Every Friday is Gratitude Friday here at Monk at Work — a chance for me to express my gratitude to sources of richness I’m experiencing, with the intention of sharing the wealth.
Changing the World
This was a real eye-opening week for me, when it comes to ideas. I followed a recommendation on Netflix and watched “The Future We Will Create: Inside the World of TED”, TED being the “Technology Entertainment Design” conference held every year in Monterey, California.
But don’t let the strange title confuse you; this was a great documentary about a fantastic group of visionaries who come together every year to share ideas, join resources, and make amazing things happen for the betterment of the world. It was pretty darn inspiring.
The talks of all the speakers are up at ted.com, and here’s one that really got my juices flowing, by Alex Steffen of worldchanging.com:
One of my favorite moments comes near the end, when Alex says, “The tools we use to change the world ought to be beautiful in themselves.”
(If you’re on Facebook (I am), there’s even a TED group to check out…)
Free Music!
And speaking of expanding your horizons, I found a very interesting music site, called eMusic. I found some great world music, some real off-the-beaten-path kinda stuff, that I haven’t seen anywhere else before (they’ve got all genres, not just international…) And check this out: “Any new customer has up to 14 days to download 25 MP3s, absolutely free of charge.” Cool, huh? Go check them out and get your 25 free songs, it’s pretty cool. (Normally, their songs are about $0.33 each, so they’re a great find.)
Great people, great sites, great causes
Continuing my trip around the virtual world, I got introduced to some great bloggers and sites this week, which is always one of the greatest things about what I do.
Rosa Say of Managing with Aloha
Anna Talerico of No More Landing Pages and Ion Interactive
Siona at Zaadz (And if you’re into Zaadz and Facebook, there’s a Zaadz Facebook group, too)
Valeria Maltoni of Conversation Agent
ZeroFootprint (and their Facebook group)
Images by me, TED, and emusic.
And thanks to all those who commented on the previous post so far: Dailytri, Jean Browman, Stuart Baker
Adam Kayce is a website designer and educator, ex-intuitive, and CrossFit enthusiast.
July 27, 2007, 12:23 pm
Aloha Adam, this has been a joyful week as we get to know each other! You have been in my gratitude journal too. I started the practice as my personal commitment to living the Hawaiian value called mahalo— appreciation, gratitude, and thankfulness for each and every element making our lives most precious to us. At times my list makes it to my blog, and so I love that you have made it a weekly ritual here so we can share in this with you. However I find I get the most reward from it in a private and simple way; I think of my GJ as my “evening pages,” writing about a list of three to five blessings I am most grateful to have lived that day. As the last thing I do before bed, it’s become a wonderful way for me to fall asleep each night in total peace with my world.
July 27, 2007, 12:48 pm
Adam, great find on that TED video clip; I’ll be sharing it with the Joyful Jubilant Learning community too. Fresh cup of coffee in hand, I watched it after leaving my first comment for you, and I agree with you about his beautiful tools - just imagine if those “intuitive seeds” could be used for the landmines of human emotion and need. Our future is now.
July 27, 2007, 3:35 pm
My two items were a lot closer to home. The first was going to a meeting at our local library one evening. Most of the attendees worked at the library, and at one point they were talking/partially teasing one woman about her grumpiness with them. (She has fibromyalgia as well as other health problems.)
In fact, I’ve always found her to be extremely friendly when I go there. It’s been clear at times she hasn’t been feeling well, but she doesn’t let that get in the way of her attitude to patrons. So I was pleased to have a chance to share that piece of information. Her supervisor appreciated it, and I’m grateful I had the chance.
The other was getting $70 in local Chamber of Commerce checks as a thank you present for helping with the Harry Potter vacation school. I’m a member of the local Friends of the Shelter and gave the checks to a local pet store that does a lot for the animals at the shelter. They’ll be spent for leashes, toys, etc. An easy and fun way to thank the store as well as support the animals.