America

America is not a country, it is a business

- Goman's

Truth

Truth I'd the truth you see, not say 

Ageless

I am ageless to my mother and father

Wonder if I am ageless to my children as a father? 

Pammi visit Dec 2024

Eulogy for a week in December (a Haiku series) 

 Wed Rainy traffic woes Two friends gather warm witted Curtis Concerto Thu River bend art house Slashes of Maine and trains Fleshy orchid hues (Lisa's work display Jordan's exquisite banquet Night drive America) Fri Cold morn sun pattern Grandma's wisdom, shopping leaves Tisane lake sunset Sat Greek dinner, night wine Ketanji - serve up the lines Good family time! Sun Mercy on Hudson Lisa expansive - books, seats Un-Meera'd Thai feast (Cold sake delight) Mon More sumptuous breakfast Art soiree, cast and wrought iron Loki - dinner discoverer (Anselm Keifer march) Tue Warm winter comfort U Penn Chestnut wanderer Jazz rhythms gelato Wed Sweet pleasant flavours Memory palate sojourn Portrait keepsakes pinned

Derek-isms

"Cultural capital"

"Stereotype threat"

It’s not like I’ve lit the fire.I’ve dampened the inferno.

On Jordan 

DTORT

Do the obvious right thing 

Lisa opoku 

Apply what u know

Loki 

I don’t want to be

Under the gun.

Under anybody's gun.

—

Under anyone's shrewd observance 

—-

Under anyone's gun 

(dependency, being a slave, a second class citizen) 

Vegetable Kingdom: Sowing the seeds of love

Vegetable Kungdom

Sowing the seeds of love

On an adventure 

To where it all started

Healthy eating 

Back to my home

Back to where it all started! 

Magic place 

Time stands still

I can still hear it

I can still feel it

I can describe the place 

I can feel the memories 

The innermost part of me 

The deepest and the most happiest part of me. 

I want to go back there!!! 

-// 

Inspiration:

Love

Adventure

Surprise

Family

Friends

Nature

Garden 

Vegetables

Study

Experiment 

Healthy 

Original 

Love of mothers 

Thanks to mothers 

Seeking new experiences

Opposite of materiality 

Reading

Seeking knowledge 

——-

Before we start our adventure: 

(Put out phones to sleep) 

We can't have any of it!!)

—-/ 

Invite my heroes: 

Oliver sachs

Madeleine peyroux: heaven is a place on earth!

Simon Sinek: leadership

Ayse birsel: living 

Robin Williams

Anthony Bourdain

Vivienne flescher

Danny Meyer - childhood adventure. 

——

Let's visit the house of our mothers 

And ask our mothers to re create the memory!

The memory of their favorite vegetable!! 

Tips from their mothers,,,,

—-

Good child

Goood mom 

—/ 

Celebrating both ordinary people and special people. 

Celebrating ordinary special people

"Who are you best customers"

"What part of your job do you enjoy most? "

"What part of your building the company do you enjoy most? 

"Inviting every or any person in the world as a guest,- asking for their story of what their mother's memory? 

——/

Loki Muthu

From the Vegetable Kingdom!! 

We are here on an adventure

The adventure of vegetables

Uncovering mother earth's humble treasures

Sometime they hide in the soil

Sometimes they are hiding under leaves

They are creepers and climbers

Most of the times they are looking up at the sun

Some shoot their leaves up

Some spread the girth of the earth

Mothers nature's treasures

They give us pearls

Nuggets of gold

Nature's pearls

—-

Nature's Eden 

Our vegetable garden 

—/ 

Sow a seed

The seed of love

Tell me a story love 

Of how your mom 

Made a dish you loved! 

—-

Dishooomm

Who do you see today????

It's Emmanuel!!!

What is Emmanuel's story?

What does he do?

What did he study? 

What is his favorite dish his mom made? 

His mom made ratatouille! 

——

Sowing the seeds of love. 

Going back to the origins.

Where it all started 

Your life

Your life.

Not about you. 

Your life is not about you.

It could as well be someone else's

Your life is not your life.

Life

Adversity is your teacher.

