What Are Eyebrows For?

Bea asked me this question last night, as she was looking up at me while digging into her cheeseburger, and it confounded me no end.

I just Google-searched for an answer and I was led to this site's answer--

Scientists aren't entirely sure why we kept this hair, but they have a pretty good guess. We know that eyebrows help keep moisture out of our eyes when we sweat or walk around in the rain. The arch shape diverts the rain or sweat around to the sides of our face, keeping our eyes relatively dry. The most obvious advantage of this is that it lets us see clearly when we're sweating a lot or out in the rain. Without eyebrows, getting around in these conditions is a little more difficult. The shape of your brow itself diverts a certain amount of moisture, but eyebrows make a significant difference in your ability to see. Diverting the sweat away is also good because the salt in sweat irritates the eyes, making them sting a little.

There are a number of ways these qualities might have helped early man survive. Being able to see more clearly in the rain could certainly help you find shelter, and there are several circumstances when keeping the sweat out of your eyes could save your life. If you were trying to outrun a predator, for example, it's a good bet there would be a lot sweat running down your face. If all that sweat flowed right down into your eyes, you wouldn't be able to see that well, and your eyes would be irritated, which would certainly impair your ability to escape! Because of this slight survival advantage, nature would most likely select for humans with eyebrows over humans without eyebrows.

hmmm... interesting answers. i see a link below it on the question: "Why is the hair on your arm short but the hair on your head long?"

: D : D : D

thank God for the Internet!!!

everyday choices

as of last night, i was still trying to convince little Bea, who's turning 6 tomorrow, that instead of the Palmas del Mar Beach Club weekend treat we'll have for her birthday, we'll have an overnight hotel stay and circus show treat in Iloilo sometime in the first week of July, when i'm supposed to bring them all to the Iloilo regional office of the Dept. of Foreign Affairs to present them for their passports anyway.

Bea mainly doesn't want to go because her memories of Iloilo on our way to and back from Boracay last year was that it was the place where she started throwing up as we traveled by boat, then by van, then by boat again.

***

yesterday, the maid shared with me our weekend laundrywoman's problem with her ten(or eleven?)-year-old grandchild who has run away from home.

our laundrywoman was widowed around two years ago, but is now left with more burdens, caring for her grandchildren who have been neglected by their parents. her daughter, who married a drug addict, has left their home to live with a much older widower and is now pregnant by him. the daughter's four very young children, are left alone at home with their abusive father, and so our laundrywoman has decided to take the two younger girls in even as she keeps watch over the two older boys. the girls go to the local public school while the boys have stopped going to school.

last week, the eldest boy ran away because our laundrywoman's other married daughter, the boy's aunt, scolded the boy for sleeping off instead of running errands for her. apparently, the boy talked back and the aunt not only verbally, but even physically lashed him. so the boy ran away.

their neighbors say that they have found the boy at our nearby Libertad Market, begging for alms and sleeping on the sidewalks, but who would quickly run away when he saw them coming. one neighbor caught up with him and asked him to come home with her but he refused. he said he'd rather live on the streets than continue being whipped at home.

i felt sorry for the boy, and his grandmother. i actually grew up in Libertad Market, because we had a store there, and we lived on the mezzanine floor. i saw and heard all the horror stories of street life and how our other market childhood friends easily turned prey to drugs and thievery, and later on, even prostitution.

i am glad now that we had the very strict parents we have. papa and mama refused to let us play too much with the market kids, but instead forced us to stay cooped up in the mezzanine floor reading books, or, if we came down to the store, helping out at the store, even while other kids played.

anyway, i felt heartbroken for the boy, mostly. i know what market and street life can do.

so, despite all head logic (what will it do to my budget??? what will it do to our existing easy and comfortable household set-up now???) i went ahead anyway and told the maid to tell the laundrywoman the next time she comes over, to look for her grandson in the market, and to bring him home, here, to my home with my own kids.

i said i can't promise to pay him as we actually didn't have work for him and i didn't have the extra budget too, but he has a safe, comfortable roof over his head and food to eat. in return, he can assist the maid in little everyday chores.

i also asked the maid to tell the laundrywoman to show me his last school report card. i said i will see... maybe we can help him go to school again, even at this late hour, despite my tight budget.

the kids and i have been so blessed. it's the least we can do to pass it on, to pay it forward.

still, i balk at the commitment my heart has just made for me.

it's really not about the added financial demands; i know by now, from experience, that somehow, we will all be taken care of anyway. that we will be okay.

it's more about the call to love... the call to give more of my self, my patience, my understanding, my nurturing... the challenge to pour out more... can i handle it? am i worthy? or have i just stretched my self too thin?

my head still protests, but my heart seems to be winning more now.

