Sunday, January 29, 2012

Embracing Otherness...


   This week in class we read and watched a speech given by actress Thandie Newton titled “Embracing Otherness, Embracing Myself.” She speaks about how as babies we are born knowing where we belonged, who we were essentially, but as we grow up we are implanted with notions in our head about who we are, who and what we will be, how we will get there, and all this that is done subconsciously by our parents and family begins to separate us from being whole into different categories, characteristics if you will. We’ve all gone through different phases in life where we try to find who we are, we put ourselves in different roles to figure out which ones suit us best.
Eventually we all settle down and become who we are supposed to be given our cultural and spiritual backgrounds, but never once do we stop and say “Is that really who I want to be?”
   Thandie Newton does a great job of making you aware of the process that has occurred from when you were a child to your adult life now and really makes you wonder, have I found my essence? I encourage you all to follow the link and watch the video and really listen to the message she is giving.




And so we begin...

   Live, Laugh, Love. We’ve all heard the saying; we’ve seen the message written on picture frames and wall art, but how many of us have actually read the words and applied it to our lives? Christmas 2011 I was given a picture frame with these sayings on it “Live in wonder, Love with your whole heart, Laugh out loud” and I hung it in my bedroom. After waking up and seeing those words day after day I figured, “Why not take these simple words, and turn them into a way of living?” So I did, and it opened up the world to me in a way that I had never seen it before.
   Things that had no significance to me have become important. Over time I adapted the word learning to my newly found way of living, which I now call “Live, Laugh and Learn.” There are so many things out in the world that we don’t expose ourselves to, but if we never try it how will we know whether we enjoy it or not? And what would it hurt to try?  I invite you to open your eyes a little wider and see everything that this world has to offer you. When you live in wonder, love with your whole heart, laugh out loud, and open your mind to learning and experiencing new things, you’d be surprised by what you might discover.