Barga, Italy
Barga
There is a village in Italy that sits on top of a hill at the base of the Apuan Alps. It is filled with cobblestones, and winding streets, art galleries, beautiful shops, and wonderful people.
The streets and cafes play host to jazz musicians and poets. And the duomo at the very top of the village provides spectacular views, its ancient walls, bearing the scars of wars, its bells ringing balefully over the rooftops below.
Barga is magical. It is known as a gnome sanctuary, and for its chocolate festival. It’s even known to change lives. Want to know more? Its English language e-zine is a good place to start.
Kate Swoboda
Kate Swoboda
Kate Swoboda is a Life Skills and Creativity Coach who is passionate about courageous living. Don’t know what courageous living is? Here’s how she defines it: “feeling afraid, doing it anyway, and transforming.”
Kate’s offers individual coaching sessions, online classes, retreats and workshops for those wanting to live courageously.
Interested in living your own courageous year? Check out Kate’s website. Courage is awesome.
Mobile Art Gallery
Art in motion
You can see a lot of unusual things in the city whose street slogan is “Keep Portland Weird”. That’s one of the fabulous things about living in the metro area here.
Just last week Kristin and I had the good fortune of crossing paths with a mobile art gallery. David Whelan has turned this vintage tricycle into a traveling art show. Totally awesome.
Check out some of his work online or look for the moving gallery around Portland, Oregon.
Big Think
Big Think
Big Think is a global forum connecting people and ideas. It’s an online community bringing together very smart people willing to share their expertise with the rest of us. For free.
The whole thing is pretty darn awesome.
Look around Big Think, and watch the interviews we conducted with more than 600 experts, from hedge-fund managers to neuroscientists. You just might learn something awesome.
What Matters Now
What Matters Now
Blogger Seth Godin asked 70 other great minds to suggest one word that should be pondered in 2010 and write just one page about it. Then he put it together in an awesomely creative ebook called “What Matters Now” available for anyone to download, free.
See what Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love), Chris Anderson (Wired Magazine), William C. Taylor (Fast Company Magazine), Tony Hsieh (Zappos.com), and many more have to say about what matters now.
Thai Yellow Curry Sauce
Trader Joe's Curry Sauce
Thai food is tops in my book. Tops. Problem is, I have no clue how to make a curry sauce that tastes as good as what I can get eating out. I’ve tried, but no luck. Until now.
I just discovered Trader Joe’s Thai Yellow Curry Sauce. Divine. Just toss a bottle of it in a pot with some chicken, chopped red pepper, onions and carrots. Pour over rice (or noodles) and let the yumminess wash over you. Awesome.
Mirror Affirmations
Mirror Affirmations by Thought Shifters
I’m a firm believer in the power of positive thinking. I’m also a firm believer in surrounding one’s self with encouraging and uplifting messages. I put up images and words of inspiration around me at the office and at home.
So when my friend Ronnie Noize gave me a package of Mirror Affirmations by Thought Shifters, my first thought was, “Awesome!”
Each package focuses on something different–team work, leadership, positive attitude. The messages are on reusable clings, so you can place them without worrying about sticky goo and you can easily move them around to other places without damaging them. Totally awesome.
Two more awesome things about these clings:
1) they’re only $5 a package
2) they’re made right here in the USA!
Raymond, Washington
metal statues
This awesome place post comes from our very own Celia Wheeler of Portland, OR! Thanks, Celia!
Motorists along Highway 101 through downtown Raymond, Washington, will be pleasantly surprised with the unusually placed figures that belong to the Raymond Wildlife-Heritage Sculpture corridor. Sculptures of steel loggers, Native Americans, bears and shorebirds honor the history and culture found along this byway. Not exactly what you would expect to see in this neck of the woods, but scattered along Highway 101, State Route 6 and throughout downtown Raymond are 200 steel-plated figures. All stand in testament to the history and culture found along this stretch of the byway.
Melia Dicker
Melia Dicker
I discovered Melia and her project to reschool herself in the Fall 2009 issue of Yes! Magazine. (Awesome mag, by the way…will post on them another day.)
Here’s a brief note about Melia’s one-woman project in her own words from her blog: reschoolyourself.com.
At the age of 28, I went back to kindergarten. I needed to get my life back on track, and I wanted to start over from the very beginning. Over several months, I repeated my education, from kindergarten to college. I spent the months that followed learning how to grow up. I’m still learning.
Melia discovered the ways that her childhood education had defined her, and then went on to learn all the things that education didn’t teach her–things that she feels are essential to becoming a vibrant, engaged member of a community.
So awesome.
Awareness by Anthony de Mello
This book changed my outlook on life. No really. I had a friend who told me to read it for a couple of years before I finally did. I’m not sure I would have been ready to hear its message if I’d picked it up when she told me to – in fact, that’s a major point of the book.
Anthony de Mello was a Jesuit priest who practiced in India, advising the world to “wake up!” His brand of spirituality is a combination of Catholic doctrine and eastern dogma. “Awareness” is the transcription of his final workshops. Its conversational tone presents everyday challenges and illustrations of the ways we can live lives of awareness.
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