Heart

a good friend who's younger than i, intelligent and pretty, and who married a rich and attractive young businessman commented to me yesterday in what seemed to me like an envious and longing tone on how i look reborn these days, in my element, making things happen in my life in ways that delight me endlessly, while she is stuck with too many things to do but ends up tired and listless and lifeless anyway.

she was talking to me, and yet, she was not talking to me... more like to herself, not knowing what to do with herself.

i kidded her about following her heart, and she said she doesn't even know where her heart is now. : (

this article i just got from Beliefnet today reminds me of our conversation yesterday; maybe i'll send it to her, maybe not (i don't want her to feel imposed on)... but there are parts (ive highlighted them) in this article that resonates deeply for me, and i guess, in many ways, this describes well where im at in my life now...

***

More Heart than Talent by Jeffery Combs (Part 2)

When stepping out of what is perceived to be comfortable, it is often uncomfortable in the beginning. These early tests are where you really get to learn and grow from adversity and to gain insights and wisdom to the causes and effects that stop "want to be success seekers". When we are being tested is typically when we are about to learn our greatest lesson.

Heart can be looked at medically through microscopes and surgery, but cannot be measured by typical eyesight. Heart is about feelings and emotions rather than thinking and contemplating. This means being outside of yourself, your head, your ego, and being inside your heart and loving the process, the evolution of change. Having heart means being able to take any ball in life and saying, "Follow me! I don't know how we are going to get there, but we are. Just give me the ball." Heart is what separates the average from the exceptional.

Heart is what separates the average from the exceptional and I have learned in life that heart beats talent every time. Show me a man or woman with heart and I'll show you a way to overcome someone else's talent. We all have talent, talent on loan from God, more talent than humanly possible. That guy or that woman has so much talent it's unbelievable. Look how much talent he or she has. They are loaded with talent. These are all statements that refer to how much potential a man or a woman may have. We all have this; it's God-given. Unfortunately, not many people really get outside their talent, instead they hide behind it and they stay in it. They stay in their ego; afraid to reach their human potential; afraid to risk and be vulnerable; afraid to become the person they really deserve to be.

Now, "deserve" is a very interesting word and it is a word that keeps many people from becoming who they really could be. What the word deserve references in Latin is "de servire" which means day of service. When you have self-esteem issues or don't feel good enough, you send a telepathic mixed message in a business situation or in life that says things such as, "Please join me, but don't follow me because I can't lead you." Or "Please reject me, because I'm not lovable." Or "Don't go out on a date with me because I wouldn't want to be on a date with me either." Or "Please send me money, but don't send me money because I'm not comfortable with it. I have an emotional resistance and I want to keep it away because I don't deserve it. I was born on the wrong side of the tracks."

This is how many people stay in their talent, afraid to take a risk. Any kind of success is going to involve risks and average people resist taking risks because they believe that they have to stay comfortable. The average person's comfort zone is really a miserable zone and you have to get uncomfortable, you have to get out of the box, you have to be moving into the present to become the person you deserve to be. This is where you're going to have to take some risks. This doesn't mean you jump off the Brooklyn Bridge on a dare, but start to take a bigger calculated risk than you've typically been comfortable with. This is when you really begin to stretch and grow and become the person that you really are. Risk is really a perception. And sometimes the biggest risk is not taking one.

Changing isn't nearly as difficult as you perceive. You already are a brilliant person, you're a masterpiece in progress, and you have the ability to design your life rather than make a living. The people who stay in their talent stay in their safety zone. They're not excelling; they're being stuck, procrastinating, using money as an excuse, and using perfection as an excuse. When your excuse becomes believable to you and you become the excuse, constant reminders of how talented you are don't help much.

Stepping Outside Your Talent

Now, let's take a look at what it's like to get out of your talent and some of the feelings that we have when we truly take this step. Being outside of your talent is the hands-free zone; it's a state of flow; it's a relaxed state of consciousness; it's playing like a child.

People ask me all the time, "How do I get into flow?" A better question is, "Why do you ever get out of it once you're in it?" I ask people to smile and laugh. When you see anyone who is laughing, they are in a state of flow. They don't have to try to be in flow.

The average person spends too much time trying to achieve, rather than just being. If you're being, you're in the moment, you're in the now and that's where you can really tap into your heart consciousness. This is the highest level of consciousness where you really attract the people, situations and opportunities that you are seeking. When you are outside of your talent, you are who you really are. You're riding a bicycle with no hands. Success becomes you and it comes to you rather than you chasing it.

