Meet Osokin

Aloha, Friend!

Come Walk with me

Through the Streets of

Waikiki

Click on the photo art :)

Bus Stop

"The world is full of magical things

patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper."

Bertrand Russell

"It is strange that the years teach us patience;

that the shorter our time,

the greater our capacity for waiting."

Elizabeth Taylor

"There are times

when even the best manager

is like the little boy with the big dog,

waiting to see where the dog wants to go

so he can take him there. "

Lee Iacocca

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Funny how the life I had

growing up

in that big, eastern, mainland city:

walking the city scape,

it's hours, seasons, changes

(and my own)

funny how I'm living

the same way in a new

and different environment.

Nature? Nurture?

It's just the way that I am. . .

As long as there is a sidewalk

preferably, now, by a sea shore,

in view of mountains,

among ever changing shoals

of human interactions,

some cool architecture,

dear greenery,

and street food,

I will be a walker

gentle presence

hander-over

of dollar bills. . .

Think of me as a "Beach Town Thoreau,"

chronicler of rainbows,

enabler of random Aloha,

direction-giver to visitors.

As such

it is most important for me

to ramble Waikiki

with no destination

but happiness.

I recommend that

YOU try it.

Take your amicability out for a walk.

Bless the world

great & small

with your gaze.

Oh!

and who is Ivan Osokin?

He is Ouspensky's hero

who, given the chance for a

life do-over

creates exactly the same existance

even with the wisdom

of experience.

Character is destiny.

The only solution

is to adopt the character

you WANT to have!

And thanks for blessing mine

with your friendly attention!

cloudia

More Confession

Aloha!

Glad You Came By Today

Click on photos

Don't be afraid, Puppy. Just get wet!

"A musicologist is a man who can read music

but can't hear it."

Sir Thomas Beecham

Oh! I always thought that this was about a sloppy house painter.

"This is one of those views which are so absolutely absurd

that only very learned men could possibly adopt them."

Bertrand Russell

"The statistics on sanity are:

that one out of every four Americans

is suffering from some form of mental illness.

Think of your three best friends.

If they're okay, then it's you."

Rita Mae Brown

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OK,

Time for more confession.

The travel disruptions in the EuroZone due to Iceland's erupting volcano

strike a chord with me.

Though I always enjoy and feel invigorated by travel,

part of me fears that,

Shangrila style,

something could occur

to prevent me from returning to Hawaii.

Why chance it, eh?

Uncle Kindy

Aloha!

We've been FREEZING around here.

"The coldest winter I ever spent

was a Summer in San Francisco."

Mark Twain

RECORD LOW MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE SET AT HONOLULU HI
415 AM HST SAT APR 17 2010

A RECORD LOW MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE OF 74 DEGREES F WAS SET AT HONOLULU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT IN HAWAII YESTERDAY. THE OLD RECORD OF 77

DEGREES F OCCURRED ON APR 16 IN 1949 AND 1962

It's really the low dew-point (dry air) and brisk breezes that have made our teeth chatter. I've been sleeping in cotton pants & t-shirt AND sweatshirt with the hoodie UP.

It went down to 65 F at night.

LOL! Really!

Come in and get comfortable.....

Uncle is about to sing.

Lazy Sunday

A L O H A!

"The consolation of the imaginary

is not imaginary consolation."

Roger Scruton

"If you can't explain it simply

you don't understand it well enough."

Einstein

Hope you are having a restful day

"Life is one long process

of getting tired."

Samuel Butler

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Live your abundance

and cross your bridges as you build them.

Don't overspend to meet hidden needs

but live joyously in the present

enjoying the mana you may.

Know that tomorrow

there likely will be more-

But waste not,

especially your days.

Don't live on noodles

or caviar

but make your life

of both.

ALOHA, cloudia

Sea Song

Aloha, Web Wanderer

and old friend.

YOU

are always welcome here...

click on the photos, eh?

". . . all this is comfort! Wherefore weep I then?"

Shakespeare

"Oh the wild joys of living! The leaping from rock to rock ... the cool silver shock of the plunge in a pool's living waters."

Robert Browning

"The temple seashore

incoming rollers

flow in time

to the holy flute"

Buson

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I so adore the healing music of China.

Click on the video below

to get lost

in the magic

that the images above

have only led you

to

the doorway of. . .

Thanks, Pal! cloudia

Don't Convince

Aloha!


click on photos

"If you think you can,
or think you can't,
you're right!"

Henry Ford

"I reckon a man is about has happy
as he makes up his mind to be."

Abraham Lincoln

"We invariably spend more time
living with the consequences of our decisions
than we do in making them."

Larry Price


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Aayla fell off the ladder.
She let out an expletive,
then she wiggled her toes.
At least her fool neck wasn't broken,
she reflected, as she cursed her bad luck.
"I know that I'll be bruised up tomorrow!"
And she was right.
"Why does everything happen to
M E ?!
She felt shaky the rest of the day
and had no interest or energy
for all the stupid things she had to accomplish.
"Shit!"


Zoey fell off of a ladder.
She felt deep gratitude when she realized that nothing was broken.
"Thank You!" welled up in her heart spontaneously.
It was not superstition,
or paying back a jealous God for a favor;
she just felt a profound joy in dodging a bullet:
"I could be hurt, paralyzed - or even DEAD!" she reflected.
The rest of the day was sweet.
She noticed the quality of Springtime light, and all the
fresh growing green.
She appreciated anew her wonderful legs, joints, and feet that carried her
through the town that she loved,
and her faithful lungs imbibed the scented air,
pumping sweet oxygen to her heart.

