Answers @ MindSay 
questions
1. I'm sure we all know what your name is.. so, tell us what your boss' name?
Tricia
2. Do you actually read your friend's surveys, or do you just copy paste them and fill them out yourself?
For the most part I do. Then I re-read them every time I fill them out myself.
3. Which is your favorite episode of "I Love Lucy"?
Was never a fan.
5. Do you consider yourself a deep thinker?
Sometimes I'm too deep of a thinker. Tends to get me into trouble.
6. Name three people who you are closest with.
Josh, Tabetha, and Nikki.
8. How many red shirts would you say you own, off the top of your head?
None.
9. No one cares whether or not you believe in love at first sight.. but, do you believe in hate at first sight?
Nope. I'm one of those that always tries to find the good in someone, even if it is just the barest trace of good.
10. If you said yes to the last question, do you think that the reason you are so hateful and judgmental is because you didn't receive enough love when you were a kid?
11. How old will you be in 2021?
I'll be 41 in October of that year.
12. Would you rather be tone deaf or color blind?
Color blind
13. When do you think is the proper time in a relationship to give the other person your business card?
Business card? Ummm, okay.
14. When you were a kid, which comic strip was your favorite?
Didn't read comics.
15. You can only wear a sock on one foot for the rest of your life.. which foot is it ?
My left one. I've always favored the left one.
16. How many words can you make out of the letters of your name?
Pretty much only one.
17. How do you feel about fake plants?
Why get a fake plant when you can have the real thing?
18. What is your obsessive compulsion?
*shrug* I dunno really.
19. And where did 19 go?
*shrug*
20. Do you know what the difference is between the statements, "We're just dating," and, "We're together,"?
We're dating doesn't have a "we have a future" ton at all. "We're together" implies they plan on being that way for quite some time. That's what I get from it, anyway.
21. When you think, do you see the words that you are thinking in your mind?
Nope.
22. If a person is brought up speaking both Spanish and English in equal
they are bilingual?
Of course they are.
23. Does it make you uncomfortable when people ask you your shoe size?
It would if it was a perfect stranger asking me.
24. Would you feel guilty about cheating on your taxes if you got away with it?
Yes.
25. You are walking on the beach when suddenly you find a genie lamp. You rub it, and out pops the genie. He proclaims that he is so thankful to you for letting him out after thousands of years that he gives you three wishes. What do you wish for?
1. To be a mother.
2. To get the education necessary to become a teacher.
3. To be rid of my diabetes.
26. If you had braces, would you put little diamonds on your brackets and call them your "grill"?
No way.
27. You have 24 hours to live.. what are you going to wear?
Nothing?
28. Which is worse.. someone blowing cigarette smoke in your face, or kissing someone who has dip in their mouth?
Dip
29. Had you ever answered any of these questions before?
Don't think so. These questions are definitely new to me.
30. where the Hell is 30?
*Another shrug*
Samantha Sweeting spent every waking moment for seven years trying to become a partner in her top notch legal firm. Twelve years before that was in preparation of becoming the best lawyer she could possibly be. One single mistake (that wasn't even made by her) changed her life in a split second. Mistakes in the legal world can obviously be costly. This one happened to cost her client 50 million pounds. Mistakes in her world were unacceptable, and so when the mistake came to light, she left without a single word - just walked out of the office and kept going until she landed on a stranger's doorstep. The strangers mistook her for a housekeeper an agency sent to them. Not having any answers of what to do about her life (especially after finding she was fired for her reaction to her own mistake), Samantha decided to make the best of the strangers' misunderstanding and remained as their housekeeper. The funny thing is Samantha can't boil eggs much less do a load of laundry. This top-notch lawyer ended up falling in love with the gardner and the charming country life she began to make for herself once she learned to slow down and smell the roses. She learned to cook and clean. Life drammatically changes for her and she just adores it.
Suddenly the legal firm realized that Samantha never made a mistake, that a senior partner set her up to take his fall should his financial scandal be found out. The firm fell over themselves to make it up to her and offered her an even better position in their ranks. She was torn between accepting the offer and remaining where she was. The gardner skipped town to make the decision easier for her. But halfway to London, Samantha leaves her partners on the train to find her way back to the love of her life even though she had no clue where to find him in Cornwall. All she knew was she would find him somehow.
Gods, I love this book. It's just absolutely wonderful.
