A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world. -- Oscar Wilde

Knowledge cannot substitute for experience, and experience does not equate to wisdom.


Knowledge, experience and wisdom are all equally important in their own rights. 


I have gained some insight into the importance of incorporating all three this year, and I hope to continue to learn to do so.


May all our wishes and dreams carry us forward into the new year.

We don't know where our first impressions come from or precisely what they mean, so we don't always appreciate their fragility. -- Malcolm Gladwell

I had encountered an episode today that prompted me to question the whole constitution and validity of a first impression.


Sometimes a first impression can be uncannily accurate while at other times unfortunately misleading. Although we emphasise that we all shouldn't judge a book by its cover, most of us tend to have our mind made up about a person within the first few minutes of interaction. This is not to suggest that our subsequent impressions are promised to remain static and will not alter, but first impressions do carry indubitable weight towards the initial perception. 


Perhaps a first impression can be understood in the context of probable specific elements that get registered. Is it the voice? The appearance? Social etiquette?  Facial expression? How and what has been conversed? The body language? Or is it to do with how the other person actually make us feel about ourselves?


It may quite well be based on the combination of all of the above. It has been established previously that we are all unique in our orientations, and, we perceive the world in relations to our own values, instinctive nature and our immediate environment, therefore, I am more comfortable with conjecturing that our first impressions on the same object will differ due to the inevitable inclination to be subjective.


Astrologically (Ha, you know I would have to tie it back to astrology), it is represented by the Ascendant, which is the beginning of the first house and what we project out into the world, consequently, how others see us. Again, we all have our own unique ascendants, as the time of birth is critical in determining its zodiac sign hence the qualities we consciously or unconsciously project. It may be easier to understand this if we think of the importance of the birth time underlies the meaning of the instance we were first brought into this world. 

We still cannot deduce with confidence about how a person sets out to achieve an initial impression by solely examining the sign of the ascendant. This is further complicated by the different aspects that an ascendant makes with the other planets in the birth chart that could potentially modify its expression and behaviour.


The Sun sign also points to various characteristics of the individuality and personality. Supposedly if the Sun and Ascendant are in conflicting elements (i.e. Air and Earth) such as Taurus and Aquarius, we will see a person exhibiting the eccentric, social and unpredictable side of Aquarius, as well as the traditional, stubborn and reliable side of Taurus. In particular for this example, Aquarius generally orientates towards an ideal to improve the future whereas Taurus is simply happy with maintaing the existing structure and status-quo. Although one may hold prominence and suppresses the other, in the long run, this person will be constantly in battle with himself or herself if these contrasting qualities are made unaware. 


It is hard to imagine that we can get the full picture of someone in a glimpse since that we are all multi-faceted.       


We infer then that the first impression cannot be entirely dependent upon to draw a depiction of someone. At the same time however, there is the value in understanding each time what our first impression is and why it is the way it is, as the experience and exploration may lead to uncovering more aspects about our own personalities.

Every man wants to be happy, but in order to be so he needs first to understand what happiness is. -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

What is happiness to you?

And what is lasting happiness?

I believe in the transformative power of cinema. It is only through this shared dream-experience that we can transcend the oppressive minutiae of daily existence and find some spiritual connection in the deeper reality of our mutual desire. -- Daniel Clowes

There are feelings which words cannot describe, brushes cannot paint, melodies cannot express, but can somehow be shared. 


And that is enough.

You may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will live as one. -- Imagine (John Lennon)

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them -- Albert Einstein

My yoga teacher always says in class that each posture should just be enough to keep it interesting, but not fascinating. At first I was bemused and intrigued by this style of teaching, shouldn't we always aim for the perfect extension to achieve the maximum stretch so we can look and feel the best we possibly can?

According to her, each posture should provide just the right amount of sensation and tension to keep us stimulated, but not to the extent to have us completely immersed in pain or disharmony. 

In truth, no one knows about our own bodies better than ourselves. However sometime we forget and let our ego selves take over to dictate our actions, we become to think that we are superior if we look the best in the eyes of others. Therefore, the takeaway for me from this is to acknowledge and respect my own limitations sometime. This realisation is profound and it may be applied to other areas in life as well.  

When I first started this blog, I expected myself to be inspired and producing 24/7, not surprisingly later on I became disappointed as I gradually discovered that it isn't always the case. I remember others comforting me by telling me to take it easy. Then I also remember telling the same people to take it easy on themselves when they become too stressed about a situation whether it is related to work, buying a property or something else. Sadly, we don't always listen or follow the same advice we give to others. There seems to be at least an area in which we feel compulsive towards, as a result, defensive mechanisms are devised via the form of overcompensating to avoid us feeling inferior. 

Yoga is an experience that connects the body, mind and spirit to attain peacefulness and tranquility through the balance of the outer and inner. Although setting goals and achieving them is healthy for growth and development, but if we become too attached to the outcomes or solely seek reflections of ourselves in the external, imbalance is then created and no matter how much has been succeeded, our appetite will always grow bigger and bigger for the next best experience to bring the 100% fulfilment that it can never deliver.    

I stumbled across My Best Friend's Wedding on TV tonight. I don't know how many times I have watched this but it still made me laugh, cry and laugh and cry all at the same time. Julianne (Julia Robert's character) is portrayed as far as from being perfect but I still adored her simply because she is real. Rarely do we find ourselves liking someone because they are the smartest, the best looking or the wealthiest, we like them despite of their flaws and quirks, we feel compassion towards their limitations and we like them more for the courage and humility they show facing their own imperfections. 

If these are some of the qualities we admire in others, then we must able to find them already in us waiting to be discovered. Light cannot exist without darkness. If we can readily accept the limitations of other people's, wouldn't it be nice if we can also do the same for ourselves?