{ 2 comments }
First book read in 2012 and off to a winning start. One of my favorite restaurants in NYC is Prune. While I was researching what to give a great friend of mine as a Christmas gift I came across the founder’s biography Blood, Bones & Butter and was not wrong in picking it.
Brilliant account of an accidental chef. Gabrielle has a way of describing “bad” things in an enticing way. Her muddled way in figuring things out and the directness with which she navigates life inspired me no end. Quotes like “Be careful what you get good at doin’ ’cause you’ll be doin’ it for the rest of your life.” and “aside from an iron-clad work ethic born of an early understanding of self-reliance, I was wondering if I had anything else to offer. I was wondering if there was still time for a life of my own choosing.” Right now that line alone describes my place in the world so I guess like any book that one relates to I felt a connection in so many ways.
Sharing her opinions openly Gabrielle spends time figuring out her life and the surprising starkly different experiences of the very same family upbringing she shares with her siblings. Her ways of describing food and the unconventional path to life as a chef will remain in my thoughts for some time, a great great read.
{ 0 comments }
Thanks to @nickboraine for this heads up on Trevor Noah a South African comedian whose future movements I’d like to keep an eye on his progress……….for the 5min full video here
{ 0 comments }
As the days go by and the uncertainty remains I’m finding myself in a place of needing to learn more and more about those who’ve done big things before more. Fortunately there are many. I recently discovered Krishnamurti and something inside of me lit up.
This man travelled for 65 years, of course the anxious me loves to hear this, it’s comforting to know I’m not the only one that seems to find more than one spot in the world my home. Krishnamurti talks about belief not being religion and authority not being religion. He was certain that the hierarchical approach to life is not a peaceful solution. Rather, his understanding was around letting go of all our conditioning. “When we are no longer a hindu, a catholic or belonging to a sect our minds ask what is truly religion?”. It’s the totality of existance with no distinction between you and me. He believed that each of us must bring about our own transformation that is not dependant on outward authority of others or the inner authority of knowlege or time. It’s moment to moment in the relationship to others and to nature. Unless I fundementally change the furture will be what it is now……….seeing the truth of the simple fact. I’m reminded of Michael J. Fox’s quote;
“The purpose that you wish to find in life, like a cure you seek, is not going to fall from the sky……..I believe purpose is something for which one is responsible; it’s not just divinely assigned.”
Krishnamurti insisted that the only thing he could teach was about the nature of the mind itself and the way to freedom that was without dogma or guidelines. He distained spiritual gurus and religions of any kind, and essentially had the heart of a mystic. He believed that to stand alone, to be a light to ourselves with no outside authority. He encouraged us to question our traditions, beliefs, rituals and to notice that they hold no place in transforming our own minds. He resisted every attempt to make him an authority yet ironically he ended up becoming just what the Theosophists predicted — a great spiritual teacher, yet what he taught was radically different than expected.
For me the knowlege about myself and my culture was shattered at the apartheid museum. It was the first time I had ever really felt a physical reaction to what had been going on right next to me as I was growing up and I’d had no idea it was happening.
It may not be easy to let go of our conditioning, our traditions and our education, the inner critic all the years of learning can have a loud voice but when it results in strong internal conflict “Instead, I’m going take full responsibility of my own emotions rather than blame my external world on how I feel internally”. the courage to accept your own beauty
{ 1 comment }
Discovering projects that encourage kids to express themselves, deeply inspires me. 100cameras gives children cameras to share what they see. The prints are sold on-line and 100% of the proceeds from the purchased prints go to help the communities these children live in. Each week a child shares a story and their pictures are featured on the site.
{ 0 comments }
It kind of blows me away how much Thriving is going on these days…….is it these days or just what I’m doing these days? Who knows, what ever it is the options for us to Thrive are out there, we need only look and feel.
{ 1 comment }
While in LA I caught up with a friend I’d made in Portugal, a native Californian who feels most at home in Silver Lake and who made my heart smile as she shared her life since we last met over 2 years ago at her farewell in Lisbon. Maureen had just been with Laymah Roberta Gbowee, one of the 3 nobel peace prize winners of 2011, she encouraged me to read her blog post on the experience and sent me a video interview to watch. Boy were you right on Maureen. This interview, Leymah’s life, courage and awareness can’t help but inspire us.
I had no idea that Liberia is the “step child” of the USA, it is where the free slaves from the US fled to, even their flags is similar.
Leymah goes on to describe that the indigenous people of Liberia were welcoming of the free slaves. But like abused people everywhere they did not know how to show gratitude, the only life they knew was the life of abuse. So as they developed and got more powerful they developed their own ways which resulted in segregated schools and so for over 100 years the indigenous people became the slaves to the original free slaves from the US.
She speaks of Fear, of getting numb, loosing faith and being trapped as kids in adult bodies. Her own state of traumatisation and cycles of fear. “When you are depressed you get trapped inside yourself and loose the strength to take the actions that might make you feel better. You hate yourself for that, you see the suffering of others but feel incapable of helping them and that makes you hate yourself too. The hate makes you sadder, the sadness makes you more helpless, the helplessness fills you with more self hate. Working at the trauma and reconciliation program broke that cycle for me. I wasn’t sitting home thinking about what a failure I was, I was doing something, something that actually helped people. The more I did the more I could do, the more I could do the more I wanted to do and the more I saw needed to be done”.
