One Wild Life’s Traction.
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One of the many nice things about launching a book is that you never know where it may end up. Over the last year, I’ve know of copies of One Wild Life strewn across coffee tables from San Fransisco, to Kenya, from Hong Kong to South Africa. Hey, they even got as far as Roscommon. I’ve delivered copies into the hand of our former president, Mary Robinson, and seen it be delivered to our current president, Mary Mc Aleese.
I hoped all along that the book would make traction, into the mind and hearts of a wide variety of people: young people setting out on their journey’s; and people of influence, who can help make things happen. But at the time that I launched, I just hoped that it would have a ripple effect, but even with coaxing and promotion, I could never be fully sure.
I had confirmation recently however when I found out that One Wild Life is now part of the reading list on Trinity College’s School of Business. Denise Crossan, a lecturer in Social Entrepreneurship in the university, has been a keen and welcome supporter and tells me the book has become a useful teaching aid in the social entrepreneurial classroom. This makes me smile! I’ll be speaking to a group of the MSc students later this month, talking about some of the project profilled.
It is a lesson again. Sometimes you just have to put things out into the world. They may work, they may not. But you have to try. As I consider my next moves, it is a useful reminder of the spark and motivation that catalysed One Wild Life in the first place. I may have written a book, but I now also have lessons that will last a lifetime, and a renewed hope that the ripple effect may continue…
Painting the town green
Posted by admin | Filed under development
Time to get those shamrocks dusted off. Yes, that time of year again when the Suas facepainters take to streets across the nation and paint the towns green.
Suas are looking for a new swarm of facepainters this year in Dublin Cork and Galway to come out on St. Patrick’s day and help to raise money for their partners in India.
It is a great way of experiencing St. Patrick’s day, and give something back as you do.
You can sign up online here
International Women’s Day
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It’s international women’s day today. In honour of all the lovely female readers out there, I’d like you all to stand up tall in front of a mirror, breathe deep, and take a moment to cheer the woman inside. Smiling helps too!
The light, as well as the dark
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Sometimes you just have to wander. Stepping outside today, into one of the brightest of the year, it was not the light I found myself interested in, but it’s interaction with what we take as given, as solid. Where light fell on gates and trees and grass there was beauty, but what I found more intriguing, more satisfying, was where the shadows were cast, and the resulting formations of light and dark. The shadows are transient, unreal, intangible. You can not pick then up or up put them down. They only last until the moment the sun moves on, when a new pattern is created and a new image. The camera then captures intensities, angles and form in a way that nature may never again be able to recreate. And that I think is something of beauty.
Upcoming Speaking Engagements
Posted by admin | Filed under 'one wild life', Social Entrepreneurship, development
I’ll be out and about over the next little while- and you will be able to catch me here:
UCD Volunteers. Introduction to Development. March 6th
Trinity College MSc International Management: On Social Entreprenuership and ‘One Wild Life’. March 22nd
Suas Global Issues Series: DCU. Education & Development. April 13th
India and Kenya wanderings..
Posted by admin | Filed under Photography
Spring has Sprung
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Spring has sprung. I saw the first daffodils peeping up their regal yellow crowns the other day, and the days are feeling lighter and brighter.
It was a long winter, and for those of you who follow my blog you may have thought I had gone into hibernation. To an extent I had, with duvet nights and books to curl into to, but I’d also had some busy days, working again with Suas, this time with a communications had on. I took lots of photos, and made, what I think and hope, are some funky little short films to tell the story of the organisation, which you can view here. It was fun learning new editing and film skills, and I’m happy to have been able to add some tools to my box of tricks. (Thanks must go to Sam Whelan Curtain who became my editing partner in crime)
My camera took me on some more interesting days out too, with portrait sessions, and the occassional wander- just to see how the light and day were working off each other in their particular ways.
