What words inspire you?

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What words inspire you?

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August 14, 2021

Here's a question: What quote or piece of writing never fails to inspire you? There are so many that come to mind, but one of my favorites is the prose poem "Desdirata," by Max Ehrmann. Part life advice, part cosmic encouragement, there's something in there for everyone, no matter what season of life you're facing. It's fairly long, but even the opening lines go straight to your soul.

"Go placidly amid the noise and the haste," it begins, "And remember what peace there may be in silence."

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They're golden
Imagine getting all the way to the Olympics, only to take a bus to the wrong venue for your event. It's enough to make you sweat, right? That's exactly what happened to Jamaican runner Hansle Parchment when he accidentally ended up at the aquatics arena instead of Tokyo's Olympic Stadium on the day of his semifinal in the 110m hurdles. Luckily, a kindhearted volunteer helped Parchment get there just in time. "I saw this volunteer and I had to beg... and she actually gave me some money to take one of the taxis," Parchment said in a video recorded during the Games. Here's the best part: He went on to qualify for the final, and then won gold! Afterward, he tracked down the volunteer to thank her and show her his medal. "You were instrumental in me getting to the final that day," he said. Even Jamaica's Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, praised the pair, saying "Every Jamaican knows gratitude is a must."

You're safe with them
Did you know that Italy has lifeguard dogs? An Italian rescue dog school called SICS patrols about 30 Italian beaches, with 300 units made up of one dog and one trainer each. Their skills were put to the test one recent beach day when three families started to struggle with their inflatables and other water equipment amid high winds and waves. As they drifted further out to sea, the group of about 14 people called for help. Three dogs named Eros, Mya and Mira joined lifeguards from nearby beaches and managed to bring the group to safety in about 15 minutes. The head of the rescue dog school says such good pups are integral to Italy's lifeguarding operations, especially when helping large groups of people.

Courtesy Aiden White/Rubenstein Public Relations

Dreaming in color
Artist Richard Hutchins knows what it means to lose everything. He also knows what it means to live your wildest dream. For years, Hutchins struggled with poverty, incarceration and homelessness while trying to realize his ambition as a painter. While in prison, he still created art, using toothpaste, Kool-Aid and the colored dye coating of Skittles and M&Ms applied to envelopes with a brush made of his own beard hair. By the time he got out, he had lost his studio to a fire and became homeless. All of that changed the day he randomly met Charlie "Rocket" Jabaley, rapper 2Chainz's former manager, at a grocery store in LA. Jabaley asked Hutchins what his dream was, and the reply was easy: "My dream is to walk into a museum one day and see one of my paintings hanging on the wall." With some funding from Jabaley and his company Dream Machine, Hutchins got painting again. He sold thousands of dollars of his art, including some of the envelopes he painted in prison. And he created his dream: An exhibition of his work at Sofitel Los Angeles hotel in Beverly Hills, attended by hundreds of people. Now a successful artist, Hutchins says he will never stop trying to lift up others going through the same trials he faced.

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You gotta see this

DigitalGlobe/Penguin Random House

Quick -- what are we looking at here? An abstract painting? A very modern quilt? This is actually a bird's-eye view of tulip fields in Lisse, Netherlands. In 2013, a man named Benjamin Grant stumbled upon a series of stunning satellite images while preparing a presentation for his space club. A few years later, he published more than 200 of them in a book called "Overview: A New Perspective of Earth." It is incredibly cool to try and guess what the images are with just a glance. From above, the Golden Gate Bridge is a thin line bisecting a field of blue. Mont Saint-Michel, off the coast of France, is a subtle protuberance under a patchwork of green. And the tulip fields, well, they're glorious. "The people who are planting those tulips ... are just kind of going about their business and making sure those flowers are as beautiful as possible and bloom as well as possible," Grant says. "That is going on, but at the same time that creates this unbelievable tapestry of color and control and design from above and it's just magnificent."

Heroes among us

In a matter of years, Ava Kaufman went from being a professional dancer and black belt in taekwondo to fighting for her life in an ICU as an undiagnosed autoimmune disease ravaged her organs. Thanks to a heart transplant in 2009, Kaufman got her life back, and she vowed to help others going through the same difficult, lifesaving process. After volunteering in Los Angeles hospitals and mentoring other transplant patients, Kaufman started the non-profit, Ava's Heart. She and her organization offer transplant patients services that are often not covered by insurance, including food, gas, co-pays on medications, and housing. That also includes two housing locations that can accomodate up to five transplant patients and their families at a time, at no cost, after their surgery. As Kaufman knows, being close to a transplant hospital is critical for the several months of aftercare needed from such a big procedure.

Wanna get away?

The CNN Travel article this image is from is title "11 remote mountain huts to escape from it all," and truly, no headline has ever spoken to me more. The things I would do to be in this Luxmore hut in Fiordland National Park, overlooking New Zealand's Kepler Mountains and Lake Te Anau. The morning coffee situation here, blanketed in clouds, must be stunning. It says the hut bunks 54, but let's be honest, this is an experience built for one. Oh, okay, maybe a few. The family can come along.

Who knew?

What is it like to work in an observatory on top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire? Cold, to say the least. As in, 50-degrees-below-zero cold. It's blustery, too, with 120 mph gusts that can pin a person to the wall. Then there's the flying ice chunks and giant cracks in the earth that threaten to swallow a person whole. The peak is known for such chaotic weather. At 6,288 feet in elevation, it's in the middle of a lot of low pressure systems, which combine with the surrounding mountain range's v-shaped geography to create a potpourri of weird weather phenomena. Its records include the fastest wind speed recorded outside of a cyclone: 231 miles per hour. And during the winters, it's a regular contender with Antarctica for the coldest place on Earth. Given Mount Washington's extreme conditions and prominent elevation, it serves as an important observation point for scientists trying to address climate change and better understand our complex world

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