a semblance of knowing.

Ahead.

shuanghan — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:12:14 +0000

If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you’ve done and whoever you were and throw them away. (Steve Jobs)

shuanghan — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:56:18 +0000

“Poverty has not been my experience, but God has allowed in the lives of each of us some sort of loss, the withdrawal of something we valued, in order that we may learn to offer ourselves a little more willingly, to allow the touch of death on one more thing we have clutched so tightly, and thus know fullness and freedom and joy that much sooner.” – Elisabeth Elliot

“I have no problems, and I have no excuse”

shuanghan — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 06:12:24 +0000

What an aidha volunteer told me in an interview that stuck in my head all the day and got me through it.

On marketing

shuanghan — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 06:10:21 +0000

Like pollution, no one is responsible for it and hence no one cares..

And the tortoise won the race.

shuanghan — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 06:16:36 +0000

Slow and steady wins the race. That’s something we all know, but what about getting ahead by slowing down? Getting ahead by stepping back? Learning to be still and quiet, while taking on as much as we can and not be idle, to live our lives fully?

He whose heart is kind beyond all measure,

Gives unto each day what He deems best,

Lovingly its part of pain and pleasure,

Mingling toil with peace and rest.

Lina Sandell, Swedish

Life, interrupted

shuanghan — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 06:14:14 +0000

I woke up this morning with my chatty mum talking at me. It’s something I find really quite annoying at times. How do we make interruptions our friends?

I always think that my Saturdays will be quiet ones whereby I can happily and productively complete my immense backlog of things to do. It never happens. I had a zillion distractions today. When I finally thought I could sit down and start, a lizard fell out of the air conditioning unit and landed next to me with a loud squelch. (I hate lizards).

So what am I to do with all this?

Two books that helped:

- Keep a Quiet Heart, by Elisabeth Elliot.

- Reconciling All Things, by Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice.

What do these books say about interruptions?

“When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders but welcome them as friends.” (James 1:2, Philips translation)

Like diamonds

shuanghan — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:01:52 +0000

There are precious few who make the world seem so much more colourful and exciting and full of possibility when they are in it. Not just because they are wonderful on their own, but also because of the person you become as a result of being with them. You can’t help but become your best self. Their belief in God, themselves, and in you, is so infectious.

Such I will hold like diamonds.

‎”‘Life is about the people you meet and the things you create with them.”

10,000

shuanghan — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:14:55 +0000

I’m spending the evening with my grandpa, who is watching the live broadcast of the South Korea – US Summit – President Obama just attempted some Korean. I’m trying to imagine what it’d be like to be the president- having to constantly appear unfazed by anything. I love my grandpa because he’s almost 90 years old but still deems it important to exercise every morning (before I wake up, usually) and be in touch with the news every night.

—————————

I’m writing this in line with some things I’ve read lately about producing any sort of creative work. It started with an enlightening description from an animator friend – he said they were taught that all people have the ability to draw – it’s only after getting the bad drawings out of your system – 10,000 to be exact – that the good ones appear. Of course, there’s the famous 10,000 hours rule to become an expert at anything.

Seth Godin wrote about how we never have talker’s block, because we talk a lot without caring about the quality of it. Which is hardly the case for writing. The solution? Write every single day. Poorly, in public, till you can write better.

Ira Glass spoke about this well:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners. I wish someone had told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase; they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know that if it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you finish one piece. It’s only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take me a while. It’s normal to take a while. You just gotta fight your way through.”

With a lot of my plate of late and the constant need to come up with fresh ideas, and execute them, with deadlines looming, I don’t think it’s pure coincidence that God brought all these messages at the same time, to keep on pushing on even when what I come up with may not meet my idea of perfection. It’s a small part of His big picture.

UPDATE: Copyblogger echoes the same sentiments:

10 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer

Write.
Write more.
Write even more.
Write even more than that.
Write when you don’t want to.
Write when you do.
Write when you have something to say.
Write when you don’t.
Write every day.
Keep writing.

Rethinking Difference.

shuanghan — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:40:39 +0000

Through a profound rhythm of journeying, encountering sites of pain and hope, engaging the history and culture, serving and being present with those on the margins, worshiping, resting and reflecting (a critical piece often overlooked on traditional “mission trips”), pilgrims are slowly confronted by a different world that begins to interrupt their own. Pilgrimage is a posture very different from mission. The goal of a pilgrim is not to solve but to search, not so much to help as to be present. Pilgrims do not rush to a goal, but slow down to hear the crying. They are not as interested in making a difference as they are in making new friends. The pace is slower, more reflective.
Pilgrims set out not so much to assist strangers but to eat with them. They journey in the wisdom about transformation held in the Rwandan proverb “If you cannot hear the mouth eating, you cannot hear the mouth crying.” There are so many efforts to make a difference that do not make us different. It is not the people who paint a house in a strange place but rather the people who make friends and are transformed who make the deeper difference over the long haul. Pilgrims return home as new people. Changed by their journeys, they change the world where they live.

-Reconciling all Things: A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace and Healing

Today is mine. Tomorrow is none of my business.

shuanghan — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:29:58 +0000

Particularly moved by today’s Elisabeth Elliot devotional that popped into my mailbox. I often don’t read them, but I’m glad I did today. As I have been learning of late about setting boundaries – being responsible for what is mine and leaving what is not, I think an element of this I overlooked is time. I am responsible for today only. I should not steal tomorrow from God. That will only neglect what is mine – today.

Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart

Do Not Forecast Grief

Sitting one still and sunny afternoon in a tiny chapel on an island in the South, I thought I heard someone enter. A young woman was weeping quietly. After a little time I asked if I could help. She confided her fears for the future–what if her husband should die? Or one of her children? What if money ran out?

All our fears represent in some form, I believe, the fear of death, common to all of us. But is it our business to pry into what may happen tomorrow? It is a difficult and painful exercise which saps the strength and uses up the time given us today. Once we give ourselves up to God, shall we attempt to get hold of what can never belong to us–tomorrow? Our lives are His, our times in His hand, He is Lord over what wil1 happen, never mind what may happen. When we prayed “Thy will be done,” did we suppose He did not hear us? He heard indeed, and daily makes our business His and partakes of our lives. If my life is once surrendered, all is well. Let me not grab it back, as though it were in peril in His hand but would be safer in mine!

Today is mine. Tomorrow is none of my business. If I peer anxiously into the fog of the future, I will strain my spiritual eyes so that I will not see clearly what is required of me now.

“Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof”–and the work thereof. The evil is not a part of the yoke Jesus asks us to take. Our work is, and He takes that yoke with us. I will overextend myself if I assume anything more.

God chains the dog till night; wilt loose the chain
And wake thy sorrow?
Wilt thou forestall it, and now grieve tomorrow,
And then again
Grieve over freshly all thy pain?
Either grief will not come, or if it must,
Do not forecast;
And while it cometh, it is almost past.
Away, distrust;
My God hath promis’d; He is just.
–George Herbert, “The Discharge”