Flying Bento Box

Since the end of last year, I have been going through a sort of inner spiritual development. I began to reflect upon and reassess my priorities in life with matters regarding career, finances, and relationships. One thing that has continually been in the back of my mind for a long time now was the amount of stuff that I have accumulated over the years. Material possessions such as excessive clothing, shoes, toys (including one too many stuffed animals), decorative pieces, and massive amounts of decade-old school work. In the past, I have attempted to remove them to the best of my abilities; yet, despite my efforts, they continue to build up in large quantities. I also felt incapable of parting with many items because there was either some emotional attachment to them or I thought perhaps they would potentially be useful one day. Well, let me tell you, those stuff remained pretty much useless to this day. However, since late last year, I felt as though my life had been imploding from...

There are two pathways in life: action and inaction.  There are three outcomes in life: success, failure, and stagnancy.  With action, you can either succeed or fail.  Success is ideal. Failure can be difficult.  However, failure is not without benefits and significant learning lessons. But inaction is worse than failure. Without even trying, you can neither succeed nor experience growth.  With inaction, all that remains is stagnancy. So I ask, which path should you take? Which outcomes do you want to achieve? When you are between two crossroads in life and is unable to decide on what to do, look back at these notes and remember that in the end, with any action, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. It is almost always better to start than to have never started at all. So, brush off those ugly fears, doubts, and uncertainties. Gently close your eyes and breathe deeply. For in this once of a kind lifetime, there may be no other cha...

Breaking down every now and then isn't necessarily a bad thing;  at least, that's what I've been told and what I like to tell myself.  All those times I held back tears and all those moments of suppressed unconscious emotions and thoughts pouring out in one setting is not exactly a pretty sight,  but I'm a firm believer that in those moments  (the lowest of the lowest),  our mind clears up and our soul breaks free.  At that point, there are always two paths one can take:  give up and remain stagnant  or  change your perspective with appropriate actions.  I've never been one to give up.  Never have,  never will.

From March 2nd to March 31, 2012, I volunteered for Peace Boat in Ishinomaki, Miyagi, Japan to help with the relief effort after the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami. One of Peace Boat's projects is in Funakoshi, a small seaside village in the Ogatsu peninsula, north of Ishinomaki.There, volunteers support and help the "Funakoshi ladies" make pendant necklaces and paint pictures on the Ogatsu stones while sitting on the third floor within a partially destroyed school building. These stones hold special meaning as they used to be part of roof tiles of houses that were washed away by the March 11th tsunami. This is a piece of writing from my dream book. It tells of my renewed love for art and painting as a result of the volunteer experiences I encountered in Funakoshi. Additionally, it offers a small window into understanding the human condition, in particular, the Japanese effort to rebuild their lives after the earthquake/tsunami natural disaster. ~~~~~  Frozen in Tim...

06/30/2017 Hello my friend! How are you? I hope you are doing well. I am doing pretty good myself here in Vietnam. Today was my last day volunteering at the Orthopedics and Rehab Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City and I just wanted share with you about what I’ve seen and learned here.             If I were to describe my experience here in one or two words, I would say it is eye-opening. I suppose I’ll need to talk a little about my daily life here in Vietnam you can get a sense of why it was eye-opening. Every day, my alarm rings at 600 in the morning. I get up quiets and tip toe to the bathroom so as not to wake up the other volunteers that shared the room with me. I put on my blue scrubs and dark brown Birkenstock sandals. They aren’t as pretty and feminine as the sandals the nurses at the hospitals wear, but they will do. I grab my bag with about 40,000 Vietnamese Dong—$1.75 in US dollars—more than enough to spend for the da...

This is an essay I wrote for a writing course during my third year at university. Parts of it are truths and parts of it are fictional but that doesn't really matter because the message, the meaning behind this is important.  Women. Strength. Confidence. and Beauty. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~             I was four years old when I first wore makeup. “Look how beautiful you were!” my mother said. She showed me an old, slightly creased photo. In it, a bewildered little Vietnamese girl stood next to an untamed rose bush, holding a giant red rose.  Perplexed, I studied the picture a little longer, a little closer to make sure she was really me. She had a pale, white face tinted with slightly pink blush on her plump round cheeks. Bright red dainty lips completed the image—a true, living doll. “She can’t be me,” I thought.   Growing up, I was quite the tomboy. I ran wild like the wind, laughing ...

I feel like we've lost ourselves. All those products to clear away all the dirt on our skin, then to moisturize  because the last product stripped off the natural oils, and then on top of that, only to layer it with separate oils from a bottle. And what if you got acne? That means you must take extra good care of your skin, spend all your money and effort to get rid of the pimples on top, and obsess over your red bumps: touching it, looking at it, squeezing it, covering it with layers of make up to seem "normal." Because the flawless skin you see on T.V., in the movies, or on YouTube is "normal," right?  Let me tell you, I've been an acne sufferer for 12 years. It started when I was in middle school; my first self conscious moment was when my friend pointed out the gigantic volcano forming on my nose. I went home that day and popped that thing like no tomorrow (still have a scar from it too) and from that day on, I found myself standing in front of the mir...