You are reaching out for it early

You are welcoming her early.

You learn your lessons sooner 

Loki muthu

Get carried away by you, loki muthu. Discover you, loki muthu. You are God's child.

Courage

Success is:

The courage to Start

The discipline to keep this going.....

Bill Ackman

Nobody deserves disrespect

I have experienced what it feels like to be treated badly and to be disrespected. Nobody is permitted  to mistreat me or disrespect me. I will call them out when they treat me badly. I will demand an apology so that they become aware of it and don't repeat it with anyone else. Nobody or no creature in this world deserves to be mistreated or disrespected. 

Be like Joes stone crab

That's what I love about this place.

It just delivers!!!

- lisa opoku

work

work is honorable.

you have to be able to tolerate it 

Journalists

Are fighting a war for truth

- lisa opoku 

Lisa

I can feel the energy radiating with your wide awakeness 

Alive to the present

Alive to the present 

Morning of Nov 8, 2024

Nature melts me like butter

—-

I am alive in the wilderness

—-

Returning to nature 

——

Moving away from human sounds

Voyage - away from human sound

No human sounds inside or outside

Remove human sound.

Remove the rain of human sound

——

Painting the moment of now.

Painting the eternal moment of now

—— 

The breeze flows throw me.

The leaves make gentle noises when they fall into a surface.

Life gleams

With the golden sweetness of the suns rays in the morning.

Soft and tender breeze, almost a kiss, a gentle kiss of the breeze

The warmth of the rays of the sun

When the wind passes through the branches of the trees, they are saying hi there friend, with their rustle and hiss, 

—-

Somewhere far away, a train is making a dense muffle as it shuffles.

—-

Cars aching and moaning as they fly over the roads

The rustle of the trees come near and far

And disappear

—-

Distant sound of the bells 

From a church perhaps

—-

The light of the kissing sun

Melts all aches and sounds within me 

Derek Fordjour

I'm making a proposition to all the curators out there : this is the level I am capable of. 

DF 

Only the work matters

Shut up and work

Work is all 

Your best life is work 

Working your work

Promise that you will keep working 

Re: Ethically savage

Attract

Extract

On Wed, Nov 6, 2024 at 7:50 PM Loki Muthu <lokimuthu23@gmail.com> wrote:

Ethical

Sauvage

Ethically 

Savage 

Cosmic sound

Hermanos Gutierrez

Ethically savage

Ethical

Sauvage

Ethically 

Savage 

Rest

We rest on good things from the past, given to us , from others till now. 

Mothers and fathers

Friends and Neighbours 

Grandfathers 

Grandmothersuncles and aunts 

Teachers 

Strangers 

Free

Loki muthu

Holding back nothing

Releasing everything 

Nobody is judging you

You are not victim, real or imaginary for either your own judgement or other people's judgements about you.

Nobody has the authority to judge you 

Make judgements about you 

Sort

You sort out your own fate….

 - lisa Opoku 

Art

Art is a fickle market

Lisa opoku 

Collage

Collage is visual foraging 

Re: Here and now

The great song is from the bird outside

The greatest feeling is a breeze 

The best fruit is the tomato from the backyard

Best drink is water

Even better with a squeeze of lemon and sugar

The best dessert is apple from the tree

The best vegetable is tomato from the garden

The best comfort is sleep

The best journey is dream

The best friend is your puppy

The best friend is your cat 

Happy when the sun rises

Happy when the sun sets

The best soup is mom's soup

The best treat is grandma's 

Best place is the shade of the tree

Best spectacle is rain 

Rarer is the rainbow

Even rarer is rainbow and the rain! 

Love my mom

Love my dad

Love my friends

School

Ain't so bad 

Love my friends

We play together 

Best smile is your own

When you smile at yourself in the mirror

A smile for lucky you are

My lucky star 

On Thu, Oct 24, 2024 at 2:58 PM Lisa Opoku <lisaopoku45@gmail.com> wrote:

Love it!  

On Thu, Oct 24, 2024 at 11:16 AM Loki <lmuthura@gmail.com> wrote:

Here is a beautiful place.

