by Georgina Angélica

Today, I don't hear the expression “live in the present moment.” In fact, the first time that I woke up to the meaning of these words was through Eckhart Tolle’s book, ‘The Power of Now.’

This book was offered to me by an Ethiopian friend I met when I was living in London. So sensitively, she sensed that reading this book would have a powerful effect on my life. In fact, there are books that are offered to us with the mission of helping us to face a particularly challenging phase, even if both parties, the one that offers and the one that receives, have no idea of the antidote that the book will become. I have always been a person to plan, act and continue to move to achieve goals. The early childhood consultancy and training project that I created already had long-term goals set, but behold, a pandemic hits the world and suddenly scheduled training commitments are canceled and long-term goals have to be rethought. Fortunately and due to a geographical change, I had already sensed that an innovative solution would be online consultancies. Before the pandemic, I had a very important and relevant client for the mission and purpose of my project and had been contacted to be part of panels of experts from other projects, that is, I was on the path I had worked so hard for. However, all determined plans had to be slowed down and adapted to the new reality.

I feel that now I have finally started to realize what it really means to 'live in the present moment', to do what is possible today, neither more nor less. Many of the things you had planned to either do not have to wait or possibly will not happen as expected. I chose to face the situation in the best possible way, because what good is being "stuck" to what could have been? Will it change anything? Who knows what the world will look like in a week or six months? Is it worthwhile to carefully plan a future that I have no idea how it will be? I still plan my online appointments minimally, but even those I am managing in the NOW and if they do not happen as expected, I am not disappointed, I simply accept that what has been done has been done. But what am I learning from all this? Uiii, I think a complete answer to that question is for another post, but I can share that I am learning to be patient and to sow what I hope to 'have the possibility' to happen without waiting for it to happen in a certain time.

In the midst of all this instability that we are experiencing, there is something that I started to do that gives me moments of great pleasure and fun - talking to inspiring, enterprising people and aligned with the same values as mine. These conversations take place virtually through my Instagram account. I am harvesting a lot of wisdom, information and new professional and personal connections. I believe that if it weren't for this particular time that we live in, I wouldn't have created these unique moments.

Georgina Angélica is the founder of the company that shares her name, a consultancy and professional development project with the motto - “For every need, a resource”. After working for several years in a top school in Luanda, she became concerned about the professional development of local educators throughout Angola and how their lack of high pedagogical quality was affecting the children under their care. This led her to act for change by creating a transformational educational project with an initial focus on the foundation of all education- Early Years Education.