If you are from Great Britain as you read this newsletter this morning you may well have a new spring in your step, your spirit may well be uplifted and you may well be ready to tuck into your work with renewed vigour and purpose having seen the first of what will hopefully be many gold medals draped around the shoulders of your fellow compatriots fulfilling a great many dreams in the process. You may well be inspired to achieve similar for yourself in the future or the equivalent in your own profession too. A great many others of us around the world may well have experienced this already in this Olympic games.
What our athletes achieve is inspirational for us, especially when we hear that 4 years ago some of them hadn't even considered success within the realm that they have now been lauded. Helen Glover, Team GB's new rowing starlet hadn't even sat in a boat as the last Olympiad drew to a close and it was only by signing up to a 'Sporting Giants' program led by Sir Steve Redgrave that fate started to turn towards her. Proof if ever it were needed that we all have the ability to transform ourselves for the better, becoming more suitably aligned to our talents and so securing our future success.
In the opening ceremony of the London 2012 games we were greeted with a plethora of inspiration through the vision of Danny Boyle and how he and the Olympic committee had chosen to illustrate what it meant to truly 'Inspire A Generation'.
There had been much debate before the games as to who would light the Olympic cauldron be it Sir Steve Redgrave himself, David Beckham, Roger Bannister or Daley Thompson but in a stroke of genius we witnessed a truly moving sequence of events where the torch was handed over from such sporting deity, the elders of the Olympic community, to 7 potential (but as yet unheard of) stars of the future. They in turn were the ones to ignite the 204 petal fires that represented all the countries taking part in the games. Plumes of light that could be appreciated for their individual uniqueness but when coming together created one amazing flower of flame.
By acting out the ceremony that they performed they were reenacting a ritual that has been held and preserved within the cultures of the indigenous since time immemorial. The flame that burns bright at the centre of all their communities represents the light of at least 7 future generations and the health and well being of the Earth itself that we must hand on to them in at least as good, if not better state then that which we received it.
Was it only me that had tears in his or her eyes when I saw England's green and pleasant land symbolically ripped up and replaced by those dark satanic mills? Surely in the future a more healthy balance needs to be restored, that is what I personally hope for within the symbolism of the passing of the flame.
The time has come to embrace this inspiration within our every day lives and to be inspiring, we have a responsibility to welcome this ethos into our communities and businesses in order to properly pass that torch forward. We have to look for new ways of approaching all of our professions so that we can be seen to be inspirational. Making less money and profit out of conflict and war, where we hold our subjects and planet to ransom and find a place for solutions, forgiveness, compassion and togetherness, collaborating to form peaceful resolution within ourselves, with others and the Earth as a whole.
I shall leave you today with two particularly inspiring initiatives not too unlike the Sporting Giants program that I have come into contact with in the last two weeks that I believe are attempting to embrace this concept of 'inspiring a generation' and so are automatically changing the future for the better.
'Talking Young Men' is an endeavour by Encounters Arts and Devon's Youth Offending Team who have taken teenage boys that have had a troubled existence to date committing anti-social behaviour and crime from an early age and given them an opportunity to embrace an alternative. Through understanding, compassion and forgiveness, offering a listening ear, creative therapy and reconnecting them with nature they are transforming their lives for the better, the results are staggering.
'Landworks' is another project being run by the Dartington Estate that is attempting to do similar with serial offenders, offering them an alternative when coming out of prison if they have the desire to change for the better, enrolling people on a 6 month program to train in landscape construction again reconnecting people with nature. They are offering the same levels of support, compassion and forgiveness. The success stories of which are already proving inspiring. Begging the question what can we do ourselves too for the better?
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