Being out of your talent is when you are present; then you unleash your full potential. You begin to transmit, telepathically, your thought waves through the universe from a position of peace. It means you love who you are so you can love what you're becoming and doing. What you do becomes a game rather than a job. You develop touch, finesse, you glide, people want to touch you, be with you, become you, you become what is called a people magnet. You vibrate from a level that says, "I'm very comfortable with who I am and who I'm becoming."

***

how did i get here?

i don't exactly know, my self, about the exact formula; i guess the formula is different for each human being... but a good starting point was following my heart-- coming to a place in my life where intellect was not working for me anymore, neither was talent, or beauty; in fact, they were working against me, causing me to let my self be used (abused?!) and detoured into so many actitivites and projects and dreams that were not really mine, that did not really resonate with me deep down... so there was nothing left except to follow my heart at last, to just let go and take the wild bungee-jump and rollercoaster journey of following my heart, no matter what.

that's when life happened.

that's how Life finally happened.

small pockets of freedom

im relishing the three hours i get to spend this morning, alone, at home, doing my stuff.

the kids are all in school, my classes start on tuesday yet, and i am just here on the pc, doing business stuff for The Butterfly Source, as well as collaborating online with a colleague on our peace journalism project, with my Jody Sachse meditation music in the background.

i can just imagine how this will be a regular thing for me by next year, when i'd have my one year's leave of absence from the university in full effect already, and i'll be doing more of this, just working from home, alone, and being more creative and productive!!!

thank You, God, for times like these.

morning thoughts

i am still trying to make sense of recent experiences here...

first there was this person, who messaged me because he was reading one of my other blogs, Magical Mind.... the connection was instant and intense, we argued on our first chat! : O but then, we were also pretty much from opposite perspectives about certain things, and the topics ranged from geopolitics to religion and mysticism... then, as suddenly as it started, after around a week of dancing around each other, it ended as abruptly too.

i am still a bit disturbed, though, of one comment he made during an argument-- how i was confrontational, can teach but can never learn. that is the first time somebody has accused me of that, and it bothers me.

am i, really? or was he just coming from an angry world of his own, and projected all of those things to me?

: ( : ( : (

***

then there's the recent drama at a project i was working with, where somebody was spreading gossip around a supposed extra-marital affair of some colleagues we were working with...

if indeed the affair is true, it was bad enough. for the people involved and for the project. "bad" not because im judging them but "bad" because i can feel the pain involved, and i see the energies being misdirected and unfocused... but finding out from different people how they learned of the news, and tracing it to this one person was worse.

i sat down with her and confronted her about it. she cried and i heard her out. but i remained firm in my trying to emphasize to her that spreading gossip like that doesn't do anyone any good in the end. she seemed to get the point ( i hope) and my gentle way of allowing her to redeem her self somehow was to hear her out, even as she was telling me of seemingly unrelated things, like her own life struggles, and about all the other troubles involved in the project we're working on... sigh.

***

then, last night, i had dinner out with a research team i was a part of, to celebrate the completion of our research project.

it was a good night out, with good food, and good company. but i didn't particularly like the conversation, though. more complaining about the work place, and mulling over intrigues-of-the-month.... another sigh.

after the dinner, i brought my closest friend in the team home in my car, as her home was my way, but the farthest out. in the car, my friend revealed to me another intrigue at work involving one of our team members too, something very private but which has somehow gotten the rumor mills spreading, and which eventually got to our top admin. the bottomline is, our other friend doesn't know that she might be axed for it. today.

: ( : ( : (

***

my thoughts and feelings are still jumbled about these, but one thing is clear to me though... how blessed i am for the life i have now, with my children and my work and my passions.

these have only served to further emphasize to me how much of a broken world it still is out there; these last months, i seemed to have forgotten that, wrapped up in my own happy and safe little bubble of love and joy and dreams and faith and passion that i have, with God's Grace, somehow managed to create out of my own life.

***

what is the Universe trying to tell me with all these recent experiences? Conversations with God says that the experiences and people you attract into your life serve to teach you something, to point out to you something, and/or to mirror to you something about your own life, too. and it is your call now to decide how to respond to these experiences and people, with how you decide to act and react towards them... which is your statement of Who You Are.

what am i being called to do, to respond to? so far, i have responded in the best way i could, listening to the stories (when i would really rather not like to fuel gossip) but trying to direct it towards some new thought about the stories, like how hurting the people involved must be, how maybe we ought to be kinder and non-judgmental about people...

why am feeling so... violated... tarnished... from all these recent experiences? i think i responded well enough, according to my ideals and convictions, but i still feel somehow guilty, for being party to the experiences in some way.... why???