Giũ Xe

 

Silent Wheel

 

The Student

Weekly, I spend two hours in a Vietnamese language class—a surreal experience at my age. The classroom feels familiar yet different, like revisiting a forgotten chapter. Learning feels harder now, but I’m surprised by how much sticks. It also stirs nostalgia, making me wish, just for a moment, I could step back in time. For now, I’ll savor this blend of past and present, the quiet thrill of learning, and the bittersweet memories it brings.

Chúc mừng năm mới

Today is the Lunar New Year!  I wish everyone the best as we embark into the year of the Snake.   May everyone have health and fortune in this new year.

These are some photos from my Vietnamese class and my work as we celebrate the ancient spring festival.  

2018

I first heard this song when i went to Vietnam.  I loved the piano and though i do knot know the words I learned to attempt and sing it.   Through the many trips to Houston with Doan's Family this song played more than once.  It has shown that as he grows more in my life I am embracing a new family and culture as my own.  

  

Market in District 1

Part of: 

Wordless Wednesday

Pulled up, moped to the valley

Part of: 

Wordless Wednesday

Đà Nẵng

There is beauty everywhere if we look closely.   The world is an amazing place full of wonder and all we have to do is go outside our comfort zone and look.   If we do this, we allow ourselves the opportunity to see and experience new places and new things.

Awakening

We as a sentient species have the ability to recognize that suffering is part of our being. Suffering comes from attachment and attachment takes many forms from material items to the relationships in our lives.  While it is part of our human nature to build attachments; we have the unique ability as a species to make the intelligent decision to not allow ourselves to foster attachment.  This by no means devalues those in our lives or even the items that are important to us. It simply means that we can make a decision to suffer or not to suffer or even lesson the amount of suffering that we choose to endure.

We have the ability to live our lives with grace and dignity and to approach every problem with a positive mind and review every angle to see all sides of all things. Nothing is truly good and nothing is truly bad.  Even the things that we take as blessing can have negative consequences and the things that we encounter that are bad can have positive outcomes. Knowing this about our world allows us to approach everything with the knowledge of the dual nature of reality and consciously choose to face every obstacle with an open mind.

We must learn to live our lives with respect for those around us. Religion, race, political beliefs, these are all things that we consistently fight over.  We should learn to respect and celebrate our differences and know that we all have much to teach one another.  We also must teach ourselves that every creature is worthy of respect; all life is important and can make an impact that at the moment seems small but could potentially change everything.