Alice’s Book Club – AUTUMN session of 2020

As the autumn is softly unfolding, on Friday (October 23'20) I was glad to be able to organize my last book club session of the current year, with a small group of close friends, this time discussing trust. 

Given that officially our world is still functioning under lots of restrictions relating to the ongoing pandemic, we are continuing with online programs. 

For our evening together, the selected reading material featuring "trust" included a relevant article published by the "Harvard Business Review" conjugated with another paper issued by "Psychology Today", both in addition to personal perspectives as well as individual insights and factual life related episodes. 
Also, since my previous book club session was more of an intimate nature and my guests loved it so much, I decided to carry on with the same group size, which helped our conversation reach a much deeper level, to everybody's delight.

The subject discussed is actually quite massive, but for the purpose of our gathering we covered only some fundamental perspectives, applying to the current period the entire world is going through.
The phenomenon of trust has been extensively explored by a variety of disciplines across the social sciences, including economics, social psychology and political science. The breadth and depth of this literature offer a very rich insight, and this is noted in the common elements that appear in the definition of trust, but here, on this briefing, I'm sharing with you only few points, thoughts and statements, concisely touched on that evening:

- Trust is a feeling of confidence and security

- The way people behave and talk are a clear evidence if they can be trusted or not

- To be a trusted person is an honor 

- Trust is a clear indicator if other people evaluate you positively or negatively
- The person who doesn't trust, won't be trusted
- In order to trust people, first of all you need to feel good about them
- Positivity, good judgment and consistency are few key elements of trust
- Trust is an attitude of hopefulness about life, a sense that the power of love is the greatest power 
- Discovering who you really are (self-knowledge) leads to understanding and trust
- Trust is an essential part of all human relationships, including romantic, family, spirituality, business, politics, education or medical practices (for example, if you don't trust your doctor, it would be very difficult to maintain a good & steady relation or to follow his/her professional advice)
- Trust is the most important part of a relationship ...and so on...
Wrapping up this sharing, we all agreed that quite often than not life is hard and difficult, but ultimately it is really trustworthy!

Our talks were open, warm and genuine, from heart to heart, mind to mind, and as usual, our time together flew by very fast. At the end of the session, as my guests were weaving 'good bye' it was very heart-touching for me to hear them wish we could meet more often in the future as our gatherings bring them each a lot of joy! What else could I ask for?!
Also, for your convenience and enjoyment, here is a personal briefing I wrote some time ago on this very subject, called: TRUST...the 'glue' of life...peaceful reading!

While at this page, I would like to highlight an old truth, which says:
               "It is important to understand the difference between a person who joins you in his/her free time and a person who makes time for  you." 

As this was the last book club session of the year, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all my loyal friends who each time (not just occasionally) made themselves available to connect & genuinely support the "Alice & Friends" community initiative...their beautiful contribution is well noted & highly appreciated!
Alice 

"When you completely trust a person, without any doubt, automatically, you'll get one of these two results - 
either a FRIEND for life or a LESSON for life."

October 2020 – Message for THANKSGIVING Day

Dear friends, I wish that this beautiful time of the year finds you thankful, with many reasons to be grateful for! Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Appreciation could change a day, a month, a year and even a life.

● My previous greetings on the same theme: THANKSGIVING Day – 2019, 2018

September 22, 2020: Happy AUTUMN, dear friends!

Dear friends, today (September 22'20) is the first day of autumn, and by this note I'm sending you each a bunch of good wishes for a peaceful season!
Autumn is a beautiful symphony of impermanence and change.

As time goes by very quickly, while days continue to become shorter and colder during autumn time in our Northern Hemisphere, many cultures around the world celebrate a variety of festivals emphasizing goodness and abundance, marking in a way the beginning of a symbolic holidays' season.
Also, I hope that you will find a way to show your appreciation for all what you have achieved throughout the year. Have a beautiful autumn, dear friends!  

● My previous greetings on the same theme: AUTUMNAL Equinox – 2019, 2018

Alice’s Book Club – SUMMER session of 2020

Many of us feel that this summer was flying by very fast, but before is completely over, this Friday (September 18'20) I was happy to organize a video-conference with some of my available and loyal friends, discussing hope for our seasonal book club session.

