YOU HAVE A TED TALK By Virginia Nava Hieger “You have a TED Talk,” she said. A couple of weeks ago, I was at a conference and saw this younger woman, eager and beautiful, with a lot of curiosity and light. As I was talking with her, I shared that I’ve written two books and then said to her, “You have a book, too. We all have a book or a lesson, or a journey to share with everyone we meet.” “Really?” she said, raising her eyebrows. “Yes,” I replied. “For example, what is your theme for your life?” She said she didn’t know. I said, “What is your bigger question, then?” “Finding my life purpose,” she said. “This is the theme for your book. You’ll share with others your journey, your quest for purpose.” I asked her to find the soul-searching moments of her life and note her lessons along the way. And I reminded her to consider how she might help others on the same path. “Remember that whatever is most natural to you is your GIFT,” I said, “even if it may seem unnoticeable.” “You have a TED Talk,” she said, and then it was my turn to raise my own eyebrows. She smiled and said “Look in the mirror.” And just there, right where I stood, I became a student again. I get reminders like these often, that we are all students in life, constantly receiving whatever we are willing to give. This lovely woman gave me an unexpected GIFT. She helped once more to see what had been unnoticeable to me. What started as a natural conversation for me was turned around, circling back to me as she shared how it could help others. I was just as surprised as she was by this miracle. My reaction was, “I have this GIFT, really?” I guess I imagined that if I had a TED Talk, it would be more rehearsed. All I had done was to simply say, “What is the most natural to you is your GIFT, and it is worth being shared.” We all have a TED Talk, a message to share with our communities. I wonder if we’re losing the ability to see that we indeed have it. I told her the story of how my life has a thread. I spoke to her about the meaning of freedom and authenticity. I shared how a speech I wrote at 13, one that I thought was for others, was really meant for me. That it was a way of reminding myself of the importance of being true to myself. Though my own journey since, I’ve found that we all have similar threads, and it’s these threads that offer us clues to live our GIFTS and be who we were born to be. Let your thread be your TED Talk, and when you find it, be sure to share it with the rest of us in a coffee shop, with a friend, or in your community. You never know, it may become a real TED Talk one day. Don’t wait to share it until you are on the big stage, because life itself is already a bigger stage. There are already people in your life, both strangers and people you know, who will be served through your story and by experiencing your natural GIFT. Reuniting with our GIFT is one of the biggest accomplishments of human existence. It’s all about living our GIFTs and having the courage to share them. I’ve found that a GIFT is like a tidal wave, rebellious and full of strength; it’s like a smile that warms up your heart from the inside. Let’s share our GIFTs today in our own TED Talks, because each of us has this GIFT, our untold stories that can transform the world.  

This is beautiful inspiration from Elisabeth Santouris, it bring us a new perspective about transformation and our role in it. “A Butterfly Story ~”A caterpillar can eat up to three hundred times its own weight in a day, devastating many plants in the process, continuing to eat until it’s so bloated that it hangs itself up and goes to sleep, its skin hardening into a chrysalis. Then, within the chrysalis, within the body of the dormant caterpillar, a new and very different kind of creature, the butterfly, starts to form. This confused biologists for a long time. How could a different genome plan exist within the caterpillar to form a different creature? They knew that metamorphosis occurs in a number of insect species, but it was not known until quite recently that nature did a lot of mixing and matching of very different genome/protein configurations in early evolutionary times. Cells with the butterfly genome/ proteins were held as aggregates, or ‘discs’ of stem cells that biologists call ‘imaginal cells’, tucked inside pockets of the caterpillar’s skin all its life, remaining undeveloped until the crisis of overeating, fatigue and breakdown allows them to develop. Such metamorphosis makes a good metaphor for the great changes globalisation, in the sense of world transformation, is bringing about., as Norie Huddle first used it in her beautiful book Butterfly. Our bloated old system is rapidly becoming defunct while the vision of a new and very different society, long held by many ‘imaginal cell’ humans who dreamt of a better world, is now emerging like a butterfly, representing our solutions to the crises of predation, overconsumption and breakdown in a new way of living lightly on Earth, and of seeing our human society not in the metaphors and models of mechanism as well-oiled social machinery, but in those of evolving, self-organizing and intelligent living organism. If you want a butterfly world, don’t step on the caterpillar, but join forces with other imaginal cells to build a better future for all!” ~Elisabet Sahtouris is a Greek-American evolutionary biologist, futurist

What are your moments of truth? Moments of truth are unexpected, magical and sometimes they are just a few seconds long. Today I was interviewing a woman that is working on a wonderful non-profit organization helping girls. We started talking about people having an impact on us and I talked about a coach I have. Then she told me you don’t know the impact you have on me.. You gave me hope, it was a deep emotional moment, I was so touched in my heart and spirit and then I realized I just had received a big lesson, that our words can touch others in different ways and sometimes we will never know how they will but to remind myself not to forget that every instant counts. Share your moments of truth with us.