Avatar-incited mind-wanderings

I'll start with the superficial stuff. I love AVATAR because of its wonderful special effects. I mean, just the colors sent me into an artistic ecstasy! O MEHN! The forest, their world, Pandora---it was just magnificent! The natives and their tattooed blue skin, the creatures, the plants, flowers and trees--everything was just full of life and color. AHHHHHHHH. A feast for the eyes. That's probably what made it a candidate for nomination for best picture too.

If it were a book, I'd say it was a very well-written and well-plotted one. It was just superb--enough for me to compare it with a book! It's story, characters and the world it dared to create had the depth of those that can be found in books.

And for its message...Avatar's message was what I wanted to reveal to the whole world through a book I would have loved to have written too. (I had planned to write a story with a similar message but a different plot to open the eyes of my "readers".)

Our world is dying. And why? Because of us. Because of our selfishness: greed, lust and gluttony. We just love to hoard and take and take and take---even those that were never ours to begin with. In Avatar, the natives were practiced a religion similar to paganism and Buddhism/Hinduism--even our very own, Catholicism. They believed in the beauty of all life. They respected it--which we still fail to do even now.

Their forest was one full of life and creatures. It was a vibrant, thriving, vast living thing. Notice the singular verb? Yes, they believed that everything was joined together too--much like

(I know it's a game card...or whatever you call it. But it was the only picture I can find with the swamp! :) )
the swamp in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Their message was about the interconnectedness of everything. We are all one. (Just like in the book,

The 5 people you meet in heaven by Mitch Albom) This is a philosophy I truly believe in too. I believe that selflessness is the humility of and joy in finally realizing that we are all just one. I breathe and live for you. I am the tree, the flower, the ant, the sun, I AM THE DAY. I am you and you are me. "Love others as you love yourself."

And it kills me how we still continue on living as if this lesson isn't true. Is not the message of God and other religions enough---AND NOW EVEN SCIENCE--to stop people from destroying our very own home, planet Earth? Why do we waste so much on things we don;t need and buy happiness with material things when the only true happiness, peace and joy comes from nothing but unity with all that is OURS AND NOT OURS, with GOD and mother Earth.

True happiness is selflessness. True joy is finally realizing I am one with the soil I step on now.

Sometimes I just feel so hopeless because I look at the city we live in and think about the amount of trees killed just to erect these cold, hard buildings. I wonder how many lives were lost because of me. I consume so much too. These clothes I'm wearing were from trees, albeit in a very altered and impure form. This computer I'm using is using up energy through electricity produced by fossil fuels which might never be replaced again. PEOPLE, HUMANITY use up too much things that are not even vital for our survival. We don't need He-knows-how-many brands of candy and chocolate and clothes and whatever to survive.

Why have capitalism and consumerism taken root over everything? Why is it now a part of every human culture--though, admittedly, some still aren't subject to its evil...

This is sometimes just too much to bear. It is overwhelming. I feel as though through the mere occupation of living I am destroying the world which allowed me to live in the first place. Why must this be so?

This is something I would very much like to ask Bo Sanchez as well. What is his stand in regards to the environment (and our Filipino government)?


I just love Aang and Avatar (the Nickelodeon series) :D

AVATAR

Fantastic movie. One of the greatest I've seen. It definitely is one of my absolute favorites.

This movie just delivered what I want out of any form of entertainment--life lessons. Or even simple mind-boggling things. It made me think. It made me remember...

It rekindled the passive fire inside my heart. It opened Pandora's box--My emotions--the sorrow, the worry, the fears, the hopelessness, the hopefulness, the tears, the torment...everything just came back out and my love for mother nature and the conflict in my soul about what we're doing to her, whom God lovingly gifted to us, reared their ugly head. Everything burst free.

(This post will be continued. The muse is currently out of town.)

Radical Changes

The past month has bred radical changes. Not just that one month, I guess. It's the summation of everything that has happened preceding it too--isn't it always like that in life? Every small thing we do always sums up to something greater.

My faith has changed--or its strength, ferocity, to be exact. My goals, my own perception of life, my mind-set--these have all been altered. Seriously altered--forever altered? As of now, I'm not yet sure.

But let's get down to it. OR them.

First, my faith. AHH! Bo Sanchez is now one of my idols too, together with the Jabbawockeez. :)

He's just a model of everything I can become. He's a great speaker, he's a great leader, he's a great Catholic. He is just GREAT. He writes, he preaches, he leads--he does everything for God. He's such a busy man and in spite of that, find time for his own family.

Actually, just knowing everything that he does makes me exhausted. He writed at least 3 books a year, he makes daily videos for his site, preacherinbluejeans.com, he writes in various magazines AND is the founder of one. He's a founder of a lot of things. I'm sure I can learn a lot from him.

