the music of a war child

I have been working on a post about the power of words and it's not going...great. When you write about words with words, it doesn't exactly have the umph you think it will...

Anyway, inbetween drafting up a post I started to distract myself with TED talks.

I love TED talks. Like a lot. Every time I listen to one I feel inspired to change the world. I guess that's the point, though, right? People use their words to inspire others to act or think differently.

Maybe one person out of the thousands who hear the talk will act, and I would call that a success.

Anyway, while grasping for inspiration on what to write, I saw this video.

We all have preconceived notions about war, refugee, child solider. Upon hearing or reading these words, it is natural to have a response. Most of the time that response is a negative one. Rightfully so. But I would challenge you to watch this and take heart. Instead of sadness and despair, choose hope next time you think about one of those words.

And so, I need you to watch this video. But before you click to watch (and it will be worth it), I need highlight some things to be mindful of.

• Many times, TED talks are watched by upper middle class educated yuppies & idealistic college students, therefore when the music gets going at the end, watch the audience instead of Emmanuel. Watching the audience in bewilderment, struggling to figure out how to move their arms and bodies in sync with a beat may have been one of my favorite moments of the whole video.
• Also, note the woman taking video of the performance, find her and let her know TED talks are already video taped. But thank her for giving the TED camera guys that really sweet, unfocused, focused, unfocused shot. You'll see...
• be encouraged
• choose hope
• pray, everything he describes is a tragedy. If it doesn't break your heart, you are not listening. 
• want to get involved? let's chat.

I tried to embed the video. It didn't work, so just click here.

motivation

This morning while I was running swimming through the city, I saw a man sitting on a wall. I saw him about the time my salty sweat had just started to drip in to my eyes, burning with every blink. This is actually a blessing while I'm running because I'm not thinking about how much I want to die, instead I'm thinking, "Why aren't my eye brows working? I need to get a sweat band. How can I possibly make this look good?"

Anyway. I saw this guy. He was an older gentleman and had on a bright, highlighter bright, orange shirt. He was sitting on the wall outside of a big beautiful church and he smiled at me.

 I guess this is when I should mention when I run I do NOT smile, mostly I look super angry. I'm working on it.

But this time, I smiled back and then I looked at his shirt "Running sucks". HA I need that shirt.

Thank you sir, for making me feel not so alone on my run. Thank you for making me laugh. My morning motivation.