The wisdom of Alice

“Have I gone mad?” said the Mad Hatter…

“I’m afraid so”, said Alice, “You’re entirely bonkers… but I’ll tell you a secret, all the best people are.”

The Loyal Tree

Despite the cruelty of winter, the tree chose never to let go ...

Makes you wonder, why are many humans so different from that loyal tree ...

The Endless Struggle

There are a hundred things she has tried to chase away, the things she won't remember and that she can't even let herself think about because that's when the birds scream and the worms crawl and somewhere in her mind it's always raining a slow and endless drizzle.

The Romance of the Sun and the Moon

The moon was alone one evening, shining in the midnight sky. Although she was surrounded by myriads of tiny, sparkly stars, she felt as if there was no one to understand her. She eagerly searched the skies for a friend, perhaps a meteor, with whom to discuss the joys and sorrows of her life. But there was nobody.

On the other side of the world, the sun yawned and awoke to shine his light upon the blue-green temples of God. He heard the call to worship, and saw the waves of people bowing and praying. He felt full of good will and charity towards the masses of God's servitors. Perhaps they were not holy, but at least they were faithful.

The moon stayed alone, suspended in the sky with none to touch her. A tiny star whispered to her of a great being, the sun, who brought joy and light to the world. She listened with interest, for it seemed that once, a long time ago, she had seen a being such as this. Beautiful as he was, the sun seemed always just beyond her reach. She would visit the places where he had been, and would always find that he had just left. Those who knew him spoke of his wonder and his glory, and she felt unworthy to be in his presence.

Now the sun was unaware of her yearning, for he was too busy making the crops grow and warming the world. Those who wished his light had only to look upward to heaven and he was there, beaming down upon them.

The moon continued to follow the sun, always coming nearer to him, always hearing that he had just left that portion of the sky, or was just over the next mountain range. Where before there was despair, now she was ever more hopeful, for she knew that she was approaching his presence.

She came closer and closer, until one glorious day came when she stood before him, naked and unafraid. The world looked up and saw only blackness - in the middle of the day. But the moon stood mid-way between the sun and the earth, and all of his glory was for her.

His light blotted out all of her loneliness, all of her pain, all of her past. She stood bathed in wonder before him, and his light filled her soul.

She passed away from him full of light and joy, and though his light was too bright to remember, it was also too powerful to forget. She was dizzy with wonder. As time passed, it seemed that she once had been a being full of light, yet it was so long ago…

Such is the soul of man, dear one. It yearns for the glorious light of Truth, which destroys all loneliness and memory. The many lives of man are as many times as the moon sees the sun - after each, nothing remains but a vague idea of a beauty once seen. And there is always the longing, and always the return.

Mask of Gray

As you protect yourself with a mask of gray. I can see beyond that as I look deep into your eyes and see the fear and pain that burdens your soul. I'm not here to judge you, and now that I know I'll make the impossible possible to make you see color again ...

Gwen's Speech

I know that we all think we're immortal, we're supposed to feel that way but what makes life valuable is that it doesn't last forever, what makes it precious is that it ends. I know that now more than ever. And I say it today of all days to remind us that time is luck. So don't waste it living someone else's life, make yours count for something. Fight for what matters to you, no matter what. Because even if you fall short, what better way is there to live? 

It's easy to feel hopeful on a beautiful day like today, but there will be dark days ahead of us too. There will be days where you feel all alone. No matter how buried it gets or how lost you feel, you must promise me that you will hold on to hope. Keep it alive! We have to be greater than what we suffer.. My wish for you is to become hope.. People need that.. And even if we fail... what better way is there to live? 

As we look around here today at all the people who helped make us who we are, 

I know it feels like we're saying goodbye but we will carry a piece of each other into everything we do next...

To remind us of who we are and if we were meant to be. 

Higher

When dreaming I'm guided to another world.

Time and time again 

At sunrise I fight to stay asleep 

'Cause I don't want to leave the comfort of this place

'Cause there's a hunger, a longing to escape from the life I live when I'm awake.

So let's go there 

Let's make our escape

Come on, let's go there

Let's ask can we stay? 

Can you take me Higher?

To a place where blind men see 

Can you take me Higher? 

To a place with golden streets

Although I would like our world to change 

It helps me to appreciate 

Those nights and those dreams

But, my friend, I'd sacrifice all those nights 

If I could make the Earth and my dreams the same 

The only difference is to let love replace all our hate 

Up high I feel like I'm alive for the very first time

Set up high I'm strong enough to take these dreams and make them mine 

Can you take me Higher?

To a place where blind men see 

Can you take me Higher? 

To a place with golden streets

The Challenge

She decided to challenge her fiancée to live a day without her. No communication at all and if you do pass I’ll love you forever. Not to text or call or communicate for a whole day. And so he did. What he didn’t know is that the love of his life had only 24 hours to live as she was dying form her cancer. The day that followed he went to see her “ I did it baby “ but she was no longer there only a note as she now lays in her coffin that said

 “ You did it baby, now please do it everyday … “   I Love You

It's 3 am again

It's 3 am again, where the empty chair to my right is my only friend again. My body is tired yet my soul still aspires to care and heal for those who desire ....

Dear Progress Note

Dear progress note , it's 5 am with another patient to help. Visiting the rooms of the sick to hopefully help ease their pain and suffering But on the other hand never to see yours. It's ok ! Don't be sad don't be mad , for Medicen is a calling a wait-full longing an auth you swore to follow despite all the sorrow, rest a sure it will be be gone tomorrow.

