Guest Post by: Tim Moorman

Forbidden Treasure

I walk, you walk, I say Hi with a shaky wave, in return I get a bright smile, your taken, I’m available. flirting becomes contagious. It happens without notice because it becomes so natural. We look stuck in each others eyes. not caring the color, just what’s behind the feeling of the stare, making your face blush, adapting to the closest RED object in the room, as if you were a chameleon hiding from the prey. I become the Hunter, your not the hunted, because your not allowed to play the game, small talk becomes open ended conversation that are like puzzle pieces to our friendship. There is no picture to know if we are doing this right. thoughts never become words afraid that its just too soon, the words that make it past the thoughts still bring happiness, if only for a moment. your wall goes up, I walk by it leaving a message as if I was a graff writer, Timmy was here now in big bold letters, its up to you to do what you want with it.

I have a friend who is a poet. He doesn’t post his stuff online, just sends it to friends, which I think is pretty cool. I really liked this one so I asked him if I can post it. He also puts together poem books he makes himself, and he can also fix your car.

I’ve been doing something that we all must do every so often— Cleaning up my documents folder. Now that I’m back in the states from my travels, I’m cleaning up and syncing up all my files for my Dropbox account so I can access them no matter if I’m on my netbook or my laptop. Really nice being able to do that. I came across this great recipe for corn salsa I got from a friend, so I though I’d share it here… and so I can delete the file

Anyways, you’re here for delicious corn salsa! Nothing too fancy here and certainly not hard to make. Just the right mix of good ingredients. Cut it all up to taste and mix it together in a big bowl. I save my old salsa containers just for this occasion.

Grilled Corn (4 cobs)
2 Grilled Jalapenos
2 Med Sized Avocados
2 Med sized Tomatoes
1 Spring Red Onion
2 Stocks of Green Onions
1 Lg Clove of Garlic
Juice from 1 Lime
Juice from 1/2 Lemon
1/3 Cup of Cilantro
1 Teaspoon of Garlic Powder
Salt & Pepper to taste

ENJOY!!!

“I will never understand all the good that a simple smile can accomplish.” 

~ Mother Teresa

I don’t probably don’t need to tell you why a smile is good. You’ve probably felt its effects before. But in this short TEDTalk, Ron Gutman lays out the many benefits of smiling including: living longer, staying healthier (think stress and blood pressure), and being more likable and appearing more competent.

Nice Presentation too… Enjoy

“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another, unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, of fix us in the present. We are made of layers, cells, constellations.”

~ Anaïs Nin

We, people, are a system. At the human level, we consist of physiological layers and emotional layers that are all interacting with each other to produce outcomes. Because of this the human system is complex.

I think, from a Western point of view, we tend to look at growth, both mental and physical, in a linear manner:

We exercise, our muscles grow.
We study, we learn more.
We eat healthy, we stay well.

It’s why we have a pills for everything. . . (all with “side effects”).

In all complex systems there are relationships between all these layers that go unnoticed, yet equally reflect on the outcome. Perhaps it is the fault of the conscious mind that we don’t allow ourselves to realize these connections. I don’t blame it, there is a lot at work here. That is why we have complexity. The quote above is about more then just a quote on growth. It is a quote on systems and complexity.

Methods to discover the complex relationships in systems include conversation mapping (pdf created by my Systems Thinking for Business Redesign Professor Bruce McKenzie) and relationship mapping. Most often these are used by large corporations to breed and understand innovation, but absolutely have benefits to anyone who wishes to understand more about a certain complex system.

Still it is a beautiful quote that reminds us to stay human and humble. To realize we are more than we can understand, to accept that and move on. . . at least in my mind

“The habit of giving only enhances the desire to give.”

— Walt Whitman

I love to give. I’m a giver. I don’t know when it started and I admit that I probably don’t do it as much as I should, but I like the idea of doing or giving something to someone else without the expectation of return. I like to kick the saying “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” right in butt. Okay, perhaps I am a bit selfish- I do receive when I give. It is usually comes in the form of gratitude, respect, good karma, or even as simple as a smile.

The other day I met a girl in the hotel I’m staying at who said her friend was looking for the book Into The Wild, by Jon Krakauer. I happen to pick up the book in Tulum and happened to have just finished it. Great read by the way. She just happened to tell her friend, her friend just happened to tell me, I just happened to have it, and I just happened to finish it!?! Weird.

Needless to say she was excited!

“I have nothing to trade you for it.” She said.
“Oh no, don’t even mention it. It’s a gift.” I replied, to a big smile.

Today the book karma gods smiled handsomely back at me. I found two GREAT used books at the bookstore today: Post Office by Charles Brukowski, and Motorcycle Diaries, by Che Guevara.

So do you give? Have a story to share?