It Happened to Me
This Week on Illumination Brought Me Daring, Abundance and Success
My story about what I learned on Medium and Illumination
Since Illumination started just a short while ago and I was invited by Dr Mehmet Yildiz to join the community, my writer’s life changed. And you are part of that change!
My friends on Illumination (and on Medium as a whole) are contributing to my life big time!
So I’ve made a resolution. Every week I’ll tell you what happened last week. What inspired me, what I learned. Who I met. And share links to people and stories so they might inspire you as well.
You’re most welcome to join me on this journey of discovery.
Daring
Last week I wrote about me. It took some courage. I normally only talk about myself between the lines, but this time I went full in. Still trying to find the balance between interesting in my own head and interesting for readers.
Here’s the end result. I even shared it on Facebook and will still share it with my thousands of business contacts on LinkedIn. Nadia Simion already shared it there for me.
Thanks, Nadia. It lessens the sweat and anxiety to push the button, thinking that you found it good enough to share…
This story would not have come to life if I had not read the introduction of others. The stories of Daniella Mini, Chris Hedges 🦄, Salam Khan, Shin Jie Yong, Kathryn A. LeRoy, Ph.D., Nicole Linke, Erin King, Stacey Christiansen, and several others.
I read their stories and enjoyed their various walks of life. It gave me the courage to show my path. Me. All of me. Thanks to all of you for making me feel daring. It felt great!
Abundance
Another lesson this week was about abundance. Arthur G. Hernandez wrote beautifully about it. How he had his secret system, giving 7 claps. And how he scaled it up to 50 claps because of sharing abundance.
I believe in a world of abundance. It’s how life is meant to be. The more we give with an honest heart, not caring about results, the more beautiful things will come on our paths.
And because I’m still training how to live my life guided by intuition, I made a new clapping style for myself. Just hold the button until it feels right. And often, it ends up at 50. Sharing the abundance, I love it!
One thing that triggered me about this abundance-subject as well, is ‘paying it forward’. Recently, I had a skype conversation with Mia, a young woman who’s walking the path of regeneration and wanted my advice. We had a great conversation. I learned a lot!
At some point, we got talking about how to earn a living. And I told her about my experience that if you give, you’ll receive something. You don’t necessarily have to be paid by that same person. When you give with an honest heart, you’ll get the things you need from other sides.
Mia will share her wisdom with others in the future. And she told me: “so you’re paying it forward.” I like that thought. Let’s pay upfront and have faith that the recipient will give her value to others in the future. The words stayed with me. So last week I had some more paying-it-forward-conversations…
Success with Indonesian story
This week has also been a week of success. Two of my stories got curated! Yessss! It feels great when my work is recognized by Medium as being valuable.
This is a story close to my heart. Mike and I traveled for three months in Indonesia for some projects. My heart bleeds when I see how the houses are sinking and nobody does anything! Why not?
I understand, these are complex problems. But it’s not so difficult to find good, systemic solutions!
My aim is to inspire many people with this story so we can find and implement solutions for all the wrongs in the world.
Sinking villages, but also poverty, inequality, hunger, refugees and many other tough subjects.
This story was published in The Environmental Reporter. Thanks to Samuel Avraham, who is a great editor and helped me verbalize the core of the story. It got Medium curation on the subject environment.
Success with a marketing story
My second story has a completely different subject. It’s a story about finance and storytelling for social entrepreneurs. It answers a core question I received from a social entrepreneur. She asked me:
“I received a phone call from a bank asking me for a meeting. They say they like my story. But I don’t want a loan, do I?”
We can learn from several of my inspirational friends in this story. They are changing the world of business with their regenerative companies. Such as Dycle in Berlin (Ayumi Matsuzaka) and Blue City in Rotterdam (Mark Slegers, Siemen Cox and Jan Jongert).
This story was published in Better Marketing and this time my editor Niklas Göke didn’t correct much. I’m glad! My English writing (it’s not my native tongue) is apparently getting better and better… This story was curated by Medium in the subjects: creativity and marketing.
Nature
Nature never fails to inspire me, so I had my moments last week. And one of them was triggered by Marlane Ainsworth’s story. She told me about a phenomenon new to me: Pando, the Trembling Giants.
Marlane: “Pando” in Latin means “I spread” and this wonder is aptly named. It refers to a large wood of quaking aspens in Richfield, Utah. I never even knew the difference between aspen and birch. Now I know. Aspen bark doesn’t peel…
I love this story about a wood that’s connected by the roots and lives as one big organism. Because that’s what trees do! Peter Wohlleben wrote beautifully about it in his book ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’.
He explains the ‘woodwide web’ and how trees communicate with each other and use synergy to survive. They talk via their roots and a vast network of fungi underground and give each other nutrients and water.
It speaks to me. Since I read that book, I never walk in the forest without my imagination running wild…
Other stories
Medium stories outside of Illumination also touched my heart last week. This story by Melissa Toldy is a must-read. So beautifully written! What poetry. What love. And for me, loads of recognition…
This story by Samantha Zabell got me thinking about eavesdropping. And how this is a powerful tool for writers. We get a feel for dialogue and different voices when we listen to others and fill in the gaps.
It makes my writing better. Thanks, Samantha, for inspiring me. I might write about my own ‘eavesdropping writer techniques’ one day…
Well, dear Illumination friends, I have given you peek into my inspiring week. I really think we’re lucky that we aren’t bored soon. Even if we can’t get out there. Keep writing and stay healthy…
If you’re stuck for inspiration, read some stories and get your inspiration flowing. I’ll be happy to read the words that follow…