While our province is slowly reopening more and more, there are still a large number of pandemic related precautionary measures in place - so, in this light, all things being considered, we are continuing with our activities, adopting (for the time being), the "on line" approach.

Aside of that, instead of a typical novel as reading material featuring hope, a concise study issued by Stanford University was chosen, combined with a relevant, related, article presented by "The New York Times Magazine". Of course, in addition to these materials, personal experiences and individual perspectives were amply discussed, making our evening together really special. 

Even though at this session our group was fairly small, the conversation was very interesting, filled with rich perspectives varying from general to personal, with lots of useful tips, fluctuating from theoretical to practical. Hope is fascinating in many ways & we all agreed that in life everybody needs hope, regardless of age, race, culture, etc.

As I usually do, here I will share with you few questions and concepts, which surfaced during our talks, trusting that by doing so, it might trigger a moment of contemplation, and perhaps (at the personal level) more insights (about hope) would emerge, in a beneficial manner:
- What does it mean to have hope and how it affects life? | Is 'wish' a 'hope'? | Are we, as individuals, more similar than different? | Is hope really universal?
- How can we find hope and maintain a healthy level of it? | What keeps us going when we feel tired or overwhelmed? 
- To what extend hope is or it is not interconnected with faith? | It is crucial to recognize hopeless situation/s and change focus in a timely fashion.
- Hope is determined by positivity or the other way around? ...and so on.... 
Definitively, lots of meaningful comments and profound remarks were smoothly flowing all directions emphasizing once again that nowadays hope is highly regarded throughout the entire world, given the ongoing circumstances. 

We all agreed that if we continue to stay focused on our dreams and goals, for sure hope will allow us to approach any given situation/s with a positive mindset, fact which could increase our chances of success.
Once again, my most sincere appreciation to my dear friends who honored my invitation, and until next time, my best regards to all!
Alice

"Where there is Hope, there is life; it feels us with fresh courage and makes us strong again." (Anne Frank)

Remarks about the value of HOPE

Scholars, unanimously agree that hope is a highly desired, optimistic state of mind, based on which one could expect positive outcomes, relating to different life events or circumstances; basically, an amazing life force that keeps us going. 

Hope is incredibly important in life, as it could influence positively health and happiness, as well as success. For instance, having hope could make a difficult situation be more bearable and eventually assist with envisioning a better future; in essence, such approach could motivate people to take necessary steps to the right direction and make good things happen. Implicitly, this leads to optimism, and extensive research studies show that optimistic people are more likely to live gratifying lives, with less stress and more enjoyable experiences.

Without exaggerating, we could safely state that hope is that beautiful feeling of trust and some sort of security, an inspiring reason which keeps people going, an ardent wish of the heart, a feeling of exciting expectation, as well as a candid desire for something specific to happen. 
But, how do we really find and maintain hope, given that more often than not, people are facing all sorts of challenging and disruptive life related situations?
Psychologists believe that in order to find hope, it is important to follow a number of specific steps, such as:

- finding a clear path in life (like knowing clearly what do you want to do with your life)
- do what you know you can do best (like finding and using your talents in appropriate circumstances) 
- each time you can, perform random acts of kindness

Aside of that, here are few thoughts on how someone could maintain hope:
- when you feel weak and disoriented, turn toward your family or a trusted friend, who could restore your positivity
- embrace your faith
- remind yourself, lovingly, that you do the best that you can, with the available tools that you have 
- continue to take good care of yourself, in a non-judgmental manner

Definitively, we could say that the power of hope is tremendous, but it is also equally important to realize when a particular situation is really hopeless, so you could re-organize yourself appropriately in order to avoid further regrets.

Whether we deliberately think about it or not, hope is a valuable part of everyday life, and everyone, regardless of age, at one point in time, had hoped for something.
As I wrap up my comments here, I would like to encourage everyone to continue to be helpful and hopeful toward one another, because such a positive attitude might enrich someone's life, including yours.
                    "When the world says, give up - hope whispers, try it one more time!"