During the month of September, I shared a series of posts around Marie Kondo's philosophy of Sparking Joy, with my own special twist on sparking joy, collaboratively.

Besides celebrating my parents (even as my father has passed away), I used the opportunity to reflect and be grateful for some of the community collaborations I have been intentional about in the past, and the new partnerships I'm currently engaged with, that help build imagine the future ecosystems for me and mines.

Preamble: It has been a surreal & busy last 6 weeks, having the opportunity to live what I had imagined was a “future” aspiration, a decade ago, as an avid user of social media and early digital professional to sign on from a Florida Gators .edu account.

From day one, I didn’t hold back in sharing thanks with my personal board of advisors, here. I have been immensely appreciative to work with an impressive group of hardworking change-makers leveraging technology as an enabler, merging physical, digital, and metaphysical worlds in building community.

My amazing Global Partnerships and Global Accelerator teams’ updates soon, a precursor here.

Being an advocate for collaborative success, a recently announced and surprising collaboration with one of my father’s favorite brands Ray-Bans and Facebook; gives me a window into what augmented reality, virtual reality, luxury tech, wearable tech, and seeing into the future of experiential learning at work and play may look like.

My proximity to this has me reflecting intentionally and albeit projecting more boldly on what the next decade may look like for engagement, storytelling, community building (locally and globally), knowledge share, and more compelling to some, privacy, data, and community ethics. Exciting times ahead…

Image: Facebook

To the meat of today’s matter, on my personal toolkit for the future: an incredibly exciting future-proof tool I’m taking with, is the keen sense of sparking joy, collaboratively. When engaging with clients the tidiness & decluttering guru Marie Kondo asks a simple and relevant question “When you touch (or engage with) this item or that (activity usually in my case), does it spark joy?” 

Image: Netflix

Besides being relevant for old clothing items or often neglected office supplies (seen in her Netflix shows), this framework is pretty relevant for relationships, partnerships, and collaborative projects in life.

My mantra of actively pursuing #CollaborativeSuccess has led me to partner with, invest in, and collaborate with a plethora of actors, young and old, tech-savvy and tech-averse, social impact, community leaders, investors, and promising politicians. With a variance of success and failures that temper our life’s journey aptly.

I’m delighted that community sparks joy for me, and collaboration with one of my long-time avengers in Accra’s brand Lift. also sparks joy. I’m grateful for empowering new voices and my podcasting colleagues Adrian and Pato ( KukuZa amplifiers) within the Africa Podfest ecosystem, spark joy.

Lift. x Eliu Gift x Gamor

Lastly, my childhood home, now the Eliu Gift innovation hub openly and consistently sparks my greatest joy, deliberately shedding away the endless list of others (connections and collaborations) that I happily fold, thank and pack away for good. Medaase.

Image: Eliu Gift Hub courtesy @Urithi Labs

As I celebrate the September birthdays of my closest loved ones this month, especially my parents; yup my mother and father, Emma Gamor Snr. (of blessed memory) born on September 17th and 19th respectively, I wish for you and your family’s joy to be endlessly sparked through each celebrated touchstone moment.

Be well, be safe, be loved.

p.s.

Kindly wish Rev. Muriel aka my momma Esi, a wonderful birthday on her Facebook page, I don’t take our bond (we color coordinate unintentionally, even when I successfully surprise her) and our yearly ritual of aligning on goals and a mantra for the year: flow for granted. More on this ahead of 2022.

Rev. Muriel x Gamor image credit: @Sylvester Darku, Team Black Image

It is astonishing how quickly kids around you grow up. If you are introspective, as I get sometimes, you'll look at your younger siblings, cousins...and look at the older family members and wonder if they are as tickled about your growth as you are of the younger ones.

My cousin, Queenie (named after her mother) celebrated her birthday and it was an opportunity to reconnect with family members I hadn't seen in about a decade. At her party I found out that her dad, my mother's older brother used to take pictures of my mom when they were younger. Decades later, here I am taking pictures of his daughter. Who said history doesn't repeat itself?
To youth, legacy and teenage birthdays!

Queenie

The group of friends who are "fresh"

Chop Time...no friend.

2nd generation of Benneh-Amoah

Queenies!

The birthday girl's mini photo shoot

50th Birthday Party & Graduation Celebration from itake photos est. 1985 on Vimeo.

Emma Adjetey - Doku celebrates her 50th Birthday and graduation party with family and friends in Woodbridge Virginia. Saturday September 15th, 2012. Photography by Emmanuel A. Gamor

The people who knew you when you were young, probably know you best. Covering this event for Aunty Emma Adjetey-Doku was doubly exciting because I was reminded that you could party with a lady in the prime of her life and with old friends from ICCM (my first church in VA) too. Azonto moves apparently have no age limit! Congrats to Aunty Emma on the milestone (the big 50!) and congrats on being a recent graduate as well! More vim!

When I came to the United States I was taken back two class grades in High School. I watched as my peers, the class of 2007, graduate from college as I waded through my last two years of undergrad with a mission: to proudly walk down the stage in the presence of my family and peers during commencement.

Photo credit: Edson Andre

Graduation for me was an incredibly emotional experience. My mother and I cried together as we were reminded of the trials and tribulations that got me, the first boy among 3 girls, through college. My journey from Ghana, West Africa, through Alexandria, Virginia and finally on the University of Florida stage as a Gator graduate was tumultuous. I literally felt a huge weight of responsibility being lifted off my shoulders as I strolled past Bernie Machen as my name was called at the O'dome.

What I remember from commencement 2009 is that regardless of the challenges behind me, I believed I could strive and succeed with the help of God and my family. And regardless of the challenges ahead, be it a challenging economy, I took that same resilience to propel me forward through my endeavors over the past 3 years. To the class of 2012, don't shy away from the challenge. The world is ever-evolving and the lessons from undergrad should come in handy. Stay the course, pursue your dreams and passions with hard work and consistency. Congrats to the class of 2012. To many more successes in every one of your endeavors.
- itp85.

So I had a chance to take pictures at my first baby naming ceremony. Not to be outdone by any subsequent ones, I gladly jumped on the opportunity to photograph my favorite triplets! I took a family picture of the kids a few weeks back and even discovered my little muse. [insert chuckle here]

To my amusement the siblings, names listed in the top picture, have quite the personality of their own. Though generally well-behaved, I can't wait to see what they would be like over the coming years as teenagers and young adults - very alike and yet incredibly different.



Janelle is the first of the three: Athos, if you will



John Jr. bka Porthos



Josh, ahem Aramis

And lastly their older sister, who for comparison sake may play the role of D'Artagnan.



Congrats again to the family...they sure make an awesome team.

I did my first 'family call' in-house photo session last weekend. An old friend had triplets and I was asked to come by for a photo session.



Besides finding my little model muse, I got a chance to capture my first set of triplets ever! The boys all looked in their dad's direction as if to ask: "Louis, what you talmbout?"

I saw Eian, my frat brother, and his family at a wedding recently. I remember going to the baby shower earlier in the year and now their baby, Soleil, is a little toddler. Makes me note how time flies!