NOTE to the readers & Participant quote of the day

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The quote of the day is:

"Living in this life without understanding the meaning of it, it is like wandering around in the great library without touching any books."

 Lukkette from Thailand

Enjoying the journey

The last 2 weeks we have jumped on this riding train and it has been moving full speed ahead. Our first goal was to get to know the participants and determine where they stood in their own learning process. We used different exercises to get the energy flowing, setting the standard for the group dynamic.

We received a lot of compliments. "you did a great job!" And as a result we set a very high standard for are self and the following lessons to come!! Holy cow!!! 

By getting real, “dropping the waterline”, sharing life stories, experience, diversity, sad & happy moments, we created a safe place for the group (including ourselves). A safe playground to ignite their own creativity to support innovative thinking. With dancing, singing, making music and writing songs, the tone was set! Can you imagine al the great stories we have received? We are blessed to work with a group from 16 nationalities/personalities.

All stories are different but we all have one thing in common: 

the ability to dream

And it is there where the clear vision reveals it self.

The participants all started to open up and started to share their stories and dreams, which we don't take lightly. We know that we are only passing by in this one year project. We can only say that we are so proud to be hear at IISE, and that we have the opportunity to meet so many wonderful inspiring people.

Sabriye and Paul are both the anchor points of this institute and they have managed to build a sustainable innovative institute which creates a platform for those who are willing to take the chance to make a change.

The IISE took the risk to:

Giving us the change to dream, create and letting us be Remarkable.

And what a feeling to experience that the pieces of the puzzle truly fit!!!!!

It is there:

Where all are talents, vision, passion all come together and gets bigger than our self.

It is that energy where true potential can be found to make things happen.

Peggy-Jane & Karel

Participant quote of the day

We have been touched by the inspiring people at IISE. We would like to share with you a daily quote. The first quote...

"It is much easier to pull someone or lend them a hand up(wards), than it is to push them up."
quote originally from Harv Eker

Marguerite from USA

Getting Real

The process of letting go is as real and true as the lessons we try to give & teach here in India. While putting the participants through the Remarkable creative process of getting their dream vision clear, we are challenging them to go out of their comfort zone and dropping their waterline by getting real, so they can tell and share their stories.

We of course do the same!!!

We both are working on are own living document, our own personal Remarkable vision!

Which is a great experience, full off challenging, deep dive moments, which confront us with our own wants, needs, thoughts and convictions.

We can truly say that it is an amazing process. We experienced that if you are able to get real and say what is in your heart, it will come back to you in forms you can not even imagine.

We have been touched by great people, stories and ideas which brings us right at the core of are believes, that what we dream is real & true!

 

We are on the right path of our Remarkable journey. 

Getting things done to get to this point, was a challenge in it self.

Getting in and out of tuk tuks, (fearing for our own life :0), we had to find our way through the city to get all the materials we needed for the workshops.

And what you know and expect is all what it is not!!

The pace of live and the rhythm of the city is one that you have to get used to.

If you would normally get 10 things done in a day, we now are happy if we can make 2 things work. So therefore the lesson in being patient is hard to ignore!

Also the tool of making deals and putting up a theatre show to bargain the price is a big laugh, but necessary and considered rude if you don't!

So after our first week of preparation we finally started are first session!

What a blast!!!!! Our cheeks are still glowing, wow! (wat is dit te gek!!!)

We fully took the deep dive into our Remarkable process and still are taking in the remarkable heart felt compliments and great inspiring feedback which they shared with us.

One of the participants shared the following feedback with us: 

"The Remarkable workshop brought me to a deeper level about myself and others. Sharing my authentic self with my fellow participants has given me a lot of clarity about my own goals."

It is through connection & sharing we have been able to recognize our selves and feel that what we do is Remarkable!

Thanks for following us!

Peggy-Jane & Karel

* Wat is *

 Wanneer ik loslaat en vertrouw op dat wat er is,

ontvouwt het leven zich als een raadsel.

Waarvan ik nooit had gedacht of verwacht,

dat ik het antwoord ooit zou vinden.

Ik wist nog niet hoe de dingen zouden gaan verlopen, 

hier in India.

De hoge eisen die ik mijzelf stelde,

de voorbereiding, het moeten weten,

heb ik in rust naast me neergelegd en losgelaten.

Net als dat het regenseizoen zich niet laat regisseren,

komt ze als gelegen om de vermoeiende hitte af te blussen.

De aarde komt op adem,

en zoekt haar verkoeling in de lauw warme regendrup.

Ik ben zo blij dat ik hier ben, en dat ik mag ervaren,

dat wat is....

is perfect.

* What is *

When I let go and truly trust in that what is…

Life unfolds itself as a riddle, of which I never imagined that I would ever find the answer.

I did not know how things would turn out, once I arrived in India.

I peacefully put aside the high expectations that I put on myself, all my preparations, and the pressure of “I must know”.

Like the rain season itself, which can not be directed, 

she comes as a blessing to soothe the tiring heat.

Finally earth can catch her breath, and treasures her own cooldown in the warm raindrops.

I am so glad that I am finally here,

I am thankful that I can embrace the experience,

of that what is….

is perfect.

The Remarkable experience of Celebrating the Difference

Welcome to Kerala, God’s own country.

