ewing Stevenson (美國政治家). The point, Stevenson illustrates, is a reminder of how it’s easy to lose sight of living a meaningful life. It’s an interesting phenomenon that we invest the amount of time, energy, and money in living healthier, longer, and happier lives. Nevertheless, we still often feel unsatisfied with our lives that are devoid (沒有的) of meanings. When it comes to living a meaningful life, there are no exact answers all over the world. What makes life meaningful is unique to each and every person. Meanings may come from many different avenues. Unlike happiness, which stems from receiving or doing things for ourselves, meanings of life come from giving or doing something for ourselves and others as well. Perhaps, for some people, meanings of life come from fostering close family relationships. For a few, they are about choosing fulfilling careers that involve helping others through teaching, nursing, counseling, or coaching. Others find meanings by giving back to their communities. If it still isn’t enough to satisfy our quests for a meaningful life, we might try to step outside our comfort zones in exchange for something more fulfilling, uplifting, and meaningful.A hero, indeed, is a person who has a meaningful life and does good actions for him and others. Since our ideas of the hero are often framed by the stories we see on the big screen, or read in comic books and novels, it is not uncommon that, in our society, we have military heroes, sports heroes, political and civil rights heroes and business heroes. They are all courageous. In other words, a hero is a person who acts courageously. A hero is not someone with superpowers, superior intellect or physical ability. On the contrary, a hero is someone who has recognized a need, counted the potential cost, and decided to act in spite of what might happen to be hurt. For example, a military hero is someone who risks his life in order to save the lives of his fellow warriors. A political or civil rights leader is someone who stands up for what he/she believes to be right even though he/she may lose his/her position, credibility and connections. Furthermore, a hero at home is a mother or a father that sacrifices herself/himself for the good of the family. They all act heroically and deserve the titles.It takes both skill and self-confidence to rush into places which others fear to tread. It means that a hero has the courage to act out. While facing the crisis, heroes always have an intrinsic belief that they are capable of handling the challenges and achieving success no matter what the odds are. Thus, a person who rushes into a burning building to save another person is not just extraordinarily brave; he/she also possesses an ability to overcome fear. Those who do leap into action are typically, more likely, to take greater risks in multiple aspects of their lives. They are real heroes. Therefore, to act and be heroes give us meaningful lives.Besides, persistence is another quality commonly shared by heroes. They are often more patient and will keep working on their goals, even after multiple setbacks. If we want our lives meaningful, we have to be heroes. Heroes learn and share good mindset in their meaningful lives, such as persistence, empathy, heroic imagination, special training and habitual helping. Heroes take action persistently. They are going to stand up and do the right things continuously. They are also more easily able to expand empathy to others who are beyond their social circles or comfort zones. Moreover, those who help others in dangerous situations usually have some training that gives them confidence. Heroes are trained to have heroic behavior as repetitive actions on behalf of others. They are healthy and formed the habits of doing good things to help others.Too many people wait for something before they are willing to take positive action. We choose to delay the tough decisions and live with more misery or discontent, rather than deciding to act and make our world better. We always make excuses like “waiting for the perfect moment,” “waiting for when the person will be feeling better,” “waiting for the momentum to shift,” “waiting until after Christmas,” “waiting until he leaves,” “waiting until she quits,” “waiting until he gets promoted,” “waiting until the boss gets fired,” or “waiting until I’m retired.” The list can be endless. In fact, the status quo might be so comfortable to many people who would rather choose the ordinary today over a powerful future of new (yet unknown) possibilities. But, it’s the prime time for us to act out and be heroes to live meaningful lives. Otherwise, “life is but an empty dream!” Taking action is crucial. Some people don’t know what they want to do, so they do nothing. Some people know what they want to do, but still do nothing. And some people spend heaps of time and energy going to seminars, reading, and learning about what they want to do, but they never actually take any action on what they learn. If we take no action, it doesn’t matter how much we learn or know, our actual lives are not going to be benefited. Everyone has the ability to take action. It doesn’t take money. It doesn’t take experience. And it doesn’t take anything except for the desire and willingness to go ahead and do something. To act is to do things at once.As a matter of fact, through repetition, the action that caused us discomfort becomes a habit. Every learning needs to develop. We, then, have