Creative Meanderings

Smiling today as the sun shines in Tokyo. As I ride the train, I am keenly aware of those things I find nostalgic and wonder if I were to live here again would I eventually find things annoying or maintain my sense of warm fuzzy. 

Generational gaps are seen as older generations sit without electronics in their hands people watching or reading the adverts on the walls/ceilings of the train cars. The younger people are either sleeping – falling over or swaying to the movement of the train – or scrolling through their phones desperately trying to keep themselves distracted from possibly becoming bored or engaged in others around them. 

I smile at the middle aged women, especially, who seem to feel it their right to quietly cut in line. No doubt this is something that would end up upsetting me as before, but now find simply funny by the passive aggressive cultural aspect of a societal norm. 

Or the white masked people who are either sick, with allergies or simply OCD – something I can only laugh at because I both understand why they do it yet would never do so myself due to the ridiculousness of the concept itself. 

It is a strange dystopic utopía or a utopian dystopia in some ways as I observe both as a stranger in a land that was never mine and as a returnee to a land that was home for so many years.

I look at it with a fresh eyes of a newbie and the rose-colored eyes of the old. Either way, it is refreshing from the oppressive aggression I normally feel and convinces me even more that w need to find a way out….

~T 😀

My fascination with religions stems back to my foster family days – the one just before I was adopted by my family now. Although later I would learn that they were Seventh Day Adventist, at the time I just knew that I went to church and started out in the church school. 

Some time later I recalled the stories from Bible school and found a book that I had probably been given about man’s exile from the Garden of Eden. 

Throughout my youth, I had a back and forth relationship with various Christian churches, but my skeptical attitude toward blind faith always kept me from a full acceptance to and in the church. 

When I got married I went regularly to church with my ex and got heavily involved in the church. Until they chose to judge me for the circumstances of the dissolution of my marriage, I thought perhaps I had been wrong about organized religions. I questioned my atittude toward choosing colleges that were not heavily affiliated with religions. However, the reaction of those in the church I had put a lot of myself into and the friends that I thought I had invested in turned me away from ever going back to such a way of life.

Still, I am a lover of philosophy and a believer in knowledge. 

A few of my college friends are Mormon and so I became interested in why and how they believed what they did. I got my hands on literature to understand, but instead just came up with more questions. 

With the same curiosity, I have always been fascinated by the Church of Scientology. Aside from the fact that big celebrities like John Travolta and Tom Cruise are heavily entrenched in the faith, I just find it interesting. The idea of cults and religions is a curious thing as the human mind and spirit is so fragile that people want to be led to believe they are important no matter the sacrifice. 

Upon conversation with some friends this week, I decided to watch a documentary on the CofS. Having done so, I am glad I did. It was really interesting. Although my suspicions about some of the beliefs based on rumors that were circulated in the media have been confirmed, I still find it so amazing at the ability of one man to convince a large population to accept what he believes as the truth. 

I am more and more convinced that my skepticism towards any belief system is the right way to go. If I am considered stubborn or cynical, I am okay with that! 😛

~T 😀

Nobody makes money blogging. Writers never earn enough to survive on. Just do what you need to and get by. You can dream, but also be realistic.

Sound familiar?

I had earlier determined that I need to probably really take some steps toward finding a regularly paying job. This may mean that I need to give up my efforts to build a business or focus more on my writing. Initially, I thought I would look for work that I could do online, but as I began to sift through the options posted on the freelancing sites, I found that it is a great deal of effort to find the jobs that are going to either be accepted by the employer based on my simple proposals or will be acceptable to me for the rate they are offering. The truth is that I am not used to working a lot for little.

Then, I thought if I were to make a list of the type of jobs I am looking for, then at least I would know how to start with keyword searches and the like. As I began, the list was two in when I wrote simply – a job that pays me to write; a writing job that pays me to write what I want to write for a reasonable and regular pay. That was as far as I got. In the end, this is what I want.

While the yoga and tutoring are good side jobs that help to pay bills, what I would love to do is to write all day long, know that money will be coming in that will be a real living and return to enjoying life again. Is it too much to ask? 

Now, I know things like this do not happen overnight. I know that I have kept this blog rather secure and somewhat hidden from mainstream, but I do have other blogs that can be adapted and refreshed to perhaps generate some income. Maybe I won’t make a fortune, but I can make something!

So, as I work to turn The Universal Asian into a creative writing center, I will also work to making the blog portion of The OSH Network as a lifestyle center. Even though I am using it to promote wellness and health, it does not mean that it cannot also be a place where I share lifestyle aspects about food, nutrition, health, etc. RIGHT?!

Maybe the above statements were true when my dreams of becoming a writer were first sprouting, but the truth is that if a dream stays alive inside, then it is really up to me and only me to make it a reality.

~T 😀