In a world that is literally shrinking globally, In a world where respect for cultural diversity, Is paramount to humanity. In a world where inclusivity is a necessity, In a world where businesses are adopting empathy driven approaches. In a world where love, kindness and faith is needed much more than ever, In a world that is changing states quo…
There is need for all of us to come together. There is need to value connections. There is need to understand each others vulnerabilities. There is need to be inclusive in the diversity.
When we move beyond the I And envision the Us When we see the world as ours than mine. When we care to collaborate together, In mutual respect of the differences When we acknowledge the strength of unity in the diversity. When the, Me and Myself Shifts to Us beyond the Mine.
Artic Circle Rovaniemi Santa Claus Village. Image Credits Deepa Rajesh
The world will evolve for the better of all. Let’s know, how interweaved we are! For that’s where our true strength lies In this very interconnectedness. No matter the distance of space or time. So, in a world where it is right now There is no room for the I, Me & Myself anymore.
The above clip is my dedication to my dear mother. They are a compilation from her own set of artworks dated around 55 years back in time or more.
The reason I share this is to encourage people to see possibilities in creativity and how it can soulfully connect us all, through creative enrichments.
To give you the background…my mother had and still has a fine sense of design and her drawings always had an artistic flow. But unfortunately the daily grind of life and living took its toll and art and creativity was pushed into the background perhaps not realizing the innate talents. But the truth is, a lot happens in appreciation than in indifference.
So her skills were lying untapped and unrecognized. In time as I grew up and while on a visit to my maternal grandparents home in the village, I chanced upon her collection of drawings and paintings stacked in the attic gathering dust in complete ignorance.
The moment I saw them I knew they have to be brought out to see the light of the day… although sadly it was personally disheartening, to see many of the beautiful pieces made on paper, crackling and crumbling in time.
I brought them back with me to the city and took pictures of what was left of it and tried to salvage it piecing them together.
By then I was encouraged by friends and relatives who saw and deeply appreciated them too.
I hit upon the idea of creating a video clip using technology to enhance her original design sense. Yes, they are not as good as her original artworks, for technology is way too perfect to bring out the joy of uniqueness in the human hand.
Yet it is my humble attempt to value the time spent in creating by her own hand with the limitations of the resources available to her in those times.
There are far too many paintings, so I pieced them like a kaleidoscope of sorts to get a sense of her artistic endeavours.
Many times we fail to see the hidden talents in our loved ones. We relate with them for years and hardly know the depth of who they truly are.
Art has a way of bringing out the brilliance of the light within us by bridging gaps in our understandings but also opening new perspectives of thinking.
Today is the day I was born, and one of the ways I choose to celebrate it, is by dedicating this post to my dear mother Anjana.
Thank you, mom, for the beauty you create, being who you are! God bless.
Life throws curveballs at you when you least expect. Sometimes it may be your own expectations that are set high. Simply adjust your attitude to life and let go of unnecessary expectations.
Choose instead, to keep the faith, trust in yourself and hope for the better.
Life begins to shape up differently.
When you are feeling downhill When you are feeling demoralized When you feeling disappointed When you feeling demotivated
Just remember everything is meant to change.
What is today lasts not forever. What is hurting today will become a faint memory in time. What seems to be important will lose its significance. What is stressful will begin to ease in time.
When the odds are too high They must even out soon enough. Trust time to keep moving Have faith, for one makes way for the other.
To combat the cruelties of this world we must start thinking globally not just locally and realise how much our world is hurting all over from all that’s truly unfair.
If only we could realize how valuable it is to be appreciated and supported .
If we could only know how important it is to feel inclusive in our diverse ways.
We must understand that love and kindness is the only way besides adopting a non-judgmental approach.
We must realise how vulnerable life is, but beyond feeling victimized and create further suffering due to negative thoughts…
We need to respond with empathy, show unity through kindness and compassionate deeds.
The power of kindness is truly infinite.
KINDNESS IS THE PRAYER IN ACTION.
Every weapon made, adds to the fear
And false satisfaction of keeping you safe.
You can never be safe, when at war
Every armor is simply a pointer
Of the state of things.
Of the need of peace than war.
Every need to create ammunition
Shows the truth of retaliations.
Revenge in fear or dare is never the answer.
Resolution is where peace makes its way.
If we must be led, let us be lead
In strength of patience.
To explore possibilities
Let us choose to disarm.
Let us disengage and make amends.
Let us choose peace than war.
Let us find the middle path
In reconciliation.
Let us recognize the wrongs done.
Let us learn to undo the mistakes.
And move in harmony and oneness.
