Day 264 Question 264:

What inspires you?

I have returned to this question yet again.  I have found friends all over the world.  These friends may not be people I know in the “face to face” sense but they have become my friends and my mentors in the virtual sense.  I am a huge promoter of my blog because I want to share my thoughts through every avenue possible.  I do not write my words to make others believe that I am right, I write to allow them to see a (possible) different point of view.  I want to offer my thoughts and my (hopefully) comforting words to allow people to know that they are supported…even in their hardest times.  There is a man that follows my blog that friend requested me on Facebook quite a while back.  He will like some of my entries and make small comments here and there (which is so greatly appreciated).  This man resides in India, which as you know, is thousands of miles away from the United States.  Yesterday, he took a piece of my blog entry and posted it on his Facebook for his friends and family to read.  This was what he copied and pasted:

Diane Owens wrote in these lines in her blog entry, which I felt like posting here:

“…I don’t want to take the beautiful life I have for granted and waste time on momentary pleasure or searching for someone to complete me. I complete me. If I meet someone wonderful they will compliment my life but not complete it. I want fulfillment in everything I do as much as possible.”

…I am love. I am passion. I am a seeker of knowledge. I am the pursuer of a good life for all….a believer that EVERYONE has a beauty inside of them even if it is hidden way deep down. I am a soul not just a body.”

“…I am my dreams and my wants and my needs.”

I immediately felt overwhelmed with hope and to be honest pride.  My words had reached someone from many miles away.  Several of his friends wrote beautiful comments.  I started looking at his Facebook page and saw that he is the Chairman and Managing Trustee at the Anad Foundation in India.  I, of course, had to do my research and what I found was heart-warming.

(Taken from the website http://anadfoundation.com)

The ANĀD FOUNDATION is a non-profit, non-government, literary-cultural charitable organization constituted for the purpose of service, promotion and preservation of the traditional human values and heritage in general, and in the devotional music of our tradition, in particular.

Mission

The ANĀD Foundation’s mission is to establish institutions as a means towards facilitating the recovery and enhancement of the intangible (sukhamvirsā) and tangible (sthūlvirsā) heritage of South Asia as a priority.

ANĀD has already set up ANĀD Archives and Research Center, a world-class audio-restoration studio in New Delhi, where a lot of rare archival recordings have been restored and preserved.

Among its other objectives, The ANĀD Foundation also intends to:

To appreciate, respect and preserve the excellence and diversity of human heritage the world-over in the areas of culture including architecture, classical and folk art forms, literatures and languages, education, moral values and social conduct, sports, health care, healing, social welfare, to discover strains of affinity among these through intellectual interaction and live presentation and to engage in humanitarian and disaster relief.

Preserve and document all tangible & intangible, traditional forms of arts and culture.

To promote music by sensitizing the common people to the musical values in classical and folk traditions, and educating the musically inclined, so as to create a symbiotic pattern with the divine ethos of spiritual traditions.

To help revive the dying Rebābi Kīrtan/music and make all out efforts to restore this historic tradition to its pristine glory.

Undertaking archival research to bring alive the craft of making traditional musical instruments and their use, reviving and restoring the art of percussion and other related instruments so as to organize a symphonic orchestra in order to propagate traditional forms and at the same time stimulate creative expression within the framework of the traditional forms.

Establish a world-class old age home/village, having a separate endowment fund, for exponents of all activities associated with the Foundation.

Provide elderly artists a monthly pension and/or free health care facilities or assistance as a mark of respect for their lifetime achievements.

To set up ANĀD Sanmān, annual awards in the fields of music, dance, sports, science, technology, art, literature, theatre, cinema and handicrafts, etc. and for life time achievements in fields that the Trust is directly or indirectly concerned with.

Set up the ANĀD Conservatory: An Institute of Arts, Aesthetics, Cultural Traditions and Developmental Studies, which intends to provide in-house training and education in music (vocal, instrumental and percussion), offering also training in yoga, martial arts, various forms of performing art, including classical and folk dance forms, along with theoretical studies on art, aesthetics and the study of scriptures from various traditions with the purpose of facilitating inter-faith dialogues and enriching our understanding of the diverse cultural and religious traditions.

To encourage the culture of sports in terms of continued heritage as well as the modern formats.

When I read all about the mission of this organization I was truly touched.  I always find it so inspiring to meet people that take pride in their culture and want to not only teach others but also to learn themselves.  About 6 months ago I read the book Half the Sky and PBS just did a 4-hour documentary based on this book.  The book takes on the topic of female oppression in differing countries all over the world and although there is much sadness from these stories there is also hope.  The book focuses on stories of female heroism and females rising above.  We want to see the world change overnight but that is not going to happen.  I used to hope for that but now I love to see changes happen little by little because you are able to appreciate the progress that much more.  For several years of my life I was closed into a box.  I knew only this life I was living and I never learned about what was going on in neighboring countries.  One day I decided to change my life completely and I decided to educate myself in some form every single day.  I wanted to learn about life outside of what I have lived and what I have known.  Part of that change was starting this blog.  I had to be vulnerable in order to understand my true self and to reach out to others and ask them for help.  This man that has read my words and copied them onto his Facebook page has inspired me to keep learning.  One day I want to visit many foreign lands and be able to experience the culture first-hand,  not only through books and media.  I want to make friends from everywhere and ask them to teach me as much as they possibly can.  I hope to be a mentor to people as well as ask them to be my mentor.  I do not see this world finding peace if we don’t ever reach out to each other.  It is so very important to love and understand our own culture but it is not something we should keep to ourselves.  There is no harm in asking people why they do what they do.  There is an expression that kind of bothers me and it is: Don’t ask why, ask why not.  I understand the basis of the statement but I do find it vital to ask why as well.  Without asking why we will never understand where people are truly coming from.  By having this small gesture from a man many thousands of miles away fall into my lap I feel so very inspired and I want to thank him for giving me that extra push to keep learning more about the world around me.