Is our basis as humans empathic? Are we all descended from the same two people? Do we, therefore, hunger to support and look after each other? Is there a chance for us as a species?

This fabulous animation illustrates a talk on the subject. Listen and learn and, most of all, enjoy.

What do you think? Do you agree? Is there a chance for us?

Issues of ‘Conscious Living’, ‘Independent Working’ and ‘Travel Culture’.

There is so much writing and blogging in this area that the reader can get quickly overwhelmed, This  glance at what’s going on will help  understand the range of what is out there and help get some perspective.

Alex at Blogussion is a 16 year old with the kind of sharp, pithy thoughts only the young seem to have. In ‘Interviews are Boring, Reviews are Fake & Lists are Kind of Lame. Let’s Get Real‘ he takes a pop at all the bloggers out there who are lay in their writing, and there are many. I plough through a lot of stuff to find the material for this compilation, and sometimes I wonder if I am wasting my time! I love writing and I hope that I am putting me into the stuff I write, I suppose if not you won’t be here reading it.

For most of my life I have been a Lighting Designer, I am currently in Aylesbury, England to complete the lighting of a new theatre. My passion is light and lighting. Dave at Go Backpacking has just posted a great video on the ‘Berlin – Festival of Lights‘. Go and see, I promise you it’s worth it, great filming and cool music. Oh and the lighting’s good as well!

Jonathan Mead has a great site, Illuminated Mind full of advice about creating your own life or, as he puts it,

“To create a revolution based on authentic action. A movement of people liberating themselves through living on their own terms.”

In a recent post, ‘Lessons from One Year of Self Employment‘, he celebrates his one year anniversary of being self-employed. He draws the lessons he has learned. The first is the one I like,

“This may seem like an overly-simplistic lesson, but it’s probably the most important one that I’ve learned. Doing what you want and having your business and life be exactly the way you want it is possible. It just takes continual and deliberate direction.”

That continual and deliberate direction is one I am following.

Josh Fulmer at The Wander Project created a ‘Travel Blog’ before he started travelling. He has just posted that ‘The Wander Project is Dead‘. He does not find it interesting and worries about how it is going to affect his trip, he wants to just travel. For me this is a perfect example of the need to be authentic, only write about travel if that’s what you do, and the need for passion, only write about what you feel passionately about. I am passionate about travelling, it’s what I do all the time. Come back to it, Josh, when you are on your journey.

Nancie (LadyExpat) over at Budget Travellers Sandbox has a great time around South East Asia. I love her recent post, ‘Are Koreans More Polite When They’re Naked? — A Visit to a Korean Bathhouse’. I was interested in some of the comments about the problems of getting naked for Americans! I am staying in Holland at the moment where it is very acceptable to spend all day naked at the local sauna. You sit around in the sun, swim, sauna as well as drink and eat, all naked and mixed. It’s all very normal.

Anil Polat at Fox Nomad has been writing extensively on travel for four years now with a lot of great stuff there. He recently list ‘9 Unorthodox Travel Heroes‘. Despite what was said above of list posts I like this one because he takes the rare step of giving us some role models in our travelling. Let’s have lots more of these.

Issues of ‘Conscious Living’, ‘Independent Working’ and ‘Travel Culture’.

There is so much writing and blogging in this area that the reader can get quickly overwhelmed, as I do. This weekly glance at what’s going on will help me understanding the range of what is out there and help you, the reader, to get some perspective.

My aim is to keep it to a couple of items under each issue, to highlight not necessarily the best but certainly good, interesting and possibly quirky work. If you have suggestions of where I might look or what I am missing please let me know in the comments.

Enjoy reading.

Leo Babauta at ‘Zen Habits’ has an amazingly clean and uncluttered blog. It takes great confidence to do that, as well as being so well known that he doesn’t need to keep people on his site. He writes about some interesting stuff and his recent “The No.1 Habit of Highly Creative People” is a typical, well-researched, masterpiece. Read it and go away somewhere and think about it. Then start writing…

Everett Bogue is another Minimalist Guru. At ‘Far Beyond The Stars‘ he is currently pushing at helping us all to become more minimalist in our business life. In “How To Pursue The Work That Matters” he is moving down the same path as Leo but focusing on what we do in the process of our business. “I’m absolutely convinced that most businesses fail because entrepreneurs insist on spending time on assumed requirements of doing business instead of actual necessities of doing work that matters.” See Seth Godin below for another take on this issue.

Sean Ogle at ‘Location 180′ is having an amazing time working out in Bangkok. I met him there recently and had a great time. He wrote an amazing piece recently on the troubles in Bangkok and his reaction to them, “Deadly Riots, Tropical Paradise and One Very Dingy City“, but the piece I want to highlight is his last post on “The Evolution of Confidence“. He talks about how his confidence has grown over the past year of writing, out in Bangkok. It’s a lesson to all us writers, keep going, it only gets better.

