As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he

"You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you." - by James Allen

Why anyone would expose one’s thoughts to the public? That is the counter argument of those who are against blogging. Why indeed?

As for myself, the sole reason I blog is because I do not believe that I can hide my thoughts even if I want to.

James Allen explains it better in “As a Man Thinketh”: the aphorism, "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he," not only embraces the whole of a man's being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts….

Since what I think manifests my whole character, I should at least try my best to watch my thoughts.

Therefore, blogging in this sense serves as some sort of a tool for personal growth. More accurately perhaps blogging acts like a mirror that reflects his/her thoughts.


C-Cassia

I am a voyeur

St Lawrence River

I feel like a voyeur, flipping through faces that sharing some common interests to me. We are all voyeurs, hiding behind a computer screen, killing time. So far I am only belonging to the group of bloggers. There are millions of profiles that you can flip through, take a peak look and go away. There are others that you linger longer and read their stories. Then, there are those few that you say you want to follow. So far I am only following a few popular ones and nobody has chosen to follow me yet.

Interesting numbers I find under Blogger profile:

Industry: Arts 13,400,000

I have just chosen Arts as my industry. Is it really? No, but there was no category of Design that one can choose from. So Arts is as close as it goes. I was kind of surprised to find 13 million profiles on Blogger.

Occupation: Idler 119

What a disappointment, I dropped from belonging to a group of 13 million people to just over 100. I sell beaded jewelry that I make myself for the meager part of my living. I have a rich part of my living that does not come from selling artisan jewelry. The part I am selling is DESIGN. I, because I live in North American, can never compete in price with craftspeople in Asia. But my design is unique and outstanding (standing out in a crowd). Without any idling, I would never have come out with any new designs. Since I have way more idling time than the time spent in making new designs. I call my self Idler.

Location: Montreal 88,500, Canada: 15,300,000

Quite a shock to find out that Canada has 15 million bloggers and the total population is only 33 millions. It must be a mistake somewhere. I cannot believe that half of this country's population belongs to the Google’s blospot and most people we know do not blog. Maybe they are closet bloggers.


C-Cassia

The Science of Getting Rich

I would like to remind myself of this book "The Science of Getting Rich" by Wallace D. Wattles. The following is the summary:

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which in its original state permeates, penetrates and fills the inter-space of the universe.

A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

A person can form things in his thought, and by impressing his thought upon the formless substance can cause the thing he thinks about to be created.

In order to do this, a person must pass from the competitive to the creative mind, otherwise he cannot be in harmony with the formless substance, which is always creative and never competitive in spirit.

A person may come into full harmony with the formless substance by entertaining a lively and sincere gratitude for the blessings it bestows upon him. Gratitude unifies the mind of individual with the intelligence of substance so that the person’s thoughts are received by the formless.

A person can remain upon the creative plain only by uniting himself with the formless intelligence through a deep and continuous feeling of gratitude.

A person must form a clear and definite mental image of things he wishes to have, to do or to become, and he must hold his metal image in his thought while being deeply grateful to the supreme that all his desires are granted to him. A person who wishes to get rich must spend his leisure hours in contemplating his vision and in earnest thanksgiving that the reality is being given to him.

Too much stress cannot be laid upon the importance of frequent contemplation of the mental image, coupled with unwavering faith and devout gratitude. This is the process by which the thought is given to the formless and creative forces set in motion.

The creative energy works through the established channels of natural growth, and of the industrial and social order. All that is included in his metal image will surely be brought to the person who follows the instructions given above and whose faith does not waver. What he wants will come to him through the ways of established trade and commerce.

In order to receive his own when it is ready to come to him, a person must be in action in a way that causes him to more than fill his present place. He must keep in mind the purpose to get rich through realization of his mental image. And he must do, every day, all that can be done that day, taking care to do each act in a successful manner. He must give to every person a use value that is in excess of the cash value he receives, so that each transaction makes for more life, and he must hold the advancing thought so that the impression of increase will be communicated to all with whom he comes into contact.

The men and women who practice the forgoing instructions will certainly get rich, and the riches they receive will be in exact proportion to the definiteness of their vision, the fixity of their purpose, the steadiness of their faith, and the depth of their gratitude.


C-Cassia

Recharging

In the journey of self improvement, I tried to observe my own thoughts. However, in the last few days, my thoughts are chaotic and clouded. Actions are kept at minimum. You can say that I look and act somewhat depressed.

We have reached a point where we have envisioned ourselves to be. We have a place to stay, food to eat, no debt and have savings. In other word, we have simple comfortable life money can buy without ever having to work for anyone else for the rest of our life.

So why am I feeling down?

Some people might say that it is only normal that we have ups and downs. When we are down we needed to be re-charged like those batteries.

Batteries are recharged with electricity. How do we get re-charged? The followings are some of things I used to do:

1) Take a vacation.
2) Change hair style/color
3) Stay in bed
4) Read something interesting
5) Watch a movie

This time I watched a video clip of John Maeda on simplicity from TED talks, which lifted me up a lot.


