I've Been Dabbling....

.... in many things lately. It's been a great deal of fun and an unforgettable experience. I've been making a lot of decisions lately and one of them is that I would like to continue blogging, even during the times that I don't feel like it.  It drives me to express myself clearly, in a well thought out pattern. By writing, I understand myself better and I feel it is a necessary and healthy thing for my mind. It's a download of my thought; after which point I can reboot my mind and thinking, leading to higher speeds, efficiency and creativity.

I'm going to set another purpose for this blog as well. I've been dabbling in the language of Japanese for a time; and now I'm going to set myself a specific and measurable commitment to learning the some 2000 basic kanji. I plan to do this in the next 90 days. Beginning the 1st of December and ending the 1st of March I am going to daily study the language by learning kanji, listening to native japanese speakers, writing, reading aloud, and speaking the language. :) I'll be checking in with my progress and placing more of my colorful and varied thoughts here for you to read.

The Struggle

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. That's a difficult phrase. It contains a plethora of new questions and ideas to delight my little mind. Considering that we don't really have a way to measure the repercussions of anything but the physical in the sense of death, it opens a world of possibilities and imagination. I believe that is why it is so unknown among the nations of the world. The less that the world knows about a subject, the more it's likely that it will bolster the mystique and creative cloud concerning it. Death is only seen physically. We can talk of it in the spiritual sense, but there really is no way to see that. What would be a mental death? What would an emotional death consist of? With such a lack of observations and data, how then can we say that being near to death somehow makes you stronger? Are hard things truly necessary to become strong? Is there a requirement for suffering and pain?

And what of resistance? In the world of physical fitness, resistance against your muscles of some kind is seen as the way to ultimately strengthen your muscles. It's not an instant gain. It's a process, a journey, a path to struggle down. It is very very difficult for the average person to understand their own body's signals. We talk and try to measure things like how long to exercise, how hard to push it, what type of exercises we will be doing. It's all predictive anyway, but the more proficient you become at understanding your body, what fuel and material it needs and the ever present thought of what resistances to place upon your muscles, the more efficient you can be at strengthening your muscles or improving your fitness over time. However, in contrast, the most common error of anyone seeking to do such is overdoing it. 

Guiding your thoughts now into a mental or spiritual or emotional sense, does mental stress or spiritual challenges or emotional abuses somehow ultimately make us stronger in each of those respective categories? As I cannot agree that a person that has had more suffering or pain or difficulty than another is somehow stronger than the next, I cannot agree with the beginning statement here: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Leading to the spiritual thought of the day: 

1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

If we believe in a loving Heavenly Father, He will not allow us to overdo it. We will not be permitted to feel or suffer pain or resistance too great for us to bear.

The Lexicon of Frustration

The simplest way to describe the word attention.
Think. How would you describe this word?
What does it mean to you? What connotation does it enfold in its depths?

The struggle of life is one of attention, my friends. The world is virtually limitless and endless. Why? You have never known anything else but a continuing, perpetuating, and uncontrolled-by-you personal universe. It appears that the greatest majority of factors are outside your grasp. But is that why? That would be the simplest 'logical' reason why. I seek to expound in my difference. The world is limitless in its possibilities. It is endless in the extent in which said possibility is effectuated. To whatever length and effort one seeks to dedicate to a specific cause, I find that always there is more that CAN be done, disregarding completely intelligence or prudence or effectiveness of such activity. Attention.

Attention is the specificity that we display in life. We can and do choose what it is that we do. By apportioning our limited attention, we elect to where we arrive.

Why then is that frustrating? It depends on the day. ;)