Where were you..

via the LA Times

The Future will be in our hands..

Mr. Obama told them: “I can’t tell you how many people have come up to Michelle and myself and said, ‘You know, I was kind of skeptical, but then my daughter, she wouldn’t budge, she just told me I needed to vote for Obama.’ Or, ‘Suddenly I saw my son, he was out volunteering and knocking on doors and traveling and getting involved like never before.’ And so new generations inspired previous generations, and that’s how change happens in America.”

He said this applied not just to campaigns but to service, like teaching or joining the Peace Corps.

“And as this is broadcast all around the world,” he added, “we know that young people everywhere are in the process of imagining something different than what has come before. Where there is war, they imagine peace. Where there is hunger, they imagine people being able to feed themselves. Where there is disease, they imagine a public health system that works for everybody. Where there is bigotry, they imagine togetherness. The future will be in your hands if you are able to sustain the kind of energy and focus that you showed on this campaign. I promise you that America will get stronger and more united, more prosperous, more secure — you are going to make it happen, and Michelle and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”

 

via the NY Times

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes

-Marcel Proust

 

It seems as if the quote above describes the current state of the US.  As if we all had a collective 'waking up' over the past six months and yesterday we wiped the sleep out of our eyes to see a brand new world,  full of possibilities.

01.20.09

Yes, We Did!!

"Hope is not a dream, but a way of making dreams become reality."

– Cardinal Leon Joseph Suenens

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

-Martin Luther King, Jr., civil-rights leader (1929-1968)

And on this day to remember, a nod to how far we have come...

Optimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and of true progress. -Nicholas Murray Butler 

He had a DREAM...

A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.-Erin Majors

From out of the Darkness..

Came such light:



K'Naan is a Somali-Canadian Rapper and Poet.   He left Somalia at the age of 14 to come to the US and then on to Canada. During his youth he witnessed terrible things: murder, rape, continuous violence.  His story, at least to someone like me- US resident, middle class, white - is like something out of a movie.  Can I really relate to what he's been through?  At first glance probably not.  But if you dig a little deeper his story is also universal:  Out of hardship, out of darkness,  there can be beauty.  There can be love,  and there can be light.    It's just your choice to find it right?

African rapper K'Naan once blew up half his school with a hand grenade. Now he's using music to push for peace. Jane Cornwell met him

Somali rapper K'Naan fired his first gun at the age of eight. At 11, he found a hand grenade, detonated it by mistake and blew up half his school. At 12, he was running through the streets of Mogadishu after seeing his three best friends shot dead.

As the civil war escalated – it rages in Somalia to this day – he saw riots, rapes, mob rule. He watched his neighbourhood turn from a coastal idyll to "The River of Blood", named by the UN as "the worst place on earth". His mother walked through gunfire to the US Embassy to get her family a visa. K'Naan Warsame was 14 when they left in January, 1991. Theirs was the last ever commercial flight out.

-Jane Cornwall Via The Telegraph

I thought  for quite a while about whether to include this video and his story on this blog.  After all,  this is a blog about positive uplifting things.   But I also know that often,  the people looking for something uplifting are also the ones peeking out from sort of darkness in their lives.  I guess the point is:  Sometimes the darkness makes the light even more potent,  even brighter than it would be alone... 

"I want to show that change doesn't have to be loud and famous, that struggle can become power," K'Naan says. "And whether it's the hip-hop crowd or high school kids, everyone seems to get it."

In the years since his leaving Somalia K'Naan has  spoken  before the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.  In 1999  he performed a spoken word piece criticizing the UN for their failed aid missions to Somalia. 




more info about K'Naan can be found here and here and here.

"My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness." 

— The Dalai Lama

"The virtues which keep this world sweet and the faithfulness which keeps it steadfast are chiefly those of the average man."

- W. Russell Bowie

What will you make today?

I wrote about "The beckoning of Lovely" last week. I think it might be my favorite find so far this year...

Today is the deadline to get involved and the video above is how it all started.
It's simple and lovely and makes me wonder:

What will I make today?

What will YOU make today?

Le Love. Because we can all use more love in our lives.

Le Love is an amazing blog devoted simply to   l o v e.  

With small snippets of text and filled with images of soft intimate images you will always leave with a smile on your face,  a light glow of love around you , and the urge to kiss someone.

Now, Go + be smitten!

"The point is not to pay back kindness but to pass it on.– Julia Alvarez

Be here now!

Here's another set of uplifting reminders to brighten up your day. I just love these posters by UK based artist Sarah Gardner. They are 16 x 20, bright and cheerful and you can find them right here  on Etsy.

images © Sarah Gardner.

"I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be."

– Groucho Marx

Today..

Enough doom and gloom, already! WorryFest 2008 has just about run its course, and although times are challenging there is plenty of room for optimism in the greatest country on earth. So, take a bold stand and display this beautiful Annie James antiqued canvas reproduction in your home, in your office - perhaps even worn on your person, sandwich board style (might want to send one to Washington while you're at it). "For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else" - Winston Churchill. 11" x 14"

Shop for this little reminder right here at 'The Afternoon'..

“Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.’”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ‘I’m with you kid. Let’s go.’”

– Maya Angelou

Free Encouragement!

Erin from 'Design For Mankind" and Booooooom.com have gotten together for a project called 'Free Encouragement'. Hundreds of people submitted words of free encouragement... some of which you see above. Now comes the fun part! read on for directions..

