TheLB – Page 2 – TheLucaBonafede

Why do we remember the past but not the future? Stephen W. Hawking

“Why do we remember the past but not the future?” was just one of the many questions raised by the author about life and time. I found myself reflecting for a long time about this life’s questions… and yes, that was something memorable.

About a year and a half ago I ended up buying a used book at the book fest in Brisbane – Australia, organized by Lifeline. I bought it for a few dollars, it was the 1991’s re-print and judging by its condition it was never read but kept somewhere humid. I bought it because I knew the title, “A Brief History Of Time” by Stephen W.Hawking, however, I knew it was a hard read.

A couple of weeks later I was reading another book by Sir Richard Branson where he mentions this book saying that he knew just one person who fulfilled the challenge to finish this masterpiece that talks about everything from the Big Bang to the black holes. I think that was the real reason behind why I decided to bring it with me on my -over 6000 Km road trip- around Australia. But guess what? I didn’t even begin it!

The weeks past by and the months too… until the 14th March 2018, the news of author’s death shocked the world. I said: “that’s the sign! I need to read it!”. A couple of more months past by till I finally decided to start this book, with a single promise to my self – that it would be a serious reading, and not a recreational one – I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I stared at the sky since the beginning of it…

I took my time, 47 days to finish a 200 pages book, but it was worth. Sometimes I was too overwhelmed to proceed or simply too tired to read it, so I read 5 books on the side, and whenever I was ready I came back to it.

I will admit, I didn’t understand everything I read nor I would be able to explain all those theories, but I love the feeling I had throughout the reading and the questions about the universe that I now have too.

Chapter 9, talks widely about Time and its arrow, and the question: “why do we remember the past but not the future?” was a very smart doubt. Many people, probably the majority, would say that it’s because the “future” hasn’t happened yet… but that’s not the way I interpreted it. I felt I see something more, way deeper than just that…

According to what is explained, everything starts in a situation of a high order, but everything that happens straight after the beginning tends to a high level of disorder, compared to the initial state, going towards the famous Murphy’s law – things always tend to go wrong –

A couple of days later I was watching a beach volley match in the very spot where I used to work many years ago prior to my first departure to live overseas. I stood there looking interested towards the match but my mind was actually traveling miles away to all the places I have been, meeting all the people I have met, and doing all the things I have done. It all lasted a few seconds, a short period of time that made me realized that everything I did, all the people I met, all the place I visited but mostly all the decisions I took led me to that beach volley match. Was I happy to be there? Was I with the right people? Was I meant to be there watching? Was I better off somewhere else? All those questions didn’t really matter at that time, just the certainty that the sum of my decisions (right or wrong) took me right where I was and shaped me how I was in that very instant.

I believe that we can’t remember the future simply because we are either destroying it or creating it with our own decision at this very moment…

That’s it, it took me a book about the universe and its black holes to realize something so simple and so closed to me. Our future is in our hands. Let’s make it extraordinary. Create an Extraordinary Life.

TheLB

“A Brief History Of Time” by Stephen W. Hawking. Re-print 1991. TheLB – Amsterdam, The Netherlands🇳🇱 2020

^{Thank you so much for reading – or merely looking at -my work.}

^{And huge thanks to those of you who continue to recommend it to family, friends, and coworkers.}

^{Every content creator continually seeks to expand their audience, and you are vital in helping me to grow mine. I sincerely appreciate it!}

^{#LiveanExtraordinaryLife✨}

^{With gratitude, TheLucaBonafed}^e

8 March 2019

No Challenge – No Change. Greg Plitt’s Motivation

“If your day doesn’t challenge you… don’t ever expect to be changed by it.” ~ Greg Plitt 1977 – 2015 ~

One of the many definitions of the word challenge is: ” a task or situation that tests someone’s abilities “. Everybody looks for some changes, it doesn’t matter how much we hate to change; we want a better life, we search for more happiness, we wish for a satisfactory income and the list grows to infinity (or at least mine). What we usually hope for it is to receive those improvements without any painful action, avoiding challenges and get everything “ready to go”.

