the two whos

Fri 12 Mar 2010

If It’s Meant to Be; It Will Be.

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Life is not always working out the way we “want” it. When life is not going “my way”, what attitude do we take towards life? A bitter victim, or a heroic fighter, or an optimistic participant? It seems that Cece and Yun both tend to take the last approach. You can say that most of the time, we trust in the universe.

But what does it mean to trust the universe? For us, it is to let go of the ego and surrender to the complete faith that everything happens for a good reason and what is meant to be will prevail for the better. We might not see it as “the better” at the moment, but in the long run, it is for the better. It does not mean to turn our will and life over to this power. We have all the power to take actions and to do the work, and we leave the outcome to the higher power. In the Chinese idiom: “Human is in charge of the business of doing, god is in charge of the business of becoming.”

Cece is a planner. She is very disciplined. She plans and charts and graphs . Take her recovery for example. She was recently heard saying..”My recovery is right on track.” She plans what steps she would need to follow pre-post and during her surgery and then step by step she took them. Now she is on track for the next phases.

So, does a person this meticulous and planned and “in control” of so much really believe that “If it is meant to be, it will be?” How can she relinquish this much control and turn it over to the Universe? The truth is that Cece is in total charge of her actions and reactions in her recovery activities, but she has zero control of the destiny of her recovery: the pace of the recovery, the degree of the recovery….she does what she needs to, then lets go of the results.

What is the role that faith plays in our lives? Everything. Faith is the antidote for fear. Look around, fear is driving many of our actions and reactions. However, faith does not mean we get whatever we want, faith means everything will work out as it is meant to be. Faith and trust go hand in hand. Faith means that we trust that what is happening at this moment is the best thing that could happen…

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

Wed 10 Mar 2010

Mid-Week Symphony with: World Bicycle Relief — The Power Of Bicycles!

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Imagine if you lived in a very rural country and you did not have a car and had to walk everywhere you went. It might take you 4 hours to walk the 12 miles to your school! Or it might take you days to walk to the nearest health care clinic.

World Bicycle Relief is a non-profit agency that gives bicycles to people to help them to be more mobile in very rural poor areas of this world. Their mission is to provide access to independence and livelihood through The Power of Bicycles.

Founded by SRAM Corporation and Trek Bicycles in 2005 and supported by many individuals, foundations and corporations, World Bicycle Relief specializes in large-scale, comprehensive bicycle programs by providing supply chain management, technical knowledge and logistics expertise to poverty relief and disaster assistance initiatives.

Compared to walking, bicycles represent an enormous leap in productivity and access to health care, education and economic development opportunities. The simple, sustainable nature of bicycles empowers individuals, their families and their communities.

Here are examples of what a bicycle can do to leverage human ability:

* Bicycles increase carrying capacity, five times as much as compared to walking;
* Bicycles increase the distance a person can travel by four times compared to walking;
* Bicycles save time, approximately three hours for every ten miles traveled compared to walking

If you would like to give the gift of a bicycle to some one in need or would like to use World Bicycle Relief as a fundraiser, click the link to donate or to get more information on how you can help!

“Bye for Now” From The Two Whos

About The Mid-Week Symphony: Since Wednesday is hump day, we have decided to take this moment and bronze it and have a bit of down time from the writing. We thought each Wednesday we would like to bring you a symphony of ideas, a harmony of thoughts, beauty, silliness and all things that make the fullness of life. When we started this blog we wanted it to reflect our entire personalities and interests..and that means yes…. Cece loves the Far Side Cows and Yun loves the mumble jumble philosophical books. Yun and Cece have many interests and we would like to share some of them with you each Wednesday.

Tue 9 Mar 2010

Yoga: A Joyful Reunion

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Many years ago, Cece wrote a poem called “The Reunion.” The poem spoke about the parched earth and the river and how, at points in the river , it dried up to a trickle. All were yearning for rain. Here is part of that poem:

“”….The river herself

Is joyous

As she is reunited

With her other half

Who had been

Separated

For oh too long

By a reef of sand……

And I, as I

Encounter

know that this river

is me.

A reunion

is occurring.

The selves of the self

Are embracing

We are joyous

We are whole

We are one.”

This is precisely how Cece felt tonight as she took her first yoga class in 2 years…she has not practiced yoga since the shoulder injury from the car accident.

In yoga, there is a term called “avidya” which means veiled or clouded thinking. It is a term that is used to call our attention to beliefs that we hold to be true…but perhaps are not true. It calls us to look at things from different perspectives and to see things from various angles…to challenge them to see if what we believe to be true HAS to be true….

Years ago, yoga saved Cece’s life. It taught her to confront the ideas she held about her physical , spiritual and emotional self…and her ideas about food and eating…and helped her to get off the couch and become a more healthy active and well rounded person. It helped her to get more balance in her life.

