It happened to me
This Week on Illumination Brought Me Honesty, Insurance, and Play
What I learned this week from Illumination, Medium, and life
This week I started to read articles from my Illumination friends whose work I hadn’t read before. I took one of the posts of Dr Mehmet Yildiz, and randomly clicked on writer names and subjects that trigger me one way or the other.
Sometimes I chose subjects close to me, at other times subjects far on my horizon. Oh, how this broadens my view! I love it! We are such a great community, with so many talented writers!
This week, I read stories written by Kevin Buddaeus, Joan Kent, PhD, Timothy Key, Joe Luca, Rasheed Hooda, Aurora Eliam, CMP, Jill Ebstein, Robert Nelson, KeepingItRealWithAnnick, Kristen Abram, Trista Ainsworth, Bridget Webber, Karen Madej 💛, Charles Roast and many others.
And I want to highlight a few of them. This story is written by Simona. She sent me a reaction that triggered me to read her work.
She wrote she was reading the Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra. Well, anyone who likes a great book like that, deserves my attention. We have something in common, alright! And the more stories I read, the more we seem to have in common…
This story by Marlane Ainsworth is about ‘letting things through’.
It fits so perfectly with what I am experiencing in my life! My struggles with ‘letting go’. I really believe life would be much easier if we would live it by letting things through. Thanks, Marlane, for giving words to my feelings…
Then I read this story by Kathryn A. LeRoy, Ph.D.
The image at the top says more than a thousand words. And I love the story that unfolds. How words can get stuck. And how she feels devastated. How she tries to unlock them with pictures, but something else is needed…
Okay, one more then. This story is about art, spirituality, and contrast. Never really thought about it. But I might be creating it intuitively, I guess. It’s from Roxanna Azimy. I definitely want to read more from her!
Oh, I can’t stop now. Just today, I read some stories by Selma. How I love her style! Loving, humorous, and her words jump off the page as if she’s sitting right next to me. She already feels like a friend whom I’ve known for a long long time. I chose a story she wrote earlier for Publishous:
And if you want to read about coronavirus, read her words. They resonate with me so strongly! “When you believe, as I believe, that ours is a friendly universe, and trust that the universe is conspiring for the good of all of us, you too will be able to see the silver lining I see here.” “We’ve been called to participate as citizens of the same world. This has never happened before in this generation.”
Read this story slowly, I want to add. Selma is a special writer because she gives us more than words. Read her words slowly and feel them. She has the gift of shining through her words. And in the process making us all better humans. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Selma!
Ecosystem Restoration
In my own work, a lot is happening as well.
This is one of the stories (link below) at the core of my work and writing. I really think we should be restoring ecosystems to unleash the abundance of nature again. And I’m so very glad to see that more and more people are doing it on a large scale.
This article gained a lot of interest from ecovillages and the regeneration movement worldwide. So I’m glad that Ecovillage Voice In Australia published this article in their paper magazine. Also Regeneration International has given the article a spot on their website.
Systemic Solutions
These two publications found me… But of course, I can start doing some marketing for Gaia as well. Next week I will start putting the spotlight on my articles myself.
The article about sinking villages deserves to be read by Indonesian decisionmakers. So I’m out there, asking for attention. Maybe the Jakarta Post? Wish me luck!
And there’s one small victory I want to share with my friends. This week I became a top writer in the tag ‘Future’.
Wow! Never thought that would happen. All the top writers there are writing about blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, and robots. Glad my nature-based, systemic solutions will have a tiny spotlight in there as well.
Connections Will Move the World
And then Joshua Davis came on my path in this Illumination community. I made one remark to him about how ‘Bread Funds’ are changing the world of insurance in our country. Never knew this one remark could be so inspiring to him. He wrote about it.
So what about the next step? If America needs this kind of community insurance, why not connect Joshua with the ‘Broodfondsmakers’ (Bread Fund initiators) in the Netherlands? They might have ideas about possible next steps… Dare to reach out and good things can happen…
And my grey cells go haywire again. What if I introduce them to a Democrat senator in my network? Or get some of the impact investors from my friend Anna Blume’s network involved? America might be ready for community insurance solutions now. Stop, not so fast, Desiree…
Who knows if the time is right? I love it how my friends from Java never say no. They say: “Not yet.” There’s is a right time for everything. Slowly, slowly and time will tell…
Honesty
What else did I learn this week? Within Illumination, we’re training ourselves to be nice. Applaud, comment and share. It has its benefits, we are giving each other courage and confidence. But outside of our community, great advice is being given too.
Natalie Frank, Ph.D. gave me a good insight into the negative consequences of just being nice. She wrote an insightful piece about honesty. Medium might become more ethical. No more plagiarism, less copying, no more pleasing just for the sake of it.
Celebrating unique voices is what we should applaud!
How to be honest without hurting? She wrote this illuminating article as well. We don’t have to be mean…
Money
Also in my personal life, there were some aha-moments. We all seem to have troubled relationships with money one way or another, and I’m no exception.
This week, we played Monopoly Junior with our 3 and 4-year-old grandsons. Doubts were clouding my mind. Last time, they both cried. But, in one of my scarce brainwaves, I started focussing on the places they visited instead of the money hoarded.
They now cheered because they visited the playground. Or the zoo. Or the ice cream shop. Paying some money to have great fun is normal, we pointed out. It worked and gave a completely different vibe to the game. And as soon as they got a bit bored, we decided that we all won!
Here are some thoughts on the energy of money. Spoiler alert: when you get in touch with the energy of money, it’s more loving and peaceful then you would think… and check out the work of Sarah McCrum. Fascinating!
Okay, my Illumination friends, this is it for now. This has been a dynamic week full of new finds, international friends, and great opportunities. Looking forward to what comes next!
And my resolution stands. I’ll keep you posted!
Have a great weekend with lots of inspiration. Find your writing power, I’ll gladly be your audience.
If you want to connect, you can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. Or socializing (online) with some of my Bread Fund friends who are builders, beauticians, and accountants…
Thank you, Mike, for adding your wise energy to my words on community.
