The first book ever that actually brought me to tears while reading was the “Christmas Shoes” by Donna VanLiere. Back in 2011, I found “Christmas Shoes” in a bookstore in Civic (Canberra, Australia) while I was taking my ‘walking meditation’. I still remember how I immediately grabbed a pen and a piece of paper to take notes as soon as I opened the very first pages of the book: …time to find out what the really important questions are, the ones that matter. Not How am I going to make enough money? or What can I do to get promoted? No, more like What are the flowers thinking beneath the snow? When do birds make reservations to fly South?. What is God’s plan for my life? What are my wife’s dreams?
The piece of paper has always been in my wallet – I think it is priceless so I will keep that forever 🙂
I was born in a way that as soon as I learned how to speak my baby’s first words, I started to sing, to tell stories and to perform in front of many people in the most natural way as possible. And most of the time I do feel like I am an artist.
So when the guy told me: “You can only see things which are black and white. You cannot see the colours”. – I did not get angry at all but whenever I think of this, I feel pity for him and I find his words very much like an insult. Who the hell does he think he is? (I thought to myself) – A pure bottom life manager who was trying to give me an advice on how to live my life more colourful? Yes, this is me, to tell me that I am colour blind is obviously like giving me an insult because I’ve been living most of my life like in the most artistic way as possible.
I think what makes us (me and a number of friends that I know) feel so glad after all is no matter how tough this life can be and how much people are trying to tame you – you know you can’t be tamed. I’m not saying I know everything, because I really don’t… I am like the majority of people on this planet, we all need to work to make a living – and I understand the fact we all need to become a Bottom-Line-Manager of our lives to ensure all our needs are satisfied.
At the end, I always think that I am still one of the luckiest in the world to live such an amazing life that I am able to feel like I am an artist. At the same time, I know I need to be more down to Earth as well to see through things and people to understand what their true values are, behind all the expensive or average looks. We accept the fact that everyone lives and thinks differently. We appreciate different things and admire different people.
In my opinion, if you want to understand about a person, you may just need to ask and get their answers on one single question: “What do you want out of your life?”. Or another friend of mine often pops out a question that he thinks he will be able to tell a lot about someone’s personality: “What would you like to do if you don’t have to worry about anything in life? What would you like to do?”. I think that so, too.
Everybody is so lonely in this neither big nor small world. No matter how many people that know you in this world – How many people are there for you to satisfy your emotional need?
Camellia Dinh's World 