One Wild Life continues to pop its own head up, bringing me into schools, libraries, universities and back on the national airwaves to tell the story of the book, all of which enables me to met a wide group of people interested in social change, which warms even a cold heart. (One Wild Life remains on sale in bookshops around the country, on collinspress website and on Amazon). I’m still in touch with lots of the people who were interviewed in the book, and it is exciting to be able to continue to follow their stories, through the ups and the downs, the swings and the turns.
It has been a challenging time for many people and organisations over the last year. Budgets have gone into topspin, the ‘climate’ has congealed into something altogether murky, confidence in the way forward has stumbled at crossroads, and signposts seem to have been moved. Questioning seems to be happening at many levels- government, civil society, school boards, local partnerships. And deeper still, into the mind and hearts of people, questioning their values, their roles, their futures. The questioning is not easy, but I do think it is necessary.
On a personal level it has been about making peace with both my demons and my dreams. There had been doubts, there have been setbacks, and all the while I’ve been coaxing myself into letting go of the things which curtail, the things which anchor us to places in the past. And to do all of that it requires us to hold mirrors to ourselves, to ask ourselves honestly, and truthfully what it is that we really want to do, to create. With honesty comes realness, and with realness come authenticity. It’s no easy mandate, but to be this game for the long haul, to honestly and truthfully try to make a lasting difference, authenticity of action is essential.
I was a little early for an appointment yesterday, so darted into a bookshop to whirl away some minutes. I was drawn to the children’s section (as I frequently am!), and picked up Oliver Jeffers beautiful, colourful little tome, ‘The Heart and the Bottle’ It is simple. It is lovely. And it’s simple, lovely message stuck a chord. It is about a little girl, full of the curiosities of the world, who takes her heart out and places it in a glass bottle around her neck only to find that the world no longer seems so lovely or so bright. And the message, for me at least, was about maintaining our vital connection to the heart so we can see the richness and wonder that the world is.
Spring feels like a natural time to reconnect with wonder, and for plotting and scheming new ideas. My feet seem to be perpetually itchy, so I’m hoping they’ll get a chance to bring my brain and camera off on some adventures this year.
By the way, for those of you in the Development sector, medical sector or generally interested in how the international aid community words, I read a whopper of a book over the last few weeks, ‘The Wisdom of Whores’, by the feisty and eloquent Elizabeth Pisiani, which got me thinking about the who business of development in new and necessary ways. Highly Recommended!
And here are some of my favourite photos from the last few months, taken mainly on a whistle stop tour of India and Kenya. I’ll add more with time too.
So Why do you do what you do?
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The WDYDWYD? portraits series (seen below) is part of a global community arts projects, created by Tony Deifell (who I met on my travels, and profiled in One Wild Life).
You too can be part of the project. Have a look at the portraits online at www.wdydwyd.com and consider posting your own reply.
Thanks must go to Tony for the great idea and the impulse to take it further.
WDYDWYD?
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So, why do they do that they do? Some Social Entrepreneurs Ireland 2009 Awardees respond.
Social Entrepreneurs At Large
Posted by admin | Filed under Photography, Social Entrepreneurship
Over at Social Entrepreneurs Ireland this week, the 2009 batch of awardees were announced.
31 innovators were given pride of place at the Annual SEI Awards, which was attended by the President Mary McAleese. They are once again some amazing people, leading amazing, necessary and innovative projects. If you have a few minutes to space, I recommend having a gander through their profiles which you can read here
To top it off, the awards took place in a wonderful rennovated Georgian, brought back to life by Social Entrepreneur Paul Mooney over in Jobcare and his fantastic, brave and determined team in the TRASNAprogramme for ex-offenders. This may sound over dramatic, but I literally had hairs standing on the back of my neck when the team went on stage to meet the President- it got me thinking about the individual journey they must have been on to get them to that point in their lives, and the commitment and courage it must have taken to get there.
It was also great too to see my current batch of ‘Why do you do what you do?’ portraits surrounding the walls. Here are a few samples, and you can see the remainder back on the SEI website.
And you can have a look at a lovely little introductory video at this link:
And there is also a great video about Trasna available here
