Green – Renewal, Together – Hope!
Walking / cycling through Westland (NL) – People’s first associations to green are ‘start signal’ and of course nature, environment, harmony and …. health. Adversely green connects to jealousy, envy, misfortune. And also to youth, good luck, spring, fertility and – that makes me happy – vigor, renewal and … Christmas, hope!
Today I like to focus on vigor, renewal, hope. Vigor is the power to do something. Where does it come from? From what source? Let’s take a closer look … Example: take a plant or alga with cholorplasts. These chloroplasts have the power to do something: under the infuence of light(-energy) the plant or alga can live (i.e. produce sugar and oxigen out of carbondioxide and water). You could say that choroplasts cooperate with the photons (= light) to reach a certain goal: keep on producing new oxigen and sugars.
Cooperate. I believe individual people are ment to cooperate. Every human being has aptitudes and talents, a shape. This shape florishes extraordinary in the process of cooperation. Where does one learn to cooperate? In the Netherlands many primary schools apply cooperative learning …!
Here an example of what I learned about cooperation and cooperatives. My parents ran a greenhouse business in 
the Netherlands. Comprihensible they were a member of a buying cooperative and a selling cooperative. As a teenager I got interested in the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of being a member of a cooperative and visited an assembly of the members of the buying as well as the selling cooperative. I learned many, many things!! Buying and selling cooperative: cooperate with other members to (a) certain benefit(s). From that point the results served our individual interest … a kind of two grade rocket!
My conclusion: working in cooperation seemed to be a kind of mystery with three keywords: together, share and … communication. Three words quickly spoken, but sometimes very difficult in applying. Gather, meet, talk, deliberate, preparing decisions, make decisions, the after-talk … And keep on cooperating afterwards. With renewed vigor, new hope. Valuable … Essential!
Green. New hope out of sharing, cooperating and communication (an art in itself!). Curious …? Challenging …?
Yellow – Learn 🙂
Walking / cycling through Westland (NL) – Yellow. Thé colour many people associate to summer. To happiness, fun and to optimism, hope and … LEARNING! But also to danger, jealousy, deceit, dishonesty, cowardice, betrayal, disease … And to imagination, philosophy, idealism.
Today I focus on curiousity, finding new ways of doing things. How do you do that? Many different ways. I believe throughout the years we develop our own way of doing this, a way that feels comfortable. We look at examples on internet, in newsletters and literature. We visit fairs and shows, seminars, conferences and congresses, network meetings. Requirement to learn: an open attitude, an open heart.
Curiousity. To learn … What way should I think and develop myself? My team? How to find out? Our region, our country, our continent, the world – 
how does it look like in 10 – 20 years? Is my heart open? A bank, active in the area I live ànd the sector I contribute almost daily, organized a meeting for her members. An inspiring program in an inspiring location (World Horti Center) – again an inspiring contribution … a futurist! (Note: last year we had and astonaut … ‘our’ André Kuipers – also a triggering meeting!).
The question: what skills do we need at the moment to build the future? The assignment: discover your passion! From there: develop curiosity, your imagination, will-power, and find ways to create new ideas. Dream …
Huh? Dream …? If you can – and dare(!) What is my attitude in life so far? Adventurous? Or a (developing) attitude of seeking insurance? Do I have a learning attitude? Maybe it is a good idea to ask some people in your network…?! What do I tell childeren about this – in words? In acts? How do I define ‘an adventurous attitude’ anyway?
Yellow. Turning towards a – far more(!) – attitude of learning. Are you with us?
Purple – Think and Act like a Modern King!
Walking / cycling through Westland (NL) – Purple connects me to royalty, nobility, authority and respect; ambitious and confident. But also to lament, mourning and spirituality.
Purple is an intense colour and combines the stability and integrity of the color blue and the energy and power of the color red. Purple and violet are often interchanged. Violet is the smallest vibration of the spectrum, visible for human eye; violet associates to sensible and vulnerable. Violet also connects us to all different types of pollution in the world of today: air pollution, noise pollution, visual pollution and contamination of our foodchain.
Where is your focus? To mourn, to lament – these verbs are functional(!). Illness, to pass away, feeling incapable or helpless by unexplainable behaviour of human beings. Or you get in a situation where you or a loved one can hardly influence what happens next … An occurence that surprises you completely – it’s like being turned off for a short(er) or longer while … thinking ‘Now what …?’. The feelings that go with this are allowed, of course. But do you let yourself lead by these kinds of feelings, or do you let them be there (for a while) and then stand up again?
In my opinion it’s time for more focus on ‘purple’ – take authority in your situation in a healthy, sustainable way – in person, local, regional, national, continental(!) and worldwide(!). Purple and violet also associate to future, imagination, dreams, take the lead. Do you 
think sustainable, related to yourself? Thinking and acting sustainable is not a far-away-show … Know your qualities*), your character. Do you know who you are – seen from local, regional, national, continental or worldwide point of view?
Every day we – me and my spouse – get up to contribute to our mission: support people getting in their element, by sharing information that is connected to personal and worldwide questions. Some examples of questions of customers: how to find my next step during study (international Horticulture!)? After finishing my period of full-time study? What role suites me? How can I contribute to issues like Earth, Nutrition, Stability and Waste?
Purple. Take authority in a healthy, sustainable way. Act like a King: with respect and authority. Are you in?
*) Don’t you know your own qualities (good enough)? Start searching – there’s a big chance you’ll discover (some) latent qualities. Whaauuw…!! How to do this? Need help? Give me a message – a few persons in my network are willing to help you (and me)!
Blue – Think and Act Sustainable!
Walking / cycling through Westland (NL) – ‘Blue’ reminds me of trust, power and wisdom. Responsible, reliable, seeks peace.
Just Start
Three years ago, just started to prepare the start-up of a company which would later be named ‘VanG’, something occured to me that one doesn’t want: playing soccer with my son, my ankle bracelets. An accident, o yeah. Accidents never come at a right time!
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