http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/11/15/simon-garfield-to-the-letter/
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/07/10/vita-sackville-west-love-letter-virginia-woolf/
The art of letter writing is quite dead. Many moons ago before the advent of
emails, me and min used to write each other after she returned to Korea. And sometimes on a whim, I would write and post short letters to neow and wik. It's always quite exciting to receive a letter (bills and rubbish flyers not included), especially when you are anticipating a reply to your last one. Emails just don't quite cut it.
But I can't recall the last time I posted a letter or even a card to someone. Maybe I should start writing to min again instead of kakao-ing. But what do I write? It just seems so rather odd to update her bout my life via snail mail when I could instantaneously update her about my current thoughts, feelings and moods on kakao.
Have to give it some thoughts.
One of my favorite letters by Beethoven:
Good morning, on July 7th
Even when I am in bed my thoughts rush to you, my eternally beloved, now and then joyfully, then again sadly, waiting to know whether Fate will hear our prayer--To face life I must live altogether with you or never see you. Yes, I am resolved to be a wanderer abroad until I can fly to your arms and say that I have found my true home with you and enfolded in your arms can let my soul be wafted to the realm on blessed spirits--alas, unfortunately it must be so--You will become composed, the more so as you know that I am faithful to you; no other woman can ever possess my heart--never--never--Oh God, why must one be separated from her who is so dear. Yet my life in V[ienna] at present is a miserable life--Your love has made me both the happiest and the unhappiest of mortals--At my age I now need stability and regularity in my life--can this coexist with our relationship?--Angel, I have just heard that the post goes every day--and therefore I must close, so that you may receive the letter immediately--Be calm; for only by calmly considering our lives can we achieve our purpose to live together--Be calm--love me--Today--yesterday--what tearful longing for you--for you--you--my life--my all--all good wishes to you--Oh, do continue to love me--never misjudge your lover's most faithful heart.
ever yours
ever mine
ever ours
L.
http://home.swipnet.se/zabonk/cultur/ludwig/beeim.htm
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Friday, June 20, 2014
A song without words
Writing a song with no lyrics
A haunting melody
That no words can match.
The broken chords
The imperfect cadences
They rise and they fall.
It is not a perfect song
Because the words are missing.
The words,
That I can't find,
Because they are lost with you.
A haunting melody
That no words can match.
The broken chords
The imperfect cadences
They rise and they fall.
It is not a perfect song
Because the words are missing.
The words,
That I can't find,
Because they are lost with you.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Purpose driven life
Re-reading this as SSS told me she just started doing it as a 40-day "quest". And we sorta decided to do it together albeit to a bit of a standstill especially with all the traveling going on. Nonetheless, I had wanted to re-do this properly coz I had cheated during the first time by reading a few chapters a day rather than the 1 chapter a day and then writing down my reflections.
I really like chapter 3 about fear. "Well-formed love banishes fear. A fearful life is one not yet fully formed in love." It also says fear is a self-imposed prison. Totally relatable.
I guess fear stems from the ego. The ego gets bruised and so does our self-image. No one wants to feel like a loser, so we try our best to not do things that may possibly damage our perception of the self.
Human beings have so many fears. It's funny to think about it. Fear of the dark, fear of loneliness, fear of bring rejected, fear of failure, fear of losing things/people, fear of not being loved, fear of death, fear of heights.... A million and one fears. Where do we learn these fears? Are they imprinted in our DNA? Are all these fears borne out of the need to protect ourselves? Or are they in fact, crippling us to be what we potentially could be/ gain? I think the latter might be true (although the evolutionary folks might think otherwise). Some of these fears are irrational. Sometimes calculated risks have to be taken for us to end up where we want to be. I guess I Have a lot of fears to work on and to get rid of the "resigned to fate" attitude. I have this really annoying habit of thinking that if something doesn't happen for me at the get-go,then it's not meant to be mine, and then I just give up. And most of the time, I didn't even try hard enough in the first place to get to where I want to be.
I really like chapter 3 about fear. "Well-formed love banishes fear. A fearful life is one not yet fully formed in love." It also says fear is a self-imposed prison. Totally relatable.
I guess fear stems from the ego. The ego gets bruised and so does our self-image. No one wants to feel like a loser, so we try our best to not do things that may possibly damage our perception of the self.
Human beings have so many fears. It's funny to think about it. Fear of the dark, fear of loneliness, fear of bring rejected, fear of failure, fear of losing things/people, fear of not being loved, fear of death, fear of heights.... A million and one fears. Where do we learn these fears? Are they imprinted in our DNA? Are all these fears borne out of the need to protect ourselves? Or are they in fact, crippling us to be what we potentially could be/ gain? I think the latter might be true (although the evolutionary folks might think otherwise). Some of these fears are irrational. Sometimes calculated risks have to be taken for us to end up where we want to be. I guess I Have a lot of fears to work on and to get rid of the "resigned to fate" attitude. I have this really annoying habit of thinking that if something doesn't happen for me at the get-go,then it's not meant to be mine, and then I just give up. And most of the time, I didn't even try hard enough in the first place to get to where I want to be.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
It's just me
I do not have deep thoughts
I do not have grand schemes
I do not have world-changing ideas
I do not have....