I'm supposed to say here that I hope my faith becomes as strong as his one day--BUT I'm almost afraid to become just like him. I mean, I can't give up everything for God just yet. And that's the bare truth. I can't sacrifice all thing material for all things immaterial--or maybe I just don't want to.

Weird thing is, it's not hard to admit that to myself. I'm not even afraid to say it. Maybe because it is the truth--and it sets you free, right?

Second, ahh. I am officially a Jabbawockeez fan. HAHAHA. and that's a big deal.

Thrid, I am finally sure what I want to be when I grow up--to be a preacher slash dancer. :D Different, I know.

And being a dancer changes a lot of things for me. I get sky high grades, have a lot of things going for me--just your typical overachiever and being that, people expect a lot from me. When they think about my future, the words, Scientist, Doctor, Lawyer, President, ETCETERA, ETCETERA, pop out. But never ever a dancer.

But I fully realized just recently that what I really want to be in life is just supposed to be what I, I, I and GOD wants for me. I think this is it. I'm almost sure it is.

The major, and probably the most superficial, hindrance to my realizing this was my desire to be rich in the future. But I realized, it didn't really matter if I become rich, only if I am helping others in the way God had planned for me--doing what I love most. :)

And if it's to dance. THEN IT IS. And no one else can stop me from doing so.

Thank the Lord, for my ability, for his blessings, for his love. :D

Humility

PT week just finished. Glad the exams are done. :D

This thought has been pervading my mind ever since it first stumbled its way into my head.

Studying is a proof of humility. You bow down your head, admitting that what you are reading, you do not know yet--or at least do not master yet.

It requires enough courage
to embark on a seemingly impossible quest.
(50 pages worth of studying for each day
for five consecutive days.)

It needs perseverance
to continue trekking trough the thick mud full of words.
(50 pages worth of studying for each day
for five consecutive days.)

It demands concentration
to keep all those information inside the mind,
And self-mastery to shy away from any distractions.

Nevertheless, above all that,
it seems to never be without its twin sister, Humility,
For the cause of studying is admitting ineptness.

HHAHAHAHAHAHA. Please understand that this is just a little half baked poem. :D

Who are we? We are One.

Why is it that so much importance is placed on just a fortunate arrangement of bones? On some fortunate amount and location of hair?

Why is it that people let themselves be defined by their reflection on some piece of fancy metal? How is it that they never realize that a person’s worth--a person’s life--a person--can never ever be defined by what their eyes’ receptors interpret from the light reflected from such a thing as a polished surface?

Humans—me—you—are so much more than what the light shows of us. But how is it that so few people ever see(realize, truly realize)that. How can they see and not see?

How can they not see their auras, themselves expanding, filling all the spaces—the gaps, leaving nothing untouched—How can they not see themselves in the beauty of the first drop of water that falls from the skies portending rain? How can they not see themselves in the violence of people spewing forth from their mouths lances of hatred which leaves deep cuts on another’s soul? How can they not see themselves in the pain of a mother bringing forth another living creature into this wonderful world? How can they not see themselves in the tragedy of loving and not being loved in return?

How can they not see themselves—and not see fully?

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

“The world is full of stories, but the stories are all one.” – The 5 People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom

The physical world is not our only reality.

God will never judge us because of how we look, how we smell, or how we sound like. He will not close the doors of heaven for us just because we are not slim, thin, or "beautiful" by the material world's standards.

"What is essential is invisible to the eye." -- The Little Prince

A Concert For A Friend. :)

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Please help, guys. Neither I nor you may know this person, but that should not stop any one of us from helping another person in need. :) Spread the word.

"When a person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed." - Mo. Theresa

"It is in giving that we recieve." - Prayer of Saint Francis

"The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention." - Jon Burroughs

"If I can stop one heart from braking, I shall not live in vain." - Emily Dickinson


"It is the things we always hold
That we will lose some day;
The only thing we ever keep
Are what we give away." - excerpt from the poem "Song" by Harold C. Sandall

Dividing Line

I was just thinking of something while I've been reading our CLE(Christian Life Edu.) book. And I've decided to name thoughts like these seemingly-random-but-not-really thoughts I run into while I'm studying and having one of my AHA! moments. I now call them as my own personal...

RaT(s)

Ra = Random
T(s) = Thought(s)

My RaT(s) for today:

What truly is the dividing line of right from wrong? How do we just so intrinsically know which one is which without really having to agonize about it? Is it really just because we grew up learning about the Ten Commandments and such? Is it truly just because of exposure? But how is it that we can still do what is right even without having to believe in something--anything? It's just a WOAH thought for me. Was there an internal device built inside each one of us to make us so very capable of knowing and differentiating right from wrong?

And truly, if there is no difference from right and wrong or if there is NO right or wrong, then isn't it another intriguing wonder to just think that the people who are fighting, dying for what is right are just dying for NOTHING really? It's just something they themselves believe is right. Or does the reality that they BELIEVE it is right make all the difference?

What wonders. :) I love thinking.