As part of my quest for self improvement

"Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail."-Charles Kettering
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/charles_kettering_121333

I admit that for all my writing about how it's ok to fail, failure is still something I fear. So, as part of my quest for self improvement I will work on not being so afraid of it. Looking back, whenever I've felt I failed at something, it turned out more to be a lesson than anything else. In that sense, failure has always been somewhat useful to me as I learned from the experience. One thing that I had the most fun "failing" at is cooking. I have tried to make some things like custard from scratch and it didn't quite work out as I planned. (It came out a bit more soupy than I expected)  I am continuing to work on it though and I figure one day I'll get it right. 

Impossible dreams

Today in 1605, book 1 of Miguel de Cervantes's book Don Quijote was published. I like the story as it's all about how a man believed he could bring chivalry back despite everything. Eventually (and more recently) a musical was made from the story and there's a song in it called "The Impossible Dream." I really like the song because I really believe that  from impossible dreams new dreams are made. I've found that I could reach the goals that for a while I thought were impossible and once I'd reached those goals, I could make new ones. In that sense, I've found that if there's something I've really wanted or needed then I could make it happen. Thus, I feel like no dreams are impossible.

The art of being happy

"The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things." Henry Ward Beecher
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/henry_ward_beecher_121522

I really like this quote because I like finding happiness in random things. To that end, today I found happiness in drinking hot chocolate on a cold day. Hot chocolate always warms my spirit! Wherever you are reading this, I hope you find happiness in ordinary things, that way each day can be extraordinarily happy!

Jim Thompson's house

While I was in Thailand my family and I went to see Jim Thompson's house. Jim Thompson was a man who worked for the CIA and was very into Buddhism and creating clothes and other things out of silk. Mr. Thompson disappeared in the 60's and neither he nor his remains have ever been found and his house was subsequently turned into a museum. It has wonderful statues of Buddha and lovely furniture. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the house and so the pictures below were taken outside.  Although I couldn't get pictures of the whole place, I still post pictures that I did take here because I've always liked art and this house was full of art!

One thing I'll miss about Thailand

One thing I really liked when I was in Thailand was how people would say "sawadika" to each other. sawadika means hello in Thai. Although if you're a man then you say sawadikrap. (I found out that almost everything you say in Thai, putting "ka" or "krap" at the end of the statement you're saying makes the statement more polite.) I really liked bowing to people and saying sawadika.  I think it was just that people always looked happy when they said it back to me and I liked that aspect of it. There was something nice about it that I won't forget. So I say sawadika to everyone!

The Buddhas in Thailand

When I was in Thailand, in addition to people dancing I was really pleased to be able to see the Reclining Buddha and Emerald Buddha statues. My family and I were able to go and see these statues and the surrounding buildings that were part of the Grand Palace in Bangkok. The buildings there were really beautiful and it was moving to see the Buddhas because I like learning more about different religions. To me, the Buddhas I saw show how faith can inspire people to do and create so many great and beautiful things and that is what I love most about faith. 

This picture shows part of the Reclining Buddha in Bangkok. (The whole statue is huge so  I was unable to get a picture of it all but I liked this smaller Buddha beside the larger Reclining Buddha. 

Dancers in Thailand

One thing that really makes me happy is seeing people dance and so when I was in Bangkok last week I was very pleased when, while I was walking around a street market with my family, we came upon a group of women performing traditional Thai folk dancing.  Thai folk dancing is really beautiful and it's used to tell stories. I'm not sure which story the dancers we saw were portraying. However,  it was evident that they were there to entertain some dignitaries as well as the rest of the crowd that had gathered. I've only ever seen such dancing in movies and I'm really glad I was able to see it in real life. There are some things that are once in a lifetime experiences and I feel like this instance was one of them.