First Impression: Hwayugi (A Korean Odyssey)

The cat that watches TV

What a show to end 2017! I’m loving every 80+ minutes of the debut ep.

Main cast:

• Cha Seung-won (from You’re All Surrounded) as Woo Hwi-chul. The Bull Demon King. In the original folklore, he is both Wukong’s friend and nemesis. In Hwayugi, he is the long suffering frenemy of Oh-gong’s.
• Lee Seung-gi (from You’re All Surrounded) as Son Oh-gong. The deposed Monkey God who is “serving time” on Earth. He is released by Sun-mi, and promised in return to come to her aid — as long as she calls out his name (which he removed from her memories).
• Oh Yeon-su (from Come Back, Mister) as Jin Sun-mi. A successful real estate businesswoman who uses her “talent” to see spirits in her professional field.

Synopsis:

25 years ago, Sun-mi (a girl who can see spirits) was tricked by Hwi-chul to release…

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30 Days of Brené Brown — Day 6: #vulnerability #TMS #courage #Sarno #suffering #innovation

Grass Oil by Molly Field

Welcome to Day 6 of “30 Days of Brené Brown” wherein I’m relating, on my blog here, to each quote as determined by Goodreads.

Here is today’s quote:

 Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.
― Brené Brown

Today, I’m taking a risk of vulnerability to tell you about the physical pain we create in ourselves without knowing it.

Any volunteers? Oh. Me. Ok.

Never in my life have two people (until now), whose clinical work I admire, crossed jet trails: Dr. John Sarno’s and Brené Brown’s. Brown writes compulsively about vulnerability, emotional freedom, courage and the harm of perfectionism. Sarno just puts it all in a different framework:

from http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/TMS_Personality_Traits – click on link for the complete online list

That chart. That was basically my FBI profile. I’ve dialed way back on my people pleasing, legalistic and perfectionism stuff. Check out that chart… if you see yourself…

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Discipline Found: How Yoga Looks Like a Workout, but Actually is a Game Changer

Work in progress…

What to Do When You’ve Got a Case of the Yoga Blahs…

In Defense of Bikram Yoga

Yes, yes, yes!!!

When Grace is not so Amazing

Grace + Truth

Well Bono’s words about Karma and Grace have proved to be a bit popular – so far over 170,000+ people have shared it on facebook.  But what is it about Bono’s words that so connected with people?

The power of grace

Some of it relates to the interest in what celebrities say.  Some of it is due the arresting combination of raw language and passionate conviction. But a key part is the subject matter itself: because the grace is at the heart of Christianity and Bono’s words captured something visceral and urgent about its relevance and power.

Ethical problems

And yet…doesn’t grace present ethical problems?  Isn’t Karma a lot more fair: you get what you deserve. Doesn’t all this talk of grace give people a free licence to do whatever they want?  If people are simply forgiven by unearned grace, how do we make sense of the Bible’s consistent message about loving your…

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Devon, Balcombe and Greenbelt: a fracking good summer – by Hannah Martin

Grace + Truth

I have just had a great summer.

From a youth camp in Devon, to the anti-fracking protest camp at Balcombe and then onto the Greenbelt festival I participated in three very different communities.  It wasn’t a relaxing holiday, more the body-aching-wood-smoke-smelling-when-will-I-see-hot-water-again kind.

But I think I was hoping to be uncomfortable.  I wanted to be in that place where I am moved, where the fire in my blood about the state of the world is roused and my sense awakened.  It is so easy to lose that in day to day life.  Even when we wake to a job we really believe in, it’s easy to feel disconnected, to pay more attention to the ache of tiredness, than the pang of injustice.

It was not your usual summer holiday.  And this is what I learnt…

 Community is eating together

Lee Abbey is a Christian community in Devon which hosts…

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Me, My Selfie and I – by Hannah Martin

Grace + Truth

In the last couple of weeks the #NoMakeupSelfie has gone viral. Thousands of women have taken pictures of themselves without any makeup and posted them on Facebook, then nominating their friends to do the same.

The craze quickly became an incredibly successful fundraising campaign as people also donated to Cancer Research, raising to date over £8 million.

Relationship with make-up

The whole thing has made me reflect on my own relationship with makeup.

There was a time a few years ago when I pretty much stopped wearing it altogether.  I was feeling particularly healthy at the time, following a military style fitness regime. I was loving the feeling that I could run from a wild boar and jump over a fence if I needed to.  I felt strong and my body felt strong too – Hunger Games strong.

So I stopped wearing makeup for a while but I remember my mum…

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Bono on the difference between Grace and Karma

Grace + Truth

“It’s a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the Universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma…

You see, at the centre of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics – in physical laws – every action is met by an equal or opposite one.  Its clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe.  I’m absolutely sure of it.

And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that “As you reap, so will you sow” stuff.  Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news…

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The Islander and the Gardeners