Salamat

I turned 40 four days ago, and surprisingly, I feel like my adventure has just begun. I have somehow reached the point in my life where I know what is true and valuable, what is pure and noble, what is fake and insignificant. I have attained a good level of financial, emotional, and spiritual freedom, and I am excited to explore this life, this Universe.

For my birhtday, I meditated for a couple minutes while laying on the pool at the hotel with the sun shining brightly on my face. I quieted myself, and narrowed down my concentration to every deep breath I took in that particular time and space. Meditation is when you stop listening to everything and everyone, and just simply focusing on the silence, the simplicity, and the beauty of being alive. If to breathe means to be alive, then we don't really need that much to live this seemingly chaotic and stressful life. We have everything we need in every moment and much more, if we just simply breathe and embrace the quiet strength of nothingness.

But it just doesn't stop there. Breathing the life in us becomes even grander when we share it with people who make us laugh, care for us, journey with us, and connect with us in a very personal way. Our friends and (hopefully) our family are there so we can enjoy life and companionship. A tree cannot stand alone for decades without growing roots and depending on the soil, the rain, and the sunlight that makes it bear fruit and bloom beautiful flowers. It lives along with other life giving elements of Nature, it cannot breathe on its own, otherwise it will die.

Come Friday and the coming months, the malls and online stores could be shutting down from the shopping stampede of holiday sales. People will migrate to those hallways and cyber spaces like zombies looking for flesh to eat. Shopping and any other impulsive, mindless, unnecessary activity seem to be easy options for quick fixing a dead and empty soul. I want more of this, I like more of that, I want what he has, I like what they got.

I am thankful to have seen the Mayan temples, and know a bit of their history and culture on my 40th birthday. I am thankful to have swam in a Cenote in a Yucatan village in Mexico, and travel that whole day with two long time friends from back home. I am thankful that, after forty years, it's less about the things and other material investments we try to pursue to secure and enjoy life. I am thankful to have discovered that simplicity, silence, and breathing deeply and purely are the foundations of a clear and secure mind. I have everything I need.

I am thankful that there are other people around me that make my life more exciting, more fun, more meaningful, more peaceful and more to look forward to. This is the much more that we really want and need in our lives.

This year, I want more! More life experiences with true friends and good people who make breathing much easier, more purposeful, and more genuine. Life does begin at 40 for me. I will stop listening and subscribing to Rat Race TV, I will not worry because that is a wasteful activity on a future that is merely a concept and will never exist. I will focus on the simplicity and the beauty of breathing clean and pure air, and share it with other people who make my world a better place to live in.

Today, everyday, until the last day I breathe.

I wish I could say the same for those poor turkeys.

FaceBlah

Sometimes I wonder if social media has brought about the madness, the euphoria, the mindless musings, and the chaotic events that produce endless status feeds online. The world seems more disorganized, tragedy filled, loud and annoying. It's really becoming too much and overwhelming in that virtual side of Life.

Everyone, including myself, is posting the funniest, the saddest, the weirdest, the most favorite, the worst, the best, and the latest in world news and current affairs. Other media sources have become shared links on a friend's status board. How much of this information can we store in The Cloud? How much is too much, and what will it take to break it? What will come out of this heartbreak?

Just because I'm posting or sharing someone else's grief, success, birthday, recent discovery, purchase, or whatever story it is, doesn't really mean anything, it is just a tweet or a shout-out. People think that by posting things, they are doing an act of kindness, exposing whatever needs publicity and help, when in fact it's just a moral boost to make themselves feel good by doing so. And I am guilty of this myself.

Kindness is not a result or a response to some tragedy or unfortunate circumstance, it is a lifestyle and a natural outcome of the pure and good intentions that are real from within. Everyday from sunrise to sundown. The person who lives somewhere in the mountains of Nepal who lives genuinely and truthfully among his family and village folks, is not any less kind than those volunteers giving their time and effort to disaster victims. It is in the daily, mundane, and routine activities that a person's character shines and is tested, not only in response to threat or miserable situations. After the hype of fund raising and gift giving, who are you as a person when you cross the street, when you drive, when you're at work, when you see an old person fall, when there is no great earthquake that shakes the world around you?

I am tired of the status updates of everybody including myself. I think it's time to take a break from social media, and focus on what is around us, reflect on what is inside of us, and build on the truth that makes us who we really are. Everybody talks and likes to talk about other people's comments on their feeds. Everybody is busy uploading photos, sharing links, and liking other posts. But at the end of the day, have you really touched somebody else's life? Have you really been true to everyone, and live your best authentic self?

I know this is all entertainment, but let us not get distracted and hypnotized by the fake and airfilled value of VIRTUAL REALITY. Kindness and authenticity don't need status feeds and sympathy votes. If everybody lives truthfully, the world will naturally be a better place to live in, with or without FaceBlah.