epiphanies heard ’round the world…well, at least it’s possible.
Mar.8.10

What an amazing time we live in…think about it…technology like YouTube, iTunes, Facebook, MySpace, Skype, email, texting, and yes of course, the ever-growing number of blogs out there have completely changed the landscape of the way we live, in a very short amount of time really…I know there is the argument that our lives have sped up too much because of it all, and that we are more isolated in some ways because of it – we aren’t forced to go engage with human beings because we can communicate via computer in so many instances…but in a lot of ways our technology has allowed us to be more connected…we are definitely able to connect and communicate with our compadres in other parts of the world…that’s why it was always so important for me to do a website with my interviews living on it. We could take the project and reach out all over the country and world and see:  how are we all alike?  how are we different?  do we have the same kind of epiphanies?  can we learn from each other and share wisdom no matter what our background, nationality, age, profession and walk of life?

So far, the answer for me is a resounding ‘YES.’  Here is an example how a gentleman from Kenya reached out to share his epiphany – and he did it through Facebook… we could not have reached out to him on the other side of the globe nor he us without the technological world we live in now…more and more our world is shrinking with technology and we are realizing we are more of a real community – a global community.  As Erastus says, we are a ‘Nation of Us.’  We are very unique and different as people and in our experiences, yet we are all very much the same.  This project is proving this to be true, at least for me, in a very tangible, very real way.  Perhaps one day we will get to go see the community Erastus Wambugu is helping and impacting because of his epiphany…but the beautiful thing to me is – we are able to know about it…

note: Erastus found me via Ariane de Bonvoisin’s Facebook page, and when I told her that he had found my site through her and written to tell me his epiphany, she wrote him and sent him copies of her book, The First 30 Days of Change.  It is impacting his community and they are ‘waiting in line’ to read it, as you’ll see below!

Excerpts of our Facebook exchange…

Erastus Wambugu November 18, 2009 at 8:27am

Dear Elise.

First I pass my warm greetings all the way from Kenya and let you know that am doing fine. How are you doing? I wish to share with you a small story about my realization I have faced and congratulate you for a wonderful job you are doing.

Being born in the Ghetto, brought up there and still living there has not been an easy ride. After being lucky to attend college and study Photo-Journalism, I had made up my mind that this was the only way to make money and get out of this poverty. I know what it means to go a day without food and looking for a job the whole day without luck.

After finishing college, I had the opportunity to work with a local newspaper for a period of six months, but it went down, and I was back in search for a job without any luck.

I was so stressed and felt down and wondered how I would survive in this world. I had witnessed some of my friends be killed for engaging themselves in crime. With a lot of time at my disposal, I decided to attend a youth forum that was being held in a Community Center after a friend had invited me. Youths communicated different issues they were facing in the community and how they should look for solutions.

I was interested and kept attending and realized that majority of the guys attending the forum during the discussions didn’t have facts about what they were talking about.  Myths about things misled their lives and they lacked role models. So I felt I needed to be laying out the facts of things every meeting by doing research, and when I did this, the guys would respond positively.

I felt the passion of sharing what I knew with my fellow youths and felt passion for being part of a small change in the community.  Some of the guys were even Primary school drop-outs.

Then two years ago, a community radio station was opened and recruited youths from my community to volunteer as presenters and reporters.  I was among the first pioneers of this and continued highlighting different issues affecting the community at large by engaging them in discussions, finding the solutions and inspiring them. The response has been very positive.  The majority of the people living here lack most of the basic needs in life and lack the information necessary to live a moderate life.

Despite not being paid for what I am doing and having to do small odd jobs to be able to survive, I feel great satisfaction when I meet people and they tell me, “Erastus, I didn’t know about that. Can I get this kind of help?” or “What are my rights?”

I wish you a peaceful moment and looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Take care,

Erastus

Elise Ballard November 20, 2009 at 2:03pm

Dear Erastus,

Thank you SO much for sharing this with me. Would you mind if I posted it on my blog? This is beautiful and I am so happy for you and very proud of you. Keep up the good work, and I will be affirming that your work grows and you will be able to make a nice living at it so that you will have even more energy to reach people and make a difference in this great world of ours. Thank you so much for all you do on behalf of all us, Erastus. You are making the world a better, happier place and that benefits every one of us on this planet.

Take care and talk to you soon…

With great respect, Elise

Erastus Wambugu November 21, 2009 at 8:44am

Dear Elise,

It was nice hearing from you and appreciated very, very much for your loving and caring message from your heart as it gives me more encouragement in my daily work.

It’s my pleasure to give you my blessing to post it in your blog and believe it will touch other souls out there to be part of change in this Nation of Us. I will be looking forward to reading your book when it comes out and hope the publisher can use it. I will be praying also for you to have more strength and power to touch more people in your work.

I promise to keep on with my work and am happy to have a friend like you to be able to share with about my work. I will keep you updated about my work and hope you will do the same. I have also posted some photos about our studio. When you have time, please look at them and see for yourself.

