Author: Alicja Pyszka-Franceschini

PhotoFundraising – so that we don’t remain so helpless

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blue sky2

Over 70 years ago a very kind and progressive nation opened its borders to my grandfather who was fleeing from war-ravaged Poland. It was there, in Zurich, Switzerland, far from his native country that he was educated into a skilled medical doctor. If he had been ignored back then, I would most likely never have been born and neither would all the children of the people that he healed in his lifetime.

When we look at the humanitarian crises and the different positions that people take on them, my husband always concludes that “It all comes down to one basic question: how much do we value human life?”

And I think he’s right. How much do we value human life?

I’ve been listening and watching the news over the last few days and been feeling totally helpless over it. There is a strong urge in me to help so much so that I couldn’t sleep very well for the last few nights. I was thinking what I could do for the people in danger, what I could offer. My heart runs towards them. I’d like to be there on the Mediterranean Sea helping to rescue them from the boats or in Munich greeting the refugees and finding them accommodation, but I have a little child  that my husband and I look after and at the moment he is far too small to be left without his mama.

It occurred to me yesterday that all I can do is to do fundraising. Using the skills that I have.

In September I will be fundraising for Doctors Without Borders / Medecins Sans Frontieres (just because they are so effective in managing help) by swapping my photographic skills for funds for the charity. The idea is simple: if I take photographs for you this month, I’d like you to donate as much as you think the photographs are worth to Doctors Without Borders via my Just Giving page.

If you would like some photographs taken of you, your loved-ones or your business or products, contact me through Facebook or my Contact pages to arrange a time and date. I am based in Derby, UK.

Let’s save lives together!

Under the clouds we are all small people.

(If you are from Derby, UK, please could you share this post with your friends. Thank you so so much!)

The bridge where tantrums melt

sunny spellsduck feedingfeeding ducks2

birds feedingthe bridge 2

There is a bridge close to my house where tantrums melt and calm proceeds. I’m not quite sure what it is in that place that pacifies difficult feelings and makes more reassuring communication possible. Maybe it’s the joy of reaching a destination that does it or the task of feeding ducks or just being surrounded by nature or maybe all of these things taken together. Life just seems to float there. Just like the water under the bridge.

It’s not only the toddler who needs the bridge. I need it too, to quieten my internal communication with myself. August has been quite intense for me as the next few months are likely to be. When the pressure is high, I really appreciate open spaces more than anything. Perhaps I also have got a kicking and screaming toddler in myself who can only collect herself when out in the wild.

When I used to work in my dad’s orchard, my sister and I would spend a lot of time just looking into the sky, watching the passing clouds, connecting with the heavens. I noticed that my son loves doing it too. Looking up, breathing deeply. It’s reassuring, isn’t it? That under the clouds we are all small people.

Your dreams are your directions

Postcards Without Stamps

Poppy-seed Bread

Someone said to me once: ‘Dreams, needs and wants are also given to us from God’. I was surprised because I had never thought of them like this… But then I thought maybe this person had a point… maybe our dreams and wants are God’s little messages sent to us on a very individual level… the whispers of our eager but fearful souls…

Sometimes those dreams are so subtle that they are easily over-talked by other persuasive voices, by people around us, by the media and their future forecasts, by promises of greatness and fortune elsewhere… Why would you like to be a carpenter if the money is in law and banking type of suggestions.… or… Your own business? But it takes so much effort and it bites into your evenings and weekends. Dancing classes? What would you do with your dancing in the future? Chess? Who’s got time…

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What we fear

light and darkon a cherry hunt_bw“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.” | Marianne Williamson, Return to Love

Initiate growth inside your family

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These very first years of family life are full of challenges and negotiations that once resolved are actually incredibly satisfying. I like to think of a family as a unit in a state of growth. So when we hibernate for too long, we ask ourselves which of the spheres of life we have recently or over time neglected. In fact, I like to do this very easy exercise in which next to a life sphere we discuss ideas on how to improve it. It is a very simple exercise that, if you wish to do it for your own family, is best done individually for each member and then together as a whole.

Life Sphere:

Spiritual  – effort to make time for meditation, reflection, prayer, quiet space in our busy liveflowers2s

Humane  – effort to make time for helping others outside the family and each other within the family

Emotional – effort to make time for cultivating positive emotions (love, kindness, compassion) and working through the negative ones, scheduling activities that bring about positive emotions

Physical – effort to make time for sport, rest, affection, cooking nutritious food, looking after our bodies

Intellectual – effort to make time for cultural activities (book, cinema, theatre) and stretching our minds, problem-solving activities, formal or informal study

Social – effort to make time for socializing, family-and-community gatherings, family conversation, celebrating, events in your own city, etc.

Environmental – effort to make time for engaging with nature, improving our homes or local areas, repairing the house, making our immediate environment pleasant

When it comes to family growth and well-being I have got one belief: every effort that you’ll make in the space of one year will deliver its shoots the next and if cultivated it will fully blossom in years to come. Do not get dissuaded or discouraged by the instant gratification culture, everything that is worth doing, is worth doing even if the fruit will show later in life.

Have a lovely family life!

This exercise has been inspired by the exercises promoted within Cognitive-Behavioral Psychology. If you’d like to learn more about it, you may like to read: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Teach Yourself (2012) by Christine Wilding or any other book or introduction to Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.