My book illustrations!

 

Today I'm sharing a few illustrations from my illustrated books Americas Royal Family and Angel of Hope & Lily, featuring Monsieur Jac Couture. I’m opening the door to my inspiring and colorful stories so to say. Both illustrated books were published in 2016 and are also available as ebooks.  Find all the links on my website www.LilyAmis.com

More book illustrations will follow in my next post. Stay tuned...

Have you met Bubu?

Bubu is one of the main characters in my book “Teddy & Lily, True Friendship is unconditional loyalty”. The story about friendship, support, kindness, and jealousy is available in English, German, Italian and Spanish. Do you know that the English version is also available as Audiobook?

As I tell in my story Bubu is an adorable little Teddy that has joined us on many holidays around the globe. In 2018 we took him to Florence and today I share some of the pictures he took to promote his Italian book.

Have you met my Ambassadors?

 

One of the most important parts of writing is research and preparation. I have always been a city girl and unfortunately never had the opportunity to take care of a dog. Usually, when you live in city apartments you are not allowed to keep pets, which is understandable. Animals need their space and freedom. I actually think it is kind of selfish and thoughtless of humans to lock animals in flats unless it is a super tiny little creature.

I also don’t know anyone who has a dog. So my source of research for my adorable dog characters, my Lily4Refugees Ambassadors have been TV shows about dog trainings. It is fascinating to watch and learn about their behavior and their way of communication with us humans.

If I ever had the chance to take care of a dog, I would surely take a training class and learn the skills from professionals. Not doing so is like having foreign guests at your house with whom you can’t communicate in their mother language. It would be difficult and uncomfortable for both sides not to be able to understand each other’s needs.

One of the best-known international dog behaviorists is Cesar Millan (IG: cesarsway). And I really enjoy watching his shows. I already learned so much from his skills. Another guy is the German dog trainer André Vogt (IG: andre.vogt_derwelpentrainer) and German TV host and author Jochen Bendel (IG: jochenbendel). These three TV shows have been a massive help for developing my dog stories.

So I like to use this opportunity to thank these three amazingly gifted and lovely dog and human educators for sharing their skills and helping humans to become better friends to their dogs. 

Meanwhile, I have five fabulous and adorable Ambassadors who share their life stories and educate my young and young at heart readers about the importance of education, freedom, and integration. More Ambassadors are born and will be sharing their stories with you very soon.

Lucky was my very first Ambassador. Lovely, Lucie, Lemon, and Leonardo followed in his footsteps and are excited to share their life story with you as well. All ebooks are available in download stores. Lucky’s story is also available as illustrated book in print. You can also read his story in German, Italian, and Spanish. 

Don’t be a sponge!

 

Living in a time with influencers, YouTubers, mainstream, and social media makes it extremely easy to become a sponge! It makes it easy to be manipulated and lose your focus, your own beliefs, goals, desires, and principles. We all are brainwashed day in, day out!

So what is the solution? Not watching the world news? Avoiding social media? Ignoring the newspapers? Maybe! But it is kind of unrealistic and naïve, isn’t it? Whether we like it or not, we are surrounded by information. Way too much information. From the moment we wake up and take a look at our phones until we go back to sleep and turn off our mobile phones. We are over-using our brain and our peace of mind, without even realizing it. So it is no wonder that so many people are suffering from mental illness and have to fight depression. But we can’t stop living in now and here, can we? We can't isolate ourselves from life and people!

By the way, being a sponge doesn’t necessarily mean that you only get brainwashed with negativity. You can also be a sponge and be influenced by the so-called world savers, TV and Internet preachers, ministers, pastors, priests, missionaries, reverends, self-obsessed, self-centered, and self-proclaimed world healers. Mostly Televangelists,  psychologists, psychiatrists, and therapists. Clever people that pretend to know more than we do. People who use the vulnerability and desperate need of lonely people to brainwash them with their own believes and their own truth and reality.