There is a growing international consensus among experts,
reported in a review of research in a recent issue of Lancet,
that placebos (so called "fake" treatments)
have actual biological effects on the body.

It is common to hear the term "bodymind" these days,
for we now understand that "body" & "mind" are false distinctions
when talking about human beings. They are inextricably married.
What affects one, affects them both.
Though it seems that the mind, including our views and choices,
is in the driver's seat.
What we believe truly IS for us,
our bodies, and subconscious,
true.

"When you think you are going to get a drug that helps,
your brain reacts as if it is getting relief." said Walter Brown of Tufts.

The Lancet article cited studies in which the brains of Parkinson's patients
responded to placebo medications by releasing feel-good dopamine
that led to other changes in brain activity.

But what does this have to do with Aayla and Zoey?


I have come to understand, that we inhabit the world
that we believe in.

Aayla might say that it was "all in Zoey's mind."
Zoey might say the same of her; and both would be right.

Our individual freedom of will
is a cornerstone of our faiths
and of our politics.

From the Bible, to the "Pursuit of Happiness" in the US constitution
we acknowledge that, despite differences in circumstances,
we somehow control how we feel about it all.

So how do we travel from a negative mind set
to a more pleasant one?

Clearly, deluding one's self is only a temporary and shoddy solution.
Sure, we must often "fake it till we make it"
but if we get too far ahead of our gut beliefs
the experiment will only prove those gut beliefs
correct.

So what to do?

I have discovered that often we try to convince ourselves (and others)
of what we'd LIKE to believe.
But it's not about convincing.

You must discover the truth underlying a positive mind-set.
It cannot be imposed any more than
one suit of clothes can practically be worn atop another set
of street clothes.
Oh, you can do it, but you will walk funny;
And you are still wearing the original
outfit. The suit on top is just a veneer, a disguise.

You are a depressive in a happy suit - but
you remain a depressive nonetheless.

All of this is very important to me
as I grew up in a very uncomfortable, depressing outfit,
and have studied these things hungrily for many years.

Teens I used to work with
would often say:
"That's just the way I am."
when I tried to get them to examine their knee-jerk behavior.
And surely we do have something of a temperamental set-point.
But if I can move out of Hell's suburbs,
I know that anyone can do it.

Not by convincing yourself
of something you'd LIKE to be true,
but through fearless exploration of the reality
beyond unexamined assumptions.

Don't convince - Discover!

Taste and see.
Reality is sweet,
I promise you.

And you are my friend. . .
a very sweet flavor
in my
Life.

Thank YOU! cloudia

I'm one. You?

Aloha!
You Made it!




Kindly click the friendly photos

"We are here to help each other get through this thing,
whatever it is."

Kurt Vonnegut

"The unexamined life
is not worth living."

Socrates

"Imagination was given to man
to compensate him for what he isn't,

and a sense of humour
to console him for what he is."

Sir Francis Bacon


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*Hello*

My name is Cloudia,
and I am a blog addict.

I should be writing,
or cleaning,
or meditating,
or walking along Waikiki beach.

But here am I:
hunched over the keyboard.
"Just one more blog!"

A study by Matthias Mehl, a University of Arizona psychologist,
recently published in Psychological Science,
offers hard evidence that those who spend more of their day in
meaningful and substantive conversation are happier than folks who mostly engage in small talk.

Dr. Mehl theorizes two reasons:

"By engaging in meaningful conversations, we manage to impose meaning on an otherwise pretty chaotic world. And interpersonally, as you find this meaning, you bond with your interactive partner, and we know that interpersonal connection and integration is a core fundamental foundation of happiness."

Or as I might say:
I feel better when the world around me seems to make sense,
and I feel best of all when you & I discover and share that meaning together.

Now don't get me wrong.
There is an important place in our lives for what I call
"grooming language."
Those gentling and (meaning-wise) unimportant sounds we make
as we comfort and bond, together,
like the grooming that our evolutionary cousins engage in
when the ticks are all gone, but they continue to search their companion's fur
for non-existent lice.

The unhappiest subjects in the study (by several measures including self-report)
spent almost a third of their conversation (28.3%) in small talk.
Sad to think, of all the inarticulate, unexpressed need & longing
that hangs in the air of many conversations.

How can the inarticulate bridge the
gulf that makes islands of us all?

The good investigator himself claims no "cause & effect" between the depth of conversation and the happiness of the conversors,
though he plans to study whether we can make ourselves into happier people
by engaging in more substantive conversations.

"Take two good conversations a day, and see me in a week."

Perhaps those who are more temperamentally grounded in exploration, inquiry, and interpersonal communication are also just naturally the happiest.

And how can you teach this to the naturally incurious?

My own undergraduate degree is in Psychology, so I appreciate the spirit of inquiry, and devotion to the scientific method of investigation,
that guides the profession.
But I always wondered where the questions,
the all important Hypothesis,
come from.
The germ of a theory that some intrigued investigator will build a valid study around, "Where does that come from?" I asked my professors.
"No one really knows," was all they could tell me.

"...this has always intrigued me." Dr. Mehl told a reporter.

Me too.

I always longed to have meaningful conversations with my parents.
Now that Dad is gone, I guess that I'm partly mourning the conversations
we never had and never will.

But you & I
we have found each other.

Day after day, we share the dear minutiae of our lives, the changing seasons,
the morphing circumstances of who we are.

We share something special
here on the World Wide Web of Connections.

Thanks for holding up your end of the conversation.
I will always try to live up to mine.

Warmly, cloudia