Circle of Life

After over a year away, I decided to visit my second (now my third!) home Cambridge, to catch up my old friends last weekend. I found the experience very different when going back on a vacation while earning compared to the starving student experience! It was wonderful meeting my old friends who were still in Cambridge, some continuing their phds while others working. Just thought of including a few pics here.

I even managed to squeeze in a performance of the Lion King at the west end during very short visit of 4 days (next time it will be atleast a week!). The Lion King was simply amazing (or brilliant as the Brits say). I loved the costumes the music, the singing and the dancing! From a distance, you could barely see the people acting, but the animals, and their movement was so graceful and fluid it really felt like being in a jungle. This is a clip of one of my favorite songs, you can see the way they have depicted the animals, they look real! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utq8oft7btQ&NR=1

I also loved the theme of Circle of Life… How we are all part of the one circle of life, and how we have to take care of each other in order to take care of ourselves…King Mufasa, gives his son some really good advice “Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you need to understand that balance and respect all the creatures, from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope.”

I guess if we humans respected and lived according to this advice from the beginning we wouldn’t be having Global Warming, or the fear of extinction of some animals, or fossil fuel shortages. I think that now it’s time to respect the nature and remember that we’re all part of a delicate balance. Of course we need to use energy and fuels, and water, and all other resources, but what’s important is to use them sustainably, and to avoid wastage, and hopefully our children will still have a world to live in… This reminded me of the famous letter by Chief Seattle and would like to finish this post with his words…

This we know: The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood which unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

Speak Up!

According to many studies, the one thing that is feared more than death is ‘Public Speaking’! I can say that it was true for me for a very long time, and is something I have been working on getting over for many years now... when I say public speaking I don’t fear prepared presentations or even acting, as long as it has been prepared and practiced… What freaks me out, is having to talk impromptu. Doesn't have to be at a large gathering, but even asking questions or giving my opinion in front of a group of strangers can be scarry... Scared that people will think that my question is stupid, scared that what I say was too obvious, scared of being laughed at…

While in SL both in school and uni, I didn’t feel this fear much, as people in general don’t ask questions or comment in lectures much. But it struck me hard in Cambridge, when everyone else was speaking over the others and I was too scared to say a word. You may remember one of my earlier posts ‘finding my voice’ one of the first steps towards getting over this fear.

I'm happy to say that I have come a long way since then...still speaking up in public is not second nature to me, but by forcing myself to speak at meetings, to speak up at gatherings when I have an opinion and by volunteering at improv, it has become easier.

Another thing I've noticed when I observe people at meetings and presentations is that often even the leaders the outspoken people still seem to have a fear of public speaking. Recently I was sitting very close to some of the main speakers at a meeting and I noticed, slight hand tremors (barely visible) when one of them was speaking, and I've observed similar instances with other speakers too…so maybe many self confidant people too have some apprehension and nervousness when speaking in public, not just me…so I've learnt the key is to speak in spite of the fear, not to let the fear paralyze you.

After all, if you were invited to a meeting or gathering, that was because your point counts, so you should not deprive others of that valuable input!