Do you realize that most of these so-called world savers are not just being kind, compassionate and caring, but are selling a product? Do you realize how rich they are? They brainwash to sell, to make money, and to benefit from humans' naivety and stupidity!

It takes a lot of character NOT to be affected by the things that everybody else is saying or doing. So be careful. Be awake! Whenever you are about to be influenced in one or the other way, whenever you are about to be dazzled, blindsided, and brainwashed with someone else’s truth, reality and opinion, remind yourself that you are not a sponge! Use your brain, trust your instinct and follow your heart. Don’t let anyone change your way of living your own truth and reality! 

Why? Because you are not a sponge! Don't be a copy/paster and don't behave like this little bird! This adorable bird's brain is as tiny as a peanut! :-)

Design your own happiness!

Me in my early twenties being silly and goofy! :-)

Me and my love for music with two!

Me and my love for singing with four!

Being creative and productive makes everyone happy. Drawing, painting, and now writing are my way of designing happiness for myself today. But in my childhood and early twenties music has been my way of self-therapy in extremely difficult and challenging times. With my refugee status and no right to further education and job opportunities I was really suffering. Having no rights and no perspective can destroy your soul, especially when you are an ambitious, creative and motivated person as I am. I had so much energy and so many ideas, but couldn’t do anything with them.

So the other day I found these four videos of mine. I did my very first lip sing and videos with twelve. I sang along the happy songs from Kylie Minogue. When you watch me lip singing, do you see an unhappy girl? Do you see how I’m suffering from inside? Do you see a girl who’s living in fear of existence?

No, obviously you don’t. You just see a young girl enjoying the rhythm of music and singing along cheesy song lyrics from 1995 - 1997. :-)

Why am I sharing these old videos with you? Because I want to remind you how important it is to be sometimes silly and goofy. Life is already too serious and “thanks” to this horrible and non-ending pandemic more and more people are losing their joy of life and their appreciation for every single day. Depression is becoming normality, regardless of age! 

Remember back in my twenties there was no Social media and Youtube. So we didn’t record these videos to share them with anyone. My mum and I filmed them just for fun and it helped us to forget our worries and sorrows at least for a few minutes.

Also back in my twenties, there was no professional video software for private people for film editing. I actually edited these videos with two VCRs and what you are seeing now I filmed from TV and digitalized it with software. So this explains the poor quality. Nevertheless, you get the idea. ;-)

So what I’m trying to say is: Be happy! Be silly! Be you, no matter what people think of you and no matter what people say about you! It is OK to be different and it is OK to be happy! Follow your passion, whether it’s singing, dancing, drawing, painting, playing musical instruments, photography, sewing, crafting, writing, etc. Just do it without overthinking and questioning it! You can do anything as long as it makes you happy!

Now enjoy watching me lip-synch old songs “I Wanna B With U” and “Celebration” from the German hip hop band “Fun Factory” from 1995. "Scandy Randy" by the German pop band "Squeezer" from 1996. And finally the worldwide famous song “Barbie Girl” by the Danish-Norwegian pop band “Aqua” from 1997!

When you read my memoir, you will be surprised because 1995 - 1997 were one of the hardest times in our life! 

I Wanna B With U -1995

Celebration -1995

Scandy Randy -1996

Barbie Girl -1997

Memoir available in English, German, Spanish and Italian!

Design your own paradise!

One of the most “annoying side effects” of this horrible and ongoing Covid19 pandemic is that we can’t travel freely anymore. But everyone needs a getaway, even if it is only for a few days. Seeing new places, meeting new people, and making new memories is what life is about. Well, it is what it is! Complaining about something that we can’t change for now is nothing but a waste of time and energy. So what is the solution?

Design your own paradise. Create your own happy place. Find a place for your short getaway, even if it is only in your garage, living room, bathroom, kitchen, garden or balcony. Only you and no one else can design your happy getaway destination.

