Inspiration | Insights | Perspectives
Topics related to world news.
Surprising Lives has always aimed to help, inform, and offer the many perspectives of all people in our world. One current topic is, are Jews in The USA safe, particularly considering the recent synagogue shooting and current political environment. I am very proud to welcome a new guest author, Gordon Andrews, who has agreed to offer his … Read more
Sharbat Gula, The Afghan Girl, has mesmerised the world, first with her stunning green eyes on National Geographic’s Cover and now with her continued life story. For the first time read her whole story covering the last thirty-three years. New photographs included. By Amanda Ricks and Surprising Lives
Literature vs. Traffic was invited to Toronto to carry out their, And the Transformation Reveals program by Nuit Blanche Toronto 2016 and commissioned by Camille Hong Xin. The group had previously visited a few other international cities from around the world. Some illegally, others with permits. Toronto was selected as a good choice because of its traffic problems. … Read more
I’m so proud to share a video made by AJ+ featuring my daughter, Samantha (Ricks) Wilson honouring Canada’s Indigenous lands and people.
Terry Fox is one of Canada’s heroes and he became that against the odds. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and raised in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Terry Fox was 22 years old in 1980 when he set out to run approximately 8,000 kilometres across Canada. This was a tremendous feat, and the fact that Fox planned to … Read more
Just a few days after a controversial departure from Pakistan, it was announced that Sharbat Gula had Hepatitis C and would be traveling to India for treatment. It seemed as if Sharbat, “The Afghan Girl,” was finally safe in a new apartment in Pakistan with her children when I heard this news. It felt as … Read more
Sharbat Gula has returned to Afghanistan. She is safe, and I am grateful. I have been following Sharbat Gula and her difficult life story for a few years and her recent circumstances have concerned me a lot. Sharbat has returned to her native country amid a flurry of media and a special welcome greeting from … Read more
Her name, Sharbat Gula, in the Pashto language of the Pashtun people, means sweetwater flower girl. Her photograph of 1984 taken by Steve McCurry was National Geographic’s most famous photograph. Sadly, the end of October 2016, Sharbat Gula was arrested with two men, said to be her sons, in Peshawar, Pakistan. The action was a “complete … Read more
For seventeen years Photographer Steve McCurry was haunted by the young girl with the mesmerising green eyes that he photographed in Afganistan in 1984. As he says, not a week goes by when someone didn’t ask about “The Afghan Girl.” Sharbat Gula. Her name, in the Pashto language of the Pashtun people, means sweetwater flower girl. … Read more
This was one of the first headers I used for this site back when it was a blog called Surprising and powerful Lives! Surprising Lives has undergone quite a few changes in 2016. Some of these changes may have left a few regular readers confused, and others possibly annoyed. My deepest apologies. I would like to … Read more