As this industry is becoming competitive and to be effective in my work, I am trying to get some assistance so that I can get more education and some equipment to do enough research.

God bless you and take care.

Enjoy your weekend and keep the fire burning.

Erastus

Elise Ballard November 23, 2009 at 12:23pm

Thank you, Erastus. When I post your letter, I will send you a link to the blog. This week America has a holiday called Thanksgiving. We give thanks for all we have in our lives. I am thankful for this technology to make wonderful friends all over the world and touch beautiful souls like yours and I am thankful for people like you, my friend, that help make the world a better place.

I will be in touch soon…take good care…

light and blessings to you,

Elise

Erastus Wambugu November 29, 2009 at 9:22am

Hey Elise,

You are much welcomed Elise, and I was very glad to hear from you and keeping in touch despite your busy schedule. I will be waiting to receive the link and share it with my family and my workmates here in Kenya.

How did the thanksgiving go?

Did you enjoy it?

Here in Kenya we don’t have a thanksgiving holiday but we celebrate it during Easter Holiday and Christmas Holiday as a great moment to meet my relatives who I have not seen during the year and share our experiences. I uphold my African tradition as I have great respect for the family. You are always welcome to ask me any question, and I will honestly answer you.

Thank you for encouraging words during my work in this part of the world.  I am happy being part of this change that I believe in.  Let us continue being part of this wonderful calling and make a beautiful place to live in, my friend, no matter the challenges we might face every day.

I have just finished yesterday a six month training on Paralegalism, and I will be able to actively teach more on Human Rights among the community members that lack this knowledge.

Have you talked with your friend Ariane recently?

Take care and have a memorable moment,

Erastus

Erastus Wambugu January 11 at 6:00am

I wish to start by wishing you happy New Year 2010.  Last year is already gone and behold we are blessed with a new year that will take our lives to the next level.

I hope you are fine and enjoying your moment.  I am still waiting for you to share with me about the link of your blog.  How is your book writing project gone so far? I can’t wait to read it soon.

By the way, Ariane sent me six copies of her book about the First 30 Days.  It has inspired me a lot as I read it, and I have got many comments from the people I shared the book with.

Many people are waiting on the line (to borrow and read it), and I can’t believe the joy in their faces and how they are talking about it.  It has been a great Christmas gift for me, my friends and my neighbors.

What are our plans for this year?

Hope to hear from you soon.

Erastus

Be cool to be cool

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Is Spring Springing? And What the Hummingbird Says…
Feb.25.10

Okay, I admit it…I am a terrible blogger!  I go on spurts and then I get sidetracked with life and okay, I am writing a book!  And filming many of those interviews that will go in the book and on the website, so there’s that, too…but I promised at the beginning of the year that I would be better at this blogging bit and I will continue to keep the faith that I will become regular so thank you for hanging with me on this.  To give you a brief update, this week I interviewed the lovely singer Billie Myers, brilliant actress Bronagh Gallagher, and television producer, Vin Di Bona (America’s Funniest Home Videos creator)…interesting stuff…and we have scheduled interviews with Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia – hello?  I think I read a Wiki entry just about every day!) and Nell Newman of Newman’s Own Organics.  I have a wonderful new assistant, Noel Nicholas, and my first speaking engagement for Epiphany with the beautiful and amazing Ariane de Bonvoisin is happening at the end of March (you can click on the link to read more and I will also post something about that later) … so, anyway, things are clicking right along.  More on all of that later…below is just a musing I had this morning and a quote I found that I find particularly beautiful…

Today is a day in Los Angeles where it feels like spring is on its way…I can open my window in my office and look out onto the huge pine and foliage next door and not even feel like I’m in a city.  It reminds me of last spring and summer when every day I would take a break and stand at this window and watch hummingbirds do their work.  I thought I might have seen one today, though the flowers aren’t out yet, so it seems unlikely – it was probably my wishful thinking… I love hummingbirds because they seem to me to be sort of modern-day fairies.  They’re just somewhat ethereal in nature the way their wings are invisible as they hover and jet around, and their very delicate tiny-ness takes my breath away.

I know many of you or most of you are in cold places right now, still dealing with the tendrils of winter…but that is the beauty of the seasons and cycles in life, I suppose — just when you think you can’t possibly take another minute of it…the sun comes out, the birds start chirping, some green starts peeking out of the bark and the ground, and a hummingbird appears even when there are no flowers to be found…

hang in there with whatever cycle or season you might be going through, and wishing you an early and gorgeous spring…

Legends say that hummingbirds float free of time,

carrying our hopes for love, joy and celebration.

The hummingbird’s delicate grace reminds us that life is rich,

beauty is everywhere, every personal connection has meaning

and that laughter is life’s sweetest creation.

If this were going in my book, this would be the quote:


Life is rich, beauty is everywhere, every personal connection has meaning

and laughter is life’s sweetest creation.

