Lying on a Raft, Current Directing

I’m lying on a raft, I see faces staring at me from the land, with marks of white and red, eyes wide.

I’m relaxing while the rest holds weapons of fear, wondering whether to attack or not. But I’m far away and safe in the river and beds of waters.

What if, what if, what if..they ask?

I’m already there- but I’m peaceful as a bird. The what if’s have happened, and I’m laughing and dancing still. I’m not on land, only on waters, but the current is taking me where it will, not according to my will- but according to destiny.

There is a land inside of my soul, my temporary body. The waters are flowing and the greens are lush, trees grow and flowers bloom. My outward being ages each day, but my inward being ages with wisdom, growing stronger each day.

I love these 25 beautifully illustrated thought provoking questions-

25 Beautifully Illustrated Thought-Provoking Questions

Perhaps sometimes living requires a submission of your soul into the universe, allowing a higher being to lead you into your true destiny. Perhaps knowing that you’ll be alright and not caring about what people think.

Fog

I’m sitting in a boat, mist drops, cold breeze, nothing.

It is silent.

There were bees in my room, buzzing around a light, I couldn’t figure out why I was asleep with bees in my room.

All the venomous spiders roamed around weaving webs, strong as cords, bouncing from place to place.

The ocean rippled and roared. I sat silently trying not to wince.

“It is in the silence that you will find God”

I gave up looking, striving, finding, searching because I don’t know what I’m looking for, not sure what I want either.

Perhaps I simply want to find peace, to be at peace with myself.

Even when the droplets of water start blurring my vision, storms making me sick and cold, even when I find myself alone in the boat.

I want to find my soul settled, when I dip my head into deep waters, hold my breath and let go. Peace my child.

Happy Holidays Everyone! Starting My Year With Post-It Notes

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY CHRISTMAS SOON!

The past few months have been, change, change, change, inconsistency, life and more life.

Without change, there can’t be happiness. 

Change is not only a part of life, part of love, but part of what it takes for a person to be happy. Don’t like change? Well, you’re really screwed. No wonder you’re not happy, no offense.

There were moments I reached mid life crisis and found myself staring at life in the face, asking what I was doing with my life. People think that post- grad confusion ends immediately after you get a job, well, it never ends, even when you are stuck in a job. Life begins after graduation my friends. True warriors face change with vigor, zest, confusion, failures and lots of mid life depression. One needs lots of supportive friends, or even just 1, 2 or 3 close friends will do.

The above is an example of how I am making changes everyday.

Everyday before I go to bed, I have a new RITUAL of writing a prayer, a desire for my life, a goal, a quote, a person, etc. I write this on a post it and stick it right above my bed. I am going to write dates on each post it and I’m sure, 100% sure that all of these goals, prayers, blessings, quotes will come true. What you think, you are. What you hope, you will be. Everything in the universe will conspire to achieve your goals. Positivity will bring positive things into your life.

Did great heroes or great inventors, great artists have thoughts of negativity? Yes. But did they dwell on it? No. Some positive thought pushed them to keep running, keep inventing, keep creating…even when all odds are against them.

You should do it too…I think it’ll benefit you.

Examples of what I wrote:

1. To be big hearted, forgiving, giving, and not easily offended– to embrace all, love all, and to give when it feels uncomfortable. I was driving with my friend the other day, in traffic – this homeless guy was asking for money. I got out of my car and gave him my bag of fruits and my cereal. You should have seen the look on his face, it was pure ecstasy. Doing something good when it feels uncomfortable or when people stare. Who cares about what others think.

2. To self- encourage and love others instead of self- pitying– I have the tendency to self- pity, “oh my god, seriously I can’t believe this person didn’t think about doing this for me…blah”….but this is a selfish love, when not verbalized.

Anyways- hope you have a grand holiday and blessed year! http://rebekkalien.storenvy.com

Munch, Munch, Stare, Stare, One of Those Days

The man wore a knit sweater, his two kids bugging him for some tacos.
Another lady, with pulled back pitch black hair, staring into space, eating a bowl of rice and a chicken salad. Another man with a blinged out snoop doggy jacket walked with his tray. Days like these, I can hear their thoughts. Munch, munch, stare, stare- what is my life worth and what is the meaning of life?
Munch, munch, stare, stare- wow, I’m bored, I’m zoned out, or what the hell am I doing with my life.

