Living la Vida Fearless
Weekly Edition
January 22, 2007

Collaboration

I started what would become a new hobby in November last. I didn't intend on this becoming a hobby and I am guessing some of you will read this and think..."That's a hobby?" Well, for me it is and I'll tell you why. What does this have to do with collaboration? Wait and see. Read on my friends, read on...
In November I turned on my radio to CBC on a Saturday night at 7pm and, to my delight, I head a familiar voice on the other end. Not that I knew this person as a friend or anything but certainly a voice I had been listening to since I was a teenager. (yes they had radio back then!) To my delight I learned that Randy's Vinyl Tap, which was the show I was listening to, was a weekly event: same time, same place every Saturday.
What I love about the show is the obscure stuff Randy, and his lovely wife Denise McCann Bachman create on the show. Each week has a theme and each week there are great and wonderful surprises for us audiophiles.
Well, week one was really enjoyable. Week two was thought provoking as it was around the Remembrance Day theme and how the world of war has evolved since the 1960s...by week three I was hooked. I actually made plans to have my glass of red wine ready, the phone turned off, the radio set at the proper station and my calendar cleared to be able to pay full attention to the show.
Here's the thing about all of this that I liked so much. It's a down to earth, fun, interesting program that covers lots of musical genres and styles and gives the listener things to think about AND their music collection is pretty vast.
The theme of the show this past weekend was all about collaborations and that got me thinking...So, out for my walk I went and began to muse, as I am wont to do, about collaborations and what they mean to me.
In the online Wikopedia dictionary collaboration is defined as "referring abstractly to all processes wherein people work together- applying both to the work of individuals as well as larger collectives and societies."
In my circle, and in my part of the world, I have come to realize how much collaboration affects what we do and who we show up as in the world. The collaboration of ourSELVES with ourSELVES is the first, and most important, collaboration. How we see ourselves is how others see us and that affects everything else that happens doesn't it? In a larger capacity the concept of six degrees of separation comes to mind with collaborations. You know somebody who knows somebody and they know a mutual friend...and so it goes..
The work that I do requires that I go out and meet up with people on a regular and consistent basis. It's important to me that they see a person of integrity, humour, honesty and pure desire for the well being and success of all living creatures in our world. The more people I meet the more I realize everything is connected. You may feel like you are alone but, believe me, you are not. I have traveled to other countries and connected with people who know a friend of a friend, or who lived on the same street as my family or who grew up in the same town as my folks....It's a big/small world...
So, Randy's Vinyl Tap, and collaborations: Our daughter lives on the west coast. The show is taped on the west coast. The hosts live on the same island my daughter does. I emailed Denise McCann Bachman after one show just to tell her how much I liked what they did. In the letter I mentioned my daughter and the place on which she had finally settled. They knew the owner of the property she was staying on. They knew him quite well in fact. Big/small world. So, in motherly fashion, I asked Ms. Bachman to just keep an eye open for our daughter...make sure she was warm and safe if she didn't mind and you know what: she emailed me back saying she would. Mother heart to mother heart. I was beyond grateful.
That's the thing about collaborations. They make life easier. You come to realize that we are all connected and that things don't have to be so hard.
I was at a meeting once and the person running the workshop asked each person if they knew of at least 100 people. Depending on our ages we knew at least that many people, some lots more than that. There were over 100 people in that room...That meant that, just by meeting each of those people, and connecting with them, I had the opportunity to collaborate with thousands of people...! Just like that...
Collaborations of the heart are the future of the world. Collaborations of soul to soul energies ...Give it a chance folks: you never know where this could end up.
I have met with a few people this week that have reinforced my belief in collaborations, which I also refer to as the law of attraction, and I am going to include their links in this story. Check them out if you wish to do so AND next Saturday, tune your radio station to CBC Radio at 7pm Toronto time for the next issue of Randy's Vinyl Tap. You won't regret it.
What about you? Do you have any great things brewing that could be made easier with some collaborations? Do you have a great story that you could share? Do you have an idea that you think could work but aren't sure how to get it started? Does anything call out to you but you're not sure how to make it happen? Want to share some stories here?
So, my latest hobby? Learning to listen, to enjoy the music, to dance when I feel like it, to be spontaneous to the moment and present to the poetry of the passages of my minutes....

