African Wedding Wonder

The Wedding Dress Was Hand-Painted & Inspired by A Butterfly Design. 

Not to Mention the bride's beauty. 

Colorful Guests Arriving.

When an African Butterfly Princess marries, she begins by spreading the kind of beauty only the likes of Ms. KG are born with. She sprinkles in the kind of flair and bold embrace of color only the African horizon shines and then she leaves us salivating in awe at such a marvelous display of tradition enlivened for today. My girlfriend from high school held her traditional Tswana ceremony a few weeks ago in South Africa. The custom--Hlapiso ya Magadi-- is an age-old honor joining two families through the exchange and celebration of the bride's wedding dowry. Kgomotso was a wonder to behold and knowing the woman she is, this wedding is the mark of many wonderous years to come. Congratulations Ms. KG!


All Photos Courtesy Kgomotso.

Traditionally-dressed Xhosa Guest

Just Phreggin Do It

The Beautiful Greek Australian Zandie in Pea-Green,
Being The Change in Italy, the Tuscan Way,
Photo Courtesy, Caitie Goddard.

Yours Truly, Walking the Florentine Street Runway. 

Photo Courtesy, Caitie Goddard

Another beautiful day in Tuscany, surrounded by beautiful minds dedicated to lives of meaning. I am so inspired by not only the lessons being shared here by the Global Volunteer Network Be The Change team, but also by the inspiring life stories and ideas & passions shared by program participants.

Be The Change is a 5 day getaway bootcamp that gives you the tools (and time off!) to dive deep into living outloud in true style--by being a catalyst for change in your community.

It's an inspiration board
It's a toolbox shed
And it's a moment of silence for yourself
To finally give yourself the permission to Just Phreggin Do It.

Live. Love, Outloud!

Photos here by the talented Caitie Goddard.

Rules for Radicals

Religious Rebels: Lady Gaga & Daria for Vogue. Courtesy, Vogue US & Nippon.

"Men (and women) don't like to step abruptly out of the security of familiar experience; they need a bridge to cross from their own experience into a new way"-Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals.

Growing & Learning at Be The Change in Italy with Global Volunteer Network. Spent the morning considering how movements are ignited, the power and leadership of followers (who legitimize a leader, see the Derek Sivers TED lecture) and how to save the world while enjoying bloody good pistachio gelato--will post you an invitation to this utopia once we've perfected the world to our imagination. Thinking maybe the end of the week...meanwhile, RISE REBELS. RULE!

Labadi I Love You

Labadi Bellas. Photos Courtesy Annie & Ethan, ListenIn Pictures. 

Fierce & Fearless Talent Finds Beauty... Nothing less expected from our friends at ListenIn Pictures, who are in Accra, Ghana, working with eco-conscious fashion brand Of Rags.

Que Bella, No?

Tuscan Sexy: Trendiest Secret

Lara Stone in Tuscany for Vogue, Mario Testino & Dree Hemingway shot by Tom Craig shoots for UK Vogue 

La Chiara Di Prumiano villa, Where I'm Crashing This Week With
 Global Volunteer Network's Be The Change Crew. Photo Courtesy of the villa.

Left are my +400 year old digs for the next couple days--room just right of that balcony, Tuscan hills lulling me to starry night sleeps, heavenly morning light playing catch with grass flowers and ripening grape vines awash in the golden shimmer. 

Heaven Lives Here.

And if you're jealous enough, this paradise can be yours too, that plus a blueprint to living your dream. Skeptical and sickened by my car salesman pitch? Don't be. Just be jealous:) And check out Be The Change program--the sexiest trend this fall is finally doing something about that thing you've been meaning to do with your life all season. Be The Change can help you start on that little something. Who knows, you may even get Italian style with your deal? 

Ciao!

Africa Abroad

Liz Ogumbo. Great Profile by This Is Africa. Photo Courtesy Liz Ogumbo/House of Iman.

Inspired by SuperWomanSuperheroSuperStar Liz Ogumbo. The Kenya-born, Mzantsi-based hotness in a voicebox cum designer business chick (yup, she's that fierce. does it all) earns mad respect for the sweet cinematography (and costumes!) in the video below.

Am reporting from a beautiful room with a view in Italy--more on that to come. In the meantime, eat this...

True Love: Long Live A. Sisulu

The 1944 Sisulu Wedding Party. Courtesy Sisulu family Collection--South African History.org

This week, a lioness passed. Saluting Mme Albertina Sisulu and the iconic African womanhood she stood for; and the mother's mothers she stood in for (see Mrs. Lithuli below). There are so many things to shout and celebrate and venerate in salute of Mme Sisulu--her unfaltering dedication to the struggle against oppression/colonization of mind+body; her fierce, fearless and beautifully afro-headed leadership of the democratic against apartheid South Africa; her clarity of mind, values and focus about what ultimately matters most in life: abuntu, people. But not mater what you fixate your admiration on, so much of it centered on the enviable relationship she shared with her husband--Walter Sisulu. Separated by political imprisonment for most of their married life, they still managed to live out a model of true love...to give of yourself without expectation, to live in faith of love against reasonable hope, to act for and from love in action and even in fault, to live for something greater than the embellishment and promise of romantic love. 

Mme Sisulu will be laid to rest this weekend next to her husband at Croesus Cemetary, following a funeral at the landmark Orlando Stadium, Soweto. One of their great-grandchildren, Shaka Sisulu, tweeted a reflection in his grand's passing, “as more and more of the stoic, respected elders withdraw from office, public life or this world, there is the danger they leave with their values”. Let it not be so.

With Dr. Jassat, Mrs. Lithuli (wife of first African Nobel laureate & Freedom Fighter Chief Albert Lithuli).