Before an uninvited guest has knocked on our doors...

"Death" is something unpleasant and I don't think that anyone want to talk about it.  There are exceptions like monks and certain people though.  But a lot of us tend to forget it because no one really wants to die. 

But there are times like family, friends or loved ones' deaths are something we gotta unavoidably deal with.  The recent death of my big aunt, my late big uncle's wife, brought "Death" once again to my attention.  When I talked with my youngest uncle about her situation during her last hospitalization days, it broke my tears again as it once again poked my old scar for my late parents.  I absolutely can relate and sympathize of how my cousins will be feeling for their mom at this one of the hardest times of their lives.

There's Buddha's teaching that everyone will die one day.  Along with that, all other thoughts and insights click my mind altogether once again.  I felt like I suddenly become more religious.  It just brought up most of the stuff which I learnt during the summer Buddhist camp  when I was a fourth grader.  A lot of times, we as human beings enjoy the materialistic things around us.  Wearing the nice clothes and pretty shoes and bags, enjoying the compliments we've got from people around us for how great we look or how great we're doing, dreaming of a big and gorgeous house to own, etc, etc.  The list of items which we care and our wish list, both of which appears to be materialistic are so long and it just goes on and on and on...

But how many times and how many of us do care about helping others around us who are in need?  From the small things like holding a door for a mom with a stroller who is struggling to get through the door by holding it with one hand while trying to push the stroller with another one ?  And do we really care about those who are starving and thinking of sharing what we have with them, in terms of money donation or whatever we could?

A lot of the times, we care ourselves so much that we get ourselves lost in this materialistic jungle and the core values of life such as kindness, being helpful, etc have been overlooked.  Our mind is poisoned unconsciously with Greed (lobha), Hatred/Anger (Dosa) and Delusion (Moha), Pride (Mana) and Jealousy (Irshya).  Those five main different kinds of fire are burning inside us without being aware of ourselves.  Those are the main sources of our unhappiness and uncontentment. 

I used to hold griefs and grudges for people who did bad or treated me bad.  Whenever I happen to think about what they did to me, it makes me really mad again.  It's one of the main aforementioned mind posioners, Dosa (Hatred/Anger), isn't it?  During recent years, I had learnt to let them go.  I come to realize that I could have diverted my energy to use on other beneficial stuff for my life instead of getting it burnt by these kind of unworthy things. 

When "forgiveness" couldn't be the solution, "Let it go" and "Move on" are the two main resolutions I learnt during recent years.  And still my same old favorite quote "If you have a clean soul and get rid of your evil wills then you will get a good fate".  Speaking of "fate", I couldn't deny the fact that there got certain things in life where they are beyond our control for deciding our own fate. 

For instance, someone who is born as a deaf or a blind, they couldn't pick their fate for being a normal person just like others.  However, I'm a firm believer that the fate of most of the things in our life are determined by how we behave or gesture.  Newton's law states that everything has reflection.  Good things will have good reflections and bad things will do the same.

In summary, any of those materialistic things we're holding onto today means nothing when an uninvited guest comes and knocks our doors.  Can we bring anything with us when we're leaving?  Can we bring a beautiful girl or a handsome guy tile when we left?  Can we bring our favorite diamond ring or a Lamborghini with us when we're gone?  Nah!  But I think a clean guilt-free soul is something we can bring everywhere. Our uninvited guest could pop up at any point of time in our life and before he comes  we'd better behave ourselves.  Still the same old saying: "Life is short.  Live...Love...Laugh"  And when and while we live, keep ourselves up with a clean soul and get rid of those evil wills as much as we could.   I've been trying in the past as well but I now will raise the bars of my life even more by trying harder to always stick with this new motto of my life!  Bring it on!

I heart beaches

The weather forecast on my phone starts showing 90F for this week.  It's my first time seeing 90 degree ever since we've got here.  After passing May Grey and June Gloom, summer is right here.

What that means is that those countless gorgeous beaches will be super crowded for such a nice and warm weather.  I heart beaches and it's so incredible to live in a city where beaches are just so close by.  From where I grew up, we always gotta make a special plan and reserve a dedicated time to visit a beach.  Going to a beach was a vacation for us.  All I'm trying to say is that beaches are not close by and it would take hours to get there.  To visit Ngapali beach which is considered to be the best beach in my country took us a little more than a day by the bus.  By air will get one within shorter time frame but it'll cost one more of course.

