Soliloquy

I wish I were a kite…
Able to fly so high,
But kites aren’t entirely free…

"I am having a difficult time here…
Sometimes I wondered why I went here up in the sky", says the kite.
"Was it to prove something?  I had a great life at the ground.  Why did I leave it? Sometimes I  wished to be doing nothing ang being happy than doing something I’d know I would not love.  I wished my string was cut.  So I can be free.  I feel that only my mistakes are noticed and my achievements are nonsense.  I don’t know what to do?  I wish that my string was cut.  Then I will be alone.  I feel alone…I feel more alone…Maybe I am just tired…very tired…"

I wish I were a kite, with the strings cut so I can go and do whatever I please…so long now…so long…

Vacations are opportunities for us to rest, to rejuvenate, to reflect on things we have done and to strengthen our dreams and aspirations.  I went home this holiday season for a vacation. I did some reflections.  However, I did not feel rested.  I did not feel rejuvenated.  I noticed people frantically going about their holiday rush in malls.  Overheard conversations about things acquired.  Children carrying sums as gifts.  Is this how we find meaning to our lives nowadays?  The common denominator is materials.  We are consumed by it.  New cars, new gadgets.  Would these really make us happier people?  What about personal relationships?  Have we lost sight of these priceless things that give more meaning?  I am an observer these days and I was not pleased with what I have observed.  This made me restless.  What can be done to make people realize?  Is it too much to ask for of a society plagued with so much materialism to give it up and look at the bigger picture, the deeper meaning?…Let me leave you with a dialogue that jolted me to realize all of this: “Are we happier as a human race?  Is the world fundamentally a better place because of science and technology?  We shop at home, we surf the Web but at the same time, we feel emptier and more cut-off from each other than any other time in human history.  We’re becoming a synthesized society…We’re looking for the meaning.  What is the meaning? We have mindless jobs, we take frantic vacations.  Deficit finance trips to the mall to buy more things that we think will fill these holes in our lives.  Any wonder we’ve lost our sense of direction.”

What do blind people from birth dream about?  Are there images or only sounds?

"Sometimes you’ve got to go home to find yourself." - John Rzeznik

"An apple tree doesn’t go about telling
everyone, ‘I’m an apple tree! I bear apples!’ No. It just quietly
stands there bearing fruit. And when somebody takes its fruit and bites
into it then it’s that person who will go on to say, ‘That’s an apple
from an apple tree.’"

Its funny how we find inspirations…but they always come at the right time.

A Promise
Chicosci

Now you are my beloved ghost
And here i’ll wait for you to sing
Then we will have eternity
A promise to keep haunting me

This wine
From my veins
These gifts
We’ll take

The sky is ours to keep tonight
Together in this silent sleep
We are the mist that fills the air
Lie still, just be with me

This wine
From my veins
These gifts
We’ll take
And i’ll be
The kiss
The gun
We’ll be draining their blood again

Embrace the rest of me
Well be racing through the night
Again, embrace the rest of me
And then we’ll feast on them, celebrating

I’m not alone
I can feel your eyes on me

I’m not alone
Your soul for all the world to see

Denied another day
Life took you away
…i’ll love you just the same

Cause you are my beloved ghost
And here i’ll wait for you to sing
Then we will have eternity
A promise to keep haunting me
The sky is ours to keep tonight
Together in this silent sleep
We are the mist that fills the air
Lie still, just be with me

I’m not alone
I can feel your eyes on me
I’m not alone
Your soul for all the world to see

Your dignity’s
inside you. Nobody takes something away from you that you don’t give
them and no one’s gonna give you anything—you have to go out there and
take it. - Don Haskins

We all come upon unexpected curves  and turningpoints, mountaintops

and valleys. Everything that happens to us shapes who we are becoming.

And in the adventure of each day, we discover the best in ourselves.

Well, my trip here to Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany has been a fruitful one.  Set around the hills of Thuringia and the river Saale, it is a very condusive place for thinking and at the same time appreciating nature - a very apt combination for this scientific field I am currently involved in.  With scientists who are so enthusiastic about their work, you would be surprised to get caught up with their discussions.  I have realized that after all my schooling, I am barely scratching the surface of this immense ball of knowledge that surrounds us.  There are a lot of things I want to know more and as I do that, I realize that there are still a lot of things I do not know which are worth knowing…