Every day at work I listen to music or podcasts for a few hours at a time. In the past few weeks I've been listening to more and more TED Talks (audio podcast), and while I've always learned something new or gained a new perspective when I listened to these talks, today I happened upon something more.
Today I listened to probably 10-12 talks in the space of about 3 hours, and in this random set of talks I noticed a few intertwining themes: Creativity, Love and Gratitude (and Children).
The first talk I listened to was by a scientist who argued the importance of science and play. He did an experiment with the help of a group of children, who used their own imagination and curiosity to come up with a completely novel experiment about complex thinking in bees. They then designed the experiment, executed it, and even wrote about it (with the help of some adults of course). Plus, they got it published.
There were two talks about orphans and foster children. One man presented his own story as a misunderstood and mistreated foster child and how it led him to poetry; and a woman talked about the large child institutions all over Europe that could be replaced with smaller, more loving and nurturing, local homes.
A woman talked about growing up with her two autistic brothers. How they weren't less than anyone else, or even ordinary like anyone else, but extraordinary, something I can very much relate to. The importance of celebrating differences.
One speaker told the stories of artists who ultimately found their creativity in unconventional ways: by letting go of everything they knew, or by finding beauty in pain and tragedy.
A young woman told how the only way she communicated with her mother while she was in college was via mail. Later on when she found herself deep in depression, she coped by spreading love instead, by leaving love letters for strangers to find. And through this she launched herself into a global initiative of connecting people through letters of love.
Another woman created a giant community chalkboard and asked her neighbors to fill in the blank: "Before I die I want to...", prompting people to think about their secrets, wishes and hopes, and share them with their community.
There were a few more about thinking/creating outside the box; helping others not by imposing but by listening; and what makes us happy.
The last talk I listened to was called Nature. Beauty. Gratitude. Louie Schwartzberg, a cinematographer, talks about how he started out in time-lapse photography. The beauty of watching a flower grow and bloom all in a few moments, the beautiful and powerful way in which nature brings us gratitude.
He shares a new project of his, Happiness Revealed in which we hear the wisdom of a child and an old man (a monk I believe). As I listened to the young girl talk about the importance of exploration and imagination, and the beauty that they reveal to us, I thought back to the first talk in which a young girl shared so eloquently how a scientific experiment was brought about simply through the imagination and curiosity of children. Then I thought, wow, these kids are brilliant.
The old man in the video then talks about the importance of living in the day.
"Live as if it's the first day and the very last day."
"Open your eyes...look at the faces of the people that you meet. Each one has an incredible story behind their face."
I thought I was probably missing out on some visual aspect of this talk, so I went back to watch it and it was stunning. If you don't read any other part of this post, watch this video:
http://www.ted.com/talks/louie_schwartzberg_nature_beauty_gratitude.html
This last talk made me think about the other talks I had listened to today, how they were in small ways related and what I could learn from them. The motto of TED talks is Ideas Worth Spreading. I learned something from the talks I listened to and I think some of that is worth spreading and sharing with you. Some of these things might seem trivial or obvious, but I think it's still important to be reminded of them:
use your imagination. explore. push your boundaries. create.
LOVE. love yourself. love others. love strangers. share that love.
find the extraordinary in everyone. find beauty in nature. find beauty in tragedy.
find happiness.
"be grateful for every day."
Today I listened to probably 10-12 talks in the space of about 3 hours, and in this random set of talks I noticed a few intertwining themes: Creativity, Love and Gratitude (and Children).
The first talk I listened to was by a scientist who argued the importance of science and play. He did an experiment with the help of a group of children, who used their own imagination and curiosity to come up with a completely novel experiment about complex thinking in bees. They then designed the experiment, executed it, and even wrote about it (with the help of some adults of course). Plus, they got it published.
There were two talks about orphans and foster children. One man presented his own story as a misunderstood and mistreated foster child and how it led him to poetry; and a woman talked about the large child institutions all over Europe that could be replaced with smaller, more loving and nurturing, local homes.
A woman talked about growing up with her two autistic brothers. How they weren't less than anyone else, or even ordinary like anyone else, but extraordinary, something I can very much relate to. The importance of celebrating differences.
One speaker told the stories of artists who ultimately found their creativity in unconventional ways: by letting go of everything they knew, or by finding beauty in pain and tragedy.
A young woman told how the only way she communicated with her mother while she was in college was via mail. Later on when she found herself deep in depression, she coped by spreading love instead, by leaving love letters for strangers to find. And through this she launched herself into a global initiative of connecting people through letters of love.
Another woman created a giant community chalkboard and asked her neighbors to fill in the blank: "Before I die I want to...", prompting people to think about their secrets, wishes and hopes, and share them with their community.
There were a few more about thinking/creating outside the box; helping others not by imposing but by listening; and what makes us happy.
The last talk I listened to was called Nature. Beauty. Gratitude. Louie Schwartzberg, a cinematographer, talks about how he started out in time-lapse photography. The beauty of watching a flower grow and bloom all in a few moments, the beautiful and powerful way in which nature brings us gratitude.
He shares a new project of his, Happiness Revealed in which we hear the wisdom of a child and an old man (a monk I believe). As I listened to the young girl talk about the importance of exploration and imagination, and the beauty that they reveal to us, I thought back to the first talk in which a young girl shared so eloquently how a scientific experiment was brought about simply through the imagination and curiosity of children. Then I thought, wow, these kids are brilliant.
The old man in the video then talks about the importance of living in the day.
"Live as if it's the first day and the very last day."
"Open your eyes...look at the faces of the people that you meet. Each one has an incredible story behind their face."
I thought I was probably missing out on some visual aspect of this talk, so I went back to watch it and it was stunning. If you don't read any other part of this post, watch this video:
http://www.ted.com/talks/louie_schwartzberg_nature_beauty_gratitude.html
This last talk made me think about the other talks I had listened to today, how they were in small ways related and what I could learn from them. The motto of TED talks is Ideas Worth Spreading. I learned something from the talks I listened to and I think some of that is worth spreading and sharing with you. Some of these things might seem trivial or obvious, but I think it's still important to be reminded of them:
use your imagination. explore. push your boundaries. create.
LOVE. love yourself. love others. love strangers. share that love.
find the extraordinary in everyone. find beauty in nature. find beauty in tragedy.
find happiness.
"be grateful for every day."