the opportunity to do a different action that is beyond our comfort zones. This is how we all continue to develop and grow. Now we can structure our days by blocking out time in our diaries to do specific actions. This is where discipline comes in. The beliefs that we have about our abilities shape our entire lives. Self-efficacy (自我勝任感) is the strength of our belief in our abilities to achieve goals. People with high self-efficacy approach challenging tasks as things they can master. Thus, here is a committed action plan that successful people practice weekly:1. Identify a clear reason for a desired goal.2. See this desired outcome as a positive change.3. Develop a routine of self-discipline, focusing on progressing toward our desired goals.4. Use time management to prioritize our goals daily.5. Assess the clarity of our plans, and write down the action plans with completion dates.6. Reward ourselves weekly for staying on track.It’s really up to us to let our desired outcomes shine, and infuse our lives with actions. We have to start our plans, and make progress daily in life. Indeed, no race was ever won without a beginning. So, let’s start right now.Powered by Firstory Hosting

Butterflies and RosesI Fluttered Brightly as a ButterflyJenny ChuI fluttered brightly as a butterflyThat flies everywhere in the charming gardens,When all the time I sawA cluster of flamboyant roses;Besides the alleys, beneath the trees,Swaying and swinging in the breeze.Continuous as the honeybees that roamedAnd wandered in the parks,They searched and hunted the everlasting colorsOf red, pink, purple and yellow roses in large pieces of ground.One million I watched all of a sudden,Dancing together were butterflies, honeybees and roses.The green grass beside them danced, too.They were all smiling and sparkling in glee.I could not but be gay,In such a pleasant company.I gazed and thought of these lovely friends,What wonderful wealth they had brought to me.For oft, in my room I stayWith relaxing or cozy feelings,My inner heart just flashes upon that gorgeous butterflyWhich is blissfully transformed from a tiny caterpillar;And then how pleasurable it fills in my memory,And dances with the roses.I learned the inspiration from William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.” I enjoyed reading Wordsworth’s poem of these wonderful words, such as “cloud,” “stars,” “waves,” “daffodils” and “dances.” I, then, thought of butterflies, honeybees and roses in the front yard and backyard of my house. If Wordsworth can use his beautiful living surroundings to create such profound poems, I, too, could grasp my own favorite scenic spots for poetry. Thus, it is the main idea for me to finish this poem, “I fluttered brightly as a butterfly.” Among insects, I like butterflies the most. Butterflies are everywhere in my house from morning till night. I guess that because we plant a lot of flowers around the house, we allure (引誘) butterflies and honeybees into our gardens. By the way, in terms of flowers, roses are my best favorite. I love roses no matter what colors they are. For example, they are red, pink, purple, and yellow roses to name a few. That can also be the perfect explanation of “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” in William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. Therefore, I got the insight to connect butterflies, honeybees and roses altogether in my poem, and I would play and dance with them all the time in my imagination.All roses have a long flowering season. Butterflies and honeybees are really attracted to roses for their fresh pollen. According to rose growers, single roses with five petals have their very own charm. The best known single rose is “Dainty Bess,” which produces clusters of pink blossoms. The roses always change colors as they age, so that at any one time, the rose bushes would be covered with different colors from light pink to reddish pink. And, butterflies are, no doubt, attracted to red, pink, purple and yellow flowers for sure.Watching butterflies on top of roses is, indeed, a thrilling experience as well. I like to look for a butterfly fluttering till it gets friendly and sits on a nearby flower as if sitting for a portrait. How beautiful it is! When the butterflies take flight at their slightest movements, I, then, quickly follow them to other colorful flowers. Honeybees also have their preferences. All the time, they chase glittering blossoms and roses. Such a picture is the beauty of nature. In fact, those of us who wish to attract butterflies and honeybees to our gardens have to keep the needs of these lovely flowers of the air in mind. We do take care of flowers and plants as possible as we can for butterflies and honeybees. Furthermore, butterflies and honeybees love the sun. They want to have landing places where they can open their wings and take a rest. All it takes is a clear space and a few flat stones for them as their landing field. Besides, like any living creature, butterflies and honeybees adore water. A small pond with fish and shallow water is perfect for butterflies and honeybees. In my house, we, our family members, try our best to create these amiable environments for butterflies and honeybees.Moreover, in my imagination, butterflies and honeybees are mutual good friends in the garden. They might invite roses to dance together all around here and there. Their movements, gestures and the wings are shown to be graceful to greet the rocking roses, and also welcome my moves with them. It is as if all of us follow the melodious notes of the wind, so gently and softly, to perform marvelous dances collectively. How romantic it is for me to dance cheerfully with butterflies, honeybees and roses! In this scene, my heart is suddenly filled with tremendous joy and delight. I feel I am so blissful, actually, to have such a great time in my memory. It’s really my blessings to possess such miraculous moments of joy while I am alone. I am grateful enough, and I appreciate deeply the generosity of Mother Nature toward me.Powered by Firstory Hosting

