below the surface
it’s only you
and your hands
medusa-like
in the reflections
of light
CONTINUE READINGReflections of Light
Medusa
I began the day
no – the day began
me
o p e n i n g – closing – o p e n i n g – closing – o p e n i n g – clo –
give me those lemons – the l e m o n a d e
looks fresher in Greek – λ ε μ ο ν ά δ α
that said, I’m not sure if it tasted fresher when
my mum got stung in Athens that day
it reminds me of the p o k e button
on bad old facebook – you know, that kind of stuff:
you ask w h y m e
the answer is it’snotaboutyou
so you go see someone
and they – sometimes – say:
massaging with butter is all you need to heal the scars
at least that’s what J e n n y the good old nurse had said
sometimes it’s that e a s y
sometimes it’s not
sometimes you get poked by the M e d usa
sometimes you don’t
no way to know, but
yes – the day will begin
you
o p e n i n g – closing – o p e n i n g – closing – o p e n i n g – clo –
Originally published in La Piccioletta Barca.
Creative Conscience – 10 Years – 10 Stories – 10 Lives: Giulia Gandini
Giulia Gandini is a London-based writer/director originally from Italy. An alumna of King’s College London and MET Film School, she has worked on numerous critically acclaimed projects since the beginning of her career – including her award-winning documentary ‘Home Stream’. It was this groundbreaking documentary that brought Giulia and Creative Conscience together in 2019 and which led her to win a Creative Conscience Silver Award in 2020.
Giulia reflects on how making this documentary and being supported by Creative Conscience was a life-changing experience: “I had always dreamt about making a documentary and this project was very different from all the other ones I’d done in the past. I was also supported from the very beginning by Chrissy and Creative Conscience, which made a huge difference.”
CONTINUE READINGCreative Conscience – 10 Years – 10 Stories – 10 Lives: Megan Williams
Graduating from university and contemplating your next steps can feel like walking through thick fog – especially in the midst of a global pandemic. The unknown can be full of fear – but it can also be full of hope. It can be “the worst of times and the best of times” – and it definitely was, for Megan Williams.
Megan had just graduated from Leeds Arts University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Advertising when she crossed paths with us, back in 2020. Reflecting on how she and her fellow classmates felt at that time, she says, “Before I got involved with Creative Conscience, it was quite a depressing moment and quite despairing – especially coming out of university on just a random day, it did kind of just put us all down…”
CONTINUE READINGDreaming of a Tree
There’s a gentle, wise tree
With leaves that remind me
The world’s fragility
And I dream of how it would be
If this was my reality
If I could always stay there
Taking refuge in its serenity
CONTINUE READINGNow Has No Fears
Your fears are not here
Now
The last time you met them
They told you:
CONTINUE READINGThe Wild Beauty of Life
Some moments in life make us feel what being alive truly means, in a very powerful way, in all our cells… In such moments, when I stop and take a deep breath, look inwards and then around me, at the sky; the feelings of gratefulness, love and serenity wash over my soul, and make me realize that only this moment exists, and I’m fully present, fully “here”…
CONTINUE READINGThe Journey is the Thing
The journey is the thing.”
This quote by the ancient Greek poet Homer was written on a notebook I bought two years ago – a light blue, thin notebook with sea shells on it. It struck a chord deep within and I always came back to it, especially when I got lost in thought over the future, over the next ‘destination’, over the to-do lists. It always brought me back to ‘this moment’, the moment I was in, and helped me realize that this is all that I have, and all that I ever need.
CONTINUE READINGThe Power of Choice
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
This quote by Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor E. Frankl, the author of one of the most deeply touching, illuminating and thought-provoking books I’ve ever read, “Man’s Search for Meaning”, never ceases to give me goosebumps.
We all have the innate power within, no matter whether we realize it or not, to connect with our inner core wisdom instead of getting caught in the web of our Ego, to respond with our heartfelt, genuine feelings and thoughts instead of reacting with our habitual defensive patterns and primitive coping mechanisms, to hold space for ourselves and embrace our vulnerability even in the most challenging situations, instead of wearing our armour and denying our humanness and resisting our pain, while unconsciously making it much bigger.
CONTINUE READINGTrue Freedom
Our fears aren’t monsters that we need to protect ourselves from by pulling the blanket over our heads as we used to do when we were little – they indeed have dark sides, but what in this vast universe doesn’t?
When they come to visit us, we may tightly shut the door to prevent them from entering, and start thinking that we’ve escaped them, that we’re free now. But what we may not realize is that we’ve shut the door not only to them but also to other emotions, other feelings that would’ve soon come to bring us light and peace and freedom… When we close that door, we in fact take away our freedom with our own hands that turn the key.
Instead, if we could try to connect with the wisdom we hold by looking within, and choose to take a step towards our painful emotions, even though the ground beneath our feet may tremble at the beginning, we will slowly begin to realize that with each step it becomes stronger. With each step that we take, with our strength, courage and confidence growing inside…
CONTINUE READING
d i l a q u i s 