Tuesday, 30 December 2014
Wednesday, 3 December 2014
How to get published
The New Year isn’t far. It’s right on your
doorstep, beckoning your attention and your intention.
December presents you with a beautiful
opportunity. A chance to cast your mind back over the past year and reflect on
all that you created and made possible by showing up each day and saying yes.
What has evolved? 12 months of learning and of course, unlearning.
December is the divine period of time
nestled between the old and the new, offering you a whole month to express gratitude for
bringing you here (and I mean exactly here, right to this moment) and also space
to discover what it is you want to create in your life the next year.
In conversation with aspiring writers, 2015
is calling them to crank up their writing dream a notch. Yes they would like to
write more regularly, express more creatively, and channel their voice and message,
but they want to do all of this PUBLICLY.
No longer in their leather-bound journals
on their bedside table, sitting among the plethora of word docs on their desktops,
or existing in some corner of the web they haven’t told a soul it exists. No,
this coming year is calling them to go bigger and to share their words with the
world.
It’s time to get published.
Eeeek! Scary you say? Yes, it is. A little
uncomfortable you say? Well, yes, it is that too. Exciting? Without a doubt.
Thursday, 27 November 2014
A Mother's Love
“A mother’s love is the fuel that enables a human being to do the
impossible” – C. Garretty
This type of love is pure. It’s heavenly. It’s unadulterated.
It is unapologetically real.
It could be the most beautiful thing on
this planet. It’s a mother’s love.
Beberly
de Leon embodies this love. She is a mother to her
two-year-old son Tzen; her greatest and most precious joy.
From Panajachel in the Western Highlands of
Guatemala, Beberly was beyond surprised to find out that she was soon to be a
mother after being told that a series of health problems had left her sterile
and unable to conceive. Tzen was to be born in a matter of months; the miracle
she thought was impossible.
“I named him Tzen Florian. Tzen comes from the Maya
Mam word ‘nTzen,’ which means smiling one. Florian is derived from the Spanish
word for flower and means pure beauty and magic that brings joy to everybody…
This is exactly what Tzen means to me,” shared Beberly.
Beberly, who has undocumented Indigenous heritage, has always had a strong relationship with the world around her. To the birds and the trees, to the food we produce and feed our bodies, to the happiness of her people near and far.
To
the health and wellbeing of Mother Earth.
She
is an activist for justice and a talented creative, who is deeply passionate
about art, photography and dance. She has recently discovered Nritya yoga,
otherwise known as ‘yoga of dance,’ and has combined elements of theatre with
the practice to unite people and encourage expression.
Labels:
ASD,
Autism Spectrum Disorder,
Crowdfunding,
Family,
Funding,
Guatemala,
Heal,
Health,
Help,
Indigenous,
Love,
Miracle,
Mother,
neurodevelopment disorder,
Support,
Treatment
Location:
Guatemala
Saturday, 22 November 2014
A first for Tunisia
Tomorrow means big change for Tunisia.
For the first time in history, Tunisian citizens will choose the head of
their state in a free, democratic and transparent presidential election. This
entitled right comes after several
hundred years of great political and regional instability. The Tunisian
Revolution of 2011 saw men, women and children take to the streets in protest
and civil resistance when the long time dictatorship led by president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted to make way for the democratic vote, which is now an enshrined right in the Tunisian Constitution of 2014.
Nesrine Triki, lecturer at the University of Tunis and member
of the DOUSTOURNA Network, a non-government organization which advocates for human rights, participatory democracy and civic
education, says: “We are proud of
ourselves, especially when you see what is happening in the neighbor countries
of the ‘Arab Spring’. There is civil war in Libya, a military coup in Egypt,
political and security problems in Yemen and civil war and terrorism in Syria.”
Nesrine has been a member of the DOUSTOURNA
Network since its creation following the revolution. Its members have played a
crucial role in the drafting of the Tunisian
Constitution and have since mobilised Tunisian support around the key issues
facing this new type of transitional democracy. As people go to polling
stations tomorrow, Nesrine has volunteered to administer the electoral
processes at one such station to ensure citizen’s choices are protected.
Several training sessions later and an anticipated two days of no sleep ahead
to guarantee transparent and democratic processes, Nesrine shares the word on
the street.
Labels:
Campaign,
Citizens,
Democracy,
DOUSTOURNA Network,
Elections,
Freedom,
Poll,
President,
Secular,
Society,
Transparent,
Tunisia,
Tunisian Constitution of 2014,
Tunisian Revolution,
Vote,
Women
Location:
Tunis, Tunisia
Wednesday, 19 November 2014
How to connect with your muse
It's time to knuckle down and create that blog post, freelance
article or the early drafts of that book. You have made the commitment - to
others and to yourself - but the inspiration (and motivation) is just not
there. The ideas are far and few between and time is slipping away.
This makes you feel anxious, and you know all too well from
experience that your muse doesn’t dance hand-in-hand with apprehension. She’d rather move at her own pace, frolicking and twirling on an open ballroom all of her
own.
