Your goals in one place, not all over the place
You are not currently logged in.
If you don't have an account you can create one free and start making your list today!
Read a book in one sitting
Daqui para baixo - Jason Reynolds
July 6th, 2014.
After over 3 hours of reading, and months on end of putting the book aside 'for later', I have finally finished the infamous, life-changing Tuesdays with Morrie. As a fairly philosophical person myself in my own eyes, I found the book most spiritual and eye-opening to all the human and societal issues many of us deal with on a daily basis. The memoir discusses, as Mitch Albom put it, 'life's greatest lesson(s)' and lingers on the subjects of life, death, relationships, and finding happiness. I found the entire experience spine-chilling, for Morrie accurately speaks of our present culture with such honesty and truth. He talks of the way our people has unseemingly indulged in the belief that happiness can be found through materialistic goods, rather than being truly in the moment. We are constantly running on such a tight schedule that we unconsciously created for ourselves, striving to earn more money, to achieve success, to beat every other player in the race, that we forget what is most important in life. And when we are stripped of all these holographic illusions, what is left of us is the true measure of happiness and self-fulfilment. Morrie and Albom have taught me that life is measured by the human activities we involve ourselves with; conversation, interaction, affection. It is measured in our ability to give to others - to share what we have to offer with someone else, and if we are lucky, to touch them in some way that they find us worthy enough to remember after we are gone. Morrie believed in truly listening to the speaker when having a conversation. He would allow his surroundings to fall away as if the only thing present at the moment was the converser and the words coming out of his or her mouth. This passage touched me more than I thought it would; the truth is, I, myself have been guilty of doing the exact opposite. We live in an era where our minds are constantly flitting from one thought to the next, so that often we are hardly able to take away more than a few words from a decent conversation. We feel the need to stretch our minds over various points of focus, so that not a precious second would go to waste, but what we do not realize is that by doing so, our time has never been more wasted. If we were given the exact date and time that we would breathe our last breath, close our eyes one last time, the truth is we would not spend such heinous moments wondering when we'll have enough to finally afford that new house, or car, or computer. We would not use up glorious daylight, passing time with our nose in our cheque books, or consumed in our work, wondering when our 'big break' will finally arrive. Instead, we would look back at the relationships we formed along the way, measuring our self-worth through the number of people we have brought smiles to, the friends we shared laughs and tears with, the fathers, mothers, and children we have brought life to during our short visit on Earth. And only in these profound moments can we truly pinpoint the exact value of our life, which, as Morrie pointed out, do not take into account money or commercial goods in the least bit. Through Tuesdays with Morrie, the one sincere lesson I took away from the novel is that in order to live a most fulfilling and wealthy life, one must first learn to die. It is through death's looming shadow that we begin to fully appreciate life's shimmering glow.
After over 3 hours of reading, and months on end of putting the book aside 'for later', I have finally finished the infamous, life-changing Tuesdays with Morrie. As a fairly philosophical person myself in my own eyes, I found the book most spiritual and eye-opening to all the human and societal issues many of us deal with on a daily basis. The memoir discusses, as Mitch Albom put it, 'life's greatest lesson(s)' and lingers on the subjects of life, death, relationships, and finding happiness. I found the entire experience spine-chilling, for Morrie accurately speaks of our present culture with such honesty and truth. He talks of the way our people has unseemingly indulged in the belief that happiness can be found through materialistic goods, rather than being truly in the moment. We are constantly running on such a tight schedule that we unconsciously created for ourselves, striving to earn more money, to achieve success, to beat every other player in the race, that we forget what is most important in life. And when we are stripped of all these holographic illusions, what is left of us is the true measure of happiness and self-fulfilment. Morrie and Albom have taught me that life is measured by the human activities we involve ourselves with; conversation, interaction, affection. It is measured in our ability to give to others - to share what we have to offer with someone else, and if we are lucky, to touch them in some way that they find us worthy enough to remember after we are gone. Morrie believed in truly listening to the speaker when having a conversation. He would allow his surroundings to fall away as if the only thing present at the moment was the converser and the words coming out of his or her mouth. This passage touched me more than I thought it would; the truth is, I, myself have been guilty of doing the exact opposite. We live in an era where our minds are constantly flitting from one thought to the next, so that often we are hardly able to take away more than a few words from a decent conversation. We feel the need to stretch our minds over various points of focus, so that not a precious second would go to waste, but what we do not realize is that by doing so, our time has never been more wasted. If we were given the exact date and time that we would breathe our last breath, close our eyes one last time, the truth is we would not spend such heinous moments wondering when we'll have enough to finally afford that new house, or car, or computer. We would not use up glorious daylight, passing time with our nose in our cheque books, or consumed in our work, wondering when our 'big break' will finally arrive. Instead, we would look back at the relationships we formed along the way, measuring our self-worth through the number of people we have brought smiles to, the friends we shared laughs and tears with, the fathers, mothers, and children we have brought life to during our short visit on Earth. And only in these profound moments can we truly pinpoint the exact value of our life, which, as Morrie pointed out, do not take into account money or commercial goods in the least bit. Through Tuesdays with Morrie, the one sincere lesson I took away from the novel is that in order to live a most fulfilling and wealthy life, one must first learn to die. It is through death's looming shadow that we begin to fully appreciate life's shimmering glow.
