"Genuine observation is better than meaningless participation"

I've been using the above quote for my MSN Messenger for quite a few days. If you allow, allow me to have some self-praising moment, :p .... after a great chat with a friend, that quote came into my mind. I was so happy and thought I can finally have quotes of my own, so I tried to list it in some quotes sites but ... my hope was beaten. Why? Because I don't fall into "somebody famous" category. Haha ... Guess for now, this quote will just stuck in my blog first :-)

I realize most of the people around me are so caught up with the "doing" and "joining" ... participating in anything .. be it a conversation, an outing, an activity, an opinion being heard, something ... to show someone that they've been there done that. They know something. They participate and contribute.

Nothing wrong with that seriously. But I found it meaningless when the activity has no soul, no essence. I believe everyone has experienced something like that in a few occasions. I can't speak on behalf of everyone but personally, I did that many times. And honestly, I may have been doing it for the most part of my life!? Hmm ... worth contemplating.

I remember when I was in those few "activities", I joined for the sake of joining. I joined because I was trying to please someone. I joined because I thought I'm a flexible person and I can choose to have fun wherever I want. I joined because it seems to be cool, next time it can be the topic to talk about when I'm in another meaningless participation. And most importantly, I ignored my gut feel. And there and then I wasted a few hours of my life ... putting up smiles and cheesy lines or "smarty" comments ...

Then I've also been to the other side of the spectrum ... I stopped joining ... I stopped communicating ... I did nothing ... literally ... it doesn't feel that good either when it's too much of it. :p ... It's actually as bad as joining without meaning. It wastes your life in the way you don't even realize.

I finally found some kind of balance between the 2 extremes. I checked my gut feel before I embark on another activities and so far it has saved me from things which are not meaningful, life waster I supposed. I also found genuine observation and thoughtful contemplation can be much more rewarding than clogging your lives with activities that are forgettable. No wonder prayers and meditations are highly recommended to have a better quality of life. Well, I ain't a meditator (just can't sit still), nor I am a great prayer (yes, the same reason as I'm not a meditator ... yet), but I found out when you are in silence or in conversation with something you just can't comprehend (be it your mind, the tree, the dog, the wall, the sky, God, angels, the fish, the monitor, the air, the water, etc) ... life gets pretty interesting. In a strange way ... I enjoy those seem to be pretty "weird" time ..

Just like right now ... I'm blogging ... I'm communicating with my inner self .. and ... erm .. I've no idea who else I'm communicating this as I'm typing -.-" ... but I am finding it more meaningful than if I'm with a bunch of people talking about,"wow, so you have an american express credit card, that's so cool" or "hey, what have you been doing lately? wow that's so interesting" (when I don't find it interesting) ...

It may be a very confusing post to some of you, if yes, I apologize. But ultimately, my message is to be very aware of what you are doing and BEING at every moment ... it's not easy but the awareness is the first step of having a better life.

Happy observing, friends! :-)