We love traveling, and we have visited many beautiful places in recent years. Traveling is kind of a self-therapy for our mind, heart, and soul. And one of our favorite destinations has been Italy. We really miss it like crazy. So for this summer, we have designed our own Venice on our balcony. It is our paradise with no hassle about social distancing, face masks, quarantine, and forced vaccination!

We have created a peaceful and romantic place with two beautiful lanterns inspired by our travels to Venice and Paris, gorgeous and colorful flowers, and a little herb garden with peppermints, thymes, and rosemaries. We call it our plantation. We love our little B&B cuisine corner and look forward to a hopefully wonderful hot and relaxed summer despite our loss of freedom and all the madness in the world.

So, our advice to you is: Find your happy place. Design your own paradise and be happy and grateful for every single day no matter what! Enjoy summer despite the Corona hassle and don’t let anyone or anything bother you. Remember, it’s not worth it. 

The extraordinary journey of the fakir!

The refugee topic is a delicate topic and yet a Bollywood movie managed to include the faith of refugees in the comic-romantic film “The extraordinary journey of the fakir”.

Based on the novel by Romain Puertolas, the film recounts an Indian street magician's eventful journey to Paris in search of his father. Directed by Ken Scott, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir stars Dhanush, Berenice Bejo and Erin Moriarty in the lead roles. 

The Fakirs journey is unbelievably funny and tragic at the same time. A young man from the streets of Mumbai gets dragged on a never-ending adventure from India to France, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and Libya. Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe he gets to experience the faith of refugees and is even falsely registered as a refugee himself and trapped in Barcelona with no passport and identity.

I don’t want to give away too much about this excellent movie that I highly recommend to families of all ages and generations, because it is an eye-opening journey that educates the brain and the heart. It is entertaining, fun, touching, and imaginative. The movie moves fast from one action to another and you just get hooked into the incredible journey. 

BTW: This fun movie is being translated into many languages. So go watch it! You will not regret it.  

Everyone needs a place to call home!

In 2017 IKEA in Zurich Switzerland made a lovely promotion and gave their customers the chance to shine on their catalog cover. Back then of course we couldn’t know that IKEA would stop publishing its iconic catalog after 70 years in 2020.

So this cover that we made, is even more special to us now, considering the fact that IKEA is one of the few international global brands that support refugees worldwide.

The IKEA Foundation aims to improve opportunities for children and youth in some of the world’s poorest communities by focusing on four fundamental areas of a child’s life: a place to call home; a healthy start in life; a quality education; and a sustainable family income.

The IKEA Foundation is also helping these communities fight and cope with climate change. By working with strong strategic partners like UNHCR and Better Shelter, the IKEA Foundation can use innovative approaches to achieve large-scale results for children.

There are currently about 65 million forcibly displaced people in the world, and about half of them are children. That’s about the population of Canada. Imagine a country the size of Canada filled with children without a safe place to call home, living in a camp or temporarily somewhere.

Moving into a shelter means this might be your home for a while, and being able to close a door behind you – and lock it – means so much. It’s something that a lot of us take for granted – those private moments and private spaces you have for yourself. Being able to be alone or with your family inside a controlled space is important, especially for people who have experienced such trauma. They need to feel safe, be able to close that door, and just relax for a bit.

Since 2015, UNHCR has ordered about 15,000 Better Shelters, which have been delivered to seven countries. But two of those countries – Greece and Iraq – particularly illustrate the ways in which Syrians have responded to the crisis and how these shelters are housing refugees from just a few days up to many years, even decades.

How does the IKEA Foundation’s support refugees, particularly refugee children?

Refugee families continue to be part of many of our programs, as we see refugees as part of the many people. Our new strategy is about families living in poverty and families who are particularly vulnerable to a changing climate. Refugees are particularly vulnerable to both poverty and climate change, so we will continue to pioneer innovative programs that help refugee families integrate into their local communities. 

