Alain de Botton plans temples for atheists De Botton has begun working on the first Temple for Atheists. Designed by Tom Greenall Architects, this will be a huge black tower nestled among the office buildings in the City of London. Measuring 46 meters in all, the tower represents the age of the earth, with each centimetre equating to 1 million years and with, at the tower’s base, a tiny band of gold a mere millimetre thick standing for mankind’s time on earth. The Temple is dedicated to the idea of perspective, which is something we’re prone to lose in the midst of our busy modern lives.

Alain de Botton plans temples for atheists

De Botton has begun working on the first Temple for Atheists. Designed by Tom Greenall Architects, this will be a huge black tower nestled among the office buildings in the City of London. Measuring 46 meters in all, the tower represents the age of the earth, with each centimetre equating to 1 million years and with, at the tower’s base, a tiny band of gold a mere millimetre thick standing for mankind’s time on earth. The Temple is dedicated to the idea of perspective, which is something we’re prone to lose in the midst of our busy modern lives.

(Source: coryjohnny, via fuckyeahhappy)

(Source: furfreela, via runningthroughtheworld)

oliphillips:

Life is Beautiful

by Farhad Moshiri

The pursuit of individual happiness has been acknowledged as a universal right. Yet the existing social conditions make the individual feel powerless. He lives in the contradiction between what he is and what he would like to be. Either he then becomes fully conscious of the contradiction and its causes, and so joins the political struggle for a full democracy which entails, amongst other things, the overthrow of capitalism; or else he lives, continually subject to an envy which compounded with his sense of powerlessness dissolves into recurrent day-dreams.
John Berger, “Ways of Seeing” (pg 148)

(Source: thestarlethaze, via runningthroughtheworld)

I’ll miss this place.

I’ll miss this place.

It’s amazing how you can get so far from where you’d planned, and yet find it was exactly where you needed to be.
Sarah Dessen (via girlwithoutwings)

(Source: quote-book)

The obligatory post to conclude the year past

Being entirely honest with myself was never going to be easy. I knew that. But I also knew that it had to be done - right from the start. At the beginning of 2011, I promised myself that it was time to let go of commitments that I was starting to get disillusioned by. And so I did. 2009 and 2010 were amazing because of all the wonderful experiences that I had and the people around me. But 2011 is precious in its own way. Some people thrive on new experiences and connecting with new people - I thought I was too, but 2011 has made me realised what truly motivates me, and everything that I used to love doing is coming back to me now. Bit by bit. And I think I’m a lot more happier now too.

Looking forward, 2012 will be a major milestone. I really can’t wait. The next 365 days contain my last service-learning trip before I start work, my final semester in university, graduation, the beginning of my career, the obligatory first-pay dinners, and a whole new world. And I’m ready for it.

So I’ll be flying off to Laos on Christmas evening, and I’ll be spending the last day of 2011 and the first day of 2012 in a village in northern Laos. What a great way to start off the new year. Will be back in a couple of weeks!

The official trailer of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

How gorgeous is that?! I. REALLY. CAN’T. WAIT.

I feel like people get lost when they think of happiness as a destination. We’re always thinking that someday we’ll be happy. You know, we’ll get that car or that job or that person in our lives that fixes everything. But happiness is a mood and a condition, it’s not a destination. It’s like being tired or hungry; it’s not permanent, it comes and goes, and that’s okay. And I feel like if people thought of it that way, they’d find happiness a lot more often.
One Tree Hill | carp3—diem (via quote-book)