I can hear their thoughts loud and clear in my own mind.

Sometimes it’s just way too easy to give up. Especially when you’re thinking about getting food stamps and your business is growing exponentially slow. You have great relationships, but you still feel like you’re floating.

Munch, munch, stare, stare.

Such is the rhythm of life sometimes.

Of course, after some positive energy being exchanged by my ninja friend, I am starting to munch, munch, look look. I’m going to start putting positive quotes on my graffiti wall and write daily goals on it as well. I’m looking forward to this. 🙂 You should do it too!

Yesterday I slept for 11 hours, best time of my life.

December 10- REBEKKA LIEN @ Silverlake Art Craft & Vintage

splash
SAVE THE DATE:
  • SHOP FOR CHRISTMAS PRESENTS (& yourself) DECEMBER 10 (10-4pm) @ Rebekka’s Booth!REBEKKA IS LAUNCHING!
    Wondering what to buy your friend or girlfriend/girl friend? Visit my booth and find snazzy-

    + REBEKKA.LIEN JEWELRY (buy it before anyone else! Limited Editions Not Posted Online)

    + ONE OF A KIND REBEKKA FASHION Creations

    + Vintage & UNIQUE goods from all over the world

    + Enter a drawing for a FREE Limited Time Only REBEKKA LIEN JEWELRY

    GIFT WRAPPING PROVIDED.

    Come support your local friend and artist (me). I appreciate your support!!

    SILVERLAKE ART* CRAFT & VINTAGE IS A MONTHLY FUNDRAISER CREATED BY LOCAL LA ART GALLERY GHETTOGLOSS, TO SUPPORT THE STUDENT PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT AT LAUSD.

    http://www.silverlakeartcraftvintage.com/index.html

    Check out My Page & LIKE IT!
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rebekka-Lien/206081989431609

    Love,
    Rebekka Lien

 FACEBOOK EVENT: CLICK HERE  http://www.facebook.com/events/249375365127373/

Look at the birds of the air…they do not sow or reap or store away in barns


Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? matthew 6:26

Since August 1, I’ve been unemployed, voluntarily. I went backpacking for a month and spent all 9 months of my savings to experience once in a life time experiences. I then came back, inspired by my travels, began dreaming again. I started the jewelry business and continued selling on Ebay.

But for the last 4 months, I’ve been happily, living off miracles. Day by day.

Some people frown down upon my lifestyle. They think that I should get a full time job, not knowing my creative and entrepreneurial being. I’ve been living off of faith, knowing that I have a father who provides. It’s a spiritual being whom maybe not everyone believes in. However, it’s just SUPER amazing how father has provided.

I don’t believe in debt, because of my experience of watching people suffer in debt, paying off mortgages, credit card, school loans- I decided in high school that I would NEVER go in debt. As I started to watch my credit card balance increase, fear set in. How was I going to pay for my monthly balance, how was I going to pay rent.

Birds don’t store or save. They don’t have a savings account or even health insurance. I’ve become a bird- free from societal expectations. I’m not irresponsible like some people claim that I am. (This really pisses me off by the way).

Last month, a miracle happened, this month another, miracles keep happening.

Last month, I had a bill of about 571 dollars. Because I had vowed always to pay bills on time, I cut all my unnecessary spending. I didn’t buy coffee, snacks, or anything extraneous for one month. I probably spent $20 a week for groceries, I never ate out. Yet, Father provided the little things to put a smile on my face. For some reason, free things popped up everywhere.

The week before the bill was due, I made $30 or so bucks selling my clothes, I made money on Ebay, found $25 in coins, and miraculously, the day before it was due, I sold $50 in jewelry. I didn’t even try to promote my jewelry, by simply wearing the rings, I was promoting and of course- I always had products on hand.