Now is the perfect time. 

Re: Here and now

Love it!  

On Thu, Oct 24, 2024 at 11:16 AM Loki <lmuthura@gmail.com> wrote:

Here is a beautiful place.

Now is the perfect time. 

Concept of 23 works as a series in whatever Loki Muthu does

Here and now

Here is a beautiful place.

Now is the perfect time. 

The mystery of the visual

Knees

We can bring everybody to their knees in front of God 

In so far

In so far as it makes sense to me 

You

You don't have to be who you're not. Always be who you are.

It might seem too naïve or too simple or too self-explanatory. But it's super important. Sometimes it's not obvious.

You are

You are what you expose yourself to every day. Every day, ask yourself what do you expose yourself to. Exposing yourself to your worries exposing yourself to other peoples worries exposing yourself to stress. What are you exposing yourself. That's a very important question to ask.

expose yourself only to the things that heal and nourish and take you forward. Be really careful about what you expose yourself to. It's like feeding you high-quality inputs. So that you can get high-quality outputs. Garbage in garbage out. 

My soul is not for sale

Mac 

MAC notes

"I am not my SELF. I am every body's self" 

Mary Ann Choi

Put things together

Doubt is gone. 

Put things together

Get to finish.

Whatever you put out is going to be great.

God bless you, Loki Muthu 

Borges

 I think of the world as a riddle and the beautiful thing about it is that it can't be solved.

Borges

"The idea of fame was alien to the Buenos Aires of my youth…. I remember having read that Emily Dickinson said that publishing was no part of a writer's destiny or career. She never published. And we all thought the same way and along the same lines. We were not writing for a minority, for a majority, or for the public. We wrote to please ourselves and to please our friends perhaps. Or perhaps we wrote because we stood in need of getting rid of some idea. Alfonso Reyes, the great Mexican writer, said to me: We publish in order not to go on emending rough drafts. And I know he was right. We publish to be rid of a book, to forget it. Once the book has appeared, then we lost all interest in it." - Jorge Luis Borges, 'Borges at Eighty: Conversations'

Feelings are always right

Feelings are always right 

Notes in between familiar

In between familiar 

- Lisa opoku 

Finish

Do the work to finish all the materials.

Change your OKR for doing art to finish all the materials you have 

Endless variations

Endless variations.

In art. 

As in life. 

here's what we are focusing on today

copy of nyt paper, Sep 23, 2024

Luxury notes

Rent luxury. Don't buy it.

- Lisa Opoku 

Cannot

I cannot take for granted anything 

Fearlessness is the best virtue of all 

Notes

We are wealthy people who have not become impoverished by our wealth

Lisa opoku 

Next chapter

Our next chapter is an exercise, food and meditation chapter 

- lisa opoku 

Blemish

See the blemish of the fruit

And enjoy the fruit. 

If it's too shiny, it's just that 

Truth of the matter is

I don't know myself 

I don't know who is me.

Something very powerful 

Free you

Free you 

Beauty

There is a register of beauty that is fleeting. 

You have to catch it! 

We are nobody’s prey

Singular people make bad decisions

A group has to own the outcome of decisions 

Art

Art is happening all the time. 

Art must be happening all the time 

Fwd: Dust is legit

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Loki <lmuthura@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Sep 1, 2024 at 7:48 AM
Subject: Dust is legit
To: <lmuthura.quote@blogger.com>

Dust in the photo is actually a photograph of a real object that is residing on the surface of the lens and is legit. Removing the dust from the photo is "retouching". Erasure of truth 

Dust is legit

Dust in the photo is actually a photograph of a real object that is residing on the surface of the lens and is legit. Removing the dust from the photo is "retouching". 

Ancient Nomad

Adventure

Explorer

Ancient nomad 

L and L

We are way more than what we have achieved and we have already achieved a lot.

The best is yet to come.

Lisa opoku 

Blame

When blame gets shifted…..

