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Anna Colibri | Writer & Digital Marketer

#RealSweet

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My name is Anna Colibri and I, along with a few select writers and artists (let me know if you’d like to be one of them!) contribute to this blog with the sole mission of making the world a more beautiful and functional place.

I am a working single mom living in the heart of San Francisco during extraordinary times. We’re in the midst of a technology revolution and face issues like income inequality, mass incarceration, climate change, overpopulation, and slavery. Despite all this and the fact that I still sometimes have trouble paying my rent, I’ll be the first tell you that life is great!

This blog is where I tell the truth about life as I see it, with all its messiness, unpredictability, and heart-stopping beauty.

I started writing the first #CrazyBeautiful blog in September 2012, motivated by a broken heart. Because I didn’t want to feel alone, I decided to turn my personal experiences into something shareable that could help people feel connected and inspired. In March of 2016 I renamed the blog #RealSweet, reflecting my goal to accept the reality of life as it paradoxically is, enjoying the sweet while facing the bitter. Not easy, but the only way I can imagine living the truly good life.

#RealSweet means that life is messy and amazing, often difficult, unpredictable and uncontrollable, and yet, when all is said and done, sublime.

The #RealSweet message is that life at its best is lived on the adrenaline-producing edge of what we believe is possible and hope can be true. In a world of trouble and pain, we are spiritual soldiers, fighting the good fight and walking the high road to discover the truth about ourselves and others, and to use that truth to encourage love, courtesy, connection, and creativity.

Living the #RealSweet life is intense. It requires self-reflection, faith, courage, the senses of adventure and humor, and a willingness to take a stand for yourself and everyone. Being a soldier on the high road is often lonely and sometimes scary.

#RealSweet is about us — you and me — traveling the high road together, keeping it real and making it sweet.

–AC

The Benefits of Fascism

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Anna Colibri, The benefits of fascism, bird on a wire, alison wong, writer, digital marketer, san francisco
Bird on a Wire by Alison Wong for Anna Colibri

Since Brexit and the election of President D., fascists the world over are finding their comfort zone like they haven’t since the 1930’s. No longer needing to hide in alleys like California smokers, fascists are finding they can be public with their sentiments and even their actions, which many are finding a good thing.

It’s no longer embarrassing to support internment. We can all take comfort in the fact that internment has a “precedent” in our country, just like slavery and genocide. We don’t want to have to turn to those methods, but if it becomes “necessary for national security,” we will do what we have to. As history shows, it was ever thus.

Since fascism is the flavor of the day, let’s understand it. Let’s discover the benefits and why so many of our brothers and sisters are celebrating their new found freedom of self expression.

The Benefits of Fascism

Enhanced security. Because fascism protects the rights of the state over the rights of individual citizens, intrinsic to the system is a strong military. If you like military spending and a thriving military industrial complex, you’ll love fascism.

Increased efficiency. Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini famously stated that under his rule “the trains would run on time.” Although Benito’s promise was not fulfilled, Hitler’s Germany was very efficient. The trains taking people to the camps and soldiers to war fronts were numerous and on-time thanks to Hitler’s leadership and IBM’s punch card technology.

Patriotism. Flag wavers, unite. Fascism, with its emphasis on a strong state, gives everyone a chance to unleash his, her, or their inner patriot.

Limited media. What with the “post factual” media era, limiting media might a good thing. Without information, it’s hard to fight, so fascism in this way promotes peace. And don’t all of us spend a little too much time indoors binge watching Orange is the New Black when we could be spending time in the great outdoors marching in formation?

Economic growth. As the government seizes the means of production and controls how commerce is conducted, fascism fuels economic growth. In many ways, economic growth is fascism’s biggest promise. All in all, when certain portions of the population are living in internment camps or being deported, there are fewer mouths to feed. The question is, will yours be a mouth fed, or a mouth left in doubt and dread?

Fascism can be wonderfully salubrious for those on the right side of it. Chances are, you will benefit from the accumulated and left-behind wealth of those who are evacuated; you will know exactly what to think and what to do; and you will enjoy the peace and order that comes from leadership that is not “ruled by committee.” Trains will run on time, and the government will have a free hand to improve the economy. And, with centralized power at their disposal, your favorite fascists may decide to fix the climate while they are taking care of over population.

Think it over: With benefits like these, what more could you want from your government?

We Should Be Proud

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anna colibri, alison wong, illustrator, writer, digital marketer, san francisco
We Should Be Proud | Illustration by Alison Wong

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. — Leonardo da Vinci

I’ve always believed that it is important to live by my values, and now I pretty much do.

According to my values, living in community, driving less, buying less, and pooling resources are important ways to leave a smaller carbon footprint and foster the relationships that put love at the center.

Being healthy in mind, body, and spirit as well as having time for my children and being creative are central to the way I want to live. Owning a business, as I do, allows me to spend time with my children while also using my talents and creativity to my capacity. And, since my company, Colibri Digital Marketing, is dedicated to the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit, we often get to work on projects that make the type of difference we as a company want to see.

In short, I live a healthy life and I am surrounded by people I love. I am the San Francisco version of lower middle class, yet I can still be generous with what I have.

A couple of years ago my mom asked me: Why are you 45 years old and have a roommate (If you are reading this, Hi, Mom!)?

Why indeed?

I live in San Francisco and am trying to support two children; having a roommate helps. The collateral effect is that I am living by my values. Should I be proud?

Let’s take the average African villager. I sometimes joke that African villagers are environmentalists because they leave a very small carbon footprint. They do not have electricity, they do not have cars, and they walk for miles to get their water. They do not use more than their share of it because, darn it, water is so heavy to carry. They should be proud. They are doing their part against climate change.

