Tag: inspiring

  • An iconic Colombian photographer finds new life in NYC at 92

    An iconic Colombian photographer finds new life in NYC at 92

    Nereo López (Courtesy Facebook)
    Nereo López in Queens, New York. (Courtesy Facebook)

    Nereo López isn’t a typical 92-year-old; he’s more like a typical young, starry-eyed artist who wakes up at noon and gets inspiration from everything around him. His small frame is overpowered by his bright blue eyes anxiously anticipating what is about to come next in his life. López has not only rediscovered his art, he has gotten a second chance at a successful career and fulfillment.

    The Cruz de Boyacá winning photographer — one of the highest honors in Colombia — who had traveled the world taking photos, giving nearly 20 exhibitions, and published more than 10 works, saw his career plummet 12 years ago.  The man who met Gabriel García Márquez and Pope Paul IV had his center, the Nereo Center of Teaching and Culture of Photography in Bogota, Colombia, shut down due to lack of funds. He says after the age of 40, in Colombia, it is very hard to find work because you’re considered too antiquated.

    López says he was having thoughts of ending his life when a friend called from New York. She heard the distress in his voice about not being able to find a job, and how he was feeling depressed, so she bought him a ticket to the city that never sleeps — arriving the next day — to see if he’d like it better. He says he didn’t just like it better, he found another reason to keep living.

    “As soon as I arrived, I ran to all the photo galleries,” says López, describing his eagerness like a kid in an amusement park.

    The title of his photo book published last year, called “Nereo López: Un Contador de Historias,” describes what he is precisely — a storyteller. He says there was a time he used to have 14 cameras of different sizes to tell his stories. Now, he just uses one to make his life simpler and lighter — a compact Canon G9.

    “Photography still fascinates me,” says the man who one day started observing the faces of people leaving the subway and started a series of photos of just that. “What I have learned is to see.”

    The talented López wasn’t always a photographer. He lost both parents at age 11, and started working when he was a teenager in a movie theater in Colombia, where he was promoted to manager after 10 years.

    “It was World War II, and you couldn’t travel in a plane with a camera during that time,” says López, explaining how his photography career began. “A friend asked me to watch his camera while he went on a trip, and I started to practice with his camera.”

    He says he learned on his own with a book and a correspondence course that he never finished, and he was always asking questions.

    “I started taking photos in a series — like a movie,” he says. Still today, he says he’s always thinking in series — perhaps because of the many years of films he’s seen in the movie theater where he worked. “I always have my photos in my head, and I figure out what series they will go in later.”

    When he was 27, he quit his movie house job, and started working as a photojournalist at one of Colombia’s largest newspapers, El Espectador. That is when he says he started to travel all over Colombia and started his photo collection for the book, “Colombia: Que Lindo Eres”/”Colombia: How Beautiful You Are.”

    “The subjects I most gravitated towards were children,” says Lopez who also has a series called, “Niños Que No Rien”/“Children Who Don’t Laugh.” “Perhaps because I didn’t really have a real childhood.”

    In 1957, he became a chief photographer of the photographer’s magazine, Cromos, in Colombia. He says he was a photojournalist for 15 years before he started his center of photography where he taught up to 100 students at a time.

    Since he’s been in New York City, he has not wasted any of his precious minutes. He’s been recognized by the New York City Council and has shown his work at the Queens Museum and El Museo del Barrio.

    “It hasn’t been easy, because I don’t speak English,” says López in his native Spanish.

    He says he’s happy to not have to develop photos the old-fashioned way anymore. He’s well-equipped in his new one-bedroom apartment, in a building for the elderly, with bare white walls lined with varied books, including “Macs for Dummies.” The centerpiece of his living room is a shiny new 27-inch Mac computer, complete with scanner and printer. He explains he loves his craft even more now with modern technology.

    “For me, paper is obsolete,” he exclaims, laughing.

    One of the highlights of his week is going to a senior center in Queens, NY. Even though he moved to a different neighborhood, he still goes on Tuesdays, because that’s the day the seniors dance after lunch.

    “To see these seniors dance and have fun is life,” he says, joking that no one is older than him. “They have a desire to live. I take photos demonstrating their desire to live.”

    He says he would like to publish a book of these photos called ”La Primavera del Ocaso”/“The Spring of the Sunset,” but he’ll only do it if it can have that name. He also started making goals for himself again — to be featured in a large museum such as, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and to live in Spain and Paris one day.

