Positive Communication

Above all we must realize that each of us makes a difference with our life. Each of us impacts the world around us every single day. We have a choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place - or not to bother. (Jane Goodall)
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Photography Connecting People

Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything. - Aaron Siskind

Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man. - Edward Steichen

Photography has always been one of my biggest passions. As photographer, it is a way to connect with the object (person, animal, or any object) I'm photographing, to fully experience its beauty and presence. When I'm lucky, the resulting photo indeed shares that beauty with others.

In this TED talk the photo director for National Geographic, David Griffin, shows that power of photography to connect us to our world. With amazing images, he demonstrates how we all use photos to tell our stories. Sometimes touching, sometimes confronting and some extremely funny.

Have A Good Day!

via KarmaTube

The Five Qualities We Share with a Pencil

The story of the pencil (Source: Like the Flowing River by Paulo Coelho)

A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter. At one point he asked: 'Are you writing a story about what we’ve done? Is it a story about me?’ His grandmother stopped writing her letter and said to her grandson: ‘I am writing about you, actually, but more important than the words is the pencil I’m using. I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up.’

Intrigued, the boy looked at the pencil. It didn’t seem very special. ‘But it’s just like any other pencil I’ve ever seen!’

'That depends on how you look at things. It has five qualities which, if you manage to hang on them, it will make you a person who is always at peace with the world.

First quality: you are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that hand God, and He always guides us according to His will.

Second quality: now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpner. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, he’s much sharper. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person.

Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice.

Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.

Finally, the pencil’s Fifth quality: it always leaves a mark. in just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action.'

See also: Paulo Coelho's Peace Post

Paulo Coelho's Peace Post

For the warrior of the light there are no abstractions; each opportunity to change oneself is an opportunity to change the world.
For the warrior of the light there is no pessimism either. He will row against the current if necessary; for when he is old and tired he will be able to tell his grandchildren that he came to this world in order to understand his neighbour better, and not to condemn his brother. - Paulo Coelho (an excerpt from his column that you'll find below)

During my recent holiday in the beautiful Sweden, I finally found the time and peace to read another one of the books from my favorite author: Paulo Coelho. His book 'Like the Flowing River', turned out to be a wonderful and inspiring cross-section of Paulo Coelho’s literary work, a compilation of tales, opinions and ideas drawn from articles published in various newspapers between 1998 and 2005.

Though I can most definitely recommend the entire book to you, some chapters really struck me. I will post them in the coming weeks, hoping they will touch and inspire you as much as they did me..

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June 21st 2003, Dead Sea - Jordan

On 21 June I was in Jordan, more precisely at the Dead Sea, invited by the Queen to write a text that was to be part of the opening ceremony of a meeting of the WEF. As soon as the event came to an end, I attended a dinner at which I found myself in an extraordinary situation.

Sitting at the table right across from me were the King and Queen of Jordan, Secretary of State Colin Powell, the Representative of the Arab League, the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, the President of the German Republic, the President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, and other prominent names involved in the processes of war and peace that we are witnessing. Although the temperature was close to 40 C, a soft breeze blew over the desert, a pianist played sonatas, the sky was cloudless, and torches spread throughout the gardens lit up the whole place. On the other side of the Dead Sea we could make out Israel and the lights of Jerusalem shining on the horizon. In other words, everything seemed to be in harmony and peace - and then all of a sudden I realized that, far from being an aberration of reality, that very moment was really and truly a dream for us all. Although my pessimism had grown a lot over the last few months, if people can still manage to sit around and hold a conversation, then nothing is lost.

Later on, Queen Rannia remarked that the venue of the meeting had been chosen for its symbolic character: the Dead Sea is the deepest place on the surface of the Earth (401 metres below sea level). To go any deeper, we have to dive - but in this specific case the salinity of the water forces the body to return to the surface. And thus it is with the long and painful process of peace in the Middle East: one can go no deeper than the present stage. If I had turned on the television that evening, I would have learned of the death of a Jewish settler and a young Palestinian. But there I was, at that dinner, with the odd feeling that the calm of the evening could spread over the whole region, that people would start talking to one another like they were talking at that moment, that Utopia is possible, and that men can go no deeper.

If one day you have the chance to go to the Middle East, do not miss visiting Jordan (a marvelous and warm country), then go to the Dead Sea and look at Israel on the other river bank: there and then you will understand that peace is necessary and possible. Below is part of the text that I wrote and read at that event, accompanied by the splendid improvisations of Jewish violinist Ivry Gitlis:

Peace does not mean the opposite of War.
We can have peace in our hearts even in the midst of the most ferocious battles because we are fighting for our dreams. When our friends have all lost hope, the peace of the Good Fight helps us to carry on.
A mother who can feed her child holds peace in her eyes, even though her hands are shaking when diplomacy has failed, bombs are falling all around, soldiers are dying.
An archer pulling his bow holds peace in his mind, even when all his muscles strain from the body’s effort.

So, for the warriors of the light, peace is not the opposite of war - because they are capable of:

• Distinguishing what is passing from what is lasting. They can fight for their dreams and for their survival, but they respect the ties that have developed over time, through cultures and religions;
• Knowing that their adversaries are not necessarily their enemies;
• Realizing that their actions will affect five future generations, and that their sons and grandsons will benefit or suffer from the consequences;
• Remembering what the I Ching says: perseverance is favorable. But let not perseverance be confused with insistence - the battles that last longer than necessary end up destroying the enthusiasm that is needed for reconstruction.