– the Hummingbird

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Choices, choices, choices…
Jan.25.10

Last week, I had the privilege of interviewing Stacey Lannert on the phone.  Stacey has a very complicated story.  Basically, she was incarcerated at age 18 and sentenced to life without parole for shooting and killing her and her sister’s molester after years of abuse.  Their molester was their father.  After serving 18 years in a penitentiary in Missouri, she received clemency and her freedom from prison in 2009 at age 36.  In the past year alone, she has set up a non-profit to help people who have been abused to find their voices and heal, she has been speaking at colleges, training service dogs for the disabled (a skill she developed in prison), and she is also writing a book for Harmony Books.  Our editor introduced us.  Her major goal with all the work she is doing is to help others heal and learn about the choices they have through her story of her experiences and mistakes.

I had emailed Stacey to introduce myself and schedule a phone interview.  She wrote back answering the basic questions I send to everyone I want to interview, which I’m going to paste below.  We eventually spoke about her epiphany in detail and it was fascinating…At one point she said to me something like, “I was thinking I had no choices in prison, all my choices had been taken away from me but then I realized, I may not have a lot of choices but I still have choices – we all do wherever we are…It’s the little choices I can make and be grateful for — like I can pick out what color socks to wear every morning!  It seems ridiculous, but it’s true!  And I can still make the bigger choices that really matter about how I choose to be in every waking moment.  I suddenly understood that I may not ever realize the dreams I had of making a difference in the world outside of prison, but I could still make a difference right where I was.  And that is the inner freedom I found that I am talking about.”

I just can’t quit thinking about those socks…that choosing the color socks you’re going to wear is a choice to be grateful for — am I grateful for all the choices I get to make every day?  That I get to go to the grocery store and choose whatever food I want?  What jeans I put on?  Which restaurant to go to?  What gas station to fill my gas tank at?  Who to spend my time with? Who to vote for?  Which charity to donate money to help Haiti?  What movie to see?  I mean, if you think about it, the list goes on and on and on, doesn’t it?  We are so incredibly blessed and wealthy with choice in this country that not only do we lose sight of how privileged we are to have it in such abundance, but we are almost overwhelmed and confused by it.

Lately this theme of choice is coming up for me…I keep hearing it over and over…and then I hear this epiphany from Stacey. We can always choose to look at any situation, any circumstance, any truth from a different perspective. There is always another perspective.  There is always another viewpoint.  There is always another choice.  You don’t have to feel trapped or hopeless in any situation. Stacey is an amazing example of how we can choose how to feel and see things no matter where we are, no matter what we are doing — and that is the secret to true freedom.

“No matter what the situation is we have a choice, every waking moment is a choice. We choose happiness or sorrow, we choose gain or loss, we choose forgiveness or blame, we choose faith or doubt.  We can choose hope.”

“True freedom is found within, everything else is just geography.”

– Stacey Lannert

– What was your greatest epiphany in life?

Realizing that true freedom is found within, everything else is just geography.

– What led up to it?

I spent 18 years in prison for killing my molester (father). I was sentenced to life without parole when I was 18 years old. I would have spent the rest of my life in the penitentiary but the Governor granted me clemency and I walked out free six days later.

-Did your life change?

Yes. I found true happiness, freedom, and forgiveness within myself.

-If so, did that change or impact others as well?

Yes. People are amazed that spending so much time in a negative atmosphere did not cause me to be bitter but instead instilled compassion, contentment, and peace. They reflect upon their own lives.

– How would you summarize the epiphany or what you learned from it in one or two sentences?

I learned that no matter what the situation is we have a choice, every waking moment is a choice. We choose happiness or sorrow, we choose gain or loss, we choose forgiveness or blame, we choose faith or doubt, we can choose hope.

– Whose greatest epiphany would you like to know about if you could ask anyone in the world?

Dr. Maya Angelou.

Posted in Insights | 1 Comment

Ever had a REALLY bad day (or night)?
Jan.20.10

Yeah, me too.

This quote (yes, by Emerson again) helps…

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

This one by him is pretty great, too.

Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.

And finally, gotta love that I love quoting Emerson, and he said this…

I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.

Brilliant.  Now I’m going to go on with my day working on forgetting and forgiving my blunders and absurdities and not being encumbered by my own nonsense which is not easy, but, thank goodness, is possible (at least eventually…)

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Success…
Jan.18.10

I was going through a bunch of things as I organize for the new year and ran across one of my favorite sayings/poems…They aren’t sure who wrote it – it’s attributed most of the time to Ralph Waldo Emerson but probably a woman by the name of Bessie Stanley wrote it.  It’s kind of like Marianne Williamson’s quote that Nelson Mandela is always credited with, even though both of them say it’s hers!  (It’s this one you might recognize…“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.’ – Marianne Williamson)

Neither Emerson nor Stanley are around any more to verify who definitely wrote this beautiful piece but here it is…

Success

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.


…if I were to give this poem a summary quote like I do for my epiphany interviews it would be,

‘To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived,

this is to have succeeded.’

– Ralph Waldo Emerson or Bessie Stanley

May our days, weeks, and years be full of success…

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