When people shift the blame on you…

—

Like robbery in broad daylight 

Notes

He traffics on gossip

Dad notes

Dad

• creative projects
• Working together on projects
• Sourcing projects
• Pushing them to create and put out work
• Introducing them to people that can collaborate
• Take classes together ( put in calendar)
• Once a week - dinner ( if available) put in calendar

Fostering independence

• financial well being
• Healthy relationships
• Investing essentials
• Mail box money projects

Adventure

• Road trips and road trip projects
  
• Travel and travel projects
• Every experience is a project

—-

Loki Muthu

—

Men

Men are fools for sex

So, Women use sex as a tool against men. 

Woman use sex to make man a fool 

What can one person do?

House of God

" I was thinking about the house of God. 

I was thinking about that. " 

- D Hirst. 

idea for poem

I come back to these everyday all my life.

Nothing has changed.

I want to spend the summer like I spend with my friends swimming.

I want to ride bikes and keep riding

I want to be belonged like I belonged to my friends when we constructed a house under the table and lived in bliss. How exciting it was!!!

Climb a tree and bite into a fresh green guava

I'm still climbing trees and constructing houses 

still longing for swimming

still riding bikes in my head 

--

I want to lay in bed and read all summer

in a tarpaulin house under a table tent

wake and up a swim every morning 

-

All the life, these are things I'm doing, over and over again, everyday 

Robbing the customer

Taking the money and robbing the customer 

Human

You just have to give them room to be human… 

Lisa opoku 

Careers

Goldman Sachs makes careers for white people

They make careers for Jewish people

[They don't make careers for others. 

Others are an accommodation. Slow train gravy]

- lisa opoku 

Poem idea

We weren't there 

Where we were supposed to be

God only knows

Where we were supposed to be.

We were supposed to be somewhere

Weren't we? 

We are here. 

Always wanting to be somewhere

Away from here 

Where is away 

What is there? 

What will I find?

Hen and hare 

Nibbling in delight 

The thought I must pair 

Nothing about herself

"There is nothing that is about her that is about herself." 

On lisa 

Ink

Ilk 

Ink

I have to finish my ink 

Rock of Gold - You

You, 

Run errands 

for you

You, 

Wash your face. 

For you 

You 

Toast the sandwich 

For you

You, 

Sit In the bench 

For you

You, 

Close your eyes

for you 

Untouchable 

Invincible 

Rock of gold

You 

-

You 

sleep

For you 

You 

be the Gold 

for you

You be 

Your Goliath 

For you 

You 

Warm the fire 

For you 

You 

Make tea

For you 

Untouchable 

Unshakeable 

Rock of gold

You 

-

You 

maple glaze

The bacon

For you 

You 

be the angel 

for you

You 

be the prince 

for you 

You

God of you

You 

Untouchable 

Unbreakable 

Rock of gold

You 

Foolish errands

Half my life, 

Running foolish errands for foolish people.

What foolish foolishness!

Be prepared to receive the signals of what is coming at you, today.. 

Part

His music fulfills a deep human need that has nothing to do with fashion

Steve Reich on Arvo Part 

Clear

Be 

Clear

Upfront 

Listening to the vomit of art 

Courtesy of theater gates and co 

At a dubious panel in the sanctum Santorum

Of the Philadelphia museum of art 

—- 

What an odd place to excrete 

Why do you succumb to staged? 

It is miserable for everyone concerned 

Braver

A little more brave as me and a little less fearful of the world 

Anything well

How do you do anything? 

It's work!! 

To do anything well is years of hard work!

Duke

"You can say anything you want on the trombone, but you gotta be careful with words."

- Duke Ellington

Ahead

You don't want to be chased. 

You want to be ahead of the pack 

Lisa Opoku - Poem

Mother's Day has new meaning.  Every day that your Mom is here, the sun is shining.  Every time you see her face you are warmer.  

You can only imagine the life after your Mother.  No one is ever as proud.  No one ever clapping so loud.  

My mother had a stroke, she almost lost the ability to clap.  But she is indestructible.  

She avoided the watching from the stands.  She is still here in the sidelines holding my hands.  

We love you Mom, always everyday.  We are definitely not ready.  Stay here, stay. 