For the warrior of the light there are no abstractions; each opportunity to change oneself is an opportunity to change the world.
For the warrior of the light there is no pessimism either. He will row against the current if necessary; for when he is old and tired he will be able to tell his grandchildren that he came to this world in order to understand his neighbour better, and not to condemn his brother.

by Paulo Coelho (via Easy Inner Peace)

What is the Best Advice You ever had?

Daily Good, a great website from Change.org posed an interesting question this week: What is the Best Advice You Ever Had? A great question to think about, and interesting to read the 'best advice' others quoted. To me, it would be one of the following:

It is one of the beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself. Ralph Waldo Emerson

it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye. - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. - Steve Jobs

Indra Nooyi  -- PepsiCo's CEO, listed in Time's Top 100 influentials around the globe -- was recently asked that very same question by Fortune magazine. She had the following great response:

My father was an absolutely wonderful human being. From him I learned to always assume positive intent. Whatever anybody says or does, assume positive intent. You will be amazed at how your whole approach to a person or problem becomes very different. When you assume negative intent, you're angry. If you take away that anger and assume positive intent, you will be amazed. Your emotional quotient goes up because you are no longer almost random in your response. You don't get defensive. You don't scream. You are trying to understand and listen because at your basic core you are saying, "Maybe they are saying something to me that I'm not hearing." So "assume positive intent" has been a huge piece of advice for me.

In business, sometimes in the heat of the moment, people say things. You can either misconstrue what they're saying and assume they are trying to put you down, or you can say, "Wait a minute. Let me really get behind what they are saying to understand whether they're reacting because they're hurt, upset, confused, or they don't understand what it is I've asked them to do." If you react from a negative perspective - because you didn't like the way they reacted - then it just becomes two negatives fighting each other. But when you assume positive intent, I think often what happens is the other person says, "Hey, wait a minute, maybe I'm wrong in reacting the way I do because this person is really making an effort." (via CharityFocus)

Wouldn't it be something, if each and everyone of us would react from this point of view? How many discussions would be avoided? To me definitely another great advice to add to my list. What about you? What's the best advice you've ever had? Please feel free to share them!

A Boost for.. Positive Blogging

You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of this world's happiness now. How? By giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone. Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime. - Dale Carnegie

Wow.. I just received a great review for this blog, called 'A Boost for Positive Living'. What a beautiful and welcome encouragement for blogging, thank you so much Mary Ward from Do You Digg It.com!!

It once again reminded me what the impact is of explicitly showing your appreciation to your love, your kids or coworker. It is so worth the effort, just give it a try!
And with that, I would very much like to show my appreciation to you, my readers. As my way of saying THANK YOU, I would like to share with you the beautiful photography of Rarindra Prakarsa, I already showed in a previous post called Stunning Photography by Rarindra Prakarsa. His photography, and other beauties, can be found with the tag Photography.

The Best Way to Start The Weekend: Dance, Dance Together!

Go out in the world and work like money doesn't matter, sing as if no one is listening, love as if you have never been hurt, and dance as if no one is watching. - Anonymous

Keep watching past the first minute, for a uplifting way to start your weekend!
Matt Harding's website: www.wherethehellismatt.com

UN Voices Campaign - Talking Posters

As a (non-profit) fundraiser, I'm always looking for ways to build awareness. Innovative ways do have my preference: they often provide an effective way to reach new (younger) audiences, strengthened by free publicity. The campaign below is really a beauty (click on the picture for the larger version). Both in its message, as in the way of making its message 'heard', which so perfectly fits that message... Via Adsoftheworld:

Brief:
The United Nations wanted to find an engaging way of talking to modern day Australians, particularly the youth, and making them aware of the many and varied issues in today's multi-cultural society.

Solution:
The problem is the people who really need to be heard are the ones who don't normally have a voice. So by using revolutionary digital image recognition technology we could make a poster and press ad talk for the very first time and actually give everyone a voice.

Results:
In a small market like Australia, over a 2 week period, more than 35,000 people "listened" - making this the country's most successful UN brand campaign to date. Due to its overwhelming success next year the UN is going to roll it out globally in all major cities.
Advertising Agency: SAATCHI & SAATCHI, Sydney, Australia

Nelson Mandela's 90th Birthday - His 46664 speech

Visit the 46664 site, for more info on the concert in honour of Nelson Mandela's 90th Birthday on July 18th. 46664 refers to Nelson Mandela prison numer (number 466 in '64) during his 27 years of imprisonment.

Though Nelson Mandela's speech is without any doubt THE moment of the evening, some of my personal favourite (music) fragments: Queen and Paul Rodgers - part 2, Queen and Paul Rodgers - part 1, Annie Lennox, and Leona Lewis.
For Dutch readers: do visit the Dutch Nelson Mandela Kinderfonds

Quoting: Maya Angelou

Life Lessons
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Each of us has that right, that possibility, to invent ourselves daily. If a person does not invent herself, she will be invented. So, to be bodacious enough to invent ourselves is wise.

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

Love life
Love life, engage in it, give it all you've got. Love it with a passion, because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it.

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

Forgiving yourself
I don't know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes - it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, 'well, if I'd known better I'd have done better,' that's all. So you say to people who you think you may have injured, 'I'm sorry,' and then you say to yourself, 'I'm sorry.'
If we all hold on to the mistake, we can't see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can't see what we're capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one's own self.
I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that's rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don't have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.

Don't Complain
If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain.

If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don't be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning 'Good morning' at total strangers.

Inspired by A Circle Of Women: Wisdom From Maya Angelou