🐘 If it’s the ONE THING you do today, make a pledge to NEVER ride an elephant or buy ivory again. Please. 🙏🏻 Speaking at the Counter Wildlife Trafficking Partnership Forum this morning on what one person can really do in terms of inspiring change, maximizing reach, mobilizing support, and sustaining movements in order to tackle wildlife trafficking and preserve our environment. Extremely honoured to share the panel with Venerable Maha Sompong Talaputto, Buddhist Dharma Teacher, Justice Michael Wilson from the Hawaii Supreme Court, Le Thi Thu Thuy from the Vietnam chamber of commerce and industry, and John Roberts, Conservation Director of Minor Hotel Group. ✨ Main takeaways ✨ - influencers, celebrities and content creators have power to influence and inspire change through their platforms and personal choices by making responsible choices and leading by example. - religious leaders can be powerful influencers to dispel myths that wild animal parts have magical or spiritual powers. - businesses and tourism sector can do more to promote sustainable activities and environmentally friendly holidays for the public in order to raise awareness and promote conservation efforts. - the rule of law is still a powerful vehicular for change and should be used more effectively in order to bring about climate justice and action. - real and decisive action needs a collaborative effort from all sectors, private, public and government. *Don’t limit yourself to a label or put yourself in a box before you take action. Everyone has the power to make a difference. @usaid @asean @wwf @undp #counterwildlifetrafficking #wildlifetrafficking #elephantconservation #beautifulwithoutivory

_ - 謹以此片紀念閻廣琛，並獻給閻家所有親友們 六位子孫為外公製作的紀念影片以及改編的歌曲，也許不是特別專業但，卻是充滿真心裝滿愛製作出來的影片 改編自 Rainbow Chamber Singers | 上海彩虹室内合唱团《外婆》 詞曲改編:黃郁雯 演唱:黃若瑄,黃郁雯,陳冠羽,陳孟宏,林禹安,林禹彤 混音:林禹安 影片製作:林禹彤 星星在眨眼 輝映河面的斑斕 穿過幾條小巷 就是阿嬤家 門前山岩上 蒲公英們隨風揚 在閻家的呵護下 悄悄地茁壯 忽然一陣風 小船兒搖啊搖 我望著那點點燈火在辨認 何處是他的窗 第一次被你擁抱在懷中 第一首詩詞伴我入夢 第一次我開口叫外公 第一回蹉跎 第一份工作 多希望你也知道 門前有棵樹 春天一到就開花 年輕時的媽媽常在 院裡捉迷藏 多久沒來啦？ 這裡依然沒變化 只是床前木桌的上頭 不再有詩與畫 第一遍跌倒塗的紅藥 第一碗牛肉湯的味道 第一次我 開口叫外公 那一次提親 那一場婚禮 多希望你也知道 最後一次 開口叫外公 第一場戀愛 第一個小孩 多希望你也知道

This will be the last of my posts about my father, Fukujuro, for the time being. They were nothing particularly special, just some memories of a father and son from a poor cab driver's family. The buddhist priest of the Jōdo sect who came to read a sutra gave us a talk after reciting the Nembutsu. The content of the talk was about luck and fate. Through reincarnation, the process by which a living being is reborn many times—not only as human beings but also as other creatures including animals—at this moment we are living our given lives as human beings. He explained that the idea that we should not leave this as a mere coincidental "luck" of the moment but must find the meaning of our time in life by respecting our relationships with other people constitutes the concept of “en,” or a fated relationship. I was grateful for the wisdom of the doctrine, which frees us from the all-consuming sorrow of loss caused by death through such abstract concepts. In Japan, when a person dies, they are customarily cremated. After being cremated for about an hour in the chamber, the white bones come out in pieces, which are then collected, put in an urn, and placed in a tomb. But before that final step, there is a period of 49 days during which we welcome the cremated remains into our homes and pray for the dead. We are going through that period at the moment. I would like to put my palms together in a prayer for my father once again, in gratitude for the reincarnation and all the fated relationships during the time he has lived. Namu Amida Buddha. 南無阿弥陀仏 🙏 translation: @tabi_the_fat