To love is to trust. To trust is to believe.

This is something I'm working on. Well, I honestly think a lot of people are working on this. What better can ruin love than distrust? Trust ties together all relationships. Trust is important in oneself and in others. 

I most certainly cannot love another if I can't trust that person. Nor can I love another if I don't trust myself. 

Ugh am I making sense? I don't know if it makes sense on paper, but it makes sense in my head...

Lesson on love from The Oatmeal

This was...

sweet?

cute?

slightly horrifying?

but totally true.

Red Velvet Mite

The best thing for being sad...

    “The best thing for being sad," replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake in the middle of the night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world around you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting." (from The Sword and the Stone)

Perhaps I need to give this book another try... Merlyn speaks the truth.

Fear not.

Chris Hadfield's TED talk on his space walk

This was a great talk. It really was inspiring, as every TED talk has been so far, because it dealt with a concept that I (and probably most people) deal with rather consistently: fear. He spoke of how we can change the way we react by understanding the difference between perceived fear and actual danger. And he did this by giving an example of something a lot of people fear.

SPIDERS.

SCARY.

DANGEROUS.

Or are they?

He proceeded to talk about how many different types of spiders there are (around 700+ types?) and how many are actually venomous (maybe 12...maybe?). And then, he mentioned that in Canada (where he was giving the talk), there's only ONE spider you have to worry about. 

The black widow spider. And then he talked about the possibility of walking into the web of a black widow spider and how it's almost an impossibility because they spin their webs close to the ground in corners. 

Crazy right? Once knowledgeable, there's no reason to fear anymore. We have this instinct to frantically brush off a spider when, most of the time, they're as dangerous as a ladybug or a butterfly. 

Come on, we all know this feeling.

So, perceived fear vs. actual danger. This, like Hadfield said, can be applied to everything. While I don't think I'll be walking into spider webs to get over my fear of spiders (which is what his solution was...), I'll certainly be taking his advice to heart.

Thanks, Mr. Hadfield.

Vulnerability

Brene Brown on Vulnerability

Dare Greatly

This.

Man, I love TED talks.

Beautiful Insignificance

I totally thought that I would get back to this post much sooner than I have. I don't really remember anymore when I last looked at this entry and contemplated what I was trying to form into words. However, perhaps it was the universe's way of allowing me more time to grow and then revisit my idea of "beautiful insignificance."

This is what I had already written:

So I was on my way back to school from home when I suddenly had a whole slew of random, possibly connected thoughts...

You know, I never feel as beautifully insignificant as when I'm traveling.  Something about sitting in a moving vehicle as I pass and get passed by other moving vehicles... it kinda just...moves me (figuratively and literally...).  I look out the window and see that other person, driving or sitting in the passenger's seat, and I think, here's another person on their way to something.

As I sat listening to the overly-played tunes and obnoxious, sometimes amusingly so, commercials, I realize others in their vehicles might be doing the same.  Are they, too, contemplating the vastness of life or perhaps they're thinking of other thoughts entirely, more caught up in living than thinking about living.  I wonder which is more important in life...or if they are equally important.  How much of life is missed when you just contemplate on it?  And how much awe is missed when you don't contemplate the beauty?

_________


This is how I feel sometimes when I have these thoughts. Mind. Blown.

but then...

I'm like... aw man... Where did my coherent, deep thought go?!

Anyway.

Sometimes I think I haphazardly have thoughts that have the possibility to hit on the intricacies of the human experience. And while I try to grab at them and form them into tangible thought, I often fail and only get a part. But is that so bad? Perhaps the bits and pieces I get are enough at the time.

Anyway, even after all this time (I think it's been at least a year since I've looked at what I wrote for this entry), my thoughts haven't really changed on the matter. I am still so in awe of the very fact that I'm alive and breathing on this planet. And I feel so small. I often think of other people, living in their worlds and feeling, as I do, that theirs is an important story. They may not realize it, but I'm almost certain their minds are focused on their own human experience. I can't help thinking about them while they're living. I wonder what they're feeling, how their day is going, what their story is. And it humbles me. It truly humbles me. It makes me remember that I am not the only consciousness on this planet. And this feeling connects me to other people in a way that nothing else does.

A different canvas

I was watching this TED talk today (I've really been getting into them) in which an artist used something not so traditional as a canvas. (I'll let you watch it on your own if you wish).

Alexa Meade's canvas

And it made me think about how I typically view situations. Any situation a person is in can be perceived in a number of ways, just as art can be perceived in a number of ways, just as one can react in a number of ways. The struggle is when we can only see one course of action. We have blinders on and can't get out of the box. We can't, I can't, view a situation in any other light. What then? It's up to me to come out of it. We can choose how to see any situation we are in.

These thoughts actually have nothing to do with Alexa's message in her TED talk. But they certainly inspired them after watching it. Thanks, Alexa. =)