I'm writing this in response to the Zaadz Question and Reflection of the Day, "Who Have You Told About Your Dream?"
That question absolutely resonates with me. I have a Dream that forms the core of my life. The question who have I told about my Dream pierces to the heart of my current life experience.
My entire life has been a process of giving birth to a Dream that emerged into my awareness in early 2007. Since the Dream surfaced, I've been actively inquiring into how I can bring it into manifestation. Everything I was doing in my life prior to the spring of 2007 was to birth the Dream in consciousness. Everything I've done since then is to birth the Dream in reality.
Let me tell you about it, so that I can add you to the list of people who know about my Dream.
I have a Dream to create an organization to train and to channel the creative energies of people who are called to devote their lives to birthing the Emerging New Culture and New Civilization of the New Earth. I call these people professional Transformational Activists. I call the organization The Institute for Transformational Activism.
This Dream was 32 years in gestation. In 1975, at age 22, I awakened to the awareness that Humanity is a family, that Spirit is our Source, and that Life is a miracle and an adventure.
From the moment of my awakening, I've known that Earth is destined to be a world of One Loving Global Family. I've known that all people can live their dreams with passion and purpose, and that together, we can create a world that works for everyone. This Knowing has nurtured my Dream.
From 1975 to 2007, my Dream evolved from Conception in the heart of my Inner Being to Birth into my outer conscious awareness. My life has been spent in a deep exploration of the many problems and issues existing locally, nationally, and globally on our planet. Side by side with this has been my quest for Self-Actualization, to reach the highest levels of my human potential and give the gift I'm here on earth to give to Humanity.
In this process, I developed a deep burning desire to find others who are similarly empassioned, and together explore ways and means to deepen the actualization of our potential in service of the transformation of our planet.
In 2004, I participated in a 3-month coaching program with the Steven Covey company. In that program I composed a document called "My Goals." One of my goals was recorded as the following:
Become a Transformational Activist. Actively join the network of Transformational Activists. Create a stand for the solution to earth's problems and the birth of a transformed planet. Facilitate partnership of Transformational Activists with experts in areas of planetary crises, to "channel" solutions.
From 2004 when I wrote this statement, to early 2007 when I became fully aware of my Dream to create The Institute for Transformational Activism, I was deeply involved in intentional Creative Visualization work. My husband and I began using a process taught by author and publisher Marc Allen.
In several of his books, Marc teaches a process of envisioning your future life, as you'd love to have it look five years from now. He says to let your imagination run totally free, not letting that critical inner voice with it's doubts and fears get in the way. Imagine your life five years in the future. If things went beyond your wildest dreams, what would your life look like by then?
I engaged full-out with this process beginning in 2004. I allowed myself to dream deeply about what I wanted to have happen in my life. I began to go further into the exploration of what it was I really wanted in my life. Several times between 2004 and 2007, I wrote deeper cuts of my vision. I lived with it, grappled with it, wrestled it forth from deep within myself.
Suddenly, in early 2007, the Dream began to shape into a crystallized format. I felt like I was playing the old "Concentration" game show from TV, where matching squares on a gameboard would reveal parts of a pictograph hidden underneath, and at a certain point the puzzle could be figured out and solved. My Dream segments began to flash into my mind with increasing frequency, until I finally got the whole thing, and could see the vision of the Institute for Transformational Activism.
Once I fully saw my Dream was when, as Marc Allen said would happen, my doubts and fears became quite "vocal" in my head. Most of all, that voice told me things like, "oh, sure, the Institute for Transformational Activism. Just who the heck do you think you are? How are little YOU going to create something so BIG? You don't have any money, you don't have any connections, who's going to listen to YOU anyway?"
At the time, early 2007, I was building American Medical Careers, the company I co-own with my husband. We were deep into an aggressive strategic growth plan, which carried with it a certain amount of intensity. We had started the company in 2002 with the intention of achieving financial independence and the freedom to pursue our transformational dreams. At the beginning of 2007, we weren't there yet. Far from it, we were quite in the thick of things with the business!