"It doesn't matter. Don't beat yourself up for not knowing all the answers. You don't always have to know who you are. You don't have to have the big picture, or know where you're heading. Sometimes it's enough just to know what you're going to do next."
Soft sigh in relief. Lately I've been searching for all the answers and getting extremely upset whenever I'd come up empy-handed. I often thought about going to the local metaphysical store to have my tarot read so that I get some answers, but I haven't had the money to do so. Then I read these words and realized that it doesn't matter if I have all the answers. It really is enough just know what to do next. For instance, I know I need to find a part time job. That's what I need to do next. And it doesn't really matter what kind of job it is... I know I can do anything I put my mind to as long as I have Josh's support. I know I'm starting school next month. That's as far as I need to go... the only answers I really need.
I see a lot of empty people everyday. They are searching for some sort of entertainment or relationship that will fill the void in their lives. They don't realize that the enemy has wounded them through their childhood. They don't know that there is a reason why they feel like no one understands them. How can others understand you if you don't even know yourself?
I see some people crawl up in corners and try to become invisible. Others scream out through "rebelling" and being “different” together with others who are also angry and desperately in need of love. They don't realize that their lives are controlled by the people they want to be the least like. To "get even" or to make a statement against someone, the person's thoughts and actions become molded, confined, and fiendish trying to hurt the one who hurt them. When will the cycle of pain stop? When we realize that in our broken humanity we cannot save ourselves?
If we try come up with answers from ourselves to solve all of our own problems, I'm afraid we're going to be going around in circles forever. Even if we did get an answer or two, mere head knowledge will never bring healing to the soul or give us the reason to live a fulfilling and joy-filled life. We need help.
Only One can show us where we've been wounded and how deep the scars are. He knows everything that has happened to you and wants to show you that there is something so much better for you. He is the only One who actually cares and loves us so much that He cries with us in our pain. He holds us and asks us if He can carry the pain-filled, dry and heavy shell of a heart we’ve been dragging along and give us a joy-filled, vibrant and living one instead.
At the temple our group discussion was about the fear of losing one's mind and one's life and about the Buddhist concept of no soul and no self. We talked about the fear of loss—through senile dementia, Alzheimer’s, mental illness, and of course death.
Vera wept.
Two others wiped away tears.
Dean and David and I sat together later and continued our discussion of death and grief. I mentioned that I had asked my students to write of what they considered the peak experience of human life on earth.
"What would be the Buddhist answer to that?" Dean asked.
Awakening? Enlightenment? Nirvana?
I didn’t know.
It was hard for me to think that way. I thought we might tackle the subject from the other end. I mentioned that at age seventy-two my father, feeble, blind, and sick from diabetes, had taken his own life.
"What would be the Buddhist view of suicide?" Dean asked. "Is there even a self to kill?"
I didn’t know.
I told Dean and David the story my friend Billy had related to me about his Tibetan guru Chogyam Trungpa at the funeral of his friend the Zen master Shunryu Suzuki. At the ceremony Suzuki’s students affected a stoic demeanor in keeping, they thought, with the teaching of their master:
No birth, no death.
But Trungpa Rinpoche, the students found to their astonishment, was sitting alone in a corner, sobbing.
“Why are you crying?” they asked him.
“Because it hurts!” the lama answered.
“Yes, that’s right,” David commented. “I thought when I first started that if I practiced and got enlightened I would never be sad again.”
I was reminded of another remark my friend Billy had made. I had described how I had been unable to utter a word at a funeral I recently attended. There all of the words in my head, I told him, sounded to me hollow and false.
"Sometimes the only thing we can do is be present and allow our hearts to break," my friend replied.
Later I told the master.
“Yes, this is so,” the master said.
The master explained that there exists no entity we can call “Buddhism” and consult for the “right” answers to our questions, no Central Buddhist Authority, no Buddhist Central. The master said that students sometimes expect of Buddhism what they have learned to expect from previous religious practices—an organized system of belief and an authority to whom they can appeal in order to resolve their doubt and confusion and to answer their questions.
“We have to do the hard work of seeing our own true nature and the true nature of reality,” the master told me.
He paused.
“We have to stand on our own two feet," the master said, "and come to our own conclusions.”
Also i got one of those questionnaires emailed to me recently and decided to post my answers here. Some of the questions i replaced with ones more to my liking.