As Greg Plitt said, if we can’t see any adversity in our days we cannot expect any sort of improvement out of them!

I do agree with Greg Plitt’s words, simply because I cannot recall any important improvement in my life that wasn’t the consequence of some difficult period where I was, in some way, challenging myself.

How about you? Have you ever noticed an important change in your life which occurred straight after have been challenged by life?

TheLB

Lifting area, Gold’s gym Omotesando. TheLB – Tokyo, Japan 🇯🇵 2013

^{Thank you so much for reading – or merely looking at -my work.}

^{And huge thanks to those of you who continue to recommend it to family, friends, and coworkers.}

^{Every content creator continually seeks to expand their audience, and you are vital in helping me to grow mine. I sincerely appreciate it!}

^{#LiveanExtraordinaryLife}

^{With gratitude, TheLucaBonafed}^e

8 March 2019

Are Kazakh people welcoming? How to surprise your guest.

I love to organize surprises for people important to me, but I also love to be surprised, I really do.

However, unfortunately, no many friends, family members, or girlfriends managed to do so… I always discovered the next surprises just before the event was about to happen; like a surprise bday party at my gym, where I acted like I didn’t know it. Where everybody was happy, but I wasn’t surprised

The times when people surprised me, can be count on my fingers, but when they do, I remember it forever!

So, let me tell you about the last time someone managed to surprise me, without me seeing it coming.

It was April 2016, during my bday’s trip to Kazahkastan I flew from the old capital Almaty to a smaller city on the Caspian Sea called Aktau.

Why did I go there? Well, back in 2014 I was partying in the famous LKF (Lan Kwai Fong) in Hong Kong and as much as I usually avoid to ask people’s nationality, that time, when I saw those pretty girls way different from any other women I’ve ever had met before, I couldn’t help but ask them where they were coming from.

The answer was “Kazakhstan“, I spent some time with them, and it was a lot of fun, so I promised them that one day, I would have gone to visit them to their hometown Aktau, Kazakhstan.

Back to the story, I landed in Aktau, a little domestic airport early evening, pitch dark outside, and very cold (for someone who was in Thailand a week earlier).

I knew I was going to meet my friends during my stay, but they told me that it was impossible for them to meet me on my first night, so I just got my luggage and headed to the door just after the carrousel’s area.

In Kazakhstan, like in many other countries, there are countless “free-lance drivers” who try to take people to the city for a fee and me, being the only foreigner there who wasn’t able to speak Kazakh or Russian… I was, as you can imagine, the most wanted.

Nearly helpless, I was making my way through the crowd, where all those people were trying to talk to me or grab my arm to get their attention. The felling wasn’t great, but suddenly, something happened. A softer, but more confident hand grabbed my left arm pulling me in her direction, I tried to “escape” from it until I heard a female voice saying “Luca! It’s me!”.

WOW, I didn’t expect it at all! Especially for the way it happened. One second I was there, looking around trying to find some reliable person who could have taken me to my hotel without ripping me off, and one second later, I was there with the only friend I had (before my trip) in the country. By the way, her name is Roza

.

She organized a car for us to take me to my hotel and after the check-in, she took me to a nice restaurant by the sea where we celebrated my belated25th birthday.

I was, and I am extremely grateful for the warm welcome I received in Aktau and for the surprise of my arrival.

Roza was the best Kazakh host I could ever have, besides the time in Aktau, she also managed to organize another host for me in the capital Astana a couple of days later, making my stay and experience memorable.

As you may have noticed, the selfie I took at the airport indeed shows you how happy she made me feel. And to these days, it still one of the most genuine smiles I ever had.

Next time you feel lazy to organize something special for someone, just remember that whatever you are planning may truly change their entire perspective about the experience they are having and on top of that, the way they care about you.

And if your relative, partner or friend is someone like me, well… just try a bit harder