We can be that water, sunlight or rich soil to and for each other.

When we engage in conscious conversation we feed each others souls, we lift each other up, and we can ignite a blaze in each others hearts and minds. With the group energy of inspiration rising up in us, we change ourselves and support the change in each other – and that is what will change the world.

It is our differences that bring something new to the table that can help each of us in the community come to a challenge in our lives with a new answer on how to handle it. I posted earlier on FB a commercial I found on TedX with men in wheelchairs playing basketball. At the very end of the commercial all but one man got out of the wheelchairs and walked out off the court. When I look at that commercial through the lens of “one vessel” it really opens up the meaning of the word friendship into a whole new place.

I thought about possibilities of what those men who played full out learned about themselves and each other. I thought about how they might spark ideas around creating new or different kinds of wheelchairs, around residential and commercial buildings being built different for everyone; about vehicles being modified in some way and on and on….., things that would never have happened if their friendship hadn’t created the possibility of including their buddy in a basketball game.

Community isn’t about everyone agreeing or changing to match some “social norm” that someone has decreed. It is about fully accepting each individual as they are, and seeing how each of us can contribute from our own unique place. I look at the dance community – they have so many styles of dance, ballet, jazz, tap, hip hop, bollywood, disco, ballroom (which in itself has many different styles) – street dancers are always coming up with new styles of dance, some of which catch on. No one is killing someone over the fact that their style of dance is superior and should only be the one dance style allowed to be performed.

We are all traveling as one “Waka Kotahi”, so let us create a commUNity that really expresses that belief. What do you think?

It reminds me of the old coal towns, when the “company” was the only employer in a small town, and you had to rent your home from the company and buy your food in the company store. I am sure that there were some companies where it started out with the mentality of “give a man a fish”; but it allowed for the “company” to abuse the people, and the people who at first were so glad to have the home and job, later came to resent the company, because it was a restrictive and demeaning way to live. It essentially kept them in poverty and as the old folksong said, “I owe my soul to the company store.” .

When you “teach a man to fish” you give them skills that will last a lifetime. They can take those skills and apply them to a multiple of professions and interests in their lives. They say that you could take a self made millionaire, take away all of their money and drop them off in any town in America and in a short while they would be a millionaire again, because they know what it takes to become one.

They know how to stretch their comfort zone, to think outside of the box and that they have untapped resources in them that come out when they are in a challenging situation. They understand their potential, and they have self confidence, and understand that outside stresses are a catalyst to even bigger capabilities in their lives.

So if life is being challenging to you right now, go deep inside yourself to that “inner knower”. Tap into that space of infinite possibility and see what untapped resources that you have within you. Use those resources as a catalyst to leap forward on your journey. I believe that all of us are more powerful that we ever dreamed – so dream bigger and teach others how to step into their own greatness.

I’ve had enough
Of chasing luck
I need, I need a change

I’m setting fire to the life that I know (I know)
Let’s start a fire everywhere that we go (we go)
We starting fires,
We starting fires till our lives are burning gold

I’m setting fire to the life that I know (I know)
Let’s start a fire everywhere that we go (we go)
We starting fires,
We starting fires till our lives are burning gold
Till our lives are burning gold

I wrote this down the other night for someone, and I think that it captures a lot of what I have been thinking about. I have been making a friend of my fears around money, and it has been showing up in interesting ways. There are so many different keys to this lock that fears has on us – the off road experience is certainly better than the highway of life!

CAUSE AN UPROAR

It is a leap of faith to believe in yourself and leap into the branches of magic and possibilities.

It is a leap of faith to trust each of us “sisters” to do our part.

It is a leap of faith to dare to believe that you can manifest this kind of fuel for the journey.

It is a leap of faith to create a path where none exists and go somewhere that you have never been.

It is a leap of faith that allows you to find a destination that no one knew was even there.

It is a leap of faith to face the unknown with creativity, rather than grasping at what you think are the known quantities of how something should be done.

A leap of faith isn’t what achieves a goal, it is what brings the goal out of the unknown and into existence. It births the goal.

