Dr. Roberta Bondar

Resilience: Staying Informed, Diminishing Fear

COVID is affecting all of us—our personal and professional spaces, our lives and how we live them. It is a stress test for more than economics. Relief can seem short-lived, with gathering clouds of fear with rain that might promote seeds of doubt. But, as we know from viewing things from the distance of time and space, there is abundant energy from the light that lives beyond us and within the best of human behavior. Aspirational becomes inspirational. Change delivers opportunity—a deep dive with a good light.

The Art of Seeing and The Art of Being: Creativity Through Clarity of Vision

Curiosity is linked to exploration. It is also about what we might be missing, or what might be important to our safety and health. Without curiosity, creativity would live in exile and we would be limited to our immediate life with no real potential for true growth. We can change how we view the world around us by awakening our senses to explore what lies beyond the human eye or personal experience. Revelation becomes relevance and the more investment in the connection, the more powerful the outcome.

Dr. Bondar combines her expert knowledge in her specialty of neuro-ophthalmology (how we see and view the world around us) and professional training in landscape/nature photography with her experience of spaceflight to seek new worlds and ideas.

Considered Risk: Opening Possibilities for Change and Growth

Life is a series of moments, any of which can change the course of personal, professional and world histories. Random things can happen, and they do, all the time. Far better to embrace change than to fear it. Far stronger to examine fear and how to overcome it. The danger of spaceflight makes it unnerving for many and for others it is a source of inspiration – that human beings are destined for something greater beyond Earth life. Fear unexamined is risk undetermined. Risk becomes a force for change and all change bears risk, with the balance of risk and change set by personal passions and goals. Dr. Bondar discusses the possibilities and inspiration derived from actively seeking opportunity once risk is considered.

Perspective Shift: Moving Beyond the Familiar to Reach for the Extraordinary

The nucleus of shifting one’s point of view is having an opportunity to see and experience things in a completely different way. Sometimes it takes dismantling the known and other times it is the unknown that thrusts us into a new view of the old. Spaceflight gives us images and ideas plus the potential of emotional and natural connections to our life on planet Earth. Dr. Bondar integrates her perspective from space with her Earth exploration through still and video imagery to stimulate others to think differently.

Patterns of Philanthropy for Life: Contributing to the Fabric of Society

The perspective of Earth as seen from space is a reality check that indeed we live on a planet. It also can open the mind and heart to the interconnectedness of its natural resources, including the most precious of which is life. Great principles of philanthropy include helping others to survive the many challenges facing us on the planet, and to reduce poverty while promoting excellence through education.

This is accomplished best through volunteerism and or financial support. Volunteers are a source of inspiration and have the passion and commitment to move society forward. The Roberta Bondar Foundation, a charitable organization, implements programming through a strong volunteer base that seeks a better society by connecting all generations to our natural world through the coupling of art and science.

The Avian World: Flights of Fantasy and Resilience with Secrets Yet to Be Gleaned

They inspired her to fly when she was a little girl. Now, Dr. Roberta Bondar strives to protect the precious and threatened avian heritage of Earth. As astronauts fly across political boundaries without seeing divisions from space, so do birds, especially migratory birds that are declining in numbers at an alarming rate. They have much to teach us about flight and feathers, navigation and habitat health.

Most of all, they are extraordinary life forms that we cannot create or replace. When birdsong was noticeably missing during her spaceflight, Dr. Bondar grew wary of what Earth would be like if birds vanished as a life form because of changing climates or habitat degradation from human activity. Dr. Bondar created Protecting Space for Birds, a multi-year project to document threatened and endangered species internationally from three points of view: from the surface of Earth, aerial images and from the space perspective. Her fine art photography is featured in exhibitions, social media and published works.