Pramod Babu

Everyday is an invitation to consider your mortality 

- Pramod Babu

charles gaines

When you start a new piece, where do you begin?

I work in series, so we'll only do two, three pieces a year. When I thought of taking on the process of using systems rather than my imagination in order to make work, that became the leitmotif of my entire life's production. It's not a freewheeling tabula rasa subjectivity where I can only work from my impulse and my intuition. It offers a much more rigid framework than that.

Charles Gaines

For about a third of my life, I think, I was generally unconscious. Charles Gaines

Clay

"I always liked making things out of clay. And the computer was clay of the mind. Instead of physical, it was mental."

Judy Faulkner

Make

What type of a woman does a man make? 

For men

Bunnies are made by men for men 

Make

What type of a man does a woman make? 

Idea

Act on your idea,

 don't bank on it

Who can take it

There's money on the table. Everything is game. Who can take it. There's money on the table. People take it. Those who wanted it figure out ways to take money from on the table.

There's money on the table there are those who take it. There's money on the table. There are those who care for it. There's money on the table there are those who don't care. There's money on the table. There are people who take it. Who cares. There's money on the table, people burn it . Who cares?

There's money on the table. There's stable on the money. There's money on the table. There's money on the table. Hurry who's going to take it. Who's plotting to take it. Who cares.

There's money on the table. People are hungry.  Hungry to take the money from the table. There's money on the table. People are hungry to eat the table. There's money on the table people eat the table. There's money on the table who's going to get it. Who is going to go first. Who is going to go last. There's money on the table. Cool take the loot. Will scrap for the pennies. Who cares. There's money on the TV table. The loot begins. When there is money on the table,the loot begins.

There's money on the table. Whose money is it anyways. Who is stable on whose money. Whose money on who's stable. Who wants the money. People want the money. People lose money. There's money on the table. 

Stop saying

Stop saying you are trapped at work 

We all could say we are trapped in this planet 

It’s like McDonald’s health care

On City MD and the proliferation of low quality urgent care centers…

- Lisa Opoku 

When you are down

It's where you choose in your down moments,

that's where careers are really made...

Deborah Liu 

Deborah Liu

Women have more mentors and men are more sponsored..

In doing it, you know more

Quentin T 

What about hors d’oeuvres

Nothing about them appeals 

when we go to a party. 

They ration the good stuff

Then it's so little 

We are chasing after them

Don't know where to put your napkin after you have eaten… 

Just put the stuff out there 

Fill gaps

When your baby has gaps, 

You don't cover her gaps, 

You fill them

- loss 

Nothing to do with you

Whether things will happen to you or not happen to you has nothing to do with you. 

—

Whether you are chosen or not chosen has nothing to do with you

—- 

Act

You cannot be sitting and not acting on your creative impulse 

Buildings

Buildings from above looked like graveyards. 

Boxes for the living, boxes for the dead 

Float

When you reach a state of boundless intelligence, or where everything is in a state of boundless intelligence, then you are floating in the universe.

True love

I'll tell you about the best story of my life

How I met my beloved wife. 

Once I met her on the bus

My joy was such a rush. 

When she offered me a seat twice as fast,

My heart would skip a beat. 

Just being with her for a little while 

Was enough to make me smile. 

Her smile brings me to blissful tears 

And her voice is music to my ears 

As we went on dating, 

My heart continued beating 

Most women saw me 

And were filled with hate. 

She proposed to me, and 

On the spot - I said yes! 

And made preparations 

For the date in haste. 

I hope you readers feel our happiness 

As I did, the moment our worlds collided.

- Austin Busumbru 

True love

I'll tell you about the best story of my life

How I met my beloved wife. 

Once I met her on the bus

My joy was such a rush. 

When she offered me a seat twice as fast,

My heart would skip a beat. 

Just being with her for a little while 

Was enough to make me smile. 

Her smile brings me to blissful tears 

And her voice is music to my ears 

As we went on dating, 

My heart continued beating 

Most women saw me 

and were filled with hate. 

She proposed to me, and, 

on the spot, I said yes 

And made preparations 

for the date. 