Source:  Themes| IKEA Foundation

Is this pandemic intentional?

Is this pandemic intentional? 

Is it all a long-drawn-out plan?

Jacques Attali, born in Algeria is a French economic and social theorist, writer, political adviser, and senior civil servant, who served as a counselor to President François Mitterrand from 1981 to 1991 and he was the first head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 1991-1993. In 2009, Foreign Policy recognized him as one of the top 100 "global thinkers" in the world.

His work reveals a distinct vision of history and its successive stages, which are simultaneously ideological, technological and geopolitical. Furthermore, his work entails depicting the slow transformation of humanity into an artifact in which man becomes an object to escape death, and the geopolitical evolution toward chaos that accompanies such transformation; meanwhile, man is also waiting for an awakening leading to a new global governance, a sanctification of the essential makeup of mankind, taking into account the interest of future generations, and not letting prostheses invade it. Since his earliest books, Attali foresaw and announced signals of the future, albeit weak at the time, that later came true. 

Look at this carefully and read what Jacques Attali wrote to François Mitterrand in 1981, as his advisor. What do you think? Whether you are a Corona believer, denier, or skeptical, reading these lines by Jacques Attali from 40 years ago, makes one think twice about the media coverage and the global government’s handling of the pandemic for over a year now!

It also explains a lot about the shameful global refugee crises, the horrible and disgusting refugee camps, and the 65 million displaced people around the world. The heartless and cruel family separations at borders and the missing innocent children.

Well as the image above says, the further down you sit, the more shit you get from above! The further down you sit, the less you know what exactly is going on! We all are witnessing a global human tragedy but God damn it; unfortunately, we are completely helpless and can’t do anything about it. 

What Jacques Attali wrote to François Mitterrand in 1981:

“In the future, it will be about finding a way to reduce population. We start with the old ones, because as soon as they exceeding 60-65 years, man lives longer than he produces and that costs society dearly. Then we move on to the weak, then the useless, who are nothing to society because there will always be more of them, and above all finally the stupid ones. Euthanasia (mercy-killing) will be targeting these groups. Euthanasia will be an essential tool of our society's future. Of course, we won't be able to execute people or build concentration camps.

Knowledge retention: We get rid of them by making them believe it's their own best interest. Overpopulation, and mostly useless ones, is something which is economically too costly. It's also a lot better socially when the human-machine comes to an abrupt stop than when it gradually worsens.

We won't be able to test millions upon millions of people on their intelligence either, you can bet on that! We are going to find or cause something, a pandemic targeting certain people, a real economic crisis or not, a virus that attacks the old or the fat, it doesn't matter, the weak will succumb to it, the fearful and stupid will be at it believe and be treated. We will have made sure that treatment is in place, treatment that will be the solution.

Knowledge retention:  The selection of idiots then takes care of itself: They go to the slaughter by themselves."

For my German-speaking blog visitors!

Ist die Pandemie möglicherweise doch gewollt? 

Ist alles ein lange voraus entwickelter Plan?

Das schrieb Jacques Attali, 1981, damals Berater von President François Mitterrand:

„In Zukunft wird es darum gehen, einen Weg zu finden, die Population zu reduzieren. Wir fangen mit den Alten an, denn sobald sie 60-65 Jahre überschreiten, lebt der Mensch länger als er produziert und das kommt die Gesellschaft teuer zu stehen.

Dann die Schwachen, dann die Nutzlosen, die der Gesellschaft nichts bringen, weil es immer mehr von ihnen geben wird, und vor allem schließlich die Dummen. Euthanasie, die auf diese Gruppen abzielt. Euthanasie (Sterbehilfe) wird ein wesentliches Instrument unserer zukünftigen Gesellschaften sein müssen, in allen Fällen. Natürlich werden wir nicht in der Lage sein, Menschen hinzurichten oder Lager zu errichten.