Here are the links...
www.randysvinyltap.com
www.momcomeshome.com
www.dollarmakers.com
www.handwriting.ca

Thanks for allowing me to persist with this passion of mine. It is an honour indeed.
Living la vida fearless,
Jan

I started wondering today what people could do with just a little bit of money to help somebody out. For example, if you had a dollar you could buy some lemonade, sell it and make more money then donate the money to a worthy cause. Or if you had ten cents you could go to a second hand shop and buy a small toy to donate to a shelter or an ill child. Or you could take 50 cents and buy a coffee for somebody and sit with them and let them talk for a while. Or you could go to a library used book sale, buy a couple of books and leave them on a park bench for somebody else to enjoy....What do you think? What would you do? Would you do anything? Do you think you have to have a lot of money to help somebody out or can it be just a little bit...? Thoughts? Living la vida fearless, Jan

Living la Vida Fearless
January 9, 2007

I Contact

It has been really warm and sunny here in my neck of the woods, which is really unusual and out of the ordinairy. Although it concerns me very deeply that we have not yet had snow and the ski hills are suffering, I must admit that I do go out and enjoy the weather while we have it.

Judging by the number of people I am seeing while on my journeys I am not alone. It's been interesting doing some people watching while I've been strolling. There's one man who lives in my neighbourhood: not sure where but I see him on his bike whenever I am out walking. He's older than me and he seems a little weathered by life. His concentration on getting his bike from point A to point B is quite focused and he rarely looks up to see what might be in front of him. I'm not sure why but I've made a point of trying to make eye contact with this man as he whizzes past me on his bike and it has worked. He usually has a bit of a grumpy look about him: sort of Eyoreish with his droopy eyes. At first he would just pass me with no notice that I even existed but now when he sees me he actually smiles and says hello. The cool thing is that he has the biggest smile I've ever seen. The lines of his face start from one side and span his entire face. It's lovely to see and I look forward to this grin whenever I see him breezing past me on his bike. I hope he shares this smile with everybody and not just a few of us.

I always look people in the eye but I've made some observations on these walks: some musings if you will, which I will share with you now.
Other people pass by without even looking up: some kind of, sort of, maybe make eye contact in a hesitating way like it hurts them, and still others just look past me as I walk by. I live in a pretty mulit-cultural area so I know some of this is cultural upbringing. It's impolite to look somebody in the eyes but that's not the case for everybody I meet. That got me thinking, as I am wont to do, about the customs of eye contact within other cultures.

So, I started researching and found out some pretty interesting stuff. Did you know that in Japan keeping eye contact can be seen as disrespectful and could be considered arrogance? Did you know that Europeans tend to consider a lack of direct eye contact as indicating evasiveness? Did you know that direct eye contact among Cree and Ojibway peoples was a sign of disrespect as you would only look your inferiors straight in the eye? So much to learn....so little time.

So today, since there are so many variations, I am going to focus on my culture and what I'm used to.
Where I'm from eye contact is considered a sign of greeting, of making contact with a person, of acknowledging their presence. "Eye contact" and "I contact."
When I greet somebody, or pass them somewhere, I always look them in the eye...Always. That hasn't always been the case but it is now.
So why don't some people do that? People who are from the same culture as me? People who were raised in the same town that I was? I think it's all about the "I contact." They don't want to be seen, they're afraid of something, or someone, and they're hiding behind their eyes. If they don't look at me perhaps I won't notice them. I wonder what it could be that keeps them looking away, or down, or staring straight ahead?
So, here's the thing...I wish them well and, if they ever looked up, I'd offer a great big smile like the guy on the bike...He makes me smile even as I sit here and write.

What about you? Do you always look people in the eyes? Do you make "I contact" with those you meet? What's it feel like to do that? What would it feel like if somebody told you that making eye contact wasnt' allowed anymore? Wouldn't that be weird? Thoughts?

Oh, and in keeping with a theme from a recent party I attended, if you ever see a bear in the wild DO NOT look it in the eyes...apparently that is a direct sign of aggression and that's just not a good thing anytime at all....

Thanks for listening.

Living la vida fearless,

Jan