I hope you readers feel our happiness 

As I did the moment our worlds collided.

- Austin Busumbru 

Kathleen Jamie

This all sounds very grand, but the muse comes and she goes. There are times of intense writing, and times of silence. I've been publishing now for above 30 years, and still feel that it's all provisional. I never can tell what will happen next.

Kathleen Jamie on her writing 

Fathers and mothers

People who care for you are fathers 

People who care for you are mothers 

People who care are fathers and mothers 

Art

Art doesn't have to be a book or a big canvas. Art can be just critical thinking, a creative thought, exploring the universe of possibilities, 

art can be thought. 

It is always exciting to conjure great thoughts and ideas and possibilities! 

Just purely that, without the peck of "who are we going to make that happen? 

It has already happened in the mind, it the most beautiful glorious way!! 

Nice

Be nice. 

Be the nicest you can be. 

Be stubbornly nice. 

Be kind 

Be the kindest you can be. 

Be boldly kind. 

Be lovely, 

Breathe lovely 

When you see someone being cruel, 

call them out. 

NOT NICE 

- 

Painting is a very rich and mercurial way of thinking.

Adam Pendleton

Yeats

The world is full of magic things patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper

Reduce noise

All kinds of noise 

Are you serious

If you are serious, you have to play with the leagues 

Restraint

It is easy to add salt and make things tasty. It is difficult to exercise restraint, add less salt and still make things tasty.

Loki muthu 

vulnerability

I don't have complaints, I have vulnerabilities...

- Lisa Opoku

question

Every question is a great question.

every unanswered question is a greater question

conduct yourself

people are watching you all the time

conduct yourself,

and when you are alone, God is watching

Conduct yourself 

private

yamn in private, people are watching 

puppet?

Look at yourself.

Are you a puppet

To secular forces?

Different

Our children, 

They have to be 

Different than us 

Kindest

It is very important to that you do the kindest thing to the other person or creature(earthling)

 

Be the kindest

Stand ferociously for justice 

Be strong to protect yourself

Drive your car 

Energy

Some homes have a dark energy. 

Some homes have a menacing energy

Some homes feel like they are watching us. 

Some homes have a welcoming energy. 

Homes emit energy 

Notes poem

How I long to hear you say my name 

Feel your hands reach my head and tousle my hair. 

Your tiny fingers, I would thrust against my cheeks

Reading temperatures; who's warmer. 

It was always me, you called me a burning sun, 

I was shining on, you crazy diamond, 

We Wedged at the edge of the morning, 

trying to loosen things up and emerge 

Reaching to untuck, untuck the cloistered sheets

So your legs could reign free on mine 

My femur burning on top of yours, angling my feet, 

So I could tease your toes, scratch them like a kittens 

Freight trucks moaning in the far distance

And to hear you say "I had a good sleep, baby" 

Panic

Nothing works out in a panic, 

- Hari Moorthy 

Great art

Stirs up a feeling 

"Stimmung"

4 houses

Bro - driving recklessly notes

"I'm going to risk your life for my fun

Going to flaunt my privilege in your face" 

Crime

Commit acts of kindness. 

Don't commit crime. 

—-

When people commit crime

And committing crime becomes the norm,

The world deteriorates

—- 

Committing crime= taking advantage of another

The First

Be the first one to clap. 

Be a Prince. 

Always. 

Stand up and clap

When a movie or a performance moves you, 

When it reaches the end; stand up and clap

No matter the venue

—

It's a wonderful thing to do 

You are saying kudos to the creator 

It's a cultured thing to do 

Divine

This is a divine relationship

L on l+L

Poem eclipse

On the day of the eclipse

for a few mere seconds,

It was the moon of the sun

and the night of the day.

Poem notes

Making a landscape 

Seeing it for what it is and what it can be… 

Art

Seeing it for what it is and what it can be 

——

Life, 

What it can be 

No much different than what it is. 

—- 

Life - a field guide 

What is, 

Is not much different 

than what can be.. 