C-Cassia

Sharing with a skunk?

my small garden with a creek

The other night, we were sitting in the garden by the tiny creek and having a good conversation. All of sudden, we heard some noises by the fence. I went with a bamboo stick in my hand to investigate, and saw a big white and black tail. Richard came inside so quickly. I followed.

A little puzzled by Richard’s reaction, I asked him “This is not a cat. Isn’t?” Richard asked me if I have ever seen a skunk before. Imagine a skunk in our garden!

We have a very small city garden, about 25’ x 25’. The creek we made is probably only 15’ long. On the other hand though, we live only 500 meters from St-Lawrence River. Because of the running water in our creek, we attract all sorts of animals. Cats and squirrels drink from it; birds bath in it. A raccoon tried to sleep in the corner. Now we have a skunk. Poor skunks, not bad looking creatures. But nobody wants to befriend them.

If you make your garden nice, you have to be willing to share it with uninvited creatures, even including skunks.

My daily routine

St Lawrence River

My daily routine:

- Get up at 7:30 a.m.
- Have Aloe Vera jell, rolled oats, raw almonds & Vitamin B for breakfast.
- Go for a walk along the river for an hour or so.
- Open the store at 10:00 a.m.
- Sit in front a mirror and cite my Daily Reminder.
- Take a nap till 12:30 p.m.
- Have lunch (cold meal: salad, cheese/ smoked salmon, bread or soup)
- Mind the store while Richard plays his pool (100 balls).
- Richard takes a nap.
- Have supper at 6:00 p.m. (a hot meal with seafood/fish and vegetables)
- Drink a coffee without sugar (Richard is one step ahead of me, he drinks his coffee black)
- Go for a walk along the river for 2 hours.
- Take a shower.
- Sit around in the garden for an hour or so.
- Go to bed at 12:00 a.m.

I consider not working for other people a form of freedom and privilege. In order to keep my status of having the freedom and privilege, I realize that I have to keep a rigid schedule.

It sounds contradictory that you must discipline yourself in order to have freedom. I always thought that freedom is the ability to act according to one’s own will, which in my younger years was interpreted as to do whatever I liked. I definitely do not like to get up early in the morning. If it is left entirely up to “me”, I like to sleep in till noon and stay up all night until 3:00 a.m. At one time of my life, I literally reversed night with day. I stayed up all night till 7:00 a.m. and slept all day till 4:00 p.m., and realized that nothing good came out of it. Both my mental and physical health deteriorated.

As I grew older, I slowly discovered that there are a few parts of “me” and they do not always think in sync. One part of me would like to stay healthy for sure. The easiest way to stay healthy is to form healthy habits. Habits are formed by repeating a routine day after day.

Hence, the daily routine has started.

AH, I S THIS NOT HAPPINESS (1)

Pansy

Richard came home around 11:00 p.m. After a hot summer day, we sat in the garden by the creek, listening to the sound of water running, sipping cold Pu-Er tea and having a good conversation. We felt a little bit hungry. So I cut a few cubes of Brie cheese, took out some frozen grapes, ate them under the stars. We went to bed around 2:00 a.m. As soon as we lay down, I realized that I forgot to put the tea in the fridge to make a cold pot for tomorrow. So I said to Richard “Can you go? I am too dizzy”. He actually got up and walked to the kitchen, which was not possible a month ago. AH, IS THIS NOT HAPPINESS!!!



c-cassia

Sooner or Later

Richard Mark Didsbury & Ping Chen

I know that my husband and I are in the minority, which is that we do not depend on somebody offering us a job to live. And saying it out loud in this environment when unemployment is high and people are losing money will sound insensitive. Still, it is something everybody has to learn how to do it sooner or later. Most people retire at around age 65. In addition, this blog is to help organize and cultivate my own thoughts.

Even though we do not work for any one else, we do not like to label ourselves retired, not because we are not at the age of retirement. I believe that the concept of retirement can get one in trouble. Retirement means that you no longer work. In my mind, if your whole or partial income derives from savings invested, you still work. You have to work on your money, which involves thinking about, checking on and changing your investment strategy. A lot of people get into trouble, when they let go control of how their retirement savings are invested.

I am not defending criminals who commit fraud and I do sympathize with people who have lost money in this manner. On the other hand, if you have ever hired anybody and the person stole from you, do you ask yourself whether you have made a bad judgment or somehow your system has aided this type of behavior? When it comes to your money, you should ask the same thing.

We know we are on our own; we do not depend on, nor do we wish to be employed for our living. We live on a pool of income – apartment rentals, sales of my artisan beaded jewelry (c-cassia) and dividend from stock equity. We are constantly working on every single source of income. We do not do a perfect job, but all the mistakes are our own. We learn from and improve upon our mistakes. To achieve maximal freedom is to put all the responsibility on our own shoulders, therefore, is to live a self-disciplined life.