The Things We Say to Ourselves #OneBeautifulThought

Today, I saw an advert by Dove that really hit me. Before I share my thoughts, though, I thought you might want to watch the vid yourself. Even if you're a guy. It's worth thinking about so bear with me.

All done? Good. So obviously, Dove is all about making it's target audience (women) feel beautiful. But really, this message can be drawn much further than that.

It's something that crosses all boundaries of age, gender, personality, race... name it.

We talk ourselves down. I'm just a fake, pretending I can do this. I'm not a strong person. I've got so many issues that I don't know how to even start listing them. 

I'm never ever going to make it. 

The women in the video had to hear these insulting things they said to themselves just so they could realize how much they've been insulting themselves. Unfortunately, I don't have two actresses on hand to make my point, so I want you to try imagining what you'd do if you heard people tossing the insults you give yourselves at each other.

And then, if at all possible, I want you to stop.

Because when it comes to having a fulfilled, rich life, the only person who can truly stop you is:

You. 

And this, insulting yourself by telling yourself that you're weak, stupid, and powerless to do anything about yourself is precisely the way that you use to do it.

So now I'm going to say this:

You are an amazing person.
You can set out to do what you're meant to do.
You can find out what that is.
You are stronger than you imagine.
You are strong enough to overcome your obstacles. 

Now, YOU try telling yourself some nice things. 

I'd love to see them in the comments. 

Berlin

Hey all! I finally finished editing the photos I took on my new camera.

I literally took hundreds of pics, so I didn't really know how to post some for you to view.

So... I decided to just show you some of Berlin's Highlights. In other words, places you should visit if you're in Berlin.

First, of course, would be to get a feel for where the Berlin Wall used to stand. This is one section surviving in what was supposed to be it's original form. Souvenir hunters steadily chipped away at it until it looks like this and a fence was put up. There's also a portion of the wall in another part of the city that serves as the world's largest open air art galleries. Sadly, though, I couldn't take a picture.

The famous check-point Charley. Definitely the one place I really regret not seeing more of. There's actually a museum and everything, but the tour bus didn't run long enough for me to come by again. 

St. Mary's Church. (With the hotel we stayed at in the background.) It's really beautiful inside and so serene. It also has one of the most beautiful organs I have ever seen. But although it's my mother's favorite church, now, mine would be this.

The Berliner Dom. It's a protestant cathedral. Beautiful on the outside, it's absolutely stunning inside. I'm thinking I'll do pics of inside for Monday, maybe? Along with St. Mary's. But to give you a taster, this is what the top of the dome looks like from inside:

Beautiful, isn't it? The whole church is filled with imagery and symbolism. Gold work and stained glass. I took about a quarter of my photos in there. 

The Reichstag. Another place I really wish I could have seen more of. You can actually go into the glass dome on the roof. We want to Charlottenburg Palace instead. Now that, I don't regret for a moment. 

The best part for the trigger happy photographer in me, though, was this: 

In case you're wondering, the photo is of a monument to the reunification of Berlin. 

Snow on Alexanderplatz, just as I'm leaving the hotel for the underground station. BTW, Alexanderplatz is a shopper's dream. 

Okay I'm stopping here for today, so the post doesn't run on forever. Who wants to see more pics, though? 

Where I went this past weekend

Hey all, I'm back!

So... sorry about the lack of posts. Ran out of time before I could write them. But hey, I think they'll be pretty good, so at least you have something to look forward to this week. ;-)

In the meantime... I thought I'd share a few pictures of where I went. They're not all that good, because the good ones will become paintings, so you'll get to see them later. ^_^

If you're wondering, that's a telephone pole and a nest at sunset. No... ostriches didn't start to fly. It's actually a communal nest, where hundreds of birds live together because there aren't any trees in the are. They can apparently be quite a nuisance, because they mess up the phone connections. So yeah, this bit is pretty dry, since it's well on the way to the Kalahari desert. About a mile further on, there weren't anything to see except telephone poles, grass, fences and shrubs. But the moon was full and the grass almost white, so the earth seemed to glow. Sadly it didn't show in the pictures.

This was taken at a restaurant inside a nature reserve. The rock hybexes were so tame that they scurried past under the table to get to the delicious green plants. At least I assume they were delicious. Thankfully, this little guy stopped munching and posed for me to take a picture.

Quiver trees, so named because the Khoi-San used to cut them to size and hollow them out to carry their arrows.

The real reason to go up north this time of the year: Flower-time in Namaqualand. Interestingly, this wasn't taken too far away from the nest picture above. About a thirty minute drive south from that spot leads to much greener pastures. And orange... And yellow... and purple. If you're wondering, yes. This picture is of thousands of daisies in bloom.

Basically I spent this weekend surrounded by various types of beauty. It was truly inspiring and REALLY has me wanting to pick up a paint-brush...