Eating Is GorgeousThe pleasure of eating is not mere gourmet. If we know the people whose vegetables have grown beautifully and healthily, perhaps, we will have such a memory with the food, and enjoy the pleasures of eating. It means that the knowledge of the good healthy food relieves and comforts the eaters. The same goes for eating meat. The thought of the attractive pasture and the strong calves contentedly (滿足地) flavors the steaks. In other words, we eat every day to sustain our bodies with understanding and with gratitude. It’s better that we go to the traditional marketplaces and cook in the kitchens by ourselves. In this way, we choose the freshest food and guarantee the best available standards of our health. Anyway, eating with the fullest pleasure does not depend on others. In this pleasure, we experience and celebrate our independence and gratitude.However, eating out at our favorite local restaurants with friends and family can be fun, too. It is also the pleasure of eating to have great meals and good food services with well-prepared food safety and sanitation practices. Most restaurants and food service operations value the customers’ health, and work very hard to prepare tasty and safe foods for eaters. Nowadays, our government even asks the local health departments conduct routine food inspections to make sure that the food is being handled properly from start to finish. This includes that the food is purchased from an approved source, is in the best and safest conditions, and is properly cooked, cooled, stored, and reheated. We can also look at the food service facility and its equipment to make sure that everything is clean and secure in working orders. By keeping these things in mind when we go out to eat, we would protect ourselves from the possibility of getting sick from food that has been improperly handled, and appreciate so much the pleasures of eating.By the way, when dining in a well-reputed restaurant, we expect the food to be presented exquisitely (精緻地). The world’s greatest chefs are not only masters of flavor, but also the artists who use the plates as a canvas to be savored. Food tastes better when it looks good. Plating a dish artfully is about more than just aesthetics. Visual presentations act a powerful tool for improving the overall experiences and flavors of food. That is, beautiful food always gets attention. Studies have shown that food is often perceived to actually taste better when presented in certain graceful ways. When eating out, for the most part, we really want pretty and tasty food. Furthermore, when it comes to food, it seems that we are willing to pay quite a bit for attentive labors of ingredients. So, making a plate look lovely is important, not just elegant or fancy. Recently, photography in cookbooks and on social media, Facebook or Instagram in particular, has certainly served as a source of inspiration for those who just cook for themselves or their families. Of course, the key to a good-looking plate lies in the love at its core. Whenever the cook prepares and dishes up something made with care and attention, the results, definitely, are destined to be delicious.Life is short. It’s OK to enjoy food! Our relationship with food can be complex. Yes, no doubt. We and food are stuck together for life. Putting it simply, food might be the most complicated relationship in our lives because we have to eat three meals every day without exception. Have you ever noticed that you’ve just eaten something, but can hardly remember what it tasted like? Our busy and stressful modern-day lifestyles may have to do with this. Or, our minds are so busy planning the next move, so that we don’t allow time to savor the food we eat. It only takes 10 minutes for our brains to detect (覺察) the body’s signals that we’re feeling full. Therefore, eating quickly can mean that we could easily consume too much food before our bodies tell us to stop, leaving us feeling uncomfortably full. In fact, the “grab-and-go” meal has become a common means of refueling the bodies for many people who think that there’s never enough time in a day. Nevertheless, it is really important to be aware that we are in control of our own eating habits. Even though we may be short on time, there is no excuse not to be mindful of the foods we’re putting in our bodies and how we consume them. While having eaten, we have to enjoy sensations, flavors, sounds, smells and sights at a time as if we’re having a great time of tasting. Eating is one of those simple pleasures that we’ve lived in this world. It cannot be overemphasized that eating mindfully is a way to get back in touch with the pleasure of food, and it comes with many benefits to our health and well-being as well.Food nourishes us. Food helps us stay alive. Food is fuel. And, food is tied to our experiences and memories. Yes. Food can bring us back to the laughter shared between us and the loved one. Food connects us! Cooking unleashes (解開) the imagination and has given us countless ways to enjoy food. Eating indeed brings genuine happiness to our lives and foster feelings of comfort, peace, and care. It is amazing that food does so much for us. In reality, all of these magnificent foods truly give our bodies the nutrients we need to grow, develop and live, and foster so many pleasurable, loving, and meaningful experiences to us. Cheers! Let’s have a lot of joys of eating.Powered by Firstory Hosting

