Signs

Recent weekends had been filled up with a "healthy dose" of Sex and the City. I don't really know why I like it so much. Perhaps it's sense of identification with the many questions that Carrie would identify with every episode... perhaps it's the ability to relate to the various dilemmas of the modern women.. I'm not sure ..but each time I see it, I get different signs and get different weird ideas. I think Hong Kong is like an Asian New York perhaps, with its Chinese takeaways, breakneck pace, happening places to check out if you have the time and money... 

 

Recent weekdays on the other hand, are filled with an overdose of self-help. Nope, it's not self inflicted but I can't help but feel that I am living in a self-help book every other day. Yes, ask me when I am back next time.

 

Anyway, since moderation is golden and everything in excess is bad .. .I need something to help make sense of everything..something to give a sign. So I went to my favourite place to get one ... http://paulocoelhoblog.com/ and once again,  I am greeted by exactly the words I needed to see...

 

By Paulo Coelho - In search of signs

We may think at times that the only thing life offers us tomorrow, is to repeat everything we did today. But if we pay close attention, we will see that no two days are alike.
Each morning brings a hidden blessing; a blessing which is unique to that day, and which cannot be kept or re-used. If we do not use this miracle today, it will be lost.
This miracle is in the small things of daily life; we must live in the understanding that at every moment there is a way out of each problem, the way of finding that which is missing, the right clue to the decision which must be taken in order to change our entire future.
But how to find the courage for this? As I see it, God speaks to us through signs. It is an individual language which requires faith and discipline in order to be fully absorbed.

"Modern man tried to eliminate life's uncertainties and doubts. And in doing so he left his soul dying of hunger; the soul feeds off mysteries" - says the dean of Saint Francis Cathedral.
There is a meditation exercise which consists of adding - generally for ten minutes a day - the reasons for each of our actions. For example: "I now read the newspaper to keep myself informed. I now think of such-and-such a person, because the subject I read about lead me to do so. I walked to the door, because I am going out". And so forth.
Buddha called this "conscious attention". When we see ourselves repeating our ordinary routine, we realize how much wealth surrounds our life. We understand each step, each attitude. We discover important things, and useless thoughts.

At the end of a week - discipline is always fundamental - we are more conscious of our faults and distractions, but we also understand that, at times, there was no reason to act the way we did, that we followed our impulses, our intuition; and now we begin to understand this silent language which God uses in order to show us the true path. Call it intuition, signs, instinct, coincidence, any name will do - what matters is that through "conscious attention" we realize that we are often guided to the right decision.
And this makes us stronger and more confident.

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And I look forward my signs tomorrow.