What is in your Zoom background?
This week I just received in the post the first painting I have bought from the polymath that is Mike Donald, an Isle of Lewis native who has recently started creating artworks. As he says, they are: “Early interpretations and reactions to the land and seascapes of the Scottish Outer Hebrides.” The image above does not bring to life the colours and textures of the original, which takes me right back to the Isle of Lewis. I love it, and now it sits behind me in my office.
This also, for fun, has me feel to share today some of the other items behind me in my zoom background, some clearer than others. They are a mix of whimsy and of thoughts and items that have meaning to me.
What’s in your own Zoom background?
So, first, you can see my old Cayman Islands licence plate, the word INSPIRE. It is my aspiration to inspire, and so to be inspired. In my old office in Cayman I also had a limited edition print from Hugh McLeod which expressed this “virtuous circle” of aspiration:
Next, just visible and sitting behind that licence plate is a “talking stick”, a piece of dried out cactus I picked up from the beach at El Pescadero in Baja, Mexico. The image below shows the original meeting space at Modern Elder Academy on that beach, where on the table you can see the larger talking stick they have used since the start of Modern Elder Academy for “Circle”. I visited MEA in both April 2018 and February 2019 and those visits brought and still carry great meaning to me.
Below the licence plate is another Gaping Void print, one that expresses both my natural energy and my passion for #MakingPotentialPossible for others and the broader community.
Now, look up to the top of the bookcase and you will see a larger framed print. This is a commission that Hugh McLeod did for me around 2012, inspired by my Intent statement of #MakingPotentialPossible. The words were chosen by Hugh without my input, simply inspired by my hashtagged Intent statement and a few words I sent to him along with that. When I received the commission the words he wrote truly hit home. It is both brave and an act of love to become the person you need to be.
To the side of that large commission is a smaller framed image, from MeOnTheMap, showing the borough of Croydon in London and highlighting the area I live in now, Coulsdon, which is right at the edge of this great city.
There is one more photo there, of my three sons, but for their privacy you don’t get the close up shot 😉
Finally, one last image, the whimsy that is a “Lost Cat” poster from Steve Chapman. For more on that story and the sister of that poster that is now on display in a café in Cayman, as well as others all around the world, see this post from Steve Chapman. Also, below that Lost cat poster is my limited edition print of Steve Chapman’s 10-year plan idea that I wrote about here.
Oh, and this is all behind me as I sit at my desk. What do I see ahead of me and beyond my screen when I am on Zoom?
