Where are the LOHAS practicioners in our community?

Yesterday, our blog received quite some external interest from the LOHAS blog.

What are LOHAS? LOHAS=Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability

What is our contribution as the Imagine Community to the LOHAS movement?

Blog Action Day tomorrow

What would you impart in a final, farewell lecture?

Randy Pausch, a 46-year-old computer-science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, has terminal cancer and expects to live for just a few more months. He gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium.

His lecture touched upon lessons learned throughout his life. He gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. It was incredibly inspiring.

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from the lecture:

“Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want things.”

“It is not about how you achieve your dreams, it’s about to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.”

“Wait long enough and people will almost always surprise and impress you.”

“You value an experience, if you get what you don’t want.”

Full transcript

Full video

Conversations for Change

Through the online Presencing classroom, I have “met” Deborah Goldblatt who is the initiator and director of the Youth Dialogue Project. I have just watched the 16min video about this inspiring project and would like to share it with you:

IMAGINE Community Events # 1

# Oct. 12-14: Stratagem – Sustainability simulation
# Oct. 17-20: Art of Hosting integral
# Oct. 19: CSR UN-Ltd.
# Nov. 09-11: Workshop “Beruf-Berufung”
# Nov. 18-24: Sustainability Winter School
# Dec. 01-08: Pioneers of Change Global Journey, Brasil
# Jan. 11-13: Imagine 2008

# Every Monday: We Are What We Do: 50 actions in 50 weeks

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More info in the IMAGINE community

Presencing Global Classroom - self stakeholder dialogues

This week, I have used the second exercise from the online course in order to invite 3 stakeholders from self Germany for a dialogue around their objectives and relationship to self.

2 stakeholders followed the invitation so far and I conducted 2 phone interviews: one with a member of the co-operative and one with a friend who has given a personal guarantee for the loan that self will get from the GLS-Bank.

Personal observations/conclusions include:

• The Voice of Cynicism was trying to play games with me and it slipped through once but I managed to keep it out of the conversation for the rest of the conversation.
• I was listening during the conversation for questions to emerge.
• Once we had reached the last question of the outline “What would be the practical next steps?”, I felt that this was not the end of the conversation, I paused, and I asked another question we often use in Pioneers of Change dialogues: “After this conversation, what is your burning question now?”
• And this question actually brought up the key insight for the whole conversation.
• After the first interview, the interviewee made a comment that I hear from a few people lately: “This is a simple process with most elements not being new. A normal consultant can come up with such a process.” How do I deal with this comment? Why is this process so fascinating and engaging for me?
• During the first conversation, I connected the conversation to my current process of defining my role as “Initiator & Facilitator of Change Networks” and to develop a social pioneer Unfolding Cards game.
• In the second interview, I took the personal burning question from the first interview to continue the dialogue among self stakeholders.

The full interviews will be posted on the selfHUB blog within the next few days…

Free Burma

Dear Imaginers,

An international collective blogging action is happening today, and may give some impetus to the 15th October environment blog action focus.

Have you heard about the crisis in Burma?

Burma is ruled by one of the worst military dictatorships in the world. Last month Buddhist monks and nuns began marching and chanting prayers to call for democracy. The protests spread and hundreds of thousands of Burmese people joined in — but they’ve been brutally attacked by the military regime.

I just signed a petition calling on Burma’s powerful ally China and the UN security council to step in and pressure Burma’s rulers to stop the killing. The petition has exploded to over 500,000 signatures in a few days and is being advertised in newspapers around the world, delivered to the UN Security Council, and broadcast to the Burmese people by radio. We’re trying to get to 1 million signatures this week, please sign below and tell everyone!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/tf.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK

This image is one of a few of this kind being placed in ads in China this week.

Thank you so much for your help!
Sofia

More info to take part in the action:
Go to www.free-burma.org. You will be able to register as a participant of the campaign and keep up to date.

A child imagines…