—- 

Poem notes

Relationships: A field guide 

To be married is a blessing 

To be married is a curse 

—

To be divorced is a blessing 

To be divorced is a curse 

—

To be single is a blessing 

To be single is a curse 

My life

My life story

" everything is so fresh"

Like it happened yesterday 

My high fever before going to the us.

My romance with Sudha

Walking to mes 

Growing zinnias 

Scolded for helping the milkman's daughter 

Everything is so tender and fresh 

Yai-yai (yellaneeeer- screamer 

Mom feeding me curd rice and spinach when I was unwell

Vivek and Nitin visiting my house in mysore

Walks around kukkrelli lake

If I die

If I die one day,

dear reader,

you have been a part 

in making my life worthwhile for me.

There are beautiful worlds to discover and uncover

God bless you dear reader.

Dear earthling

Dear child of god

God bless you 

Chasing me

Chasing after myself

Chasing me

Chasing after this creature 

Chasing after this thing that is alive and moving 

Who is me? 

Who is my self? 

Who is moving?

Who moves? 

What moves me? 

Encounters

Ultimately it is you and what you found in this world next line next line. Next line ultimately it is you and what you encounter in this world.

Improve Focus - Harvard Review

Try these four strategies to help you tune out distractions and improve your ability to focus in daily life:

1. When someone is talking to you, look at the person and listen closely. If you missed something that was said, ask the person to repeat it or to speak more slowly.
2. Paraphrase what was said to make sure you understand it and reinforce the information. For example, if someone says, "We can see the movie either at Loews Theater at 7:30 or at the Paramount at 7:50," you might respond, "Which would you prefer, 7:30 at Loews or 7:50 at the Paramount?"
3. If you find that you tend to become distracted during conversations, try getting together with people in quiet environments. For example, you could suggest meeting at someone's home instead of at a noisy restaurant. When you do meet people at a restaurant, sit at a table near a wall. If your companions sit against the wall and you sit facing them, you'll be able to focus on them without having your attention wander to other diners.
4. You can improve your ability to focus on a task and screen out distractions if you do one thing at a time. Try to avoid interruptions. For example, if someone asks you something while you're in the middle of reading or working, ask if the person can wait until you're finished. Don't answer the phone until you've finished what you're doing — let voice mail take the call.

Kind

When you are kind, you attract kind people, and kind people do kind things to you. Kind beget kind

Fordjour

Painting is just me and the surface and God. 

- Derek Fordjour 

Truest

My truest self is returning to the source. 

—

I find my self returning to the roots 

In front of you

Art is right in front of you.

Capture it 

—

Sometime, art is right in front of you.

You just have to capture it 

Ron Padgett

How to be perfect

"Everything is perfect, dear friend."
- KEROUAC

Get some sleep.

Don't give advice.

Take care of your teeth and gums.

Don't be afraid of anything beyond your control. Don't be afraid, for

instance, that the building will collapse as you sleep, or that someone

you love will suddenly drop dead.

Eat an orange every morning.

Be friendly. It will help make you happy.

Raise your pulse rate to 120 beats per minute for 20 straight minutes

four or five times a week doing anything you enjoy.

Hope for everything. Expect nothing.

Take care of things close to home first. Straighten up your room

before you save the world. Then save the world.

Know that the desire to be perfect is probably the veiled expression

of another desireâ€"to be loved, perhaps, or not to die.

Make eye contact with a tree.

Be skeptical about all opinions, but try to see some value in each of

them.

Dress in a way that pleases both you and those around you.

Do not speak quickly.

Learn something every day. (Dzien dobre!)

Be nice to people before they have a chance to behave badly.

Don't stay angry about anything for more than a week, but don't

forget what made you angry. Hold your anger out at arm's length

and look at it, as if it were a glass ball. Then add it to your glass ball

collection.

Be loyal.

Wear comfortable shoes.

Design your activities so that they show a pleasing balance

and variety.

Be kind to old people, even when they are obnoxious. When you

become old, be kind to young people. Do not throw your cane at

them when they call you Grandpa. They are your grandchildren!

Live with an animal.

Do not spend too much time with large groups of people.

If you need help, ask for it.

