Suspended coffee

What kind of coffee, I hear you wonder?

I came accross this wonderful story a while back, but was reminded of it today when I saw it again at a Facebook page of a friend.

Suspended Coffee, an amazing initiative. You buy a coffee, or something else to drink or eat at a local coffeestore. But you don't buy one, you buy two or even more. One for you, and one suspended. The coffeestore gives this coffee or food to somebody in need who comes to that same store to ask for help. 
That way they have something warm to drink, and it only costs you one cup of coffee. And the plus side to it, you know your donated money is actually being used for food and not drugs. And you support a local coffeestore, who sells an extra cup of coffee.

Take a look at the website, to see which coffeestore in your neighbourhood participates. (edit: Suspended coffee informed me they have a new website, check it out here.)

And when you are on the website, read the story on How it Started. Makes you think on how small a thing you can do to change somebodies story.

Share this story! And when you can, buy a suspended coffee to make somebodies story a little better.

Flight of the bumblebee

I have written about stories in music the last few weeks.

And mostly it was referring to lyrics in the songs, not as much the sound of the music.

But music itself can tell a very clear story.

Just listen to the next piece of music:

Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimsky-Korsakov.
You can see the bumbleblee flying through the air. And that just with the sound of music.

Power of words, the original

In one of my first blogs I posted a video showing the power of words.

And I'm currently seeing it reposted on Facebook by a lot of friends.

But my teacher told me, that's not the original.

The original is so good, it won prices and got a copy cat, the previous one.

It is in Spanish, but does have subtitles.
It is so much stronger than the original. Especially since in this one, it really is a beautiful day and not a rainy day in England.

Words, they are powerful!

Cold?

Some stories have such a powerful quote, you can't help but play with it.

With the current story of the cold in the US and the catchy quote: "Winter is coming" (from Game of Thrones). This was bound to happen. 

1001 stories

The famous stories of 1001 nights.
Told by Scheherazade.

Her own story goes as follows.

A Persian King was very angry, because his wife had been unfaithful to him. To relief his anger he married a different virgin every night, and beheaded her the next morning. 

Scheherazade heard of this madness and wanted to stop it. So she asked her father to marry her to the king. He didn't want to, but she had a plan. 

After the wedding she started telling the king a story. When dawn broke, she stopped without finishing the story. Because she knew she had to be beheaded. But the king wanted to hear the ending of the story. So he asked her to finish her story the next night. She finished it, but went straight to the next, even more exciting story. And again, she stopped at dawn, without the story being finished. And again, the king granted her another night. This went on for 1001 nights. When finally the king was over his anger and had fallen in love with Scheherazade, marrying her.

Her stories have given us many wonderful Persian stories about flying carpets, magic lamps, thieves in caves, pirates at sea and travelers hot wide deserts. What a wonderful storyteller she must have been.

Stories without words

You come across them every day.

Just look at the sky, you know what the weather will be, without one word being exchanged.

The sound of dripping rain will notify you to bring along your umbrella.

The traffic light on your way to work. No doubt you will stop at red and keep going at green. No one tells you: stop or go.

The smell of fresh baked bread during lunchtime, they almost seem to yell at you "eat us", but they don't, but you surely do like to eat them.

And even people tell stories without saying anything.
When I come skipping into work in the morning, all dressed in bright colours, with a big smile on my face. You know I'm having a good day, even when I haven't said a word. 
When I come in dragging my feet, not matching clothes, bags under my eyes and my hair going all places, yes, I didn't sleep too well. And you know even without asking (and you will probably keep out of my way, just to be safe).

The fancy word for it is non-verbal communications. And we all do it, almost all the time, even without thinking about it. We keep on telling stories even without words.

The Bodyshop

The Bodyshop, started in 1976 with one store in the UK, now has world wide over 2.500 stores.

They work and communicate from a very strong believe: 

"The business of business should not just be about money, it should be about responsibility. It should be about public good, not private greed." Dame Anita Roddick. Human Rights Activist. Founder of The Body Shop.

They sell beauty products, but those do not make their core story. Their values as they state on their website are: Support Community Fair Trade, Defend Human Rights, Against Animal Testing, Activate Self-Esteem and Protect Our Planet.

These beliefs come forth in everything they do. Commercials aren't about the products, they are about the silliness of skinny models, when no normal woman is that skinny. Or making sure all beauty products are cruelty free.

And they show this with everything they do. The website is green, the logo has green colours in it. Even the stores have lots of green in them with wooden displays.

They have a very powerful story to tell, and they live to it, since the day they started.