This doesn’t change the fact that there is a deadline looming
and white space where your story should be taking form (‘Should’ being used
very loosely here).
So how do you connect with
the muse when you need to most?
Firstly, it’s important to understand and accept that it’s normal.
It’s normal to be lost for ideas, frazzled and not sure where to
go next. Wipe the shame and the judgement. The most prolific of writers
experience times when the inspiration is at an all time low. That doesn’t stop
them though. There are times when there is ease and flow, and others when
whatever is happening in your life (or in your day for that matter), there just
isn’t.
Some days the words and messages just arrive, delivered from
your brain to your fingertips in a thoughtfully packaged parcel (why thank
you!), and other times, there is nada. Zilch. Zippo. I’m the first to raise my
hand to this experience.
Here are some tools to help awaken your silent muse, as shy as
she may be.
Labels:
Coaching,
Creativity,
Editing,
Freewriting,
Ideas,
Inspiration,
Muse,
Space,
Tips,
Tools,
Writing
Location:
London, UK
Thursday, 13 November 2014
How to write to have an impact
A conversation, a divinely worded paragraph in a
book you are reading or perhaps a random act of kindness you were fortunate to
witness has you excited. The sparks are flying, ideas are flowing and you’re
feeling inspired to write a blog post, an article or a story to share with your
readers; something that they will find value in.
You start typing, a little manically at first,
afraid that you might lose your train of thought. Words, intrigue and thought
bubbles spill onto the page.
Ok, it’s a tad scattered but you’re getting it down,
translating for the muse so to speak.
The words aren’t exactly the words you want to be
using to describe this message, but hey, you can always go back and make those
edits.
On the tip of your tongue is the expression you are
after, but you can’t seem to find it. The line which would capture the essence
with such poetic grace, your readers would be nodding in uniform agreement.
Vague descriptions sit in place of fine-tuned statements.
It feels… hollow. Something is missing. It’s lacking power; the juice that gets
people’s heads turning.
Then you pause.
You ask yourself: Does this even make sense to
anyone else who is not in my head?
Then that imposter strides on in.
Who wants to read about this anyway? Is it even any
good?
The momentum is lost. That initial high of
inspiration has fizzled along with your idea. The copy joins the folder of
countless unfinished drafts and random musings that sits on your laptop, and
you’re left feeling frustrated and unsatisfied.
Can you relate? Sounding a little too familiar? If
you are a writer (or have dabbled with the world of words), I’m sure you have
ridden this creative curve more than a few times. I certainly have.
Labels:
Action,
Audience,
Blog,
Blogging,
Communication,
Connection,
Editing,
Feeling,
Impact,
Inspiration,
Message,
Readers,
Strategies,
Tips,
Tools,
Writing
Location:
London, UK
Thursday, 6 November 2014
Hackney Pirates
Learning can be
adventurous.
It can be mythical
and magical and explorative. It can take you to lost islands, across forbidden
borders and down deep to sunken treasures on the ocean’s sea floor.
In the traditional
sense of the word, pirates have a reputation for robbery and piracy, acting
outside of the jurisdiction of nations and governments. The Hackney Pirates in East London may not
be law-breakers, but they are rebels.
They have instigated an ambush to inspire young people's imaginations (and grown-ups' for that matter!) in the name of creative learning.
With an initial funding pool of just £500, Catriona Maclay, former secondary high school teacher, along with a team of other teachers and locals in the area, decided to run with an idea that had long occupied their thoughts.
"Like many teachers, I saw that some pupils needed more support than we were able to offer them during the school day. This is where we saw an opportunity to have a big impact using time and resources outside of the classroom," she explained.
“Some students,
particularly during the transition years of 5,6 and 7, were under achieving and
needed extra one-to-one attention, but with more than 500 students in my classes a
week, resources and time were restricted.”
In 2010, Catriona
left teaching and joined Ashoka, a
global network of social entrepreneurs. While she aided men and women to birth
projects, which challenged structures and systems by creatively offering
another way, Catriona’s vision grew.
She researched and
developed her idea. A project which helps students to learn and apply
themselves with confidence outside of the classroom environment as young
creative professionals, or as Catriona says, Young Pirates, with real world
assignments.
These ‘Real world’
assignments include short plays published on t-shorts, a radio show about the
day aliens came to town, a guide to Hackney uncovering the borough’s finest
secrets, and a recipe book of the tasty treats in Dalston, to name but a few.
All imaginative
endeavors, which un-tap local resources in fun and exciting ways.
Catriona remained
connected to the young people she taught and listened to their needs. “ I knew
the students needed consistent support and that Hackney had the potential
wealth to back such a project.”
Labels:
Education,
Hackney Pirates,
Kingsland High Street,
Learning,
London,
Mentoring,
Partnership,
School,
Social Entrepreneurship,
Students,
System,
Unconventional,
Workshop,
Young People
Location:
Dalston, London E8, UK
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