Completed September 14th, 2013.
Just finished reading A Walk to Remember - the original inspiration of my favourite movie. I'm sad to say that I was disappointed in the book, as I didn't find the story quite as emotional written in text. A lot of the scenes changed, and the novel was set in the 1950's where the most rebellious thing a boy could do was sneak off in the middle of the night to the graveyard, where he ate boiled peanuts with his friends - not exactly the 'tough-guy' they made him out to be in the movie. Another disappointment was the fact that Jamie knew all along Landon would fall in love with her, which just made her look sly compared to the sweet impression she first made. One of the things that confused me was the fact that she 'prayed for him'. Although it was unclear at first, she confessed to Landon that what she meant was that she prayed 'for' him. This also put her in a dark light for me, as she originally warned him not to fall in love with her. Instead, her revelation almost shows that she intentionally reeled him in for her own benefit, despite the fact that she knew it would hurt him later, and also contradicting the entire 'you have to promise not to fall in love with me' warning. The novel also talks of Landon reading the bible and slowly coming to believe in God, which was taken out in the movie by changing the bible she gifted him into a book of quotations. I found this slightly irritating (Spark's version I mean), because it caused the book to be centered more on the aspect of God than it did on the love between the two characters. All in all, it had a great story-line and I was glad that Nicholas Sparks brought the idea into existence, but I'm even more glad that they changed it in the movie as it portrayed the emotions and characters a thousand times better.
Just finished reading A Walk to Remember - the original inspiration of my favourite movie. I'm sad to say that I was disappointed in the book, as I didn't find the story quite as emotional written in text. A lot of the scenes changed, and the novel was set in the 1950's where the most rebellious thing a boy could do was sneak off in the middle of the night to the graveyard, where he ate boiled peanuts with his friends - not exactly the 'tough-guy' they made him out to be in the movie. Another disappointment was the fact that Jamie knew all along Landon would fall in love with her, which just made her look sly compared to the sweet impression she first made. One of the things that confused me was the fact that she 'prayed for him'. Although it was unclear at first, she confessed to Landon that what she meant was that she prayed 'for' him. This also put her in a dark light for me, as she originally warned him not to fall in love with her. Instead, her revelation almost shows that she intentionally reeled him in for her own benefit, despite the fact that she knew it would hurt him later, and also contradicting the entire 'you have to promise not to fall in love with me' warning. The novel also talks of Landon reading the bible and slowly coming to believe in God, which was taken out in the movie by changing the bible she gifted him into a book of quotations. I found this slightly irritating (Spark's version I mean), because it caused the book to be centered more on the aspect of God than it did on the love between the two characters. All in all, it had a great story-line and I was glad that Nicholas Sparks brought the idea into existence, but I'm even more glad that they changed it in the movie as it portrayed the emotions and characters a thousand times better.
New Atlantis, snore.
Communist manifesto!
Read "Catching Fire" in less than 24 hrs!
Luna; Elfi Nijssen
Other recently added goals...