That is when we can together
Heal the world in peace
And make it worth living.
Our thoughts and our intentions create the possibilities and our will manifests it . Truly then awareness of actions its approach and the consequences start to matter. Every bit of creation has a purpose and the trick is to steer it towards the purpose of being . But the path is the journey of our life and is rife with challenges along the way.
Common sense, balance & equanimity of our thoughts & intentions, all begins to matter then. Yes, moderation is the key but be mindful of moderation as well.. You never know how things slowly get out of hand .
There is not much time that passes
When the glass in hand reaches the lip
The sip becomes a gulp
What’s one becomes two
And two becomes four
And so it goes…
Or when the thoughts in our heart gets spoken
When old habits surface & shape out of no where
Without your intentions, inspite of you
When what’s in you gets truly out of hand!
Be aware to be mindful
Be mindful to be heartful
Be mindful to be moderate
But be conscious to be mindful.
In throes of life and living
Emerges many facets of being
From meagre to excess
Both, two ends of the spectrum
To live life well
Is to understand
The necessity of discernment
Between what is need & what is want
Anything in time can become excess
Everything in time can become redundant.
Something always changes
Nothing stays the same
A life of excess
Will never find contentment
For you will tire
Sooner than you know
A life of lack
Will keep you in dearth
In angst for a silver lining
In the misery of poverty
But again what is little to one
Is much to another
What is complex to one
Is too simple to another
What is beautiful to one
Is ugly to another
What is extravagance to one
Seems a norm to another
What is a subject to one
Becomes an object to another
What is absurd to one
Becomes perfection to another
To each his own really
In this life that is given
Sometimes it’s easy
At times it is truly challenging.
So if in life you are ever flummoxed
Just remember
Nobody is perfect
But you are almost there!
The process of creation to finding targeted solutions in the world of products to services is a long and winding road in creativity. The general assumption is that of a direct and linear way to creativity. While one thing leads to another it is not always a straight linear road.
It is the very nature of creativity to retrace, rewind, edit and reframe until it makes sense.
Non judgmental understanding and
empathy is crucial to creating solutions.
It is important to set aside ones own assumptions to gain understanding of another’s perspectives and needs.
To brainstorm you need a direction so it is important to give a clear sense of flow and the perspectives gained in understanding and emphasizing with the needs, helps to streamline the flow of thoughts towards ideation.
Ideation is a result of many thoughts, many questions, in analysis, synthesis and deductions.There are so many paths in the process of creative ideation like for instance…
Brainstorming : This is a group creativity technique by which efforts are made to find a conclusion for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its members. BrainWriting: Another collaborative creativity concept at work. Here the ideas are all recorded by the creator and then passed on to the next person who can use it as a trigger for their own set of ideas..
The Worst Possible Idea : This is a creative design thinking technique where team members seek the worst solutions in ideation sessions. This eases the pressure and boosts the confidence of the team to challenge assumptions and find better and better ideas
SCAMPER : This is an acronym and each letter stands for a thinking technique: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse.
It is important to know what to focus and what to let go as there will be many plenty of ideas that may come up in the process of ideation. Hence keeping focus on what the actual problem is, helps in finding solutions to address and resolving it.
Then comes the part of checking out whether the ideas are actually a perfect solution by examining the quality checks, fault testing and cross questioning so that the idea can be then accepted or rejected as a solution.
New issues can come up that can challenge the process flow. There would also be new opinions and opportunities to explore and refine more.
So however curvy or zig zag the truth is, the road is full of potential and myriad possibilities in the making. Such is the truth of the creative flow.
Everything I want Comes with a cost So ring me up, Put it on my tab Whatever the cost I’m good for it!!!
A recent series on Netflix Spinning Out starts with these above lines from the song In the water by Jay Downer.
In reflection perhaps it is something every one of us can identify with at one point or the other.
In times of chaos and changes
Where lines get blurred
Between the future and past
In the now that yesterday brings us to
And the moments that can design itself to be
All our intentions are the reason
That things begin to happen
And then when it does
All our truths start to matter.
Life stares at you before you blink
And you got to learn to keep your eyes open.
No more is it make believe
For when reality dawns
It is reciprocal arrangement all the way!
You pay for what you want,
It comes to you with a price to pay!
A story plays on in every face.
Every face fascinates me.
I love to understand what the face expresses
A face is like an interesting book to me
Linger a little longer and you are hooked.
There is a reason for every line & dot.
Every thing connects to their story of life.
A face speaks volumes about the person
Beyond the many masks it may have on.
