Bouncing Back

Day 38 (Saturday 7th January 2017)

38 patients were tested for 26 weeks in April 2016 in Denmark, in a drugs trial that appears to

offer the first breakthrough in treatment for Alzheimer's sufferers. Imaging showed that Liraglutide 

maintained the brain metabolism of sufferers while in those given a placebo it decreased.

We are a week into 2017 - I hope the New Year is treating you well. 

Today's post comes from Helen Green, the Director and founder of Orient8 Consulting Limited, a business that focuses on improving performance and which helps individuals to shift their focus from "what is" to "what could be". Helen herself is an excellent executive coach and able to help individuals and teams, regardless of the challenges - check out the client testimonials on the Orient8 website. Helen has a background in Sales and Marketing for FMCG organisations and she has a genuine interest in understanding what drives behaviours. She has an MsC in Organisational Change, a Postgraduate Certificate in Executive and Business Coaching, a Systemic Team Coaching Certificate and a BSc in Psychology, having studied STEM subjects at A Level. She is well-grounded, commercial, analytical and empathetic. You can connect with her on Twitter (her handle is @orient8you)

It should come as no surprise that Helen is a thinker - her below post is full of observation and all the pictures in Japan were taken and provided by her. It is a piece that will make you, amongst other things, think about power, impact, hope, shame,  war, grief, harm, conscience, courage and resilience. It is personal but simultaneously universal. Thank you Helen.

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Bouncing back

“Resilience is that ineffable quality that allows some people to be knocked down by life and come back stronger than ever. Rather than letting failure overcome them and drain their resolve, they find a way to rise from the ashes.” Psychology Today

New Growth Sprouting Up Through the Ashes of the Spring Prairie Burn by Madison Guy

When I was contemplating what to write for this year’s series, I thought about reviewing my year with its wild ups and downs, but one memory kept coming back to me. I was held, transfixed by what I saw on a holiday to Japan this Autumn, in the delightful city of Hiroshima. It is this that I feel compelled to write about.

My Lonely Planet guide states “Leafy Hiroshima, with its wide boulevards and laid back friendliness, is a far from depressing place. Present day Hiroshima is home to a thriving and internationally minded community and it’s worth spending a couple of nights here to experience the city at its vibrant best.”

We didn’t have a couple of days, unfortunately, just a few hours before we boarded the bullet train back to Kyoto, but in the short time we had there I experienced it as a lively, attractive and friendly city.

Our limited time was largely focussed on the history of the city.

The word Hiroshima will be forever associated with the atomic bomb dropped on the city in 1945.

On the way to the Peace Memorial Museum, we passed the Atomic Bomb Dome. It was built in 1915 by a Czech architect and was the Industrial Promotion Hall until the bomb exploded almost directly above it. Everyone inside was killed, but the building was one of the very few left standing near the epicentre. The shell has been preserved as a memorial and in 1996 it was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site.

In the photograph I took that day, you can see the Atomic Bomb Dome and also the kids walking by. It was a school day and very much business as usual in 2016 Hiroshima.

Matsui Kazumi, Mayor of Hiroshima, wrote these words in the Peace declaration written on August 6^th 2016,

“1945, August 6, 8:15am. Slicing through the clear blue sky, a previously unknown ‘absolute evil’ is unleashed on Hiroshima, instantly searing the entire city. Koreans, Chinese, Southeast Asians, American prisoners of war, children, the elderly and other innocent people are slaughtered. By the end of the year, 140,000 are dead.”

It is estimated that 350,000 people were directly exposed to the bomb.

We visited the Peace Memorial Museum along with a few hundred tourists and probably a couple of thousand Japanese schoolchildren and their teachers.

We silently filed through the various rooms depicting the horrors. The schoolchildren looked at the images and artefacts without saying a word. I cried.

A few moments later, I caught the eye of another tourist. She looked as I felt, shocked, sad, raw. She said something like “it’s terrible. And the kids ………. they are being exposed to all of this……..” I nodded and with anger rising said “and those who really need to come and see this will never come.”

The last image in the main part of the Museum was this one. I stood and stared at it for a very long time.

The words are these; “That Autumn in Hiroshima where it was said ‘For seventy-five years nothing will grow’ new buds sprouted. In the green that came back to life among the charred ruins, people recovered their living hopes and courage”.

Seeds from a tree damaged by the atomic bomb dropped on
Hiroshima have been successfully grown in an Aberdeen park.

The Pull

Day 37 (Friday 6th January 2017)

37 - the number of years that the singer, song writer, poet, painter, Jew and novice Zen monk,
Leonard Cohen was with the record label, Colombia. In 1988, when accepting an award, he
thanked Colombia, saying "I have always been touched by the modesty of their interest in my work."
Leonard was initially a poet, but turned to music as he wanted a better income. He died on 7th November
2016.  He was writing up until the end. His last album, You Want it Darker was released
on his 82nd birthday in October 2016.

Congratulations and welcome to the end of the first week in January. Today is often described as the last day of Christmas - traditionally in my family, midnight tonight is the time by which the decorations have to come down, as tomorrow is Epiphany. However, if you take the 12 Days of Christmas as being literal and the 25th as the first Day, then Christmas should have ended yesterday.

Today's post is a treat - a poem on the theme of emotional care and connection, written by Phil Willcox. Phil is passionate about the power and importance of emotions, having completed a MSc in Emotion, Credibility and Deception. He even ran a conference on Emotion at Work in 2016 and has established a movement, which is gaining in popularity and interest, as people begin to appreciate the impact that emotions have on individuals, business results and interactions within the workplace. He is continuing research into emotions  and their impact and has much science-based information that I am sure he would be glad to share with you.