Wissensbewahrung: Wir werden sie los, indem wir sie glauben machen, dass es zu ihrem eigenen Besten ist. Die Überbevölkerung, und meist nutzlos, ist etwas, das wirtschaftlich zu kostspielig ist. Auch gesellschaftlich ist es viel besser, wenn die menschliche Maschine abrupt zum Stillstand kommt, als wenn sie sich allmählich verschlechtert.

Wir werden auch nicht in der Lage sein, Millionen und Abermillionen von Menschen auf ihre Intelligenz zu testen, darauf können Sie wetten! Wir werden etwas finden oder verursachen, eine Pandemie, die auf bestimmte Menschen abzielt, eine echte Wirtschaftskrise oder nicht, ein Virus, das die Alten oder die Fetten befällt, es spielt keine Rolle, die Schwachen werden ihm erliegen, die Ängstlichen und Dummen werden daran glauben und sich behandeln lassen. Wir werden dafür gesorgt haben, dass die Behandlung vorgesehen ist, eine Behandlung, die die Lösung sein wird.

Wissensbewahrung: Die Selektion der Idioten erledigt sich dann von selbst: Sie gehen von selbst zur Schlachtbank."

Source: Jacques Attali - Wikipedia

15 years in Lockdown!

FYI: My memoir is available in English, German, Spanish and Italian.

Can you imagine living in lockdown for 15 years? You think I exaggerate. Well, I don’t. We lived for 15 years a similar life as war refugees in the heart of Europe, in Switzerland. We had absolutely no right to a free and independent life in dignity. Freedom was nothing but a meaningless word. A wistful desire even though as we all know -  especially after experiencing the Corona Pandemic, the non-ending lockdowns, the home office, and quarantine rules, etc. for over a year now – being FREE is our birthright and THE most precious and priceless right and gift of all. Ultimate and limitless Freedom is the key to happiness and success in life regardless of age, gender, race, nationality, skin color, religion, and life story.

Today in 2021 million refugees live/survive a helpless and unfortunate life in refugee camps with horrible housing and disgusting sanitation. It is a living nightmare. A meaningless life in misery. Some live like this for decades. Others survive as war refugees in foreign countries around the globe with no or only limited rights and freedom. Unfortunately, privileged people have absolutely no clue what these humans experience. How their rights for freedom are literally flushed down the toilette and their lives wasted and futures are thrown away like cheap and recycled toilet papers. They are being punished and life-sentenced only because of their race and origin.

I recently discovered a fascinating author and Psychologist named Ralph Smart, one of the world’s most famous motivational life coaches on the internet. With over 1.7 million subscribers on Youtube and over 240 million views he is helping people to become their greatest versions, regarding unlocking true human potential and being a limitless being.

In this video that I share here on my blog, Ralph Smart talks about the Pandemic and its negative effects on all of us and how important it is that we stay positive, love ourselves, and don’t let the negative media brainwash destroy our joy for life, living, and hope for the future.

Well in theory, everything sounds much easier. In reality, finding hope while you are stuck in help- and a hopeless situation like the refugees are is almost impossible. And yet, I hope whatever you are going through right now in your personal and professional life, you find this video as inspirational as I do. Always remember that others are going through much harder times with absolutely no hope for a better future at all.

So please stop complaining, stop nagging, stop blaming, just live and be grateful for every single day. Next time you are being negative and ungrateful remember that the refugees are going through the same problems as you do right now, because of the pandemic plus the heartbreaking fact, that they know nobody cares about their misery and no positive thinking in the world can and will fix their misery! Nothing in the world can make them feel alive, because their soul is already dead. Unless a miracle happens and our world and society finally live in peace and harmony. Unless rich and powerful people really care and act selflessly with honesty and empathy!

Ralph Smart has published his debut novel “Tryathon: the love of a galaxy”, a novel taking a glimpse into the potential future, the digital age, where wars are fought through technology. He has also published “Feel Alive”, a great self-help book to help others become their greatest versions, available on Amazon