Part Two is where all of you, my dear artistic readers, come in. You know all of these messages of encouragement floating about [you should--- there are over 400!]? Pick one [yes, you!]. It doesn’t have to be your own message. Pick anyone’s message. And draw it. Paint it. Collage it. Art it. Do it. Whatever you do, however you do, just do. And you have thirty days to “do.” And then?
Then you send it to me at erin[AT]designformankind[DOT]com with the subject line “Free Encouragement.” Your entry [4x6 dimensions, please!] will be sifted through and loved and canoodled and may possibly be chosen to be part of a VERY special and inspiring postcard pack for you to send MORE encouragement into the world. See how it works? It’s one big food chain of niceness!
Be very excited. And get to work. Don’t worry if you choose the same message as others— there are plenty to go around, and duplicates are just fine! The more, the merrier. Comment below to declare your participation, tell your friends, and go forth— be inspired!
Remember: deadline is FEBRUARY 1ST. Don’t be late. ;)

Read more here.

If only we could rewind..

I came across this via VeryShortList and had to share. The beginning is so melancholy, so perfectly mysterious, and it quickly transform into.. well.. something so worth waiting for .. so worth waiting for that I'm not giving any endings away..

Enjoy....

We Feel Fine

We Feel Fine  is an amazing site.  It's like picking peoples thoughts out of the air. It's intimate and anonymous and full of all kinds of amazing things. Go and enjoy!

PS- While it's well worth a quick look,  more than likely you will be pulled into it for an untold amount of time.

Free Things...

Jan, over at Poppytalk has a great collection of free things for you to print out and make yourself! Frame it, glue it, bend it, make it ... do everything but buy it!

I can't turn down a well designed freebie!

Poppytalk Downloads

Motivate me!

We all need a point in the right direction every now and again. I love how OrangeBeautiful does it with these great prints!

four (4) limited edition screen prints (unframed)
the entire “motivate” series

“GET YOUR SH*T TOGETHER”
“GET ON WITH IT ALREADY”
“QUIT YOUR BELLY-ACHING”
“DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT”

Time to MOTIVATE ::
help yourself… help your friends. Do it.
frame it.
hang it.
give it as a gift.
keep it for yourself.

Lets Make Something together!

I came across this on Penelope Dulligans blog and fell in love. It might be impossible to watch it and not smile.

For more info on the project visit The Beckoning of Lovely

To see how it started take a look here.

ps- It makes me want to move to Chicago too...!

Even though this is the time of year for change...

Sometimes it's good to enjoy yourself...

just as you are.

Wear it on your sleeve..

I just love how Reed Seifer spreads the good word with these buttons

This is the Year...

I received this way back in 2000.  It is a small journal, with a slightly metallic cover,  and an amazingly simple sentiment.  I've long since filled the pages but keep it close at hand...still.. all these years later. The thought that a new future is close at hand,  and is able to be CREATED is just too enticing to let go of..

Happy New Year

I love the whole world

Happy New Year Everyone!!



via swissmiss

It's a wonderful life..

With the end of the holiday season coming on I'd like to share a story about something amazing B (my husband) and I experienced this year:

Metropolitan Ministries is a local community service that helps homeless and disadvantaged families. Every year they have a food drive to help deliver and serve holidays meal to THOUSANDS of families. We've donated money and food every year, but after hearing about how many of the food banks in our area were nearly empty we decided to volunteer a few days too.

Just before Thanksgiving there was an urgent announcement on the radio and on the news: There was going to be no meals for thousands of families. The interview with Morris Hintzman, the President of MM, was heartbreaking. People who had previously given donations were now signing up for assistance for the very first time. There were thousands in need... many on the verge of becoming homeless.

We arrived at 7:30 am to help accept food and donations. What happened over the next 4 hours was nothing short of amazing. There were hundreds of cars coming through the drop off tent. We opened trunks to find twenty or thirty turkeys. People wrote thousand dollar checks and refused to accept a receipt. The thing that amazed me was the variety of people. It didn't matter if they were in a BMW or a beat up truck, each one said nearly the same thing:

"We heard it on the radio,

we saw it on the television,

and we are bringing what we can."

Even though nothing donated was for me I felt like a modern day George Bailey.

Take that, Mr. Potter!

101 Acts of Kindness

1 prepare a meal for a homeless person
2 smile :)
3 call your mother to tell her you love her
4 write a handwritten note
5 knit a beanie or blanket for a homeless person
6 put change in the washer/dryer for the next person
7 fill an expired or about to expire parking meter
8 leave some extra money in the vending machine
9 buy a little extra grocery for the local food bank
10 plant a tree
11 send your favorite grade school teacher flowers
12 write a thank you letter to your parents
13 pay the toll for the person behind you
14 tape a nice saying or thought to a bus window
15 instead of just thinking it, compliment someone
16 give a sad looking stranger a happy music cd
17 ask someone “how are you?” mean it. and listen.
18 make some baked goods for your neighbor(s)
19 hug your loved ones for no particular reason
20 make breakfast for your partner or housemate
21 call someone you haven’t talked to in a while
22 give someone a flower …or a dozen
23 offer someone else your seat on the bus/train
24 visit a senior center or nursing home
25 say “thank you” for the otherwise routine, mundane

Visit the 'Love is the Word' blog to see the rest. Go + be inspired!

Free Hugs

How could you not love this.. found via Love is the word.

You ARE Beautiful

Imagine the surprise, the wonder: You are walking along and glance up at the sky to see " You are beautiful" spelled out on the side of a building. You smile. Moments later you glance at the side walk and written in chalk, in small letters:

you are beautiful

Imagine the smile on your face as you look at the strangers around you. You are beautiful.
And so are they.

Go visit You Are Beautiful.. and spread the good word! If you send them an envelope you will be graced with a collection of stickers to share...