anyway

The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you have anyway.

heads or tails

the view from next door

Well you're probably plum tired of me posting about how I love realizing the world is so much bigger than just me, buutttt I couldn't resist. It's the US-Mexican border separating San Diego from Tijuana. Heads up, I'm not posting this to turn it into a political discussion. I just had never even thought about what the border would look like, and I am amazed that it so incredibly separate and distinct. It's like two completely different pieces of land or even two different worlds - well, actually that's probably because it is two different worlds. And only a single wall divides it. I don't know why it fascinates me so much. I guess because it shows how two places, two peoples, two worlds can technically exist side by side and yet be so different and separate. It's just something that made me sit there and stare at it and think for a few good minutes.

real floating lights

First off, I don't think I've met one person who didn't like this movie. . .

Tangled (2010)

Now, check this out. And if you're like me, and had no clue that the lanterns in Tangled weren't totally just made up for the movie, you might, like me, think this is way awesome.

Photo by Sanchai Loongroong

Look familiar? It's Thailand's lantern festival, Yi Peng, held on a November full moon each year. Hundreds of floating lanterns are launched to celebrate a time for tham bun, to make merit. The lamps are usually made with thin fabric and a fuel source like a candle so that when it's lit, the hot air gets trapped inside the lantern and lifts it into the air like a hot air balloon.

I came across this pic of the Thailand festival while looking at a website of random, cool photography. At first, I was surprised that it looked just like the ones in Tangled - but then, I realized, of course, Disney must have gotten the idea from Thailanders.

The point of posting about this is:

a) It's just really cool and I wish there were festivals like this in my country.

b) I realized something - that I really don't know much of anything about different cultures around the world. There are so many of us on this planet, and I pretty much have a hard enough time just trying to understand the guys at school (in my defense, they've definitely got their own culture). But there are entire cultures just as complex as my own that I have yet to be able to first even become aware of.

I'm really glad I came across this photo because it made me remember that I am just a small little girl in a small little town in a small little moment in time. There is so much out there to learn and experience and understand, and I really hope that throughout my life, I can keep having similar epiphanies to remind me of how much bigger than me the world really is.


P.S. I think it fitting that I listened to Tangled music while writing this.

i simply remember my favorite things

Old postcards, Wildflowers (pressed), Stamps, Old sheet music, Old books, Coins, Memorabilia, Old maps, Old black and white photographs, Antique Toys, Card decks, Antique marbles, Fossils, Antique bottles, Seashells, Autographs, Sea glass. . .

I'm not sure what it is that makes collections so interesting. . . maybe it's the fact that someone is so fascinated by something that they would give so much of their time to it.

At home, I have a pretty good sized collection of bookmarks. I was in love with reading as a kid. Many of them are homemade, given to me as birthday presents, or bought from places I would visit. I have ones made from wood, ones that turn colors when you rub them with your hands, and ones that have wildflowers pressed inside them.

The collector in this video is pretty intense, but it's a good reminder that you're never too old to start or stop collecting something. So what will be yours?