Cultivate good posture until it becomes natural.

If someone murders your child, get a shotgun and blow his head off.

Plan your day so you never have to rush.

Show your appreciation to people who do things for you, even if you

have paid them, even if they do favors you don't want.

Do not waste money you could be giving to those who need it.

Expect society to be defective. Then weep when you find that it is far

more defective than you imagined.

When you borrow something, return it in an even better condition.

As much as possible, use wooden objects instead of plastic or metal

ones.

Look at that bird over there.

After dinner, wash the dishes.

Calm down.

Visit foreign countries, except those whose inhabitants have

expressed a desire to kill you.

Don't expect your children to love you, so they can, if they want to.

Meditate on the spiritual. Then go a little further, if you feel like it.

What is out (in) there?

Sing, every once in a while.

Be on time, but if you are late do not give a detailed and lengthy

excuse.

Don't be too self-critical or too self-congratulatory.

Don't think that progress exists. It doesn't.

Walk upstairs.

Do not practice cannibalism.

Imagine what you would like to see happen, and then don't do

anything to make it impossible.

Take your phone off the hook at least twice a week.

Keep your windows clean.

Extirpate all traces of personal ambitiousness.

Don't use the word extirpate too often.

Forgive your country every once in a while. If that is not possible, go

to another one.

If you feel tired, rest.

Grow something.

Do not wander through train stations muttering, "We're all going to

die!"

Count among your true friends people of various stations of life.

Appreciate simple pleasures, such as the pleasure of chewing, the

pleasure of warm water running down your back, the pleasure of a

cool breeze, the pleasure of falling asleep.

Do not exclaim, "Isn't technology wonderful!"

Learn how to stretch your muscles. Stretch them every day.

Don't be depressed about growing older. It will make you feel even

older. Which is depressing.

Do one thing at a time.

If you burn your finger, put it in cold water immediately. If you bang

your finger with a hammer, hold your hand in the air for twenty

minutes. You will be surprised by the curative powers of coldness and

gravity.

Learn how to whistle at earsplitting volume.

Be calm in a crisis. The more critical the situation, the calmer you

should be.

Enjoy sex, but don't become obsessed with it. Except for brief periods

in your adolescence, youth, middle age, and old age.

Contemplate everything's opposite.

If you're struck with the fear that you've swum out too far in the

ocean, turn around and go back to the lifeboat.

Keep your childish self alive.

Answer letters promptly. Use attractive stamps, like the one with a

tornado on it.

Cry every once in a while, but only when alone. Then appreciate

how much better you feel. Don't be embarrassed about feeling better.

Do not inhale smoke.

Take a deep breath.

Do not smart off to a policeman.

Do not step off the curb until you can walk all the way across the

street. From the curb you can study the pedestrians who are trapped

in the middle of the crazed and roaring traffic.

Be good.

Walk down different streets.

Backwards.

Remember beauty, which exists, and truth, which does not. Notice

that the idea of truth is just as powerful as the idea of beauty.

Stay out of jail.

In later life, become a mystic.

Use Colgate toothpaste in the new Tartar Control formula.

Visit friends and acquaintances in the hospital. When you feel it is

time to leave, do so.

Be honest with yourself, diplomatic with others.

Do not go crazy a lot. It's a waste of time.

Read and reread great books.

Dig a hole with a shovel.

In winter, before you go to bed, humidify your bedroom.

Know that the only perfect things are a 300 game in bowling and a

27-batter, 27-out game in baseball.

Drink plenty of water. When asked what you would like to drink,

say, "Water, please."

Ask "Where is the loo?" but not "Where can I urinate?"

Be kind to physical objects.

Beginning at age forty, get a complete "physical" every few years

from a doctor you trust and feel comfortable with.

Don't read the newspaper more than once a year.

Learn how to say "hello," "thank you," and "chopsticks"

in Mandarin.

Belch and fart, but quietly.

Be especially cordial to foreigners.

See shadow puppet plays and imagine that you are one of the

characters. Or all of them.

Take out the trash.

Love life.

Use exact change.

When there's shooting in the street, don't go near the window.