existence as a performance art piece

sly 森川 @lazyoracle soft woman / wild woman / a wolf caught in meditation

[yungoracle]

The arts are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.

Kurt Vonnegut

[yungoracle]

A bright video screen shows images of blue sky on Tiananmen Square during a time of dangerous levels of air pollution (23rd January, 2013, Beijing)

[yungoracle]

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

Leo Buscaglia

[actionables]

I’m always a slut for kindness and basic human decency

[yungoracle]

Two Heads on Gold (1982) by Jean-Michel Basquiat

[yungoracle]

Maturity is first the shedding of what you are not, and then the balancing of what you are in relation to the human being you love, and allowing the selves of that person which are not related to you to exist independently, outside of the relationship.

Anaïs Nin, from The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 5: 1947-1955

[yungoracle]

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

Vincent Van Gogh

[yungoracle]

A note to myself

one soul may inhabit many bodies.

don’t deny your ambition. build a strong ego. learn to protect yourself from your environment without cutting yourself off; remain open, but attentive. beware of getting stuck or mentally attached. 

[yungoracle]

we were all born naked and the rest is a scam. 

[yungoracle]

Who was she, who was she who rose like the dawn, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army with banners?

Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

[yungoracle]

Laundry is hung out to dry in the Cairo Necropolis, Egypt on September 13, 2015. A housing crisis in Egypt has led to people living in the sprawling graveyard, also known as the City of the Dead. (Photo by Asmaa Waguih)

[yungoracle]

i admit to panicking a little when you stop posting for a while. i hope everything has been okay

If anything were ever to happen, I would most certainly be the one to make a declaration of it. I’ll admit that everything has been a nightmare recently, but don’t we always come through okay ...

[yungoracle]

endlessly grateful for the first week back at uni for provoking my intellect and pulling me out of the strange + abstract mental circumstances of recent months. balance (as always) is key.

isn’t it funny, though. i often recall the incessant and throbbing fear that sat with me when i began studying a science degree last year. it was mostly a result of having thought all my life that i was more naturally inclined toward the arts, and that i had no business learning subjects that my brain had no immediate disposition for. however, i believe now that constantly trying to categorise one’s mind into left and right, art versus science, intuition versus logic, creates further barriers of its own. for science is art, and often you need intuition to form logic. both sides of the brain are not so simplistically divided as so many of us like to believe. i guess i am starting to realise the extent to which i have personally hardwired these limiting notions of separatism into my mind; it seems they have to led somewhat of a self-fulfilment over time.

nonetheless. i have been learning to challenge myself more and have found only bountiful freedom to be explored in that. i never thought that i cared for chemistry, but as it turns out, i cannot get enough. i am far more capable of analysis and logic than i have ever led myself to believe in the past and now i am perplexed as to why i tried to convince myself against the fact. i crave art, always; i can string fluid words together and appreciate it as poetry but perhaps that is no longer my calling. or perhaps it is one of plenty. i am no longer the lazy artist deriding herself for not producing (enough) art. i am a creative intellectual. and i am slowly losing the disturbing sense of discord that has dictated so much of my mental perceptions and processing in the past. it is truly a pleasure to see that both worlds are very accepting of the other. after all, they are but one + the same.

[yungoracle]

Lantau Peak, Hong Kong

i travelled two hours by bus, train, train and bus again to pay homage to the giant buddha nestled amongst the mist-covered mountains of hong kong. bought some incense to make one of those novelty offerings; meaningless to me now because i’ve done this in each of the seven asian counties i’ve been to. it’s the same every time. strange smelling smoke penetrating my eyes and lungs had me swearing throughout my prayer, but i don’t think buddha really gives a damn about foul language.

this is the view from the top of ‘wisdom path’. i ventured beyond the trail, through the dense thicket and slippery rocks and clay to reach a clearing where the prayer flags and ugly brown butterflies danced in their perfect silence and solitude. sorry to interrupt, but i like it here too. i can see the ocean. i can see the tiny people in all their tiny glory. i can see the mountain i just hiked, and i can sit back and feel accomplished about the joy and sweat i shared with it.

how good are you.

[yungoracle]

Maclehose Trail, Hong Kong

new spirit animal = mountain goat. six hours of hiking through an endless chain of coastal mountains. more challenging than yosemite last year. i would love a new set of legs please. 🐐

[yungoracle]

how was your hong kong trip?

It was unexpectedly beautiful. The main city was as densely populated and polluted as I had envisioned; brilliantly neon and somewhat of an overwhelming feast for the tired senses. The village in which I spent the majority of my time was a lush, mountainous dreamscape. A place to purify your lungs and soul. I’ll share some photos and stories with you in a moment. 

[yungoracle]

As long as you make an identity for yourself out of the pain, you cannot become free of it. As long as part of your sense of self is invested in your emotional pain, you will unconsciously resist or sabotage every attempt that you make to heal that pain. Why? Quite simply because you want to keep yourself intact, and the pain has become an essential part of you. This is an unconscious process, and the only way to overcome it is to make it conscious.

Eckhart Tolle