Phil is the founder and Managing Director of e3 Consultancy Training and Coaching Ltd (e3ctc), a consultancy based in Lincoln, UK, which specialises in training and coaching to enable individuals and organisations to learn and develop. Phil is a regular and supportive voice on Twitter (his handle is @PhilWillcox). 

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The Pull

Like a thread right through me, pulling along

Unknown and unseen, yet saying "let’s go"

The places I visit, the people I meet

It is always there, moving my feet

Sometimes pulling back, fighting the move

Scared, unsure and nervous, saying "This? No!"

Doing things that are new, that make me fall

The movement + the blocks, I don't like at all

It still pulls me though, even if it means to crawl

Getting back up, to go again learn more

Looking back at the hollow, I was there, but now

I’m upright again, even if I’m not sure how

On occasion I run, it doesn't feel like a pull

More a fuel, extra juice to keep moving even more

The run and the fuel, helping reach an amazing height,

At times like these, it was worth the fight

I do wonder though, does it pose me a risk?

Caring this much, giving heart and helping all the time

And it does, really does leave me exposed

But I do it again, and I walk down the road

Working with feeling, and loving it so

I can't turn it off, and leave those occasions

Where people need me, or it is the right thing to do,

Come hollow or height, following my heart and seeing it through.

Awesome

Day 36 (Thursday 5th January 2017)

36 top 40 hits - achieved by the singer George Michael during his lifetime. He died 

peacefully at his home in Goring on Christmas Day 2016. He was an iconic, quintessential

pop star of the 1980's. I had to ask him for help many years ago - I co-organised the

first charity ball in the Natural History Museum, London and he and his former school mate, 

Andrew Ridgeley, who together were the music duo "Wham!", came and helped raised funds, 

as well as behaving very badly on the night, which helped make the evening memorable. RIP.

Today's post is by the ever delightful Bina Briggs. She brightens many people's mornings with her cheery greetings, virtual hugs and smiles. You too can follow Bina on Twitter and benefit from her warmth and wisdom (her handle is @PlainTalkingHR).

Bina has become a regular contributor to the Advent Blogs series. After a medical set back in 2014, she pledged to spend more time with her husband and it is clear, from this year's post, that she remains true to her word. 

As I have got to know Bina socially, I have begun to meet members of her family. I can fully understand why she is so proud and close to them. Be it friends or family, Bina is extraordinarily supportive and she will always give strangers the benefit of the doubt. However, do not mistake her warmth for lack of commercial awareness or an understanding of life's hardships. Her encouraging and cheerful persona hides the struggles she has had to cope with over the years - from being a refugee, fleeing Uganda when Amin persecuted the Asian community in Kampala (not surprisingly, she was a close supported of the Connecting HR Initiative to Uganda in September) to caring for family and loved ones during severe illness. Whatever the task, she does it with willingness and a smile.


Bina is an experienced HR professional who, with Bronwen Philpott, founded and runs Plain Talking HR - a consultancy that provides down-to-earth advice and support. If you are part of a small business that cannot afford the luxury of full-time HR support, then Bina may be just the person you need.

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Awesome

Here I am again, wondering what to write for this year's blog on 'Heights, Hearts and Hollows'.  It is natural for most of us to reflect on the past 12 months as we prepare for and enjoy the festive season and most importantly look forward to 2017.

I'm smiling away quietly as I write this on my iPad on a flight to Poznan, Poland.  It is the 9th Of December and it is that time of the year to visit the family in Poland! On my iPad, I notice that the only time I have written something meaningful has been a blog, every year for the last 3 years! I ended my blog last year by saying" My family around the globe is getting closer by the day, thanks to Social Media and our zest to travel! So all in all, thank you 2015, you have been kind, generous and as a friend says 'awesome' in more ways than one, may that continue into next year and so here's looking forward to a diamond of a year in 2016! AWESOME! 😀 "

Well, the year has certainly been AWSOME awesome in many ways but most of all due to one person in my life. Hubby turned 65 this year in April and to celebrate it as the only way he knows, he entered the toughest series of bike races in the series called ”Red Hook Criterium” this year, racing in Brooklyn on 30^th April, 

London on 9^th July, 

Barcelona on 27^th August and 

Milan on 1^st October. 

He of course has his support team aka, me! 

When Ian rode a couple of these races last year, he knew that most of the riders were in their teens and in their twenties and they were power houses, but that didn’t deter Ian. So, when this year’s series was announced, he entered it straight away. 

As it turned out he was the oldest rider in the series this year. The whole experience of being there, participating, even though knowing that he wasn’t going to qualify to ride in the final session was still exciting for Ian. 

He didn’t crash or abandon any of his races which was a credit to him. Ian fell in love with NYC, so guess where we will be on his next birthday?! 

Each of the races had its specialism because they all brought the local ambience with them. We managed to do a little bit of sightseeing each time, not to mention the shopping. Ian’s zest for travelling and enthusiasm for cycling has brought many lovely people in our lives.

I thought our travelling this year wouldn’t be anywhere near last year’s but hey, I was wrong! We started the year by flying on New Year’s Day to Malaga and revisited it twice more in the year and of course the annual trip to see our “Polish Family” in December, in addition to the races! So, all in all, not bad at all.

This year has brought many “global hollows” for most of us, the uncertainties and the atrocities around the world.

On a personal front, things are changing all the time, I feel at peace with myself, my lot and the world. There are always challenges but in the main, I’m happy and looking forward to 2017. It’s bringing changes, especially as hubby will be retired in early 2017, which can only mean one thing, more bike races!!