Desperation to Destiny ... Dr Stanley Arumugam

"The book, Desperation to Destiny is about a journey that we all undertake as human beings. It is about that space in time when we really come to a difficult time in our lives. The key message is that it is a good place. Pay attention to that place that you are in. It is actually a holy place. Don't escape it, embrace it," says Stanley Arumugam on the iStart2 Show. "You need to make a decision on where you want to go."

We chatted to Stanley about his role as Senior Head - Governance, Leadership & Accountability at ActionAid International and his views on sustainability issues affecting our people. "Things like climate change has a significant impact on people and especially the poor." Stan is of the opinion that we have a middle class that is quite disinterested in what is happening and his hope lies in asking people to rethink the question of what it means to be a good a neighbour. He further believes that the ancient wisdom of servant leadership is still very applicable. 

"I believe in South Africa and the magic and diversity we have in our people. iStart2 hope for the country" - Stanley Arumugam 

To get in touch with Stanley email him at stanley.arumugam@gmail.com and to listen to the interview, just click play:



Thought of the Day:

In the words of David Whyte:

Despair is a necessary and seasonal state of repair, a temporary healing absence, an internal physiological and psychological winter when our previous forms of participation in the world take a rest; it is a loss of horizon, it is the place we go when we do not want to be found in the same way anymore. We give up hope when certain particular wishes are no longer able to come true and despair is the time in which we both endure and heal, even when we have not yet found the new form of hope.

We take the first steps out of despair by taking on its full weight and coming fully to ground in our wish not to be here. We let our bodies and we let our world breathe again. In that place, strangely, despair cannot do anything but change into something else, into some other season, as it was meant to do, from the beginning. Despair is a difficult, beautiful necessity, a binding understanding between human beings caught in a fierce and difficult world where half of our experience is mediated by loss, but it is a season, a wave form passing through the body, not a prison surrounding us. A season left to itself will always move, however slowly, under its own patience, power and volition.

‘DESPAIR’ From CONSOLATIONS:
The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words.
© David Whyte and Many Rivers Press 2015
Available http://davidwhyte.stores.yahoo.net/newbook.html