regenerate

I now allow myself the full freedom

• to fill up my life completely with things and people that I love.
• to not associate or have anything to do with people or things that I dislike or feel no connection to.
• to talk to interesting people that I am curious about.
• to love myself truly and completely.
• to let go of everything that no longer serves me.
• to be imperfect and to make mistakes.
• to move forward.

I used to feel fear at dusk. Today I’m just wondering if I should leave the house or not. I’m leaning towards ‘not’, but I feel like I should exercise my legs so they don’t atrophy and maybe go look at some books or something. Use free resources that are available. I also want to make progress on some art projects by photographing the city at night. Again.

“Singapore’s most beautiful when you can’t see it – at night.”

I don’t feel that fear right now. I don’t feel guilt either – which is kind of amazing since I used to feel those so intensely during my free moments in adolescence and early adulthood.

At night you see the lights. LEDs and office buildings that I’m glad I don’t have to enter. Pretty but sterile. Imitations of life. The lights hint at some possibility of what this city could be but isn’t. Some sliver of reality that I’ve lived on for ten years now – this sliver being the possibility that one day I’ll move to a city where I can fully live inside this feeling.

That city is New York.

I never expected it to be. I really did think it would be London or Tokyo. Rather special.

There is this feeling in the world’s big cities that I can’t really explain. It’s the same feeling I feel in Singapore at night. It’s the feeling that we could probably reach the stars a lot sooner than we think. It’s the feeling that we’re almost ready for some great leap in our thinking, doing and being. The feeling that in one swift moment we can actualize the reservoirs of human potential that great people have really only hinted at throughout the years. That we – all of us – can actualize this and that it is not just for the select few by esoteric means.

That’s the feeling that’s kept me on Earth and in this body. I used to want to leave but now I make my choice – I stay. I stay and see what happens.

I have the strange suspicion that the universe will surprise me after all.

This is an outfit I put together in mid-January this year, just a few days before I left for LA and NYC alone. Basically right before I embarked on one of the most important and joyful journeys of my life. I had no idea how things were going to turn out – the only thing I was absolutely sure of was that I was following my heart, truly.

I find myself in a similar position now – I leave for New York City once again in a matter of days now. This time I will stay for years. I am excited and relieved both. And almost ecstatic that the dream of a decade is finally becoming reality.

Anyway, in case you’re wondering, my hair was a mix of Special Effects’ Napalm Orange and Nuclear Red back then.

“We are a way for the universe to know itself. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return. And we can, because the Cosmos is also within us. We’re made of star stuff.”
- Carl Sagan

“Consciousness is evolving throughout the universe in billions of forms. So, even if we didn’t make it, this wouldn’t matter on a cosmic scale. No gain in consciousness is ever lost, so it would simply express itself through some other form. But the very fact that I am speaking here and you are listening or reading this is a clear sign that the new consciousness is gaining a foothold on the planet.”
- Eckhart Tolle (read the full post here)

(both of the above via @unfolding who keeps a wonderful tumblr over at metaconscious.tumblr.com)

——-

“The reasonable [person] adapts [themself] to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to [themself]. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable [person].”
- George Bernard Shaw (via @goatsfoot)

“It has been said: 95% of everyone you meet is sound asleep.
That remaining 5% live in permanent AWE. Choose.”
- @TWM71

“Being responsible and conscientious in accomplishing crap merely means you’ve increased the amount of crap in the world”
- @ClopenSet

“Don’t whine about not having enough time or energy to write; do not think that only under altered circumstances would you be able to write. Instead, go and write, and go and write some more; your circumstances will alter themselves.”
- Sheila Bender (via @theseance)

“We don’t know about you, but we’re sick of veneers. In a world where we’re constantly instructed to self-censor, silence ourselves, and swallow the taboo notions, raw self-expression is hard to come by. Modern society thrives on the absurdity of apathy, and anyone with the human conditions of curiosity, passion and diversity is a stray by default.

MonkeyMask is our way of saying ‘No’ to the ugly faces of social expectations, inherent boundaries, and the corporate culture. We’re protesting the collective masquerade, the clones marching to the same beat of the drum. We want miscellany, not conformity…

All submissions are anonymous. We want to shatter inhibitions by letting our contributors explore their own talents, push makeshift boundaries until there are none and dabble in a medium they are wary of, or unfamiliar with. Go ahead and get out of your comfort zone. It’s not like you have anything to lose.”

MonkeyMask wants art from your heart and is now accepting submissions.

The Laughing Heart

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

– Charles Bukowski

Beautiful poem originally seen on Coilhouse.

• Dynomighty Design’s Mighty Wallets!

These are ingenious for travellers – because they don’t look like wallets at all! However, they’re fantastic for other reasons as well: they’re eco-friendly – printed with environmentally-friendly ink, 100% recyclable and made from 25% recycled material (they’re made from a tear-resistant, stain-resistant material called Tyvek which is also used to make envelopes). Nifty idea. I like their magnetic jewellery made from Rare Earth magnets too. Also, everything is reasonably priced.

• Paul Stamets on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world.

Also check out his article Earth’s Natural Internet.

• “The best way to fight a sick system is to get out.”
Read this article about sick systems. Then read about Qualities That Keep You in a Sick System (surprising and hopeful) and Thoughts on the Tenacity of Sick Systems. Much thanks to @ClopenSet for finding these articles!

Received this beautiful dress in the mail earlier this week and I love it so. So, in anticipation of the launch of Coilhouse #05, I took this photo. Issue 05 was just launched earlier today (well, in Singapore time) and you can check it out and buy it here. I don’t know how they manage to do it, but they keep  outdoing themselves every time. I love Coilhouse – always stunning photography, words and graphic design. Inspiring on so many levels and truly authentic and alternative in a rare and beautiful way.

Thoughts of New Hope, PA in the last few days. It’s very quickly become one of my favourite places that I’ve ever visited. Images taken on April 4th, 2010.

Empower (part 2)

“Only the heart knows the correct answer. Most people think the heart is mushy and sentimental. But it’s not. The heart is intuitive; it’s holistic, it’s contextual, it’s relational. It doesn’t have a win-lose orientation. It taps into the cosmic computer – the field of pure potentiality, pure knowledge, and infinite organizing power – and takes everything into account. At times it may not even seem rational, but the heart has a computing ability that is far more accurate and far more precise than anything within the limits of rational thought.”

- Deepak Chopra, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success