From where we live now, it'll only take about 10 minute drive to a gorgeous beach. And one doesn't necessarily need to stick a beach when there got so many stunning ones to pick from.  To me, that's the beauty and the core of San Diego.  Beaches are so easily accessible to us and it could be the destination of our daily evening strolls if we want to.  Really, we can have a little vacation every week at those beaches.  I can't ask more.  The only downside is that beating the crowd during weekends when they are so easily accessible to everyone.

A beach offers the countless options.  Walking, jogging, surfing, swimming, Frisbee-ing, beach-volleyball, you name it.  Or gazing people or staring and enjoying it beautiful scenes?  Or trying to spot wildlife such as pelicans, storks, seagulls, sea lions?  I really love gazing at the restless sea and its raging tides.  Pampering my bare feet by dipping them into the warm and soft white sand and enjoying the cool breeze which is kissing my face and the gorgeous scenario and surrounding are just so soothing for me.  The settings and surroundings at the beach always make me forget everything but the current moment I'm enjoying there.  I find it's the best stress reliever for me.  It always makes me refreshed and recharged.  There's nothing like spending time with family at beach.

My kids love beaches too.  Beaches never disappoint them.  Building sand castles, playing with sand, running before waves or chasing them, collecting the shells.  There got plenty of activities which will keep them entertain and busy.

One of these days, I see myself camping at a beach with my family from the sun rise til sun set.  Cooling down ourselves by the beach during a warm day will be a wise thing to do.  And relax, relax and RELAX!  It's all about relaxing.  To kill such a beautiful day, I would add a favorite book or two to my list.  What do you say about the lunch picnic and the afternoon nap by the sea?  I had witnessed the sunset at the beach for a couple of times and they were incredibly awesome.  One time at Pacific beach, it was super awesome to witness the sun setting below the horizon, behind the sea. It happened like within a minute or two and I felt so incredible for catching that remarkable moment.  Oh my! Just thinking about it makes me want to do it right away.

Hey, most of all, beaches are free.  We're literally getting a free vacation.  Scratch those big bucks for expensive hotel rooms or resort fees.  One just needs to bring own self and invest a day.  Cost-efficient and affordable mini-staycations without having to cost one much and leaving your own town.  Plus, one can do it periodically and over and over again. Oh, I heart beaches!

London 2012

Olympics is right here and I'm getting so much addicted to it.  It's so amazing to see those young competitive athletes in all those games.  Most of the athletes are so young and they are only 16 or 17 years old.  Well, it's true for most of the games I've been watching.  Gymnastics Artistic, swimming, diving, and so on. 

At such a young age, they already know what they want to do and who they want to be.  With winning medals(especially Gold) for their representative countries on their shoulders, it's so much amazing to see how a 16 or 17 years old is coping with such a huge stress.  

Some of the games were so competitive that it was so breathtaking to watch them.  Between gold and silver and silver and bronze, it could be as worst as a fraction of a hundred of a second or a point difference. 

There's absolutely no doubt that the road to their championship doesn't come easy.  Years and years of intensive training, hard work, sweat and sacrifices of their personal lives were invested to become the world class.  Most of them started out like when they were 5 or 6 years old.  While other kids were relaxing and enjoying their lives, they might have been pushing their butt hard to become one of the best of the best.

It was kind of shocking to read about the news of famous Chinese synchronized diver, Wu MinXia.  Her family kept her grand parents' death including her mom's suffering of breast cancer from her until after her gold medal.  Their huge success comes with a great tradeoffs too.

There's even no doubt that how Micheal Phelps's mom would feel incredibly proud of her son's phenomenal victories in all those games.  Those athletes and their success stories are so inspiring.  However, I'm not sure I want my kids to pay such a high price for their personal life for such success.  I just don't have the heart to bear to see them doing it.  The injuries they gotta suffer from time to time during their intensive training have not even been factored in yet.  Oh well, there's no such thing as a free lunch, right?  No pain, no gain!!!!

Nonetheless, I really enjoy watching those amazing games just like millions or billions of other viewers.  Part of the reason why this week has been so tough and long was that I was putting all my spare hours on watching them, :P  I just wish that NBC would shift the schedules for the broadcast times of those games a little earlier so that I don't need to stay up until mid night.  Those amazing athletes give their best for each of the game they are competing and I am also giving my best patronizing them.  As much as London's excited to host those vibrant games, I'm excited to watch them as well.  Oh well, my Olympic games fevers!!