So tonight, Cece began again… the practice of yoga. She entered the

Atmabodh Yoga Studio of Anil Poovadan….in Bernalillo and smelled something delicious cooking! She felt comforted and right at home.

Later, as she was adjusted in trikonasana, she felt and breathed in that new perspective…and breathed in that new breath…her eyes opened wide….her body started humming…and she got a little high from all the extra oxygen that she was putting into her system!

As she drove home from class, she was not surprised when she started to cry. Yoga always opens her up…it makes the river flow….the blood flow…the breath to breathe again…it makes what seems so impossible…possible….it makes what we cannot attain…attainable….

Each one of us can have a different way to find a ”home that we belong” in. It is worthy of rejoicing when we find the one that opens our heart and mind to the greater world and reunites us with our own true self. Tears are worthy of shedding… as are our old beliefs.

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

Mon 8 Mar 2010

The End of Hope? Is this Absurd?

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Cece sent Yun an email with the same old SEO attitude: “Please go do something about this stuff I dug out from cyberspace!” This time, it is about the popular topics people search. Not sure what Cece’s searching algorithm is, but the top one that came back is: “The end of hope.”

Cece thinks of the Academy Award nominated actress Sandra Bullock in her movie “Hope Floats” and wonders if Cece and Yun will ever end the hope for true love! Off course not. But is this the end of hope that the searches are worrying about!

The TwoWhos blog is full of hope for change. The Gift of Beauty is solely hope based: we hope to see beauty in everyday life! Our SEO venture is impossible to understand, but we are hopeful one day we will master it. The single mother’s dance is all about hope: hope in the mist of a challenging situation. The list can go on and on….

What is the end of hope?

For optimistic Yun, hope is a mindset, not an objective state like the state of 0 or 1 in the digital world. The beauty of our mindset is that a mindset can be changed whenever we want to. Empowerment means that we get to choose which mindset we want to adopt that serves our livelihood better. It is never engraved on a stone. So, the end of hope is absurd, it is like saying the end of human thinking….

…or Cece says the end of human being. ….. Cece knows of someone who recently committed suicide. Certainly THIS is the end of hope. There is no return from this, no change in mindset. It is final. When the woman worries that her abuser will get out of jail and kill her, certainly there is a hope that the police will let her know when he gets out of jail..but is that a realistic hope? There will be no worries about grey hair here …just the finality of the choice making. Sometimes there is no hope. No hope that the abuser will change. No hope that the child rapist will not re-offend living in the community across from a school…no hope in recovery. No hope in change. It is very difficult to change the mind set…and this only happens if the person works hard to do so and gets lots of help and support in doing so. More often that not, certain hope is not restored.

Cece is a realist, Yun an optimist…both are different types of thinkers. Different perspectives are very important in life to provide clarity and possibilities. The end of hope can really be hitting the stone wall, or just encountering a raining day. By listening to different points of view, we might have hope of change even in the darkest of moments…

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

Sat 6 Mar 2010

Saturday Morning Rendezvous With: Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution!

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Childhood obesity has become an epidemic in this country.

• Nearly one in three (32%, 23 million) American children are obese or overweight.
• In total, 17% of kids of all ages are obese, but this rises to over 25% in all but three states for kids aged 10-17.
• Most obese children (over 80%) will also be obese as adults.
• Today’s generation of children are predicted to be the first to die before their parents, due to obesity-related bad health.

After revamping the school lunch programs in England, Jamie Oliver, renowned British chef, has started a campaign for healthy eating here is the US. He is passionate about modifying the school lunch programs in the United States to include more whole foods and vegetable and less junk and processed food. He has a television series coming up that details his campaign in the most unhealthy city in the country. It begins on March 26, 2010 at 9pm on ABC.

Jamie’s Food Revolution is all about replacing junk, snacks and processed food with freshly cooked nutritious meals – in schools and at home. After three months working in Huntington, WV, Jamie has seen how a little bit of confidence can change people’s lives and their health prospects. He believes that American people have the power to halt the obesity epidemic.

Here’s what you can do right now:

America’s food revolution – be a part of it!

Great revolutions happen when the people get mad enough about a problem to do something radical. If you believe in your right to better food and health prospects for your children, join America’s Food Revolution now. You have the power to change America, family by family. Here are some things you can do:

* Sign the petition (click on logo above to do so)

* Get your family, friends, and everyone you know to sign the petition too.
* Start a food revolution in your child’s school.
* Start a food revolution in your community.
* Pass on your knowledge and show your kids how to cook.

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

The Saturday Morning Rendezvous will be a place to stop in and meet up on a weekend morning. Have a cup of tea or coffee, a special breakfast, and relax and catch up from the week’s fast pace. The Two Whos will focus Saturday’s content on physical wellness and fitness of all types. Come back and rendezvous with us! See you next Saturday! Thanks for visiting.