No I don’t have health insurance or a savings account, I kind of live month to month. I haven’t worked under a full time boss for 4 months, I’m probably the happiest person alive. Call me crazy, but I’m starting to really love being surprised and being provided for.

The Great American Hunger- The Epidemic of Never Having Enough

Okay, this is not one of those guilt-tripping, showing you starving children picture, make you give money to Africa kind of blog post. However, it is a blog post to wake up Americans, and well, any other wealthy nation. 

Image

North Korea- the Human market. There’s such a lack of food that people are selling human flesh. It’s inhumane, yet what do WE do to fill OUR hunger? 

Nowadays, debt has become a normal thing. IF you don’t have enough, then go into debt to get what you want. It’s very easy to do. This morning I woke up and these words popped into my head “the great American hunger”. 

The Great American Hunger

What does that really mean? Well, it’s an insatiable consumeristic hunger that, I believe, encourages selfish living and isolation. Think about the kids that play in dirt in poorer countries, they enjoy community and are thankful for the little they have (okay, this is not always true….but perhaps looking at this we can learn something). 

If you notice, Americans aim to go to an Ivy League, then get their masters, perhaps become a doctor or lawyer (please don’t be offended the very occupation is not what I’m trying to get at), so they can buy a really big ass house with a shiny car, maybe get married and have 10 kids. The more we accumulate, the more our stuff serves to isolate ourselves. The bigger our house is the less we have to go out our front door and see people or strangers. Our lives are ours so we drive ourselves to work, drive ourselves home, live in a big house with our own family.

However, because OUR house is so big, we all have OUR own room, so no one feels the need to interact. 

The MORE we spend, the more we want. I believe growing up in America, one cannot say that they have not been brainwashed to think that THE LIFE is “about having more”. Are we not brainwashed to think that “the better technology we have”- the better our lives are? I mean I love technology, but you know EXACTLY what I’m trying to get at. 

The GREAT AMERICAN HUNGER is in our soul. It’s not in our pocketbook, in our wallet, in how much we have or how much we are lacking material wise. 

It is asking ourselves core questions about who we are, where we get our identity from, what is important to us (success, people, money?), and living with intention instead of letting our society brainwash us into a RAT RACE so we can sit on our wheelchair when we are 80 and attempt to go on our vacations that we’ve been working for for the former times of our lives. 

So what are we actually hungry for?

Love, acceptance, the need for other people to tell us “good job and well done” when we’ve made 6 figures? What are YOU hungry for?

(besides all the superficial things that our soul has no desire for).

Stop. All Way. Smell the Roses.

Taking a walk has become my new favorite hobby, it’s so enlightening.

Oh dear, what a week.

 I spent $1 in the last 2 days, pretty impressive.

 One night I really felt like dancing, so I called up a few friends and went out. We found FREE parking in Hollywood, I only spent $1 for tipping the bartender for water. It sounds pretty ridiculous, but this is my life now.

 You start to appreciate the small things though.

 Yesterday I was driving my roommate to the fashion show, we exited the wrong exit and suddenly I turned and saw this sign “Dick Church’s Restaurant”. I froze and started laughing uncontrollably. Lauren started cracking up because she thought it was funny how funny I thought the whole ordeal was. We saw a really cute coffee shop and I pointed it out.

 “If only we had money”- Lauren said.

I nodded.

“Yah I shouldn’t be swiping my credit card”- I said.

We nodded.

And then of course we started laughing.

“Jesus give us free coffee!” I cried out.

 When we got to the venue, the salon girl gave me a shot of expresso in a free coffee. Wow.

And then I got free subways because I was a designer. People think once you’re called “a designer”, you’re probably really loaded. It’s not true.

 I was so blessed yesterday, I even got a free swag bag with a black tank top I really needed. Sometimes I think, why am I still supporting two organizations when I can’t even pay for my own food. I’m not sure, but I’m trusting God to provide for something I can’t see yet.

 I had a dream the other night that I was in China and I had to go home on a train. However, it would cost $140 but I didn’t have the money. I freaked out.

 Another recollection of our life together:

Me driving.

