Found this on Pao's Multiply site. Inspiring read.

Warning: Quote overload!!! Here are a few of my favorite lines...

"Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools."

"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default."

"Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes."

"Choosing to live in narrow spaces can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid."

"We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better."

"However self-indulgent they might be, there's an enduring importance to our romantic flights of fancy. We all need them, whether we're walking numbly through our lives, unaware of our desires, or we're on pins and needles, painfully aware of the contrast between our lives and our imaginations every second of the day.

The stories we tell each other, the hopelessly common little tales about laundry piling up and impending deadlines and planned vacations and recalcitrant contractors and petty squabbles with co-workers, never do justice to the richness of our internal lives. Even though we may only recognize some variation on survival mode in each other, even though we mouth trivialities and small talk, inside us there's a kaleidoscope of emotions, a million and one imaginative leaps to faraway places, along with looming questions and unfocused needs and bouts of nostalgia. We carry around three-ring circuses of hope and regret inside, with sad clowns and fat ladies and graceful trapeze artists soaring through the air, even if the rest of the world sees nothing but one lumpy, forlorn-looking tent."

Article found at the ever-inspiring Salon. The rest of the article is here.

By Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto

Sited as one of the Top 10 TV Ads by Time Magazine 2007, with the following write up:

Part of Dove's "Real Beauty" campaign, this commercial shows a wide-eyed little girl being barraged by ads promising to make a woman "younger, smaller, tighter" and ending with the line, "Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does." It's a compelling 60 seconds that makes a gal want to lather up in gratitude. Unfortunately, Dove is owned by Unilever, which advertises its Axe body spray to men using a lingerie-and-stiletto-clad girl rock band called the Bom Chicka Wah Wahs. What do we tell our daughters about that?

Got this from an email and I felt like sharing --with the frentic pace my life is currently in. I'm sure most of you can relate. Don't you just wish we'd all be able to adopt this kind of lifestyle/culture?

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It's been 18 years since I joined Volvo, a Swedish company.

Working for them has proven to be an interesting experience. Any project here takes 2 years to be finalized, even if the idea is simple and brilliant. It's a rule. Globalized processes have caused in us (all over the world) a general sense of searching for immediate results. Therefore, we have come to posses a need to see immediate results. This contrasts greatly with the slowmovements of the Swedish. They, on the other hand, debate, debate, debate,hold x quantity of meetings and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results.

The first time I was in Sweden, one of my colleagues picked meup at the hotel every morning. It was September, bit cold andsnowy. We would arrive early at the company and he would park far away from the entrance (2000 employees drive their car to work). The first day, I didn't say anything, either the second or third. One morning I asked, "Do you have a fixed parking space? I've noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the lot." To which he replied, "Since we're here early we'll have time to walk, and whoever gets in late will be late and need a place closer to the door. Don't you think? Imagine my face.

Nowadays, there's a movement in Europe named Slow Food. This movement establishes that people should eat and drink slowly, with enough time to taste their food, spend time with the family, friends, without rushing. Slow Food is against its counterpart: the spirit of Fast Food and what it stands for as a lifestyle. Slow Food is the basis for a bigger movement called Slow Europe, as mentioned by Business Week.

Basically, the movement questions the sense of "hurry" and "craziness" generated by globalization, fueled by the desire of "having in quantity" (life status) versus "having with quality", "life quality" or the "quality of being". French people, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established 28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their productivity been driven up by 20%.

This slow attitude has brought forth the US's attention, pupils of the fast and the "do it now!".This no-rush attitude doesn't represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress. It means reestablishing family values, friends, free and leisure time. Taking the "now", present and concrete, versus the "global", undefined and anonymous. It means taking humans' essential values, the simplicity of living. It stands for a less coercive work environment, more happy, lighter and more productive where humans enjoy doing what they knowbest how to do. It's time to stop and think on how companies need to develop serious quality with no-rush that will increase productivity and the quality of products and services, without losing the essence of spirit.

In the movie, Scent of a Woman, there's a scene where Al Pacino asks a girl dance and she replies, "I can't, my boyfriend will behere any minute now". To which Al responds, "A life is lived in an instant". Then they dance to a tango. Many of us live our lives running behind time, but we only reach it when we die of a heart attack or in a car accident rushing to be on time. Others are so anxious of living the future that they forget to live the present, which is the only time that truly exists. We all have equal time throughout the world. No one has more or less. The difference lies in how each one of us does with our time. We need to live each moment.

As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans".

Congratulations for reading till the end of this message. There are many who will have stopped in the middle so as not to wastetime in this globalized world.

I think, I'll let the picture do the talking.

What do you guys think? Pretty cool shirt, no? Now if only if it was this easy...

While shopping for my toiletries, I found some Ivory soaps with lovely French quotes on simplifying life.

"Se compliquer la vie, c'est facile. Le genie, c'est de la simplicite."
(Complicating life is easy. The genius is in the simple things.)

"La liberte, c'est vivre dans la simplicite."
(If you want to be free, learn to live simply.)

Damn, why does everything sound so much better in French?

I can't help but be amazed by people who are able to keep their rooms, homes, and office clean, organized & --looking like it's been lifted straight off those home designer magazines. It takes a lot of creativity & some serious discipline.

See, I'm the 'as-long-as-I-think-I-know-where-my-stuff-is' type. I don't take pains in keeping my room neat & orderly. I go for what I call the 'lived-in' look. Something my grandmother would call messy. But I'd like to think of it as organized chaos.

Despite this I can't help but buy the latest home designer magazines or stop by local furnishing stores to check out their wares. A frivolous pursuit perhaps? Or some subconscious longing to organize my life? I'll figure it out later. After I check out that gorgeous side table that would be perfect for our rec room.