Etikettarkiv: quote

Can you draw?

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Stumbled upon a TEDx talk on Facebook this morning. Started to watch it in bed this morning, and didn’t get far before I sat up and got out a pen and paper. Graham Shaw asks the audience if they think they can draw, and then prove them all wrong:

Here’s my drawings (and my thoughts when Graham asked the question was ”No, I can’t, sadly, I am so bad at drawing anything that is figurative”), and I’ve already drawn a few more since then as well, all extatic that I can actually create something that looks like a person!

Now. Graham got an entire audience (bar the handful of people who actually did raise their arm, knowing already that they can draw) – including me! – to go from thinking they cannot draw to actually having produced a handful of sketches of people, actually looking like people!

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I don’t know about you, but I sure have gotten a different relationship going with my thoughts and beliefs, based on the fact that most of them are but thoughts and beliefs. They are not real. They are thought, not The One and Only True Thought. They limit me, in the sense that I myself let these beliefs become boundaries for me. And sadly, even though I’ve gotten better at spotting these limiting beliefs, I do still let them stop me from experimenting and playing around more.

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Now what is that Albert Einstein quote? Oh yeah:
We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

And that’s really what Graham does in these 15 minutes. He shows me that the notion that I cannot draw is actually not a truth. And voila, something is created!

Graham ends his talk thus:
How many other beliefs and limiting thoughts do we all carry around with us every day, beliefs that we could perhaps potentially challenge and think differently about? And if we did challenge those beliefs and think differently about them, what else would be possible for us all?

Podcast 28/52 – Stewardship, not disruption

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I’ve not followed Brain Pickings a lot, but now and again I stumble upon something coming from that site, and it’s almost always magnificent. Making me wonder, kick-starting my curiosity and often being very inspirational. Then I listened to Maria Popova of Brain Pickings in a conversation with Krista Tippett from On Being.

Guess what happened after I was finished listening? I pressed PLAY once more, and took in the entire episode once more. I believe I’ll listen to it over and over again. Because there’s so much interesting stuff in this podcast, beautiful sentences, phrases, stories about Marias grandparents, and much else. It’s hard to pick out one or two things, because it’s truly an episode worth listening to in full.

But the sentence below, which is a quote by a friend of Marias, really hit home. Perhaps because I’ve been talking about the need for personal stewardship with a friend of mine. How it’s a word, and an activity, that we seem to have forgotten, I believe.

BoldomaticPost_Culture-needs-stewardship-not

Sitting here looking at that quote ”Culture needs stewardship, not disruption”, my mind took a leap. To cultivation itself. To the no-dig no-till practice of cultivation put in use by Paul and Elizabeth Kaiser, that I got so enthralled by in the Peak Prosperity podcast. They explained how disruptive it is for soil structure, and hence, for soil-living creatures such as a majority of all wild pollinators, when we dig, till and uproot plants from the ground. They work with nature, rather than against it, and boy, are they rewarded!

There’s more for me to discover here, I can sense it lurking just beneath the surface. So I’ll sit with it, letting it take its time. Sooner or later it will emerge. I won’t try to dig for it, because that would likely just disrupt the process.

Does this quote evoke anything in you?

Felt by the heart

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When I watched this clip, of kids with a blindfold, who are told to go find their mom amongst a group of six women, what struck me is the importance of all our senses.

Perhaps we don’t take the other senses into consideration as much as when sight is taken from us, as in the video here. But the love, oh, the love I see in the eyes of these women. Makes me want to shed a tear or two, out of pure joy at the connection I see displayed before my eyes.

Reminds me of the quote by Denzel Washington:

”Why do we close our eyes when we pray, cry, kiss or dream?
Because the most beautiful things in life are not seen but felt by the heart.”

Humbled by the company I keep

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I’ve just gotten off SKYPE where I’ve been in a 90 minute group conversation with three other people, skattered around the world, and I am humbled. Humbled by the company I get to keep, in various areas of my life.

There is so much human potential available within each and every one of us. Being in the company of people who are aware of this, and who are making the most of their own human potential – I lack words to describe the feeling I have from such experiences.

But if I try, humbled is one word that describes my feeling. Humbled, and with a great sense of hope! And humbled for me here is a positive feeling, getting to hang out with magnificent people, being a part of this group on equal footing with each and every one of the others. Receiving and sharing so much, being vulnerable and human.

Below is a quote by Marie Curie that speaks to the hope that I feel, because I am in the company of people who do just this. They are open to expanding as human beings, and at the same time, open to the expansion of humankind.

Marie Curie on better world

Do you ever feel humbled (see explanation above) by the company you keep?

On Change

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Change

I like change. I call myself a change agent, so it would be strange if I didn’t like change, so it’s not a great surprise to anyone, I gather.

There is truth to the old saying that you cannot change anyone else, the only one I can change is myself. And hence, I am the foremost tool for being the change I want to see in the world, to paraphrase Gandhi.

What do you feel when you read the quote by Mister Shaw?

Obedience!

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Saw part of a quote on Facebook, posted by True Activist.20131113-142317.jpgHere’s the quote, spoken by Banksy, in its totality:

The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules. It’s people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages. As a precaution to ever committing major acts of evil it is our solemn duty never to do what we’re told, this is the only way we can be sure.

I would lie if I said it isn’t ”easier” with obedient people. Of course it is. Obedient people don’t ask Why, they don’t challenge me, they don’t talk back or question my actions or orders.

Children, by their very nature, seems to be full of Why’s. But something happens along the way to adulthood, somewhere the desire and curiosity sparking the question Why is trampled upon, frowned upon, ridiculed, considered a nuisance. So the children, as a means to survive, stop asking Why. They hold their tongue, and slowly start to die, to become something other than themselves. Finally the day comes when they have forgotten their true self, and have completely conformed to a society demanding their obedience.

But beware the inherent danger that comes along with said obedience!

I’d much rather have a world full of people asking Why, than a world full of obedient people blindly following orders. Which world would you prefer? And what steps are you taking to creating that world?

Present vs Future

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Stumbled across this quote the other day:

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As someone deeply engaged in creating a better world, a sustainable learning society, this quote really hit me heard. Because this is exactly what I believe.

It is so vital to take a long good look at what we are doing right now, in the present moment. If it doesn’t resemble the future we dream of – why, then we should stop immediately and ask ourselves Why?

Why doesn’t the present look like what I’m dreaming of?

What I’ve discovered since initiating the #skolvåren-movement (aka the school spring) is that many people actually lack a dream of the future. Their image of the future is simply ‘more of what we have today’, and they cannot fathom something else.

For me – that implies that they have lost the ability to dream.

For me – that implies that we are at our societal peak, i.e. this is as good as it gets, and society cannot become better than its current set up.

For me – that’s not good enough.

However, I don’t have a clear view of what a sustainable learning society looks like, in detail. I cannot predict the future so I have little clue. But what I can do is envision what that future would feel like, to me. When I close
my eyes an think ahead – I can awaken the feeling I want to have, from the settings of a sustainable learning society.

And you know what? I think that’s sufficient in and of itself!

I don’t need to know the What and How of the future, not yet. Because, if my Why if strong enough / the What and How will fall in place. I go one step at a time, and each step will bring me closer to the feeling I am striving towards.

So, look closely at the present you are constructing. It should look like the future you are dreaming.

Is it?

Me and Buddha

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Tired after a round trip to Stockholm I almost forgot to blog. Luckily Buddha reminded me!

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He sent me these words to bring with me to bed / as I am tired, I am listening to my body and mind and are heading for bed! Clever huh?

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. – Buddha

Have you lit any candles today?