Lauren and I were talking about being completely free from rent, living in a car perhaps.

“It would be so great to be free, to just focus on loving people”- She said.

 “Yah, I thought about buying a Volkswagen bus and road tripping. It’s a great place to sleep” – I said. Plus I can just bring all my musical instruments with me! I can busk and do all sorts of things.

 “Okay, but what about just have physical stability. Where do you poop and kitchen wise?” – I asked.

 “Oh yah, and where do we plug in our laptop?” – She said.

 “Oh yah.”

 “Oh. Nevermind. Haha”- she said.

I suppose it seems a bit pitiful the way we’re living, but I’m starting to appreciate it. It really motivates me to think creatively.

 “What can I sell to make some cash? Or what skills can I offer to make some cash?” I ask…

As long as I don’t have to sell my body, I’m willing to clean toilets and be a maid. I mean, at this point, you can’t really be proud. It’s sad that one time my friend said, “oh I didn’t think you would apply for a café job because you’re too above it”. I don’t ever want to become like that. That’s too pitiful….to become someone who is too proud to do ‘lowly’ things. That’s scary to me.

 You really lose the beauty and simplicities of life. If I sat around and had everything I wanted, I probably wouldn’t think outside the box. I don’t know what’s coming, but it’s been a prolonged journey of working, trying really hard, and well, sometimes finding little results. Yet, I keep persevering, knowing the prize is there…but also smelling the rose every moment, which is more important than attaining the prize. The prize is here.

The prize is having people to support you through it all.

11/11/11 – Day of Renewal and Birth

My Wall of Graffiti of Graffitis! I finished this yesterday and had so much fun staring at the wall. Most people will think it weird that I’m making wall art out of graffiti pictures while listening to Hawaiian music. I’m so alien. haha.

Here are some quotes to celebrate 11/11/11:

“The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination”- Carl Rogers

“It is much easier to walk along prescribed paths than to blaze our own trail”- Christopher Gerg

“It is in the quiet crucible of your personal private sufferings that your noblest dreams are born & God’s greatest gifts are given in compensation for what you’ve been through”- Wintley Phipps

I can attest to the last quote quite while, after July 29th, I stumbled through hills of uncertainty, not seeing, fumbling through the dark, wondering when I would get to my promised land. Little did I know that the promise land was “the now”, “the here” and “the who…whoever was in my life that moment”. After lots of wrestling with God, fighting opposition, and experiencing “the now” in Australia- I came back and went through another storm. This storm was the fear of not having enough.

Now I know that I had to battle every system that our society had built and socialized us to believe to “CREATE SOMETHING ALTOGETHER NEW”. I started meeting people and reading books that encouraged me to go on. I was forging a way, a new path that I’m still uncertain of. In the end, my new path was simply “LIVING OUT LOUD” and “FINDING FREEDOM TO BE MYSELF”- including work, life, the way I prioritize relationships in life. It’s continually learning and finding ways to challenge the norm, instead of accepting what is or what has been. 

It hasn’t been easy because this process meant weeding out all the preconceived values that was basically crap, and stripping myself naked to the things that were basic and human- the need for love and the need to feel alive, to feel like I’m living OUT LOUD.

I found that:

1. I miss music a hella LOADS. So I tried out to be a choir director- next week I’m trying out again. My love for singing is being renewed and the suffering I went through has brought new strength and beauty to my voice.

2. I love getting to know people.

3. I need to see nature, to be in sunlight, to feel the elements of life.

4. Creating is NOT an option, it is living to me. Living is creating a story, each moment you are creating something new. Being creative then is just who I am, I can’t suffocate who I am.

5. If you can be still and know your worth and identity in each moment of life, no storm can bring you down. You will find peace wherever you are, however much you have, whatever chaos surrounds you.

What is one preconceived value that you still hold onto even though it is crushing the essence of who you are? (comments are welcome)

We’re creating a new world and it starts from within.

 

 

 

 

Insane Woman, Turned History Maker

I like to state my womanhood. I am a woman. I like to state it often because I embrace my womanhood.

