I wish to look upon the world clearly. Without the glasses of judgement or binoculars of emphasis. Plainly, truth seeking. I want to watch the birds fly without categorising their song as beautiful or ugly. Look at my sky without dreaming of being elsewhere. We all see reality through the blurry glass ofour minds. Release the very concept of reality and you find truth. Truth of meaning, truth of belief.

Breathe in air and appreciate the wonder of the senses, for every smell has

its own qualities. Grieve not for the leaves that fall from the trees, but take this as part of life's cycle. Release your sense of time and worry not for the minutes gone by for they are not wasted. No second is wasted if you consider what you have learned in those seconds. Sound, smell, touch? Every cloud is to be admired as it passes on its secret tide through the sky, only because of its passive movement. May it be stormy or tranquil, they glide the same.

Now clean your soul's windows of the prejudice that mists them and behold a world that is neither wonderful nor terrible - a world that just is.

The story of the Other

"A person meets up with an old friend, who lives trying to make it in life, but with no result. 'I'm going to have to give him some money' he thinks.

It turns out, that evening, he discovers that his friend is rich, and has come to pay all the debts he has accumulated all these years.

They go to a bar they used to frequent together, and he pays the drinks for everyone. When they ask the reason behind so much success, he answers that until a few days ago, he was living the Other.

- What is the Other? - they ask

- The Other is what they taught me to be, but not who I am. The Other believes that the obligation of man is to pass through his whole life thinking about how to get together money so as not to die of hunger in old age. So much does he think, so much does he plan, that he only discovers he is alive when his days on earth are about to run out. But then it is too late.

- And you, who are you?

- I am what any of you is, if you listen to your heart. A person who wonders at the mystery of life, who is open to miracles, who feels joy and enthusiasm for what he does. Only the Other, in fear of disillusionment, wont let you act.

- But there exists suffering - said the people in the bar

- There exist defeats. But no one is safe from them. So it is better to lose some battles in the fight for our dreams than be defeated without even knowing what we are fighting for.

- Only that? - ask the people in the bar

- Yes. When I discovered that, I decided to be who I really always wanted. The Other remained there, in my bedroom looking at me, but I never again let him enter, even though sometimes he tried to scare me, alerting me to the risks of not thinking of the future.

From the moment that I let go of the Other, the power of the world worked its miracles. "

(Paulo Coelho)

This is an idea which isn't mine, but which makes me think every time I read it. Who is my Other? Is is the Other still me? How do I tell the difference? Its the difference between asking what's realistic in our lives, and what we want. Because generally we sacrifice what we want for what we think is realistic. But really, if we want it enough, anything is possible.

**I only have this in Spanish, so please excuse any translation errors!

“I was so preoccupied with creating perfection…

that I never created at all…”

My life started with the ideas that belonged to others. Now I have ideas that belong to me - so they belong to everyone.

The world is bursting with ideas! Find them, explore them. Once you start to think and explore the possibilities are endless, fascinating, overwhelming.

Once I started writing, I started thinking

Once I started thinking, I began to explore

Once I began to explore, I started to find

When I found, I wanted to find more

And when you want to know more

You Are Alive.

Don't create perfection. Perfection is boring.

Ideas on success

Its comforting to many of us to think that a person's success is down to hard work, perseverance and passion. But what if it is more than that? What if there are elements of our chances of success that are beyond our control?

The author Malcolm Gladwell has written about success and how there is more to the phenomenon than just the individual. Did you know that most outrageously rich computer tycoons (Bill Gates, Stephen Jobs) were born in 1954/55? That made them just the right age when the personal computer revolution arrived in 1975 to take full advantage. A little older and they would have been too stuck in the old perceptions of computers, a little younger and others would have filled the places they forged for themselves.

Success is also influenced by the opportunities we are presented with. Practice makes perfect right? Well The Beatles had hundreds of hours performing on stage in sleazy Hamburg clubs before anyone else had ever heard of them. So when they travelled to the States and hit the international music stage, they were ready to go, lightyears head in performance ability compared with other emerging artists. And their chance to perform in Hamburg was just lucky chance.

Many of us think that we would have liked to have played an instrument. Maybe we took it up but never got very good so gave up. Well it seems that while talent is important, practice is paramount. There are little if no cases of musicians who practice little and are just naturally gifted. Level of mastery is directly related to the level of practice. So really, we should have just practiced more. But maybe we never had the chance, maybe we had to work while the greats spent their hours practicing. Maybe if we had just started training a little earlier...

This all seems rather obvious when written out like this. So why don't people have more to say about it? It seems to me that when the credit of success is taken away from the individual, it takes away our dream that that could be us. That if we just work hard enough for long enough then we could be that successful person. Unfortunately, at least part of it is beyond our control.

But then again, Gladwell may have more illuminating ideas on success and how to manipulate circumstances to your advantage. After all I haven't finished the book yet. In any event, I really hope he does.