Timing

I have no idea why some people come into our lives when they do. But I have always found that things have a way of working out, becoming purposeful, even when at the moment I cannot comprehend the reasons. Maybe our rationality seeking minds fill in a hole in our understanding with some illusory explanation. So I am going to do try to trick my mind and play a song instead. Go ahead, figure out the meaning from it, all the minds who are reading this. I dare you. :)

Global Energy Problem? Solved!

Yes ladies and gentlemen and everyone in between and beyond, I have solved the energy crisis in this world by some awesome Internet search skills.

Biting the Forbidden Fruit: An Unforgettable Legacy

I could recall the first time I used an Apple product or the first time I got really excited about thinking technology as an extension and expression of me, and definitely I could list all the Apple products I own, making me surely a fangirl, but that would just be rather pedestrian to the profound sense of loss the world experienced with Steve Jobs' departure from earth. Gone too soon, indeed.  Tonight I am a bit emotional because my mother, too, is fighting cancer in her life and it is a sneaky disease, and no amount of money or science can really be a guarantee against this killer. 

I used to say that I would be Steve's slave girl if he would have me, and even though people thought I was joking, I really wasn't. He truly was a Master at his craft and I had followed his career closely with great admiration. I learned imagination from him. I learned that even when things seem to fall apart, even when a company is in the brink of bankruptcy, all is not lost and that creativity, vision, and a belief in a better future sometimes can be the most powerful weapon against despair. 

In his commencement address to Stanford graduates, in 2005, Jobs said, "You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life." Knowing how much he relied on this sense of trust, this sense of intuition, I have understood that sometimes our minds might not have a rational explanation for the way we think or feel about a certain situation, possibility, project, person, circumstance, etc. However, perhaps we don't need to. Perhaps we don't need to condemn our mind to find meaning and rationality, because it is very good at filling in those blank spaces with our own ego-centric gibberish. Perhaps what we need more of is the trust in our own intuition, knowing whatever we are experiencing, no matter how challenging it might feel at the time, the dots will always connect and things will always fall into place, somehow, some way. 

This sense of faith in self, in intuition, is probably the cornerstone of following one's heart and boy did I do that repeatedly in my life. There were times when I failed miserably and times when I have soared but never regretted one minute of it. There is no reason to not follow one's heart. Living in fear that your heart will be broken because you tried something you love is only going to hold you in a place of pain. At the end of the day, as inevitable as death is for every one of us, the only thing that matters is whether you felt fulfilled, whether your heart sang, whether you did what you loved. In the same commencement address, Jobs said, "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

And while Jobs followed his heart and became a visionary to millions across the world, I had always appreciated the simplicity of his philosophy. I have a healthy sense of aversion to people trying to convince me that their way of thinking, living, processing information, judging is the right way, and they begin to puff out their knowledge of how their information is superior to anything anyone else can put out there or they stomp the ground baiting you to "Prove them wrong." And yet I have no desire. I have never had the desire to prove anything to anyone. 

One cannot make someone change their minds, belief systems, or dogma, if the person is not willing on his or her own. And yet if I invest my time, my energy in the futile attempt to change dogma, I am drained, my efforts are misplaced, and in this short duration that we are given on earth, I end up spending many hours frustrated. For me, it is critical to trust that my desire to follow my heart in combination with my ability to be foolish shouldn't always be a bad thing and can open up new possibilities, new paths that I didn't discover or imagine before. What joys would I find there? What gems would await me? How would I demonstrate my gratitude? I end with Steve Jobs' quote from the 2005 commencement address, "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." Rest in peace and in divine innovation Steve.