I’ve been obsessed with the Holstee Manifesto since it started circulating the net last year.  They just came out with a wonderful video and I’m posting it below.  I’m so thankful for companies, like Holstee, who force us to examine our lives and inspire us to make the most of our precious time here.

The Holstee Manifesto Lifecycle Video from Holstee on Vimeo.

Big city living in Buenos Aires is a strange brew of high-energy excitement, chaos and commerce. Nearly a quarter of Argentina’s 40 million residents live and dwell here. The city is sprawling, dirty and beautiful. Immaculate apartment lofts coexist alongside open garbage piles. It’s a metro of dichotomies. One day I am dining with friends of ex-presidents and on the next am brought to tears by the humble love of the cleaning lady. I am enraged and heartbroken all at once, often at the extremes of human emotion amidst the poverty, excess and hardship that this city’s streets throw at me each day. I love and hate it here. It is a mirror that forces me to face the demons of my imperfection. Can I be compassionate, patient, open and strong? Will this city, with its anger and apathy, engulf me or will I rise above?

And then like a flash, a moment of pure innocence catches my breath. I am reminded of what is good and true.

Of God.

A little girl squeals with joy playing with her doll on a rooftop cement playground just after a rainstorm.

It’s amazing how you can hop on a plane for twelve hours and skip the winter. It’s summer here in the Southern Hemisphere and every other day in Buenos Aires, we’re treated to a rainstorm. Warm, jungle-heavy, suddenly-starting-out-of-nowhere rainstorms. Beautiful.

Often, the promise of a true tender moment is enough to compel us to travel half way around the world. How a quiet coffee at a street side café can be the most perfect thing in the world, I can’t explain. But on this Sunday morning, it was everything.

After four years of renovations, Buenos Aires’ famous Teatro Colon opened on May 25th 2010, just in time of Argentina’s bi-centennial celebrations.  It has been named one of the top three opera houses in the world and is definitely something to behold.

We found tickets for the standing section at the very top, a section named Paradise. Seen as the nosebleeds section of the venue, it supposedly gets the best acoustics in the house. One thing they failed to mention and what we quickly remembered: heat rises. It gets hot up here. However, for 25 pesos each (about $6 USD), the experience was a total bargain!

Some walls are just too beautiful to photograph bare. Sometimes, you need subjects that can make a statement, subjects that can bring a wall to life.

This was taken in Hoxton Square Bar, a treasure of a place in one of London’s trendiest post codes.  Vaulted ceilings, dimmed cave-like lighting, industrial walls and floors.  It’s as if it were designed by a true artist: the cavernous room his canvas, and the bodies inside his paint.  Every shadow and angle can be a photograph. Dark corners, chiseled profiles, grainy shadows that inspire a girl to write.

A kiss was the only option here. Passion the only way to compete with Grande.

Colon is a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Southern Coast of Uruguay. It’s a gorgeous little town, with cobbled streets so old, you have to tip toe to keep from tripping between the cracks. The cafés are small, authentic and quiet – some so rustic and intimate, you’d mistake them for your grandmother’s kitchen.

The Seven Martyrs Church on the headlands of Kastro Sifnos is an eerie site at sunset. The Cyclades islands are rough and dry, their coastlines plunging into the black Aegean. At dusk, the sky glows like there’s a blazing fire nearby. On this warm August eve, goosebumps came over me as the warm pink glow of nightfall enveloped us on the cobblestone path up the hill into town.

The best things in life I discovered on this small beach in Skopelos, Greece.

The delicious simplicity of a home cooked meal.
The good company of true friends.
The love of a good man.
Joy in the blessing of a sunset.

Stolen moments in a deserted tube station.