1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? no
2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? during my marriage
3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? only when i write slowly and carefully
4. WHAT IS THE FIRST MOVIE THAT COMES TO MIND THAT YOU LIKE>> RIGHT NOW!? The Lord of the Rings trilogy
5. CAN YOU PLAY A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT? no but i like to sing
6. WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES/SPORTS? aikido, tai-chi, cycling (in America or the E.U. where there's less traffic and more bike lanes!), tennis, skiing, walking
7. HOW OFTEN DO YOU DO ANY OF THOSE FROM # 6? once or twice a week... ideally... hasn't been the case for close to a year, though.
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS AND APPENDIX? Yes
9. WOULD YOU SKY DIVE? Possibly, if i could do it for free.
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BREAKFAST FOOD? Bran flakes mixed with granola with Soy milk or rice milk.
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Usually.
12. WHAT'S THE FIRST BOOK THAT YOU LIKE THAT COMES TO MIND RIGHT NOW!? Dune
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? chocolate
14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Eyes and smile
15. RED OR GREEN? monk's red
16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? dry skin and occasional knee problems
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? my parents
18. WHAT THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT TO A GOOD MARRIAGE? weekly prayerful consultation
19. WHERE WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO BE RIGHT NOW? Bahji or Haifa
20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? crackers with peanut butter.
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? J.B. Eckl and Eric Dozier's album: Badasht
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? deep orange, similar to my blog's color but not quite.
23. FAVORITE SMELLS? freshly broken cinnamon stick
24. DO YOU LIKE TO COOK? i don't mind cooking i just don't like the time it takes to do it! (I'm very slow at chopping vegetables, etc.)
25. FAVORITE ARTISTIC THING TO DO? Act or write poetry
26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? football, but i hardly ever spend time watching sports except maybe for the world cup or Olympics
27. THEATER, BALLET, OR OPERA? THEATER
28. HOW MUCH TV DO YOU WATCH? very little actual TV, maybe a few hours a week, but i watch some TV shows online and i do watch lots of DVDs each week.
29.DO YOU EVER WEAR GLASSES OR CONTACTS? glasses all the time, because contacts make my eyes all bloodshot. I'd like to get corrective laser surgery done sometime so as to not need either!
30. FAVORITE FOODS? My mum's cooking, Indian, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, Japanese, etc. Out of all these Indian is my favorite of favorites, though.
31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? I like happy endings. I only like "horror" movies if they are horror-comedies more comedy than horror.
32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Brick (last night). A classic "Film Noir" plot but set in a modern high school. And The Business of Being Born today, a very good documentary about home birthing with mid-wives (vs. in Hospitals).
33. WHAT COLOR CLOTHES ARE YOU WEARING? mostly Black (I also like wearing more colorful clothing, though!)
34. SUMMER OR WINTER? I like all the seasons in different ways.
35. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs, if short, when saying hello or goodbye (to anyone-- but not in China where it's not part of the culture), kisses only with wife after marriage.
36. FAVORITE DESSERT? Chocolate cake, or pumpkin, apple or blueberry pie.
37. HOW MANY CHILDREN WOULD YOU LIKE? 2 seems like a good number but depends on the financial situation.
38. WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADOPT IF FOR SOME REASON YOU AND YOUR SPOUSE WEREN'T ABLE TO HAVE ANY? Yes
39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? A fantasy novel, but it's not as good as J. R. R. Tolkien! This morning i read from the Qu'ran.
40. DO YOU LIKE READING, DO YOU READ MUCH? Yes and yes!
41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT? My house-mates where watching Ocean's Twelve and i was in the same room but mostly paying attention to my computer.
42. FAVORITE SOUND(s)? The wind through the leaves, birds, waves, flute, sitar, guitar...
43. STONES OR BEATLES? The Beatles.
44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? I haven't been any further than planet Earth yet!
45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Reading out loud, drawing, acting, poetry
46. WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE A TATTOO? WHAT KIND? Yes, if i could get one for free. Maybe a nine pointed star and a celtic design with a dragon and or wolf.
47. WHICH THREE COUNTRIES WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO LIVE IN FOR SOME TIME OTHER THAN WHERE YOU ARE NOW? China, India, New Zealand.
48. WHICH FIVE other COUNTRIES that you've never visited yet WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT FOR A HOLIDAY? Turkey, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Nepal.
49. IF YOU HAD THE TIME, SPACE AND MONEY WHAT PET WOULD YOU HAVE IF ANY? a dog (a malamut or Labrador or retriever).
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