I do not have grand schemes
I do not have world-changing ideas
I do not have....
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Growing up
Everything has changed
You and I
We are not the same
As we were
Yesterday.
Childhood dreams were broken
The games we used to play
Are to be forsaken.
Time passes too soon,
Those hands I used to hold
Have grown cold.
We have moved on
To a different reality
Where dreams are trampled on,
And naive beliefs are scorned.
Don't be a fool, you said.
Wake up before it's too late.
The world is changing
Spinning
You will get lost in it,
If you hold on to the past.
You will get thrown off your feet
If you do not keep moving.
I wiped away those childish tears,
And listened to your words.
The rhythm and rhymes of yesteryears
Erased from my memory.
It's a new world I enter,
A world...
Where everything is new,
Where nothing is worth saving.
Old keepsakes
Are for the sentimental fools.
Tbc
You and I
We are not the same
As we were
Yesterday.
Childhood dreams were broken
The games we used to play
Are to be forsaken.
Time passes too soon,
Those hands I used to hold
Have grown cold.
We have moved on
To a different reality
Where dreams are trampled on,
And naive beliefs are scorned.
Don't be a fool, you said.
Wake up before it's too late.
The world is changing
Spinning
You will get lost in it,
If you hold on to the past.
You will get thrown off your feet
If you do not keep moving.
I wiped away those childish tears,
And listened to your words.
The rhythm and rhymes of yesteryears
Erased from my memory.
It's a new world I enter,
A world...
Where everything is new,
Where nothing is worth saving.
Old keepsakes
Are for the sentimental fools.
Tbc
Monday, June 2, 2014
The adventures of 2 girls- Ning cai and Pamela Ho
A travelogue by two Singaporean girls. Quite an enjoyable read. I guess everyone should have a bucket list penned down in b&w coz it is easy to forget things you wish to do, when daily life just consumes you. And before you know it, life is almost gone and you have just woken up. But too late, the train has left the station.
I wonder what it is like to just dump everything and travel. And if it would be something I would do someday. Right now, I don't have much of an urge to travel. Been traveling too much and too long these days, that when I'm back all I wanna do is veg.
Alright I digress. Back to the book. One place that I think I would never ever venture would be the Cango Caves in South Africa. A place clearly not for the claustrophobe. I feel suffocated just Reading about the tiny 30 cm tunnel (one way!) one has to go through to reach another part of the cave. And then having to squeeze through a 20cm Devil's postbox to exit the cave... Wonder why anyone would want to put themselves through that. The guide of the caves then told a story of how a bigger sized tourist had gotten stuck in the tunnel and everyone else behind her were also stuck along for 10 hours. Excruciating!
Strangely, the place I think I loved most in the book was the Sahara. It had never crossed my mind to visit a desert (2 years of Arizona was quite enough) but the way they described the nights in the silent desert, made it seem so magical. The blanket of stars, the silence, the vast emptiness, the moonlit shadows on the sands....quite sold....!
I don't think a person can ever visit all corners of the earth. So a travel book is the next best thing we can have to "see" more of the world. it always strikes me as odd that we can all travel to the same place, see the same sights, but have vastly different experience. There are so many different elements conspiring together to make you like/dislike a place- the weather, the people, the transport, our own biases and expectations, etc.
I wonder what it is like to just dump everything and travel. And if it would be something I would do someday. Right now, I don't have much of an urge to travel. Been traveling too much and too long these days, that when I'm back all I wanna do is veg.
Alright I digress. Back to the book. One place that I think I would never ever venture would be the Cango Caves in South Africa. A place clearly not for the claustrophobe. I feel suffocated just Reading about the tiny 30 cm tunnel (one way!) one has to go through to reach another part of the cave. And then having to squeeze through a 20cm Devil's postbox to exit the cave... Wonder why anyone would want to put themselves through that. The guide of the caves then told a story of how a bigger sized tourist had gotten stuck in the tunnel and everyone else behind her were also stuck along for 10 hours. Excruciating!
Strangely, the place I think I loved most in the book was the Sahara. It had never crossed my mind to visit a desert (2 years of Arizona was quite enough) but the way they described the nights in the silent desert, made it seem so magical. The blanket of stars, the silence, the vast emptiness, the moonlit shadows on the sands....quite sold....!
I don't think a person can ever visit all corners of the earth. So a travel book is the next best thing we can have to "see" more of the world. it always strikes me as odd that we can all travel to the same place, see the same sights, but have vastly different experience. There are so many different elements conspiring together to make you like/dislike a place- the weather, the people, the transport, our own biases and expectations, etc.
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