Behind the screen of my Mac. When I feel like not talking it does not always mean that I don't want to be informed about what is going on out there with my friends and what kind of conversations they're having :)

I had a great feeling this morning when I woke up to find out that Obama was the new president of the United States.

I thought about it all day: What must be going through his head? I mean it is not only the fact that HE was elected but who he is! A black president! What a chance he has, what a challenge for him! What a courage he will have to show during this first 4 years! What everyone expects from him?! The actual financial crisis, the wars, america's infrastructure, mother earth's suffering, people hoping finally for a CHANGE... the preassure under which he will have to live and work  with...

And he gave us all an answer that will surely stay in our minds for a loooong time ... like the sentence from Martin Luther King "I had a dream", or the one from president Kennedy "I am a Berliner" ... Obama said: YES WE CAN ... and I see this sentence is already running through the net ... even avatars are already being changed: look at http://kathysmith.gaia.com/

Yes we can! What a simple but powerful affirmation!

Wishing Obama, all my american friends and the rest of the world a lot of positive energy to help this man's sentence come true for the sake of our planet, for the sake of humanity.

For those interested in hearing his speach and read the transcripts, please follow this link: http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/speeches/obama-victory-speech.html

Diana

Just got this article via email from wie.org (Online Magazine from What is enlightenment). They just renewed their website ... looks really good by the way!
OK now, back to this amazing subject:

Chris Jordan's (art)work seeks to expose the alarming degree of consumption and waste in America. While such concerns may not be new, Jordan's distinctive method of conveying them certainly seems to be. His "Running the Numbers" series of digitally composited photographs takes abstract statistics about American society and translates them into stark and shocking visual images. "My hope," he says, "is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone." Given how hard it is for human beings to conceptualize massive numerical quantities in a meaningful way-be it the number of stars in the Milky Way or the number of plastic cups used by airlines every day-it seems that Jordan may be pioneering a medium that can finally get such messages across...

Have a look at this amazing photographic art about an american self-portrait !

This emediately made me think about an old movie title: Drowning by numbers ... would fit this art exhibition as well ...

Hope it doesn't frustrate you too much ... even if it should in fact ;-)
People like to be shoked? So let's shock them ... I am affraid to say that those images are almost beautiful again ...

 Depicts 115,000 mail order catalogs, the number mailed in the U.S. every minute!!!

Talk! Talk, talk, talk ... exchange ideas, meditate on a theme. I love to hear other's opinions, especially if they don't agree with me (more interesting). Not that I like to argue or start the kind of "but I will convince you that I am right" conversation. I like to try to understand other's points of view to enrich my own.

Sharing great moments together, a movie a walk a diner is always interesting too.

Be the change you want to see in the world! - Mahatma Gandhi - is one of my favorite quotes. Awareness and activism are therefore both extremely important and one cannot live without the other. To raise awareness is the job of the aware who on his side has to focus on "being the change" in his own life. 

On something I have wanted for a long time and on helping others get on with their lifes. I joined Kiva since they started advertising on Gaia and I am really happy that such organisations exist. Micro-financing with Kiva is easy and it is a joy to watch your friends grow on the other side of the planet. I also love to give extra tips for good work. If I believe that what I am paying for is not enough to a certain work done I tend to give a little bit more to the worker :)

The absolute gadget for learning to speed read online and this for free!
Great idea in fact and very easy to use. You can set your own speed and progressively get faster. Don't miss to read the instructions of course.

Take a big text, throw it in and read it!
It is worth a try so what are you waiting for ?!  www.spreeder.com

;-)

The story of humanity ... where it lead us and where it is going to lead us. Is global consciousness, as mentioned by contemporary philosophers, going to be humanity's salvation. Are WE going to win at the end and save Gaia and ourselves? I don't think that I will live long enough to get an answer ... a never ending story?

Our "pain body" !
 

For those of you not familiar with Eckhart Tolle here's the best and suitable explanation about the "pain body" I found on the web:

"First, there is the field of complete consciousness.

This then expresses itself in an organic form.

From here it loses itself in organizing the physical environment around it.

It begins to split into mind, and mind then splits into ego, and ego then believes itself the origin of consciousness.

As ego, arising from thoughts of limitations, fractures itself against obstacles, it develops what Eckhart Tolle calls the pain-body.

The pain-body then becomes an unconscious entity within. It seeks to feed on pain to survive. It makes a person feel pain and it causes this person to inflict pain on others."

Source: Saleem Rana -  Reflections On Eckhart Tolle's Concept Of The Pain-Body

What follows next to that is that you start labelling everything as good and bad, as right or wrong ... and you continue feeding your ego with "how right you are about what you think" and how bad and/or wrong the other person is ...

Well, living in this daily battle with our "pain body" is for me the main reason why we have trouble connecting with others.

With ALL sorts of people as always ... and I am thankful for this. I love the melting pot of friends from different cultures and different consciousness levels I am surrounded with. This is such a wonderful experience.

I remember this was a challenge when I was in my late teens because I liked to hang around with all sorts of people and I was constantly being asked by my friends ... how can you hang out with those people ... I heard this from both sides of course and sometimes it made me sad that I could not bring those groups together.

One day I realized what a rich experience i was having by hanging out with completely different kinds of mentalities and that in fact I was the most lucky person ! From this day on, I never ever tried to bring together my different friends since for me it was a great experience to live in different communities, surrounded by different thinking people and at the end come to the conclusion that we are all ONE!