The Magic of Serendipity“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans,” John Lennon presciently (預知地) wrote in his song “Beautiful Boy” on his final album, and it is found to be quite accurate. Fortunately, the unexpected can also work out favorably, sometimes taking us in an entirely new and happier direction. Serendipity is defined to be the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. In other words, the idea of serendipity allows us to think that there is always a grand design to life for a reason. In fact, life does happen to us while we’re making other plans. Accidentally, we might place more value on the role of serendipity in shaping our future. It may be just the statistics or odds of chance, but, curiously, we can’t help but think that serendipity is magical, a mystical force that occasionally makes its presence known. Rather than spend so much time and energy trying to engineer what lies ahead, we may be better off just opening ourselves up to the possibilities of tomorrow.A postcard. A first-time visit to the new restaurant. A flower on the sidewalk. A last-minute decision about where to travel. These are only little things with little in common. But they all have a role in starting something good in a small way, such as happy accidents, coincidences, luck and randomness. However, serendipity isn’t just about something lucky or good happening to us. We have to do something about it, too. When something good happens in such a random way, we don’t know. We can’t quite figure it out. That’s the beauty of serendipity. Nevertheless, in our minds, we do have the subconscious or unconscious anticipations.Magic is like the wind in spring. It’s all around us, but normally we can’t see it. That means that, sometimes, life gets overwhelming and the magic seems to disappear. In those moments, it’s as if the shine goes out of life. In this sense, we just need to remind ourselves how to recognize magic once more. Maybe, there are still small possibilities of magic continuing to happen all around us. Then, all we have to do is to remember how to recognize them. In our daily lives, we all want some magic to transform our lives into something better. Someone wants magic for getting a job for which he/she has been struggling long. Someone looks for magic to get past the illness that has been troubling him/her for so long. And there are people who only want magic to be happy and free of depression no matter what life unfolds for them. Living a magical life with a perfect job, health, relationships, money is what everyone seeks. Notwithstanding, how can we meet the magic of serendipity? Perhaps, we require having an outside force or the motivation source to do it for us.In today’s society, it is more important than ever to focus on our futures. With so much complexity and change in the world, we should prepare for everything. We must explore the unknowns and discuss them at all levels in our brains. We’re constantly surrounded by a multitude of unknown variables, like climate change and inequality. In the past, we have merely viewed futures as things that can be solved with business plans or the government’s decision-making. But this isn’t enough anymore. To meet the challenges of tomorrow, we ought to anticipate and prepare for the unknowns. This means that we require a mindset shift towards embracing uncertainty instead of trying to eliminate it. That is to say, we can’t simply ask futures into existence. It’s something that we have to work towards. For example, if we want specific kinds of futures, we must become more inclusive and allow for different types of people to have a say in what futures looks like through experimental planning. This way, we’re building the skills to adapt well in an age full of radical change and uncertainty. We have to create structures that are flexible enough to adapt quickly to new circumstances. We also require a proactive (主動的) mindset so that we are more likely to take risks and experiment with solutions. We don’t know the wonders of magic and serendipity. But if we build the adaptive capabilities to navigate the upcoming radical uncertainty, we will, definitely, be lucky enough to encounter beautiful things in our lives.Powered by Firstory Hosting