    “When I came to New York, I said to my friend, ‘I came to New York too late,” says López, eager to start on a new project with some young artists he’s encountered. “My friend responded, ‘You never arrive too late to New York, you just came with less time,’ but I hope to live 100 years more…I haven’t arrived to where I wanted to arrive, but I’m on my way.”

    López says when he came to the U.S. and obtained his residency, and citizenship five years ago, he saw a new horizon.

    “When one sees a horizon, one sees life,” says the photographer with never-ending vision. “Here is where I’ll stay.”

    This article was originally published on NBCLatino.com on January 10, 2013. 

  • 70-year-old nurse practitioner, and teacher, remembers her most humbling moment

    70-year-old nurse practitioner, and teacher, remembers her most humbling moment

    Beth Farren (Photo/Richard Posey)
    Beth Farren (Photo/Richard Posey)

    Beth Farren, 70, continues living her life doing what she loves most – nursing, teaching, and fitting in the time to play tennis.

    Originally from Chicago, she has lived in Dallas for the past 33 years, where she volunteers as a nurse practitioner at a nearby clinic, teaches nursing online at Texas Tech, and sits on the board of the North Texas Nurse Practitioners – where she helps raise money for social causes.

    “I have lovely days,” says Farren, in her kind, soft voice. “Some days, I diagnose and treat women’s health – pelvic exams, breast exams, pulmonary exams…I also work in the neurology clinic and dermatology clinic. Both have specialty doctors, and I’m their nurse.”

    Farren says she started teaching way before she became a nurse practitioner – a career which requires advanced coursework and clinical education beyond that required of a registered nurse.

    After getting her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Farren says she started to think about getting a masters.

    “The new dean of the nursing program called me and asked me if I wanted to come teach,” she remembers. “I told her I only had a bachelor’s degree, but she told me they didn’t have enough people with master’s degree, so she was asking those with bachelor’s degrees to do clinical teaching.”

    So Farren made an arrangement with her then husband where he helped with their little boys in the morning.

    “I started, and I loved it,” says Farren about her first teaching experience. “I taught for them for 10 years.”

    During her time in Tennessee, she also worked with women who didn’t have access to prenatal care.

    “They were just learning about premature births at that time,” says Farren who took a course in working with premature babies. “I learned that some babies would not have been premature if the mom had just had good prenatal care. I began to be passionate about it.”

    So while working on her master’s, she decided she was more interested in prevention and taking care of patients that would benefit from education.

    “I mentally left the hospital and pursued courses,” says Farren. “Nowadays, practitioners have a great variety of roles, but when I became a nurse practitioner, we worked outside of the hospitals trying to prevent people from going to the hospital.”

    After earning her master’s degree, she moved to Texas for a job opportunity, and there she also earned her doctorate degree.

    “I always volunteered one night a week, when my boys were older, at the free clinic,” says Farren. “I’m nothing special. They were just opportunities I had.”

    Some of those opportunities included going to Poland and Romania, who were moving away from communism, to teach standards of practice; as well as working at a Cuban refugee camp in Wisconsin one summer.

    “In the early ‘80s, Fidel Castro let a bunch of people from psychiatric facilities in Cuba come to America, and all these people showed up in Miami on boats and rafts, and the Army started taking them to different bases to try and take care of them,” says Farren. “The fort I was in was considered a family camp with a lot of pregnant women and children…a number of my patients told me they had been in prison, and I strongly believe a lot of them were political prisoners.”

    Perhaps the most impactful moment of her long career, she says, was the moment she thought she might lose her son.

    “About 15 years ago, my son had a very serious emergency, and I wound up taking him down to the county hospital here in Dallas,” recounts Farren about her son’s gastric bleed. “One of my students was in the emergency room. She looked up and saw me, and said, ‘Dr. Farren, I’m going to take care of this.’ I realized in that moment that I was able to tell her how much blood he’d lost, and she was able to believe me, because she knew who I was.”

    The next day, she says another one of her students took care of him.

    “It’s just one of the most humbling things,” says Farren about the whole experience. “I had just done my job to teach these girls, and there they were when I needed them. It wasn’t anything special I did – just the rhythms of life.”

    She says her piece of advice to the younger generation is:

    “Remember to do what you love, and trust that it will all be ok,” says Farren. “We all worry so much, thinking, ‘Can I make a living doing this?’ ‘Is it even doable?’ I got my doctorate as a single mom, while I worked full-time and did part-time jobs on the side, and nobody in their right mind told me it was a doable thing, but it was.”