The warm air welcomes you, hits you like a wall, and embraces your body immediately. The crowded little airport where people are waiting to pick up their loved ones, friends, relatives, business partners and so on, is overwhelming. Between the hundreds of self-written names boards, we tried to find our names. Realizing what they consider organized and clear, to us looked like complete chaos. We ask ourselves when we are sitting in the car, how do they do it? People everywhere, cars honking, tuktuks rushing, scooters racing by, different odors coming in and out of your nose, the unfamiliar sounds, the heat that beats against our skin, our bodies trying to fight off the tiredness, and yet again absorbing all the new experiences that we are taking in like a sponge.

“Holy cow, we are in India!!”

After being in this little tornado we step into a tuktuk, of which we thought we would never come out of alive. It brought us safely to our house, which we can call our home for the time that we are here.  

Throughout our preparation for our visit, we had our own thoughts and fantasies about the city (which turned out to be a village), the access to certain things, the expectation of being mobile, internet/mobile phone, the campus, the house we were staying in. It all turned out different then we thought. Without knowing what to expect, we immediately felt we had to readjust our reference. This was our first Remarkable experience. 

We challenge ourselves to celebrate all the beautiful differences,
and to embrace it with open eyes.

With sweaty greetings from Kerala!

Peggy-Jane & Karel

PS from PJ:

My heart got overwhelmed by emotions before I even hit the ground of India. The man next to me in the plane said “Welcome to Kerala. Welcome to God’s own country! Tears welled up in my eyes, and I thanked the man with a smile. I found the perfect place to spread out a part of my mom’s ashes.

Lieve mam, welkom in God’s own country, tot tussen de sterren*

If you can dream it, you can achieve it!

Our Remarkable Story

Our journey started 2 Months ago when we met for the first time. During this meeting it became clear that we shared the same passion. We talked about our backgrounds and the things we were working on. Peggy-Jane was very eager to start working with her ideas around making people finding their true passion by using a creative coaching process. Karel was in the middle of writing his book interviewing a number of people, and concluding that it was time to start doing. Peggy-Jane and Karel took on this challenge and asked Gert to join. Our vision was to create the Remarkable Foundation to offer people a process to become proud of who they are, find their true potential, and realize their dreams. All three of us have our own stories to tell about why we are passionate about Remarkable. The stories are different, but our dreams are the same. We want to bring different worlds together.

The first step in our Remarkable Story is the ‘creative dream visioning’ workshop we will facilitate in India in June. In addition to visioning, we want to ensure that people to whom we offer this process, will get the funding to actually kick start their dreams. Specifically for the India workshop, we will be organizing a fund raising event later this year.
 

Over the last two months we had many, many people helping us in getting our Remarkable Foundation started. We are so grateful for all the help we have received! It enabled us to 'hit the ground running' and start doing. But before we start blogging about our experiences in India, we would like to thank:

·      Monique Verkuilen from AKD for preparing the deed of foundation for Stichting Remarkable

·    Henk Jan Smits, Bas van der Heuvel, and Annika Bos, for creating a beautiful Remarkable song (more on that later!)  www.soundwisestudio.nl  

·    Paul, Vincent, Marco & supporting team from Touch Creative who
created our logo, and helped us with various communication materials
www.touchcreative.nl

·    Helen den Held, from the Deloitte Foundation who has given us the funding for our pilot project in India 

.    Yvonne and Rich Dutra St. John, founders of Challenge day, for sharing the Challenge Day training materials (www.challengeday.org)

·    Katja Schuurman, Maarten Ras, en Marije Schasfoort for helping us with sharing their experience with setting up Return to Sender

·    Karl van Houten, from www.camerakoning.nl who sponsored 5 video camera's that we can use in our project

·    Raymond from, De-Streng, for sponsoring our first Label order. www.de-streng.nl

·    Het Tattelljee, voor rest materialen www.tatteljee.nl

·    Dolf, from ASP giving support and access to their training materials

·    Salem Samhoud, and Marjan Companjen from &Samhoud who have sent us 150 balls of connection

·    Henno, from www.youngworks.nl giving feedback, support & sharing training materials

·    Ingrid Tappin, who took the time to brainstorm with us around our social media plan

·    Kieu for last minute sewing advice

·    Sandra, for designing the ring of connection

       

And of course our partners who have been putting up with our crazy work schedule, and who have been supporting us from the day we started!

Yes, we are going to India. Our first project will be at the International Institute for Social Entrepreneurs. We are incredibly thankful for this opportunity and really eager to get started.

About the IISE

The International Institute for Social Entrepreneurs (IISE) in Trivandrum, Kerala (South India) operates under the umbrella of Braille without Borders Charitable Trust (BWB). BWB was co-founded by Sabriye Tenberken and Paul Kronenberg in 2005. In January 2009, the IISE welcomed its first batch of 20 participants. IISE creates credible and effective leaders for positive social change across the world. The eleven month experiential program driven by catalysts helps them set up social projects that improve the quality of blind, visually impaired people and marginalized target groups in an earth-respecting environment that promotes leadership, collaboration and positive social change. The IISE focuses on leadership training in order to create social change through innovation.

We invite you to join our Remarkable journey by following our blog.
Follow us, we welcome your support!

We are living our dream.
Come dream with us!

Peggy-Jane, Karel, Gert