Following Our Hearts, Not Our WordsFollow means that something or someone else is going to lead us. So to follow our hearts is to listen to us right now. To follow our hearts sounds innocent, pure and good. That is, to follow our hearts suggests that we are going to let our feelings and emotions be our guides.There are two ways to see whether we are “following our hearts” or not. The first one is that we are following the desires that our hearts are calling us, and the second one is that we are truly listening to our hearts.The first one is about our desires and our words, but not exactly our hearts. Our society today is driven by our minds and our fears. We do not place as much value and emphasis on passion, love, fulfillment and spiritual purposes. Rather, it is about external success, money, security, stability and reputation. As a result, many of us do not feel that it is so important to really tune in to our hearts, and hear what they want. Instead, we are too busy trying to get ahead and make something of ourselves in this world. The head is practical and analytical and is often driven by fear. Our heads would tell us what needs to be done to remain safe in the world. Nevertheless, we can never be who everyone else wants us to be. Even if we want to dedicate our whole lives to serving the world or others, we wouldn’t be able to do either in an honest way until we operate from a source of knowing our internal hearts. The outcome we’re ultimately seeking is to listen to our hearts by focusing on what makes us feel expansive, and to let go of anything in our lives that leaves us feeling negative. Compared to the head, the heart is free and wild, and is driven by love. Thus, the second one is about our hearts. We should look at our lives honestly, and really evaluate what parts of them we love. It means that we ought to listen to our deep inner voices, rather than the loud forceful voices of the outer world.Indeed, the decision to follow our hearts is a journey. If we have been living a life that is not heart-driven, we may experience feelings of confusion, self-doubt and even regrets for our actions. I believe that it is time for each of us to wake up, listen to our hearts, and connect with what we really want. And then we act on it. We, thus, dare to take risks and have the courage to move towards our hearts fearlessly with 100% commitment. In order to do this, we must be willing to be different, to do things differently, and to challenge the expectations that our hearts want us to do. Yes, a life of following our hearts may be challenging, but the rewards we receive would be enough to make it all worth it. In fact, humans are not always intellectual beings. We’re all emotional beings who allow our feelings and emotions to guide our lives.However, in our daily life, we usually make decisions on our heads. It is the intellect in our heads to have the rational analysis, where we weigh the pros and cons of a particular situation. Besides, we also listen to people’ opinions. They would look at things from their perspectives and give us advice. Still, there’s more facts than they see. Therefore, we cannot totally depend on our intellectual and logical thinking to make decisions. In this sense, we try to approach our intuitions. Our hearts are all the best intentions in the world. Our bodies, very often, tell us everything that we need to know. By bringing our attention to our emotive landscape, we are learning to turn off our analytical mind to get in touch with what’s true for us at the deepest level. We listen to our hearts when we’re trying to decide whether or not we want to meet up with specific people, engage in activities, or determine what to do next when making decisions in relation to our life, career, and spiritual practices. Our bodies give us all of the information that we need when we’re quiet and aware enough to feel our emotions and bodily sensations.Emotions provide us with a shortcut to our truth. If we do not get to know ourselves in the absence of the analytical mind, or external (familial, cultural, or societal) expectations that seemingly govern our choices, we’ll continuously feel lost, frustrated, and out of alignment with what is real and true for our life journey. It is suggested that both meditation and yoga are powerful practices that can assist us with getting in touch with our bodies, emotions, hearts and the truth within us. If meditation or yoga feels like too much, we can just simply sit quietly and pay attention to our hearts. When we’re trying to decide what to keep or let go of in our lives, we don’t actually need to think about anything; all we really need to know is how the decision makes us feel. We have to sit quietly until we’re fully relaxed. Once relaxed, we, then, simply drop our heads down as if we’re trying to look at our hearts. If we start thinking or analyzing the results, instead of how we’re feeling in the moment, we’re already allowing the mind to take over and rationalize a different choice, which moves us away from our truth. Our bodies do know what we need. In order to continue getting to our hearts, perhaps, we have to be willing to give up everything we thought we knew about ourselves, and what we thought we wanted or needed. Eventually, we’ll be experts at following our hearts and listening to them fully. Again, studies have shown that bodily signals—particularly from the heart—offer good guidance about potential choices. We all have a voice inside our hearts. The little voice tells us what to do, how to be, and how we should feel about things. This voice can be a powerful influence on our lives. When we listen with our hearts, we’re able to really connect with us on a much deeper level, and understand our feelings and needs. This can be tough to do, especially when we’re feeling overwhelmed or stressed, but it’s so worth it. When we truly follow and listen to our hearts, we build stronger, more intimate relationships with ourselves based on trust, respect, and understanding.Powered by Firstory Hosting