Hello December!

Hello December! It's time for holiday shopping and preparation. I doubt that I can prepare anything this year though. Life's been so busy these days! However, it's still fantastic to think about the big upcoming holiday. How about you?

Anyway, this entry will sum up my November, it's not about the holiday tho, excuse me if I misled you :). 

(Source: from the Internet)

I've been working full time for 1.5 months so far. That means, I've been struggling to find time for my personal hobbies as well. It's harder and harder to finish a book or follow entirely an online course now. With my best, what I can do is that instead of dozing off on TTC, I start reading as much as I can. It was so tough at beginning tho. Now I'm feeling okay, no more headache when I try to read on a moving vehicle.  If you see someone yawning and reading on TTC, or someone always with a book, it may be me, say hi if you can  :). Anyway, reading is still slow down a lot. I can only do averagely 10 to 15 pages a day.

My first challenging month November is over with some rewards as I finished one book and one course. I'm not going to write any review for this book now, just introduce it here as one of my tiny achievement for November. The book sheds the light about creativity and also guides me to another book which I'm reading right now (called 'Imagine: How creativity works'). Let's take a glance at the one I finished here and I'll move on another topic!

My second achievement is my online course. It is not worth of anything except being a wonderful reward for my determination.

The course actually opened a new door to my learning journey. It taught me that, as long as I'm willing enough, there is always at least one solution regardless of finance and time obstacles. I know for now that if I want to study, there is always a way to increase my knowledge with the least cost, as the old saying "There is a will, there is a way." To me, life is the whole journey of learning and I never stop being surprised. 

Long ago, I would say around 5 years or more, I began thinking about myself in meditation. It was like an inside fire urging me day by day that if I cannot meditate, at least I have to find out how meditation works. Beside all the big dreams in my life, I would say playing guitar and practicing meditation are the biggest two that I've never found chances to approach properly. Therefore, this month, my goal was set to meditation. [I really don't know when I can kick off the guitar topic yet, :( sigh!!!!]. 

Two weeks ago, I found a wonderful meditation group close by my work place from a brochure in my local library, so I contacted them. They responded very fast and it was great that they also had cozy [and free!] classes weekly for novices like me. I've been joining them two times so far and I really love this activity as much as the people in the group. I can make it once a week, not a lot but at least I could start.  If you have the same interest, find those nice people here http://meditationtoronto.com and drop me a line, we can meet :). As all was said, you may also guess, my goal for December is that I will not drop out of meditation gatherings. I do wish to follow as long as possible, but for now, just make it through one month first. The meditation I'm following is mantra meditation which is using sound as an object to focus and practitioners will improve concentration by chanting mantras.

Followings are my first three mantras

Gaur-Ra- Ang-GaNitai-Gaur  

Gopala Govinda Rama Madana Mohana 

Hare Krishna Hare KrishnaKrishna Krishna Hare HareHare Rama Hare RamaRama Rama Hare Hare

One thing I recognized was that, practitioners in the group are very good ears of music. Most of them can play guitar as well. That raises a hope in me that one day, I may be one of those music ears, then it will be easier for me to approach guitar and by that way a new road to my second dream will be built up. Fingers crossed!

Okay, that was my November! Now is time to hit the door and shop for Xmas. Happy holiday to you and your family!