  • Long-time NY businessman and marketer gives back by teaching

    Long-time NY businessman and marketer gives back by teaching

    Myron Gould (Photo/Greyson Cage Stock)
    Myron Gould (Photo/Greyson Cage Stock)

    “When I was much younger, I wanted to be a chemical engineer, but as I got a little older, I guess my mind turned more towards business,” says Myron Gould, 68. “My father was a very big influence in that decision. He was a person who was in business…he was a role model in that regard…I would sit in the car and listen to him and listen to what was going on – it was interesting. He sold machine parts, adhesives, all material used by manufacturing firms.”

    The born and raised New Yorker has worked four decades in the business and marketing arena. In addition to being the CEO of his own business advising firm, where he helps people build business plans, he is also starting a new consulting firm to teach companies to keep their employees engaged. Gould is also an adjunct professor of marketing and management at New York University.

    “It’s my 20th year at NYU,” says Gould. “I was sitting in a friend’s office – a recruiter who dealt with direct marketing people…He got a phone call, and he said to the person on the phone, I have somebody right here. [The person] asked if I’d be interested in teaching a class, and I never stopped.”

    And Gould never stops working it seems. In addition to running his business, he says he recently created a new capstone at the University – an option to writing a thesis for students which involves writing up a business plan instead and learning about entrepreneurship.

    “I get a considerable amount of e-mails from clients, I grade papers, then I go through many projects that I’m working on,” explains Gould. “My classes are from 6 to 9 pm, and this coming term four times a week – it varies. I have dinner at 9:30 or 10:30, then work another four hours.”

    He says he’s making an effort in getting more sleep, however.

    “I love what I do,” says Gould. “I feel like I’m helping people.”

    When Gould was starting out his career in the mid-1960’s, he says marketing wasn’t even called “marketing,” but “distribution.” One of his favorite jobs was at Columbia Records in his early 30’s.

    “It was a great place,” he remembers. “Sometimes I debate whether I should have left or not. I was recruited for a consulting firm.”

    Today, he thinks video is the way to go. He uses green screen technology to create videos to complement his teaching.

    “I have virtual sets,” says the high-tech professor, excitedly. “I can put myself into a green room…Like where a weather person delivers the weather. I create videos of some of my lessons and make them available for people…I can be doing my work while sipping piña coladas on a ship.”

    What advice would he tell his younger self about life?

    “I would talk about getting enough information to make good decisions,” he says. “A lot of times we make decisions impatiently, but sometimes it’s better to slow down a little bit. There were times in my life where I could have made a better decision by not acting so quickly.”

    He adds his biggest project currently is getting his grandson, who just turned 4, to have a good life.

    “What he does with his life is his choice, but I want him to be equipped to make those decisions,” says Gould.

  • The simple secret to achieving any dream, at any age

    You are never too young to have a dream or to old to have a vision.

    The first step in living your life at your full potential is to have a clear vision of who you are, and what you want.

    How do you do that?

    You must start looking at your life through eyes of confidence, trust, reliance and conviction. You must have a mental picture of yourself where you see yourself growing in your spiritual life, your health, your business, your family, and also your finances.

    Mentally, see your dreams happen. You have to visualize and conceive it in your heart, and mind, if you ever hope to experience it on the outside.

    This image has to become a part of you, deep in your subconscious mind, in your thoughts, your conversation, actions, and in every part of your being.

    Your life is not going to change until you change your thinking.

    You cannot make the changes in your life when you are set in your ways, bound by your perceptions and stuck in your thinking.

    When you look into your future, what do see?

    Do you see yourself-getting stronger, healthier, happier, and your life filled with blessings?

    What you see, is what you get.

    If you want to be successful, you must expect the best of yourself and about life in general. If you dwell in positive thoughts, your life moves in that direction.

    If you expect defeat, failure, and mediocrity, your subconscious will make sure that you get that.

    That is the reason why if you want to move in the direction of your dreams, you must increase your level of expectancy.

    When you get up in the morning say to yourself:

    “Hello beautiful! What can I do for you today? This is a great day. I am excited about today.”

    Start your day with faith and positive expectancy, and anticipate good things happening to you. Expect that all things will work for good for you. Expect people to go out of their way to help you. Expect to be at the right place at the right time.