Seth Godin is a Jedi Master. If you’re in any doubt see “But What Have You Shipped” on his blog. Wow, that really hurt, and it was meant to. Well, what have you shipped? For that matter, what have I? Maybe I should stop writing this post and get my products out…

(Actually I did stop and get an eBook out on ‘Male eXperience‘, go to ‘men and.. Male Energy‘ and have a look!)

Cindy Peterson at ‘Briefcase to Backpack‘ has an interesting interview with her husband as goes back into corporate life after travelling. In, “Trading In Your Backpack For The Briefcase” she looks at how Bill is adjusting back to a home and working life back in the US. I find this interesting because I only travel and have no intention of going back to an ‘employed’ life. Which are you?

Jodi at ‘Legal Nomads‘ is still travelling after nearly two years on the road. In, “Why I Quit My Job To Travel Round The World“, she talks about why she left and why she is still going, “and so here I am in Thailand, almost two years of travel later. I am a happier, more relaxed person with thousands of stories and pictures from some of the more fascinating places on earth.” She talks about the pressure from family and friends to explain why she is doing it, why is that people don’t understand?

The barn we are staying in was originally the studio for the Russian painter Vladimir Bougrine. He has been associated with the village since the 1970′s because of the Moulin d’Ande. The mill was probably constructed at the end of the XIIth century. It is the last known example of a “moulin pendant” and is classified as a historic monument with its pulleys, millstones, wallowers and screw jacks. The Moulin d’Andé was in its original state when Suzanne Lipinska went to live there in 1957 and decided to develop its cultural potential by opening it up to artists and intellectuals whose personal and creative endeavours would flourish, far from the stir of Paris.

The village has a special feel because of the Mill and because of the shut in feeling you get in French villages, particularly here. Many of the buildings are old, often converted barns or improved farmhouses built around courtyards with high enclosing walls and solid gates. You see nothing beyond the walls. You can, however, hear the many dogs barking. The french have an obsession with security resulting in fiercesome dogs on the loose behind the gates along the street. It can be unpleasant to walk around the village.

There are, however, benefits to living here:

1. Croissants

Fresh croissants in the morning, so french and an amazing start to the day. I get up early and pop down to the shop for them. Unfortunately there is not a local baker to enjoy. The delights of a french ‘Boulangerie Patisserie’ is the main reason for loving France. Sneaking a ‘Pain au Chocolat’ warm from the oven on the way back to the house with breakfast is a delight not easily surpassed.

2. Wine

This is France, one of the greatest wine countries in the world! Although California now produces great wine, there is a different quality to the plentiful, cheap wine sold in supermarkets here. It seems so natural to drink it with every meal.

3. Walks

There are beautiful country walks out of the village, through the fields and down by the church. There is a particularly lovely walk along the opposite bank of the river past the weekend houses of the well-off Bourgoisie from Paris.

4. Peace

Despite the dogs it is very quiet and peaceful here. Most of the time there seems to be no-one around, but I think that is true of most of rural France. France has the lowest population density of any country in Western Europe and that is particularly evident in rural areas.

5. Views

There are some stunning views along the valley carved by the River Seine. The river has cut deeply into the chalk plateau in great loops leaving exposed cliffs and old cut off loops of the river. (If I remember my geography correctly there are called ox-bow lakes!)

6. Unspoilt Buildings

Like much of France, most of the old buildings appear to be unspoilt. This partly because the layers of French Bureaucracy involved in getting a ‘Permis de Construire’. Even painting a house can be a nightmare, as you can see from the number of unpainted houses around. It also helps that young french people prefer to live in new houses, leaving the old ones to rot and be bought by the English abroad.

7. Galettes & Crepes

In the local town Louviers, there is a lovely little restaurant that serves galettes and crepes. Galette are savoury pancakes made with buckwheat with fried eggs, cheese and other delights. Crepes are more delicate wheat pancakes with sweet fillings such a bananas, chocolate, cream, strawberries and so on. Mmmmm, delicious.

8. Cathedrals

There are many within a day’s drive, including Rouen, Beauvais, Amiens, and the greatest of them all, Chartes. One of the greatest achievements in the history of architecture, Chartres Cathedral is almost perfectly preserved in its original medieval design, from its famed portal sculptures to glowing stained glass. (You may have noticed from my posts that I love cathedrals!)

9. Paris

It’s close enough to visit, but far enough away to be thought of as distant!

10. Local Events

Great events such as ‘Le Cochon Grille’ as part of ‘La Fete du Village’, ‘Jazz Sixties’ a free afternoon’s music in the local church and a historic walk around the village complete with motorcyle gathering and a parade of ‘vehicules militaire’. A couple of houses down there is an art gallery with exhibitions of local artists. Lastly there are regular musical events at the Moulin complete with aperitif and dinner.

I would be interested to know if anyone else has visited here? Let me know in the comments!

Ten Rules for Being Human

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it’s yours to keep for the entire period.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, “life.”
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately “work.”
4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5. Learning lessons does not end. There’s no part of life that doesn’t contain its lessons. If you’re alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6. “There” is no better a place than “here.” When your “there” has become a “here”, you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better than “here.”
7. Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9. Your answers lie within you. The answers to life’s questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10. You will forget all this.