| About The Origin Of Bonsai |
| by: Patrick Desnoyers |
| Miniature trees are originally rooted in the mountains of China, where only a specific species of plants and trees grow. Because of its hostile weather conditions, the trees were often stunted and contorted. The strong mountain winds also left these trees twisted in ice and the cold. Essentially, it is nature that has rendered the inspiration for the art of potting trees as students of the art do their best to mimic what nature has created. By “training” trees through specialized means of pruning and shaping them to a desired height and structure, these students of the art were able to recreate the sample nature has provided.Bonsai, a Japanese term for “miniature potted trees”, actually originated from the Chinese. Called “pensai” in China, these miniature trees first appeared in artworks and poems in this Asian country in 200 B.C. Early own, the mini-tree, or rather, the work of art, has already become a symbol of harmony and tranquility. Chinese Monks and the nobles or upper class, who appreciated the beauty and significance of plants and trees or nature in general, cultivated mini-landscapes of mountains, rivers and little tree houses placed on big plates. Sometime in the 15th or 16th century, this artistic hobby grew among the people of Southeast China. Many of them have become master designers and experts of the art of tree potting. What was first known as a hobby for Chinese artists, monks and nobles in those days became a significant part of modern day Japanese tradition.
How this came to Japan was made possible through the officials of the Japanese government, who often come to China at the height of the Tang Dynasty and have brought the art back home. During the Kamakura period, while Zen Buddhism was introduced in Japan, these Zen masters also introduced the hobby of tree potting to its people. As a result, it became widely popular among the wealthy class (daimyos or feudal lords), the merchants and even the Samurais. In addition to this, daimyos even sought pottery masters on their employ, to make one of kind pots for their miniature plants. Initially popular among the Japanese priests, the ruling class and those on the upper hierarchy, Bonsai eventually reached popularity with the middle class. As Japanese culture and their way of living dictates it, where the Japanese have always believed in keeping a harmonious relationship with their surroundings as beneficial, miniature gardening became one of Japan’s favorite pastimes. The fact that these potted trees took up just a small space inside the house was also compatible with how the Japanese lived. It was during these times too, that the word “bonsai” was coined. Today, the art of Bonsai is still practiced in China. It is characteristically different from the Japanese versions as they are somewhat bigger than the popular Japanese Bonsai. And while thinking of potted trees, one easily attributes this to Japan, the hobby/art form appeals not only to the people of the East today, but students and enthusiasts all over the world have also become devotees to the art of tree potting. |
| About the Author |
| Patrick Desnoyers
Avid full time hobby bonsai grower. As been practicing bonsai and gardening for more then 8 years. Owner of http://www.mishobonsai.com, a website with ressource for bonsai seeds and tree seeds. |
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The Ultimate Keys to Success!
| The Ultimate Keys to Success! |
| by: Cedric Licuanan |
| There are only 4 steps to fulfilling happiness and success.1) Specialized Education and Knowledge
The first step is to acquire specialized education, knowledge, and training in the field that you intend to succeed. LEARN TO SUCCEED. In other words, you must LEARN first, in order to SUCCEED next. Your mind and knowledge must ALWAYS grow upwards. Once we stop learning, we die mentally. Someone tells you to build a house. So what do you do? Where do you start? The mentality of an unsuccessful person might cause them to respond, ‘I can’t build a house, I’ve never done it before, and I don’t know how.’ However, the mentality of a successful person will cause them to respond, ‘How can I build this house? Although I’ve never done it before, where can I start learning how?’ It all boils down to an extremely powerful 3-word question: ‘HOW CAN I?’ Basically, a successful person will find a way to ‘Figure it out.’ He or she will do what it takes to acquire the specialized education and knowledge used in the house building and construction industry, and figure out, ‘How can I?’ The successful person will also leverage his or her time by tapping into the knowledge of other successful people in the industry, hopefully experts in the house construction field. They say, ‘No man is an island’, or ‘Two heads are better than one.’ As the successful person works on acquiring the assistance of other successful people, the otherwise daunting task of building and constructing a house is well on its way, while the unsuccessful person didn’t even get the task off the ground. Quite a difference that three-word question makes, doesn’t it? Not ‘I CAN’T!’, but instead ‘HOW CAN I?’ ‘Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.’ -W. B. Yeats ‘The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.’ – B.B. King ‘Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.’ – Malcolm Forbes 2) Specific Goals The second step is to commit to specific, attainable, time-bound goals. As soon as you commit to your goals, it is important to simply share your goals with a supportive loved one. Everybody talks about goals, and goal setting. There is an incredible amount of material on the purpose and reasoning for setting goals. There is just a tremendous amount of information available about goals, but the most important ideas that stand are as follows: ‘ SMART’ Specific: Your goals must not be too general, and broad. Make your goals laser targeted and targeted. Measurable: Your goals should be able to be benchmarked and calculated. Attainable: Your goals should be obtainable and achievable within reason. Reasonable: Your goals should be appropriate and consistent with the future that you have planned. Time-Bound: Your goals should have a deadline – not just ‘whenever I feel like it’. You MUST have a burning desire in order to successfully attain your goals. Too many people have shortchanged themselves and their lives by setting goals for themselves, and not following through with those goals. That ‘burning desire’ does not seem to exist for certain goals that we set in our lives, heck I’m guilty of that same sin! However, with a strong burning desire, anybody could accomplish any goal that they set their mind’s to. No more excuses! ‘If it has to be, it is up to me’. You have to take ownership and responsibility for your life. You have to stop the Blame Game. The two main obstacles to setting goals is your personal Fear and Doubt. You may fear that you may fail, and therefore doubt that you could overcome these obstacles towards success. F.E.A.R. = False Evidence Appearing Real. Doubt is the EXACT opposite of faith. Avoid these 2 obstacles AT ALL COSTS! Write down your Goals on Paper! ‘I will…..’ Always have your SMACT goals written down, easily viewable every single day. Review them first thing in the morning, during the day, and finally right before you go to bed. Review your goals daily! ‘Repetition is the Mother of Skill’. The repetition that gets accomplished when you focus on your goals every single day is incredibly powerful. Use Visualization! Always close your eyes and picture yourself actually achieving your goals. Picture the reward that you will receive as well as do everything that you can to pretend to ‘feel’ that incredible sense of accomplishment. Try to mentally connect that feeling with a sense of accomplishment of the past. ‘What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.’ -Zig Ziglar ‘When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing — then we truly live life.’ -Greg Anderson ‘You control your future, your destiny. What you think about comes about. By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be.’ -Mark Victor Hansen 3) Focused Persistent Planned Action The third step is to set up an action plan with FOCUSED PERSISTENT ACTION towards your goals. ‘Plan your work, and then work your plan’. Start out with baby steps at first, then work your way up to large strides. Everyone starts somewhere! The single most characteristic that is DIRECTLY related to success is Persistence. The ability to continue moving forward regardless of the obstacles placed in front of you is the essence of the characteristic of Persistence. Every person has a limit to how much resistance they could handle before giving up, and the main difference between the successful and the unsuccessful is the amount of resistance that a person is willing to endure. If Persistence is the number one action taken towards extreme success, the unfortunate action of giving up too quickly is the number one reason for dramatic failure. For example, imagine yourself taking part in a long-distance run in your city. At the very first sign of fatigue, you have 2 simple decisions: 1) You give up and stop now 2) You persist and continue forward. If you chose the first decision…..well, there’s not much to be said about this first decision. If you did not finish the race, then unfortunately you have to chalk this one up as a failure. However, if you chose the second decision, your chances for success just dramatically increased. MA=MR MASSIVE ACTION = MASSIVE RESULTS ‘The race goes not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running.’ -Anonymous ‘Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.’ -Dale Carnegie ‘Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.’ -Thomas Alva Edison 4) Excellence The final step is to do what you do extremely WELL. If you are going invest the time and effort taking action towards your goals, you might as well try to be good at what you do. Heck, why not become an expert at it also? When a person stands out in the crowd as well-known ‘expert’, AMAZING things happen in their lives! Being able to excel at something is usually due to either progressive repetition, or pure talent. When a person starts to succeeding in business, she notices that if all she did was focus on the characteristic of Excellence, she would succeed indefinitely. Whenever she found herself having some down time: Waiting in line, waiting for the movie to start, commercial breaks on TV, etc. She would simply take out my wallet and read this document. This tiny act would literally take only 20 seconds, but it helped her TREMENDOUSLY. When your brain and mind gets exposed to positive messages repetitively, eventually the message sinks in. You want to have this ‘Excellence Mindset’ in all that you do. You want to be able to be able to excel and succeed in all the tasks of a successful person. Become an Expert It is VERY important to ‘become the Expert’ in your particular industry. You want to be able set up a reputation for yourself as the ‘go to’ person. In other words, other people in your chosen industry always seem to turn to you with their questions and concerns, etc. ‘Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise; risking more than others think is safe. Dreaming more than others think is practical and expecting more than others think is possible.’ -Anonymous ‘Excellence is never an accident: it is the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, skillful execution and the vision to see obstacles as opportunities.’ -Unkown ‘Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.’ -Pat Riley In Summary, 1) Do everything you can to attain the specialized education and knowledge in your field 2) Set specific goals and timelines 3) Put your goals and plans into PERSISTENT ACTION and finally 4) Do what you can to EXCEL in your activities! Utilize the 4 Ultimate Keys to Success in ALL your endeavors, and get ready for an incredible ride in the months and years ahead! |
| About the Author |
| Cedric Licuanan is a thriving Chicago-Based Internet Marketer. He has focused on helping people achieve what they want out of life and currently maintains several success-driven websites.
Learn How to Drive Massive Amounts of Targeted Traffic to Your Website! http://www.DynamicOnlineSuccess.com http://www.DynamicWealthNow.net |
The Importance of Clothing Donations
| The Importance of Clothing Donations |
| by: Morgan Hamilton |
| There are many ways to donate used clothings to charitable organizations so you can actually make a profound improvement on some individuals well-being. The United Way, the Salvation Army, and Goodwill are the leading organizations that specialize in donating clothing for the needy, so that you can let yourself up of clothes that you no longer were but can they used to to help others.These organizations are designed to make it quite convenient for you to donate your clothing, and you also get the added benefit of being able to ride out who donated clothing as a tax deduction. Of course, the tax deductions are very small, so maybe you who don’t even care about the few measly dollars that you get. Certainly, that’s up to you.
Clothing donations for me go a little bit differently than the average American. I live in Berkeley, California, where there are many things called free boxes available for public use. The paybacks is a container that was created exclusively for people to put items in when I want to make a donation. But as it turns out to, it is used almost exclusively for clothing. Then, people in the neighborhood can come by the free box anytime they want and pick through it to choose which clothing donations they would like to take for themselves, of course with the stipulation that they actually need them. In many neighborhoods, particularly the ones with lots of homeless students, homeless people, or both, you can even put to close out on the curb and be picked up there. People will stop by and grab whatever they need, and sometimes the clothes are snapped up in minutes, and if the clothing is of good quality and the least bit stylish, well that’s all the better isn’t it? very little will go to waste. I still believe the best place to drop off clothing donations is Good will or the Salvation Army. They are the established in purveyors of such needs and is well known that they are the distributors that people are well aware. Thrift stores are becoming increasingly more popular these days for whatever reasons and these non-profit organizations have the wherewithal to use almost all of the donated clothing that they receive, since there’s such a great need, it’s a really good possibility that the clothes will be used. Of course, sometimes it is best to put your clothing donations in a free box. After all, the free box is free – and don’t forget that in many cases they really are utilized by those who are in genuine need. |
| About the Author |
| Morgan Hamilton offers expert advice and great tips regarding all aspects concerning fashion. Get the information you are seeking now by visiting http://www.theclothingcorner.com/clothing/clothing/the-importance-of-clothing-donations.html. |
