This week Awesome Stories brings you landscape beauty, ultrasound therapy, caterpillar magic, Community Cars and mastering irrelevancy.
International Landscape Awards
This is a wonderful collection of landscape photos from a competition called the Internation Landscape Photographer of the Year. They received over 2600 submissions from professional and amateur photographers around the world to select the top 101 photos for a book. My favorite is the image above by Thierry Bornier who won The Abstract Award. As his photo demonstrates, the awards are to encourage photographers to go beyond simply recording nature into the realm of imagination and inspiration.
New Alzheimer’s Treatment
Here is a cool new treatment for Alzheimer’s using ultrasound to clear the brain of toxic plaque buildup. Australian researchers found that certain sound frequencies can remove the plaque (in the brain) that interferes with memory and other brain function. The sound stimulates the brain’s microglial cells to activate which then work to remove the damaged plaque cells. The approach has only been tested on rats so far, but with an amazing 75% restored to full memory function and zero damage to other brain cells.
Magic Photos
I enjoyed both the beauty of this photo collection and the fun interactive element. The collection shows you a series of caterpillars. When you click on the photo, it transforms into the butterfly or moth it becomes. I actually found the caterpillar images more captivating. They again remind me of the amazing beauty and variety found in nature. May we treasure her gifts.
PS I lost the original article, but here are the same 19 before and after caterpillar transformation photos.
Mastering Irrelevancy
This idea is somewhat hard to accept and yet, I agree with the author, Peter Bregman. Many of us have enjoyed the limelight of success, family, friends, meaning and purpose. Not that anything is wrong with those, but at some point we might need to embrace not being the center of attention. In fact, old age seems to be asking us to relax, let go of our self-centered ways and embrace a gradual return to nothingness. According to Peter, when we don’t, retirement and aging often bring depression. But if we can embrace this fading importance, then we might just find happiness and freedom. He gives some practical tips to help us find our way.
Community Cars
What a wonderful invention and story. Stacy Zoern, who suffers from muscular atrophy discovered a prototype car for people in wheelchairs. When she contacted the company to buy one, she was told to call back in 4 years! Not satisfied, she decided to raise money and build them herself starting Community Cars in 2010. What makes the Kenguru cars so unique is they are designed and built from the ground up for people in wheelchairs, allowing them to simply open the back hatch and wheel themselves into the vehicle and drive away. Their cars cost about 1/3 the price of converted vans.
May your week be full of beauty, magic and community, while remembering we might not be as important as we think!
Blessings, Brad
writing to freedom 
Love the video.
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Thanks Lee. Creativity is often spurred by necessity!
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How remarkable to have that car in existence. All the stories rock, as usual. And it is so wonderful that you take the time to share. ❤
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Thank you Annette. Engaged readers like you make all the difference. I appreciate all your comments and playful tweets. May we shine and share this wacky journey of writing and living. ❤
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Another wonderful batch of “awesome stories!” Thanks for sharing them. I pray you have a wonderful day tomorrow and a splendiferous week as well! Hugs, N 🙂 ❤
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Your comments are a great start to my splendiferous week! Thanks Natalie. 🙂
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I love the landscape photos, great post as usual Brad 🙂
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Me too Neha. Those rice fields would be another wonderful place to visit!
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Thank you so much my friend 🙂
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Wonderful shares dear Brad.. and I so hope for a new break-through in treatment for Alzheimer’s, such an awful process to go through both for the patient and family.. Both my Inlaws had it.. and at times its heartbreaking. ..
Have an Awesome Week xxx
Hugs Sue
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Agree Sue. My stepfather had it. I’m convinced sugar is a contributor to the disease. blessings,
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Yes its terrible.. Sugar doesn’t help in many illnesses Brad… 🙂 I agree
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Agreed!
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Another great series of inspiring stories (and photos). The International Landscape photos were incredible…easy to get lost in their images. The big one, however is the potential treatment of Alzheimer’s, what a boon that would be for those suffering and their families.
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I could see you doing photos of those rice fields. Have you been to that area of China? Yes, we need better understanding and treatment for Alzheimer’s. And I believe a lot of diseases could be prevented if we stay away from sugar. Thanks for blowing through Randall. 🙂
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Have been to areas similar to this place in China…love it. As for sugar, I too believe that we need to stay as far away from sugar as possible (even though I love my sweets). Cheers and take care Brad –
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Sugar is alluring. At times, I’ve cleaned up my diet to eliminate it. I’m glad you’ve seen similar areas in China.
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I’ll be watching the caterpillar images w/ T. And the irrelevance is something I just finished reading about from a bio by astronaut Colonel Chris Hadfield. Wonderful things you’ve shared, B.
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Thanks Diana. I’m glad I could help your homeschooling! I imagine being an astronaut would give a much bigger and wiser perspective. It’s tricky to embrace both our majesty and our insignificance. 🙂
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Ah, you put it so well! (‘S pretty much what he says.) You would enjoy the book immensely. I’ll be mentioning it…
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And believe me, I’ll take all the help I can get on the homeschool front.
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I bet you do fine.
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