A face emotes the truth of the being
Eyes may shine a light of their own
The nose may crinkle
The brow may arch up
The forehead may crease
And the mouth may shape itself in myriad ways
There is much there to fathom
And unravel the depths of the being
Every contour has a reason to be
Every flinch & every twitch tells more.
So much more to learn
Every face tells a story.
Today I complete my 500 days of writing consecutively here on WordPress, with my 500th post. Special and heartfelt thanks to all my readers and followers who have supported me in this journey of writing.
I would like to mark this day by writing about one of my favorite topics Creativity.
Creativity is fueled by the fire of passion. Often instinctual and deeply captivating, it is an expression of your innate potential. With it you are in touch with your deepest core. You are consciously awakening to the infinite abundance within, in every channelling.
Creativity spurts in the most unexpected ways.
It surges forth a river of possibilities
It amplifies the potential within
It leads you to rethink and challenge the norms.
It dares to question the accepted and projects perspectives.
It explores and creates paths for evolution.
It defies conventions to envision out of the box ideas.
It justifies the necessity of freewill through the art of movements
To create resolutions in times of confusion and chaos.
To manifest simplicity in times of complexity.
To innovate and change the statuesque in times of staid compliance.
To design and redesign towards efficiency and effectivity of purpose.
When creativity dares it is in communion with infinite abundance.
The Sea: .
A professor took his class on a field trip to the ocean. Once at the water’s edge he handed each student a cup. Some were tall, some were short, some were thin, while still others were stout around the middle. No two cups were the same shape and no two cups looked alike.
In addition, every cup was a different color although from a distance you could see that many of the colors could fall into distinct groups. Some had a darker hue and some lighter. The one thing that all the different cups had in common was the amount of liquid they held. Each, to the drop, held identical amounts of whatever was to fill them.
The professor then had each student walk to the water’s edge and fill their cup to the very brim with ocean water and then step back into line. When every student had filled their cup the professor asked them, “What’s in your cup?” Of course, the unanimous response was water. “Yes,” replied the professor, “but what kind of water?” Ocean water yelled the students.
“Good,” said the professor. “Now let me ask you this? What’s the difference between the ocean water in the ocean and the ocean water in your cup?” One young man quickly responded, “That’s simple. The water in the ocean has sea life in it, but the water in our cups is just plain water.” His classmates all murmured in unison because his answer seemed to make sense.
“That’s not quite correct answered the professor. It’s obvious that your cups are not large enough to hold a fish, or a squid, or even a starfish, but there is still tiny life in your cup that can’t be seen. The same life that fills every drop of this ocean no matter what distant shore it falls upon. So wouldn’t you agree that the water in your cup would be identical to the ocean, only on a smaller scale?” From the looks on his student’s faces he could see the beginnings of understanding, and he was pleased.
The professor then went on to explain the message he was trying to convey to his students. “This ocean could be compared to God. Vast, powerful and without end. Loving and nurturing to all the creatures great and small that live within it. The cup is your human body. No two are identical. Each a different shape and color from the others. No one cup is better, more important, or for that matter worse than the others, only different in outward appearance.
Upon your birth God infused you with a small piece of himself. He sees you as his Greatest Miracle, the Greatest Miracle in the world. That piece of him is the spark of life which animates your body. Some may call it the soul, but it needs no name. It is your humanity. It’s what makes you and me the same.
So please remember this: whenever you harm another person, by your words or deeds. Whenever you bully another because you think you’re superior. Whenever you see another human being as less than you. Whenever you show a lack of respect for another, you aren’t doing it to them alone; you are doing it to yourself and to God. You see each of us is God walking around in cups of different colors, shapes and sizes.
And there is something else my students that I want you to know: God makes no mistakes and creates nothing but perfection. Therefore, you are perfect. And never let anyone tell you different! Oh, and one other thing, you were created for GREATNESS and not littleness. The choice is always yours.”
Vincent” is a song byDon McLean writtenas a tribute toVincentvan Gogh. It is also known by its opening line, “Starry Starry Night“, a reference to Van Gogh’s 1889 painting
TheStarry Night.
McLean wrotethe lyrics in 1971 after reading a book about the life of van Gogh.
Strikingly poignant.
It touches me every time I hear this song.
Brilliantly picturised on Vincent’s artworks.
The song by Don McLean is poignant yet peaceful in itself.
The mood mellow and sombre.
The truth is stark of reality.
Listen to this evening song
Literally speaks to the depth of our souls
Million thoughts runneth over
Amid the arresting hues of blues.
Until sleep beckons curtains are drawn.
Life poses the questions.
And life seeks the answers.
Poignant is the wisdom that arises in the challenges.
Savvy Raj 
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