Oscar Wilde Thursday

"I never travel without my diary. One must always have something sensational to read on the train."  

-Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest)

This quote felt appropriate for today because am in New York for a long weekend! 


I actually brought my latest issue of Runner's World for the plane ride (rather than my journal) because I need some training inspiration. My marathon is just several weeks away! Eek. Good thing my magazine totally pumped me up for some Central Park runs while I'm here.

Oscar Wilde Thursday and Happy Chinese New Year

"We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities."

--Oscar Wilde

Even though I collectively slept almost nine hours last night, I have a headache and my eyes feel kind of stingy like they do when I am suffering from a lack of sleep. 

It's because I interrupted that sleep at 2:50 a.m. so I could get up to order an iPhone. 

Yup, I was one of those people. I was texting with my friend Rach last night, who has an iPhone by the way, and when I told her Verizon changed their midnight ordering to 3 a.m. and that I still planned on getting it, she made some sort of reference to me being a crazy person. You're the one who wants to play games with me, love! (Seriously, I want to play them with you too. Cannot wait.)

I just wanted to make sure they didn't sell out. I obviously have no idea how large their iPhone inventory is, but I had to get mine. I had it in my head for a couple weeks I wanted it, so that was that. Getting up in the middle of the night to order something from my own home was way better than getting up in the middle of the night to camp out in front of a store next week.

So anyways, I thought Oscar Wilde's quote today was fitting. What else have I bought because I felt I had to have it? Well, I don't want to make a list. But I do own a lot of things that seem so necessary but aren't at all. I certainly enjoy them, but I also know I'd survive without them. I also know I am blessed that I can have these things.

I'm going to take this opportunity to point out that I have gotten up in the middle of the night for non-material things. When I studied abroad in Thailand, only about a handful of my group chose to wake up around 3 a.m. so we could get in a car and drive to see the sun rise in Khao Yai National Park. That's the kind of thing you can never do again, so it balances out the iPhone thing right?

I partly bring up Thailand because I lived in Bangkok in 2005 and was there for the Chinese New Year when it became the Year of the Rooster... and today is also the Chinese New Year... so Happy Chinese New Year!


Even though it was Thailand, there was still a crazy celebration. I remember it being so packed downtown with beautiful bright red lanterns and delicious food and people mashed up against each other looking so happy.

In this photo, I'm wearing my Chinese New Year shirt. The man I bought it from told me it says "good luck." This photo was not taken in Bangkok (can you tell by the Indiana Jones-style bridge?) but also in Khao Yai National Park where I saw that sun rise.

Happy Year of the Rabbit! According to a quick Google search, the Rabbit brings a year for catching your breath and calming your nerves. A good goal for this year is creating a safe, peaceful lifestyle. I can't help but feel a little creeped out by this (in a good way) because that is totally my goal for this year (and, well, forever).

Eat, Pray, Love: Sending light and love

I'd had Eat, Pray, Love sitting on my counter for more than a week when I finally watched it. I read the book a couple years ago and really enjoyed it. I kind of got a little bored in the middle, but overall I remember I enjoyed it. I may read it again sometime soon.


Tangent: Elizabeth Gilbert (the author of Eat, Pray, Love (2006)) wrote a follow-up book last January called Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage. Oh man is that book good! It's about marriage and what it means to be in a marriage. I really recommend it whether you're single, in a relationship, have been married for a day or married for 25 years.


So this post is not for me to give a little review of the movie. I'm writing about what I want to take away from the movie.


There is this scene where Liz is in a fantasy dancing on a roof in India with her ex-husband. They're dancing like they did on their wedding day, and he tells her he misses her. She says, "Then miss me." 


She tells him when he thinks of her to just send her light and love, and then let it go.


I've found myself doing this several times already. Wishing someone light and love and then letting all other thoughts about that person go. It really works. I feel better at the end instead of obsessively thinking about stupid old things I cannot change that would inevitably make me feel worse.


I don't think you have to necessarily use this for someone you don't want to be thinking about. It's nice to think of someone and then send them light and love. Try it. I bet it will feel good for you, too.


Finally watching this movie inspired me to pick up a book I've been holding onto for a couple years. It's called Turtle Feet: The Making and Unmaking of a Buddhist Monk (2008). It takes place in India, where Liz also went (well, I'm sure they weren't in the same place in India). I am definitely interested in the spiritual journey in the book, but I am also enjoying being transported back to a place of peace for me. Although I haven't been to India, I have visited  several monasteries in Thailand and China. Even though they are pretty bare (well, some are quite elaborate) and often dirty, they are also always beautiful and peaceful. 


So when I read about this monk in India, I pretend that he is in Lhasa, Tibet, and that I am there again, too, for just a little while:

Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet. Can you see the monk in his red robes?

On the roof of the same monastery in Lhasa, Tibet, with the market square below and Potala Palace in the background.