They were, perfectly trimmed nails, manicured, perfectly waxed eyebrows, pssssttttt, seniorita, fake tanned, up-tities, gleaming lips with smack of lipgloss and perfect teeth with extra help. Fur lining their coat, fox, animal. Money blinging up and down from their toes, to their shoes, to their dresses, gleaming on their ears. Flash, choke, drown.

Drowning in luxury.

I was this ordinary woman sitting behind the booth watching as flocks and flocks of beautiful aged women walked in with their diamond rings and bags, swaying in their heels. Diamonds could not hide the wrinkles lining their eyes, their fingers, crispy and dried. I tried not to think about it, but suddenly my face froze and I zoned out.

“I can’t imagine being that woman when I’m 80 and I don’t want to be. If all our lives were…were about our outward appearance, and when I’m 70 I have perfect manicures, tattooed eyebrows, money to flood a nation….yet, no purpose, no meaning, no goals and passion…and all I did was get pedicures and have little lunch parties? and attend fundraisers (oh God bless fundraisers, without money we wouldn’t be able to fund many non-profits), but just in that moment, I zoned out and thought this…

I don’t want to be that, whatever that is.”

When I’m 70, I don’t want to spend money on all that. I want to have built orphanages with the money that could have gone to fox animal furs, diamonds, houses, rings…I want to have rescued kids from brothels, women from abuse, men from abuse…I want to have done something greater than just prove that ‘I made a lot of money in this lifetime’.

Later today, I bumped into several Hyatt hotel housekeepers. “I gotta go home now, and tomorrow I come again”- said this one cleaning person. I thought to myself, “to have the discipline and faithfulness to keep going even though you are doing mindless work…that is perseverance”. He helped me get my load off the elevator.

Suddenly, I was struck with a paradox. These well manicured, perfectly curled haired of a women would probably not raise a hand to help an ordinary woman unloading stuff off an elevator….but an ordinary, probably struggling housekeeper would find it easy to serve another human being. I was so struck with an epiphany, I almost zoned out again.

Having struggled for the past month, getting criticism about my choice of becoming a self-starter, shit from people I thought I trusted, eating ramen some days, denying my boba cravings, getting criticism from my buyers, etc….and just getting inundated with shit. I saw many things clearly.

It’s funny how we need to be drowned in dung, criticisms, hardships – to see life ever SO FREAKEN CLEARLY. 

I am so grateful for the hardships and tears I went through in the past month. So grateful. There were times I found myself doubting the inkling of my identity, times I cried while walking in downtown LA, calling a friend quick- “I’m in shit, can we talk?”.

Times I thought to myself, “what is the very purpose for which I’m created”.

Things have started to turn around, my 12 readers that do read my blog posts. Perseverance and prayers have paid off. Fate has claimed its way in my destiny. I’m victorious in my little, finding hope in the essence of love. I met people who reminded me of who I am…people who grabbed a hold of my vulnerable heart and whispered encouragement, spoke into it my deepest desires, and pushed me to get up even when blood was dripping out of my nose, my knees were wounded by rocks, back with layers of scabs, head almost insane from hunger and insanity, confusion at times. Some were close friends, some were new friends, but all were in tune with the desires of my soul. Rather than mock me for my insanity, which I am insane 99.9% of the time (1% of the time I’m sane when I listen to naysayers), they joined my insanity and became my risk-taking comrades.

We will destroy the system of conformity and complacency. We will form new beauty and create a society based on love, not profit. We will allow uniqueness to flourish and romance in the specialty of being an individual, yet conspire in being always together in our insanity. We will let the moment take us by the hand, feet with music, not by logic.

Because who said life was logical? In fact, some of the greatest history makers were insane in their own time.

Yes, if you didn’t know – you are reading a history makers’ blog.

It’s a big, huge, claim to make- maybe even a little narcissistic, but I’ve been through too much crap to give up making sense of this beautiful life. I claim what I claim because I know this is true.

What about you?

From the top of a hotel I stayed in Taiwan last year for a night. It was the best solid alone time I ever got.

Intuition told me this photo represents what I’m talking about- you can do the analyzing.