Wake Up Tiger

make today your masterpiece :)

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:22:00 PDT

you are GOD in your world

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:39:00 PDT

There are only 2 ways to live your life.
1. As though nothing is a miracle.
2. As if everything is a miracle.
-- Albert Einstein

being, or not being

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:16:00 PDT

gapingvoid.com

wake up tiger

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:04:00 PDT

I thought my fire was out, until I stirred the ashes with my hand and burnt my fingers.

I found the match :)

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:28:00 PDT

Giver of gifts, thank you.

When I was young and knew nothing,
I asked for the sun.

You gave me a candle which I put in my pocket, and now ... a lifetime later,
I found the match.

-- John Squadra, from his book This Ecstasy

raining in spring

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 17:42:00 PDT

raining [haiku]
when it starts raining
the world seem to be washed clean
nature needs no soap

license to live; a story for the old and the young

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:31:00 PDT

I recently picked a new doctor. After two visits and exhaustive Lab tests, he said I was doing 'fairly well' for my age [I just turned 60].

A little concerned about his comment, I couldn't resist asking him, 'Do you think I'll live to be 80?'   

He asked me, 'Do you smoke tobacco, or drink beer or wine?' 'Oh no,' I replied. 'And I'm not doing any drugs, either!'

  Then he asked, 'Do you eat rib-eye steaks and barbecued ribs?   ' 'Not much’ I replied. ‘My former doctor said that all red meat is very unhealthy!'

  'Do you spend a lot of time in the sun, like playing golf, sailing, hiking, or bicycling?'
  'No, I avoid the sun as much as possible,' I replied.   

He asked, 'Do you gamble, drive fast cars, or have a lot of sex?' 'No,' I replied. ‘I’m being extremely careful.’

He looked at me and asked, 'Then why do you even give a shit?’

because laughter is the best tonic

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:24:00 PDT

to be, or not to be

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:11:00 PDT

I asked my 10 year old daughter what she wants to be when she grows up. She said, "Dad, all I want to be is happy".

the things that matter

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:14:00 PDT

Today I was in a coffee shop when two gay guys walked in holding hands. As you might expect, a few heads started turning.

Then a young girl at the table next to me asked her mum why two men were holding hands. Her mum replied, "Because they love each other."

i couldn't have said it better myself :)

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:44:00 PDT

the power of ONE

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:23:00 PDT

When you understand that what most people really, really want is simply to feel good about themselves, and when you realize that with just a few well-chosen words you can help virtually anyone on the planet instantly achieve this, you begin to realize just how simple life is, and how powerful you are.

the breath of life

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:03:00 PDT

The first thing we do when we come into this life is to inhale.

The last thing we do before we finally take leave of our body is to exhale.

In between arrival and departure is the inhalation and exhalation of the breath that maintains our aliveness – every day, 23,000 times a day.

ME

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:43:00 PDT

I know I'm not perfect
I also know parts of me are fucking awesome

ode to spring [which starts today]

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:25:00 PDT

Seeds

When I doubt God’s existence
when I believe not in man’s humanity
when I doubt myself or others
I think of seeds recently flung
from my hand on bare spots
miles from any mountaintop.

Days later I discover
blades of grass
thousands are there
growing and sprouting
in my back yard
shooting skyward
simple blades of grace.

Poet: Joseph Sottile

the choice is YOURS #1.

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:38:00 PDT

Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion.

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small people who find it easier to live in a world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it.

So what's it going to be: "impossible" or "I'm possible"? The choice is yours.

the choice is YOURS #2.

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:41:00 PDT

You either gotta get busy living,
or get busy dying.

-- from Shawshank Redemption

what is YOUR inheritance?

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 03:50:00 PDT

We are all born whole,
but somehow our culture demands
that we live out only part of our nature
and refuse other parts of our inheritance.

-- Robert Johnson, from Owning Your Own Shadow

two blind men

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 03:21:00 PDT

Today a car pulled up in front of me, right in the middle of the road, at a right hand turn, without indicating. "Asshole" I muttered. "INDICATE right if that's what you're going to do". After 15 seconds of tapping on my steering wheel the car in front of me slowly took off, straight ahead, without making a right turn. "Asshole" again. It was only as the car pulled away that I saw him ... a blind man crossing the street.

In that moment I realised that I too was a blind man. I was blinded by my impatience and my assumptions.

ode to the spoon

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 01:12:00 PDT

The Spoon

Some days I think I need nothing more in life than a spoon.
With a spoon I can eat oatmeal or take the medicine doctors prescribe.
I can swat a fly sleeping on the sill or pound the table to get attention.
I can point accusingly at God or stab the empty air repeatedly.
Looking into the spoon’s mirror, I can study my face in its shiny bowl, or cover one eye to make half the world disappear.

With a spoon I can dig a tunnel to freedom, spoonful by spoonful of dirt, or waste life catching moonlight and flinging it into the blackest night.

-- Richard Jones

take YOUR self to a place ...

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:43:00 PDT

Take yourself to a place where tourists do not go.
Leave behind umbrellas, luggage, your address book, ID.
Take only what you can carry on your back.
If you are lucky, you will not return or, failing that, you will not return unchanged.
Take yourself into the woods where maps fail and there is no sound but the promising of rain.
Let your feet carry you to the entrance of a cave.
Sit there and listen, to what the cave will say.
Sit there. Listen.
It is for this moment that you were born.
It is for this moment that Life has called you to this place.
Sit. Listen.
Know your presence as your prayer.

-- Poet: Maureen Killoran

lest we forget :)

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:12:00 PDT

An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.
-- Aldous Huxley

believing is seeing :)

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:39:00 PDT

There is proof that God exists ...
who pops up the next Kleenex?

the story of the starfish [recently retold by my son to a group of students in the Phillipines]

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:31:00 PDT

A father found his son by the sea, where the tide had washed ashore hundreds of starfish. They would soon die of exposure.

His son was tossing the starfish, one at a time, back into the ocean. “Why do you bother?” the father asked his son, overwhelmed by the sheer number of starfish dying. “It won’t make any difference.”

His son stopped for a moment, looked at the starfish in his hand, and replied, “It will to this one.”

to be, or too busy to be

noreply@blogger.com (Ricardo) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:11:00 PDT

"Are you busy?" This is the standard work question I hear people asking one another. Or, to reverse it, the standard work answer to the question "How's it going?" is "Busy".

But it's not enough to be busy. So are ants, bees, and snails. The important questions are: What are you busy about? Who are you busy being?