On Living Organisms or The Only Constant in Life is... Change

On Building an Organisation

Change is the only constant in life, a never-ending cycle reflected in the turning of the seasons, a day dawning, falling asleep at dusk, resting during a moonlit night and waking up to a sun being reborn and rising. 

Work in progress. To be updated. Subject to change. Rinse. Repeat. 
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Yes. It is that easy. Admit that it takes time, oh yes, there will be changes, many of them, not everything you have started today will be done the day before yesterday, or even look the way you have planned it out and say good bye to perfectionism – I did when I started learning Greenlandic which dealt a severe blow to my Capricornian self.

​In a loving and humorous way, of course. 

This was not the first crow, I drew in my life. It was the third. I had a lot of fun drawing and developing my skills in between. "White Crow", Kristin Raphaela Otti (2023)

On Having a Sense of Humour or Owning It
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It is quite a funny story. I had read an article about handball as Greenland had qualified for the World Championships and was to play against Austria during the round robin. Austria won but the Greenlandic women held their own and fought until the end. While reading I came across the word for “playing a game with a ball”, “arsarpoq”.  Since I  play floorball, which is a game played with a ball instead of a puck, I decided to write about that. 

​In Austria we say “The Devil is in the detail.” or in this case, a single letter. I wrote – either due to sloppy handwriting or being lost in the fascinating world of grammar – “arsartorpunga” instead of “arsartarpunga”, which changed the meaning of the sentence a wee bit: Instead of saying that I played a game with a ball, I said “I eat the ball.” or “I made the ball a part of me.”. 

But lo and behold, a friend came to the rescue during a circle meeting. She pointed out – after having had a good and heartfelt laugh – that I was a goalie and as such, eating the ball was very much what I was doing. ​

Having a sense of humour and owning experiences that - let us say - challenge our ego by turning them into having a good laugh with ourselves instead of pointing harsh fingers at ourselves helps immensely. 

There is a vast difference, isn't there? If you wish to become good at something, put in the work and enjoy the process. "The Second White Crow", white pastels, Kristin Raphaela Otti (2023). Yes. Both came into being in 2023. I am a quick study.

On Honing Your Craft
 
One cannot erase the past and every single one of us is like a book filled with tales of dreamscapes and nightmares. Both kinds are worth sharing, how else would we learn?
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Heroism and villainism are sides of the same coin, a matter of perspective and coloring.
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It might come as an utter and complete shock to some, but did you know that erasers are not for those who make mistakes but for the ones who are willing to learn? I own quite few and when I was a child one of the most memorable gifts I ever received was given to me by my Godmother, aunt Christa. 
 
We were shopping and she bought a wide array of erasers for me. Not the usual ones but unusual ones. Back then there were sets that were like LEGO, you had to build your eraser. I got cars and trains, some animals and erasers shaped like fruit. She made my day bigtime.  

In other words, learning from our experiences, owning what we have done, looking at it from a different perspective and slowly and gently applying change, is a good way to go. Slowly and gently.

​If you use an eraser in weaponlike fashion, you rip the paper apart. Friction also causes heat and acting while being red-hot is of no use or as Quintus Horatius Flaccus put it, 
 
“Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem.”

When I started to get my own goalie masks, I wrote that sentence on every back plate. I did not write it on the back plate of the last one. On the back plate of the last one you can find an eagle. 

Change is the only constant in life, a never-ending cycle reflected in the turning of the seasons, a day dawning, falling asleep at dusk, resting during a moonlit night and waking up to a sun being reborn and rising. 

This may came as a complete and utter surprise, but the first one was black. Sometimes one has to change their approach and I have witnessed a lot of shooting the messenger scenarios in elden times. Doing the same old is... not advisable. "The Crow", oil pastels, Kristin Raphaela Otti (2003)

​A Good Story is Alive

​Everything is a matter of perspectives. 
 
Mistakes, mishaps, errors and a simple I need to learn more because I do not have enough of a clue will be very much part of it. A good and living story is like an iceberg. 

Animal Wisdom Speaks is a living organism and a living story and as such an organisation that will walk barefoot like a child, bear the clothes of an adult and one day read a book in a rocking chair sharing its stories with others.

​Kristin Raphaela Otti

Dare to be the change. Dare to tell your story. Dare to inspire. 

Dare to be the hope. 

Kristin Raphaela Otti & Johannes Milchram