I felt very much that I had one foot on one shore-building American Medical Careers-and one foot on the other shore-my Dream to throw myself full time into my career as a Transformational Activist and build the Institute. I had little time to devote to my Dream, couldn't figure out where to start with it, and was burdened by that voice in my head telling me I was crazy each time I thought about it.
Once I had distinguished my Dream of the Institute for Transformational Activism, the intensity of determination to manifest it began to build within me. A passion took hold of me for its creation. The main thought that took shape was to find another human being who, when they heard about the Institute, would be as impassioned as me to see it become manifest. I needed a Partner.
This thought drove me for the first half of 2007. I was busy with American Medical Careers, and didn't have a lot of time to put into this Quest. Yet it consumed my thinking. All of my spare time went into this passion.
I began to write about it in emails to various transformational friends. I also held monthly Gatherings of transformational friends at my home, where I spoke about this idea. It was the only step I could see to take at that stage.
Looking back at the course of events as they unfolded, the first breakthrough that happened was when a friend told me about an amazing discovery she'd made. This cool guy from Australia, Malcolm Cohen, was teaching a process over the Internet for creating Vision Videos. These were short 1-3 minute video podcasts comprised of slide images, music, and text. You created a Vision Poem which spoke your Vision for Humanity, broke it into short 3-5 word chunks, illustrated it with images and set it to music. Then you posted it on YouTube, and you were launched!
The coolest thing, Gaile told me, was that Malcolm said your Vision Video would attract your Tribe, that group of people destined to be your team in fulfilling your mission on earth. How cool was that! It was exactly what I needed!
I took her up on her recommendation, and began to look into Malcolm's online tutorials for creating your own Vision Videos. The next thing I knew, Gaile called and told me she'd sent her Video to Malcolm, he loved it, and had invited her to attend his Rocket Ship seminar in Minneapolis June 12, where he would teach the Vision Video process. I registered for the seminar immediately.
In registering, I was jolted by a stunning "coincidence". In my plea to the Universe to help me manifest the Institute, I searched the Internet for coaches. I'd found a website of a coaching company, Entrevis, led by George Johnson, that so resonated with me. This company had a series of free online coaching lessons, which I subscribed to.
When I went to register for the rocket Ship Vision Video Seminar, lo and behold, Entrevis was the sponsor. George Johnson would be participating in the seminar. I knew this was no coincidence. I was determined to meet with George, and set up an appointment in advance of the seminar.
Just before flying to Minneapolis, I got a copy of Joseph Jaworski's book Synchronicity, and read it cover to cover on the spot. This book totally changed my life.
This book is Jaworski's incredible story of receiving a vision to create the American Leadership Forum, a non-governmental agency responsible for developing collaborative leadership. The book is the record of his journey through his life up to the point of receiving the vision, through his resistance to it, to his point of surrender to the assignment, to the fulfillment of the manifestation.
He describes in intimate detail the entire process, his emotions, his inner path of personal growth and development. Most particularly, the title of the book, "Synchronicity", illustrates his core message that once he'd surrendered to making the vision a reality, the world "rolled at his feet" as the most amazing miracles occurred to make it happen.
As I read the book, I got chills. I was totally clear it was no accident this book had arrived in my hands when it had.
At the Rocket Ship Seminar, I was blown away. I worked privately with Malcolm Cohen after the seminar, and with his expert assistance crafted my Vision Poem. This was one of the most awesome experiences of my life. I felt so attuned to the soul of this individual, Malcolm so got my Vision for Humanity, so got me as a person with a passionate mission to participate in the Birth of the New Earth, so shared my deep passion to see the New Earth come into manifestation, that I felt I had died and gone to heaven. It was my first deep experience of direct contact with a similarly attuned soul. I was in total bliss.
The next part of my miracle was my initial meeting with George Johnson. Though the voice of the Inner Critic raged furiously in my head, I spoke with him about my vision for the Institute for Transformational Activism. I know that I sounded hesitant and unsure of myself, but George "got me" just like Malcolm had. He told me that his calling was to coach Women Visionaries, and he would love to work with me. I was ecstatic.