    You have the key to empower yourself. All you have to do is start expecting good things in your life.

    You may be asking, “Is she crazy? What if I do all that, and it does not work?”

    Well what if you do that, and it does work?

    What do you have to lose by being hopeful, confident and having a good attitude? By being your best no matter where you are at this moment in your life? By being a light in a sometimes difficult world?

    One thing I know for sure. Your life will never improve as long as you stay in a negative frame of mind. Low expectations will trap you into mediocrity.

    You must think positive thoughts, loving thoughts, constructive thoughts. Thoughts of victory, abundance, and hope.

    Keep your mind set in the right direction.

    DrJosefinaBioDr. Josefina Monasterio is a certified life coach, fitness expert, and nutritional counselor based in Vero Beach, Florida. She holds a PhD in Adult Personal Development from Nova University and a Master’s Degree in Education from Boston University. Dr. Josefina is also a certified Yoga Therapist from the World Yoga Society of Calcutta, India, and host of Healthy Power TV’s “The Dr. Josefina Way.”

  • Master yogi, 75, is expert in 1,350 postures

    Master yogi, 75, is expert in 1,350 postures

    Sri Dharma Mittra near the lake at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, August of 2009. (Photo/Lily Cushman Frindel)
    Sri Dharma Mittra near the lake at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, August of 2009. (Photo/Lily Cushman Frindel)

    While most New Yorkers are scrambling around, stressed, and in a hurry, Master Yogi Sri Dharma Mittra is often in a faraway, much more peaceful place mentally, and sometimes physically upside down.

    Often referred to as the “Teacher’s Teacher” by his hundreds of students at the Dharma Yoga Center in New York City, Mittra has taught many prominent yoga instructors in the city since he began teaching the ancient art in 1967. Today, at 75, he still teaches yoga twice a day, five days a week.

    “My favorite pose is the headstand, because the blood comes down to the head, and it increases mental ability,” says the yoga guru.

    Sri Dharma in London, Summer of 2010. The pose is a variation of Nirlamba Shirshasana -- a hands-free headstand. (Photo/Hugh Herrera)
    Sri Dharma in London, Summer of 2010. The pose is a variation of Nirlamba Shirshasana — a hands-free headstand. (Photo/Hugh Herrera)

    Mittra is an expert in more than a thousand poses, however. When he was 45, he photographed himself in 1,350 postures as an act of devotion to his guru – Yogi Gupta. The Master Yoga Chart, which hangs in yoga studios worldwide, is made up of 908 of these photos. And, 608 of these photos were published in his book “Asanas.”

    “I moved to New York City in September, 1964, and I lived here since then,” says Mittra who was born in the remote village of Pirapora, Brazil and was raised Catholic among a poor family of five children. “I came here for more opportunity…there is also more freedom here, and my guru was here, so I had to be here.”

    He says he was around 17 or 18 when he learned about yoga through the books his younger brother was studying.

    “As soon as I learned that the purpose of yoga was self-control, I got really enthusiastic about it,” remembers Mittra. “Yoga comes from about 5,000 years ago in India. Now, we have yoga styles that fit all types of people on the planet.”

    He says he usually follows the form called Asana – the one based on postures.

    “That technique gives you mental, physical and spiritual power,” says Mittra. “We use these three powers to achieve success in whatever we want. More mental control – your mind becomes extremely sharp…It is like going from AM to FM radio – better quality of music.”

    Being a follower of Asana, requires Mittra to also be a vegetarian.

    “Being a vegetarian, you rarely get sick,” he says. “I haven’t seen a doctor for 50 years. When you do the poses, your body doesn’t hurt much and you get less injuries.”

    Mittra is also a champion of meditation – an integral component of yoga, he explains. He has been doing it for so long now, that it has become almost an involuntary habit for him.

    “Meditation doesn’t mean you have to be sitting – you can be walking,” explains Mittra. “I also meditate lying down on the floor, but not sleeping. I put my body in a deep relaxation. Deep inside you ask yourself where you are in your heart, your mind, and you go outside of body consciousness. I keep my mind somewhere else, not on worries.”

    For today’s youth, he advises them to have compassion for all beings.

    “Learn how to see yourself in others,” says Mittra. “From there, you become more respectful… Form a good diet. Be vegetarian, and don’t cook food too much. If you don’t like yoga, you must be active. Be moderate in sex. Get involved in meditation. Without it, you won’t have inner peace.”