The Swan

Winter has come for me, can't carry on.


The Chains to my life are strong but soon they'll be gone.


I'll spread my wings one more time.

Is it a dream?


All the ones I have loved calling out my name.


The sun warms my face.


All the days of my life, I see them passing me by.


In my heart I know I can let go.


In the end I will find some peace inside.


New wings are growing tonight.



As I am soaring I'm one with the wind.


I am longing to see you again, it's been so long.


We will be together again. 

Sharon den Adel

Doubts

As Nightfall crawls in shadowing the morning light. As your doubts begin to creep and fill you with fright. Do not fear the darkness, for the shadow only excits, when there is light...

Moving On

Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself.

Stop avoiding pain & discomfort

Pain is necessary for growth and self understanding. Pain is part of our internal checks and balances. Don’t give into pain: understand it, accept it, and move forward. Don’t let pain steal your spirit or belief in life and love. Sometimes you need to sit with it, and let it be, but beyond that never, ever, empower your pain. You have a right to feel your pain.

Stop avoiding pain and discomfort. People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that’s not always the case. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. 

People try to hide their pain. But they’re wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It’s all in how you carry it. That’s what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain.

If We Could See Inside Others Hearts

Cubism

       Following their 1907 meeting in Paris, artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque pioneered the Cubist style, a new vision for a new century that inspired paintings that were initially ridiculed by critics for consisting of “little cubes.” Often painting side-by-side in their Montmartre, Paris, studios, the artists developed a visual language of geometric planes and compressed space that rejected the conventions of perspective and representation. Cubist works challenged viewers to understand a subject broken down into its geometrical components and often represented from several angles at once.

Cubists abstracted from real life to make their work, but most often maintained small identifiable clues to a realistic figure, whether a woman or a violin. The artists adopted a neutral palette of browns and blacks, intending the viewer to focus on the geometric composition rather than the color. Cubism marks a pioneering moment in the history of art—one that ended when many of its leading practitioners, Braque among them, enlisted to fight in World War I....




'' The things that Picasso and I said to one another during those years will never be said again, and even if they were, no one would understand them anymore. It was like being roped together on a mountain "
                                                                                                     Georges Braque




MoMA

A Lesson to the Next Generation

When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love.

Martin Luther King

  

What You Don't Do

Sometimes it is what you don't do which defines you. It is the negative space that shapes your life.

It is the things you don't say, the decisions you don't make, the actions you don't take.

These things can set you apart from those that do.

Time Travel Paradoxes

It's impossible to consider the subject of time travel without addressing the issue of paradoxes. These occur where time travel would result in what appear to be logical inconsistencies or impossibilities.

Many people believe that the paradox problem is itself enough to render time travel impossible. Regardless of the physics, the philosophy of time travel is a fascinating area for "thought experiment".

Various paradoxes have been raised, these usually involve an apparent breach of causality in one way or another. The most well-known version is the "grandfather paradox".

The Grandfather Paradox

This is a very simple idea with serious repurcussions for the concept of time travel. Let's say that I invent a time machine and travel into the past. I meet my own grandfather when he was a boy and kill him.
The result? One of my parents is never born, therefore I can never be born.

So I couldn't have gone back in time and killed him.

This is a logical contradiction - and a philosophical nightmare!

Resolutions

There have been numerous proposals for dealing with the apparent causal paradoxes of time travel.
The easiest is simply to say "so what?". The paradox only exists because of our "common sense" view of linear causality - possibly related to the arrow of time. If we step back and look at the system as a whole then we can see a multi-dimensional causality. Unfortunately most of our existing laws of physics assume linear causality in one direction or another, so this resolution is unpopular.

An alternative is to call on the "multiple universes" theory. By travelling into the "past" we are actualy travelling into an alternate or parallel universe. From the moment we arrive, the universes start diverging. Whether the universes "split" or whether they always existed in parallel in some higher "dimension" is a matter of taste.

One side-effect of this resolution is that we can never return to our original time - we are stuck in the parallel universe and can only move forwards into its future. If I shoot my grandfather then get back into my time machine and return to 2013 it will be a 2006 where I was never born. Once I have stepped on that butterfly then my original universe is forever inaccessible to me.

Another interesting idea is the "mobius strip" timeline, discussed here by Anthony Edwards. How the mobius strip generalises to multiple dimensions when multiple time travellers are involved is beyond my grasp - I get lost after the klein bottle!

An interesting technical approach to resolving the paradox is the Novikov self-consistency principle proposed by Dr. Igor Novikov. This essentially says that paradoxes won't happen - it's impossible to create a paradox however hard you try. In this view the universe is in some way "self-righting". If you attempt to shoot your grandfather then something will go wrong - you'll miss, the gun will jam, etc. Or, if you succeed, you'll later learn that your father was adopted; so he still gets born and still marries your mother. This reminds me of the anthropic principle: the universe is this way because if it wasn't we wouldn't be here.

Perhaps the simplest resolution of temporal paradoxes is to say that since they only occur when we travel into the past, then travel into the past is impossible but travel into the future remains a possibility.

Unfortunately this makes time travel rather pointless - it achieves little more than we could get through long-term suspended animation or near light speed travel.

Your Children are not Your Children

They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

© Kahlil Gibran, 1923, 1973.