Leymah created a manual to help women be women. About 21 minutes into the interview she talks about different women’s desires to share who they truly are. “sometimes you need water and sometimes you need fire.”
Most famous for their sex strike the story around 34 minutes in makes you smile from the inside. Around 43 minutes in the story of women taking their clothes off instigated a peace agreement is beautiful to hear. As Laymah says ultimately goodness wins out over evilness but there is a price to pay. Through focusing on survival tactics Leymah and many others Thrive and maximise their potential. Wow…. a women that is memorized by the power of non violence.
The most profound statement had to be after being asked a question about what a person could do in California Leymah answers “Libia, Egypt, Tunisia is not short of activits, what they are short of is resources. Liberia, Congo, the stories you’ve heard of Congo, I was in Congo. Congo is not short of activists what they are short of is resources. This country has resources what you’re short of is activists.”
Leymah Roberta Gbowee: Mighty Be Our Powers from ALOUDla on Vimeo.
{ 1 comment }
For the past 3 years now I’ve done a simple review of the year and chosen a word and a song that will anchor me during the year. For 2008/09 click here, I’m looking for the other 2.
Here’s the Annual Questions for 2011.
1) Word & Song for the year? In 2011 my word was Feel, start to be aware of my own sensations, emotions and my physical feelings. Sounds so dang easy when I re-read that line but it’s been one of the hardest commitments I’ve made to myself. Slowly I’m realising that for most of my life I tried not to feel or at the very least I tried to run away from feelings, especially the bad ones. This year saw me remembering, not always but often to get back in my body and allow all the feelings to be there. I’ll continue with this one for sure.
2012 word = Bold, Now – ok that’s two words
2012 song = Waka Waka by Shakira
2) What did I do this year that I’m really proud of?
Sold my flat and committed 100% to making my deepest desires become my reality, one day at a time I’m working each day towards living my life on purpose.
Posted 296 times on my blog. That’s 69 days short of every day.
3) Best thing that happened to me in 2011? Selling my flat and letting go. Running out of excuses.
4) Who did I really help? Each person involved in Surviving and Thriving and myself.
5) Who do I need to Thank and acknowledge for having been there for me? My friends Juliette, Anne and James, Vicki Borkowski and Stephanie, Tiago, Guilherme, Diogo and Alfonso.
6) Top 3 lessons I learnt? (more like I’m learning)
1) Let go or be dragged 2) Ask for help 3) It’s ok not to know the how 4) somethings I learnt at one point in my life no longer suit me.
7) What increased my happiness and joy this year? Time with Rafa, owning my time.
What’s something that I got through that was really tough? The actual flat sale, mentally letting go after 11 years.
9) What did I avoid that I must pay more attention to in 2012? Money
10) What New People did I meet that are now in my life? Susie, Fiona, Jessica, Keisha, Bonnie Jo, Dave and the London4Acumen team.
After Rafa
{ 3 comments }
As the year ends I’m reaching a point of no return. Since May of 2005 I’ve been fumbling along, bursting bubbles that I was sure would be the “career” for me and slowly but very steadily getting to a place, which is where I am now that’s stuck between a rock and a very hard place. This video will be in my life every day of 2012, yes, every single day in 2012 I will watch this short clip to remind myself that I will be making 2012 what it is.
{ 2 comments }
My 90 year old Vovo (grandfather) passed away today. Although I am 100% certain he is in a better place for himself right now I was overcome with emotions. In the lead up to my birth my grandparents rented a flat on the beachfront in Durban to be near my mother and assure her that if she chooses to keep me and not follow through with the adoption they would help financially and take care of both of us. As it turned out my mother took them up on the offer and at 5 days old we flew to Mozambique where I lived till the revolution in September of 1974.
The two driving personality traits that I remember of my grandfather are, he took the responsibility of care taker and breadwinner very seriously and he was stubborn. At the time of the revolution he was placed under house arrest for 1 year till he made it out to Switzerland and then to Lisbon. He was a trained accountant and found a job but never fully recovered and accepted that his country was taken away from him and all he had built up materially was no longer his. His first passion was flying and he held the title in Portugal as the oldest flying pilot for longer than we’d like to know. I recall hearing how he once forgot to let the wheels out before landing but in expert Vovo style he managed to get the plane on the ground without too much damage and with no one hurt. His personal life was tricky, he took the role as male provider very seriously and I think this sometimes blinded him to what was really going on around him. It was not easy for me to communicate with him in these last few years, he spent all his time giving us all photocopies of his life, his memories, his family and sharing poems and books by Fernando Pessoa.
I will miss your presence Vovo but I know that you are happier and at peace where you are now. Thank you for giving me everything you possibly could and please say hi to David for me. I love you.
{ 5 comments }