When I returned home from Minneapolis I got to work immediately on creating my Vision Video, and experienced the thrill of getting it posted on YouTube on July 8.
I also started my active coaching relationship with George, and began the process of getting my Vision into a written and spoken format that I could begin to communicate. I was getting seriously about beaming my message out into the world, to attract my Tribe.
I recently came upon a document I wrote on July 8, 2007, entitled "My Next Steps for the Institute for Transformational Activism". Here is the text of that document:
Find partners with whom to create the Institute
- Distinguish my message about the Institute
- Create packaged messages to disseminate to the world
- Website
- Podcasts
- Visions for Humanity
- E-Book
- Build an e-mail list, create a newsletter to distribute
- Find my Tribe
Determine what to do first, right now
- Write my Vision Story
- Create a Podcast about my Vision Story, post on YouTube
- Put up rudimentary website, with links to Vision Statements, and my Vision Story
- Create Business Cards with website address
Assessing my progress in fulfilling my list of goals has given me a great thrill. I realize that I actually did fulfill on several of the tasks I'd set for myself.
With George Johnson's expert coaching, I created a set of documents outlining my Vision. These documents were fully crafted by July 26, 2007 and are entitled:
- The Planetary Transformation Project -Institute for Transformational Activism
- Council for Planetary Transformation
- Cause Your Life Transformational Centers
- EcoVillages
This fulfilled my task entitled "Write my Vision Story".
On November 23, I created my Profile on Zaadz.com, which is a "MySpace" type site for people out to transform the world. (Zaadz has since become the Gaia Community, powered by Zaadz.) I posted my Vision Statements in my Zaadz blog. I linked my Vision Video to my profile page. I then revised my business card, so that it listed my zaadz address: http://causeyourlife.zaadz.com/.
I am thrilled that I fulfilled several of the tasks I had assigned myself. Most importantly, I now have a web presence with my Vision for the Institute beaming out to the Universe across cyberspace, Humanity's new collective neural net.
At the end of 2007, I crafted my intentions for 2008. The main task that I have set for myself is to Be a Channel for Source Energy, a Channel for My Promise for the World:
- It is my deepest Intention to Connect with Source, and to Be that Energy in the Earth
- By 2038, I promise a world of One Loving Global Family. All people live their dreams with passion and purpose, together creating a world that works for everyone
I have become a member of Toastmasters International, and am scheduled to deliver my first speech this Friday, February 8. It is my Ice Breaker speech, 4-6 minutes long, crafted to tell a little bit about me through telling an interesting story. My Ice Breaker will tell people that I have a Promise for the World, and how my Promise has determined the course of my life. I'll package my speech as a blog posting, and also create it as a YouTube podcast linked to my Zaadz site.
I'm intending to master the Art and Science of delivering my message about the heroic reconstruction of the earth, and Humanity together bringing in the New Day, in a language that enrolls people and makes them understanding the Time We're In On Earth.
Another cool unfolding event has opened up for me recently. My Management staff at American Medical Careers has informed me that they want to run the company, and they respectfully request that I stay home and "do that thing I really want to do with Transformation."
Oh my God.
Joseph Jaworski, here I come, following in your Synchronicitous footsteps.
Another amazing update. Over the holiday season, I was inspired to return to graduate school, and enroll in a program designed for people committed to planetary transformation. I discovered Wisdom University, saw that they have a graduate degree in Wisdom Spirituality, there is a 5-day course Intensive in March entitled "The Emerging Wisdom Culture" taught by Paul Ray, author of the book The Cultural Creatives. I've been asking the Universe for months, how to take a course with Paul Ray.
Then, in a pre-enrollement conversation with Jim Garrison, President of Wisdom University, in which I profess my passion for the work of Paul Ray, Mr. Garrison tells me that they are preparing to conduct a new study of the Cultural Creatives, and Paul Ray is looking for graduate assistants to be on his team. Mr. Garrison states that I sound "perfect" for the team.
Can it be that my dreams are all coming true? Has the ripcord been pulled?
To be continued...