We all know the backstory: It’s called colonialism and what it means is that African villagers are not “environmentalists.” They are poor. In America poor is a very dirty word.

Few, if any, people ever have this conversation with me: Wow, it’s great that you are doing so many out of the ordinary things. You must be such a strong, resourceful, and creative woman. You’ve stitched together a life that is rich and full but also uses fewer resources. How does it feel like to live that way? You must be really proud.

Ha!

As citizens of the United States, we are uniquely unprepared to live by our values—at least those of us who say we value the health of the planet, less materialism, and strong community. Our culture tells us that to have is to be. Many of us drone away at jobs we hate so we can fund the escapes that make life feel worth living. Are we who, like African villagers, live by our values because we are have to, pitied because to misunderstand and diminish us is to be relieved of the guilt that we could all live with less?

To live in a just society is to recognize, among other things, economic inequality. To live in a world in which we also recognize our earth as a sustaining organism leads to hard choices. Mahatma Gandhi said, “Live simply so that others may simply live.” This call to action implies that we give something up when we live simply. Leonardo’s claim that simplicity is not merely sophisticated, but the ultimate form of sophistication, in contrast, calls on us to engage in the art of living at the highest level.

When my mom asked me (Hi, Mom!), “Why are you 45 and have a roommate?” I could have told her, “I am a forward-thinking woman who understands the world’s resources are finite, and that by living simply I can both have more joy and achieve my financial goals.” In other words, I can be sophisticated.

If I were to inherit a couple of million dollars (enough, where I live, to buy a rather modest home, a car, perhaps pay for part of a college education for my children, and buy groceries or health insurance but probably not both), would I continue to live by my values, or would I gratefully return to a life of feckless consumption?

I am putting my all into lifting myself out of economic precarity because, of course, absent choice, I am living my values only by default. And therein lies the shame.

Writing in Three Dimensions

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anna colibri, writer, digital marketer, san francisco
Image by Anna Colibri

Words, I have found, have a way of being naked —— and brutal —— in unexpected ways. It takes a lot of courage to be a writer —— self reflection and honesty are absolute requirements. What makes this honesty so hard is that it is not fact-based honesty, it is an honesty based on trying to convey universal truth. Writers take the stuff of experience and translate it using words, which, of all things, are most subject to personalized interpretation by readers who, perhaps despite themselves, translate truth back into what they think are facts. It’s horrible! Why can’t writing be read like melodies are heard? Whatever the answer may be, writing is not read the way melodies are heard.

I recently joined Toastmasters to improve my public speaking in general, but also to add a dimension to my voice as a writer, and to see if saying words out loud would help me say them more honestly. This post is part of a 10 part series based on the 10 speeches I am giving as part of my Toastmasters membership. This first speech, the “Icebreaker,” was a four to six minute exercise in self-introduction. I hope I told the truth.

A Rose By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet

My name is Anna Colibri. But it wasn’t always that way…

This is the story of my five names, the five lives that go with them, and how they made me who I am today.

I was born May 19, 1969, to a family of hippies, in Butterfly Town, USA.

Yaya Cooper Kiggins

My first name was Yaya Cooper Kiggins. My parents were hippies, so my dad said my mom was going to give birth to a Yaya rose —— whatever that is. When I was born tea roses bloomed in our front yard, and my dad brought my mom a bouquet in the hospital. As that was about the last effort my dad made on behalf of the family, my mom did some editing. He landed on the cutting floor, and I became:

Yaya Cooper

Just to be clear, when you’re named Yaya, you get teased. So, when I was eight I decided, in pursuit of my passion to become a ballerina, that I would become Anna, after Anna Pavlova, and leave my hippie roots behind, so I became:

Anna Yaya Cooper

Anna Yaya Cooper was an excellent student, received scholarships, and studied at UC Davis, abroad in France, and at UC Berkeley, after which she began a career in social work and launched a life in the beautiful city of San Francisco. She got married and, good feminist, kept her name while working with nonprofits across the country helping them market programs for older adults. When the time came to have children, she wanted to live a white picket fence life with a nicely unified family name to go with it, so she became:

Anna Yaya Kelleher

Anna Yaya Kelleher left social work behind to become a yoga teacher and a yoga teacher and stay at home mom to two bright and beautiful boys. Their father decided to become a rock star and fell in love with the younger, bustier, blonder accordion player in his band, and that was the end of Anna Yaya Kelleher.

Anna Colibri

Anna Colibri was born of necessity and pride. As a newly single woman with two young boys, she needed to make a living and yoga, as much as she loved it, just wasn’t going to cut it. Anna Colibri was originally the “doing business as” name of my digital marketing business which, as it grew, became Colibri Digital Marketing.

What do these five females have in common?

Three of my core values, in life and business, are:

  • Faith
  • Courage
  • Fun

Anna means full of grace. When I am strong in my faith, I am full of grace —— that’s the Anna part of who I am.

Colibri, in most languages, means hummingbird. Hummingbirds, small as they are, fly faster than anything on earth and are fierce fighters. That’s courage and I’ve found I’ve needed it time and time again.

Hummingbirds survive by finding the sweetest, brightest flowers. They do it all day because their lives depend on it. What could be more fun than burying your head in flowers and sucking their juices for a living?

My goal is to live a life that reflects my values, my history, and the woman I’ve become. I aim always to make the most out of life so I can uplift my family, friends, colleagues and clients and help them get the best out of their lives, too.

Without faith, courage, and fun, I wouldn’t be who I am. I wouldn’t be Anna Colibri, proud mom and founder and CEO of of B Corp certified marketing agency, Colibri Digital Marketing.

Thank you.