While it is happening, the leap of faith doesn’t feel like anything that you ever want to repeat. Surrendering is letting go of control and it is terrifying. Then it’s over and suddenly you can’t stop thinking about how wonderful it was.

When I read today’s message from the universe that is what came to my mind. How in our lives we have these experiences that happen and those experiences follow a wide range of ins and outs, overs and unders, and what emerges is the complex pattern that is us.

If we could stand back from the small view that we have of ourselves we would see the beauty that is us. But as humans we tend to get stuck in the story of the experience and let one of more of those experiences define who we are and what we are capable of becoming. We become the limitation of the experience.

If you only focused on a tiny piece of the lace twists and turn, it wouldn’t look like anything special. But if you stand back and take in the complete piece of lace, it is an amazing intricate piece of art.

I was in a deep discussion last night with another women, about an experience that she went through lately with another women. I commented that when I saw the nature of their relationship a year ago, I thought that at some point there would be a breaking of the friendship. It was something in the way the other women would look at her, that told me that she wasn’t coming from a healthy place. Sometimes we can’t see the lesson that is coming our way, not until it actually happens.

We were discussing how if you look in the mirror, who don’t really see yourself for who you are, but if you take a photo of yourself and look at it, then you can see yourself clearly. I asked her if she had looked at any video footage of them because I thought that if she did, she would see that look and now recognize what I was talking about. And she laughed because she had actually saw what I saw.

All of these experiences that teach us vital lessons are part of the fabric of the beautiful work of art that is us. Each decision, each relationship, each thing that happens creates another piece of the pattern. Without those twists and turns we would just be a formless pile of threads.

So don’t get caught up in what should have or what could have happened. Be grateful and thankful for each experience. Each of those twists and turns make you a victorious master of you,, and while sometimes it feels as though you are a pretzel you are an amazing piece of art!

If your personal purpose, professional purpose, and global purpose are not aligned, then you will have resistance. All three need to be congruent, running alongside each other in order for you to successfully accomplish your purpose. Just like the rowers in a race, the oars all need to be in unison to make any progress.

The stories that we adopted as children can show up in surprising places as an adult. I had an experience when I was a young child where I walked into my moms room and surprised her in bed with another man. Shortly thereafter my parents divorced. My story was that it wasn’t safe to be noticed or “seen”. If you drew attention to yourself bad things would happen. So every time I became successful in a job, I would sabotage that job and run away to a new one. It took me years of work to finally put all of the pieces together and figure out why I was doing this.

We all have these variations of stories that we cling to, because they are known and our ego tells us they keep us safe. Some are from what was a major event to a child, and some are from something so minor that as an adult it astounds us that we have this belief formed out of misconceptions and the misunderstanding of what was happening around us. Some are just mantra’s that we heard as children that formed a deep seated belief internally that we may not even realize that we have.

What I know is that if we ask the question and just sit with it, surprising beliefs and thoughts will surface. And if we keep sitting with it asking why, and going deeper into the well, we will discover the incongruency and once we do, we can release that emergency brake and go full speed ahead to our destination.

They say that someone who has made for themselves one million dollars, could lose it, be put down in the middle of any unknown town in the U.S. with one dollar in their pocket and in a matter of time they would be a millionaire again.

It is only the first time we do something that we seem to try and fail and struggle. Once we understand, everything changes. There is an old Persian proverb, “once the puzzle is complete, it looks easy”. When you have done anything for yourself (not necessarily by yourself) then you can recreate that something again.

So once we have that knowledge and inner wisdom on how to apply it, you know how the puzzle pieces fit together and the picture that they make. You realize at some point in your journey that you can use those same skills, knowledge and wisdom to achieve and attain whatever you want – you have the ability to make a key to open any door.

That is what I believe he is talking about – realizing that you have always had the ability to make the key for any door that you choose to open – now that is priceless.

I think that this is what the real definition of passion is – that you would rather fail doing it than succeed in any other arena. Something that has such a strong pull that it drags you along. It changes everything in your life. You walk away from other opportunities because even though it would have been something in your “old life” that you would have given anything for, this passion makes it seem unworthy of your time.

The bible parable of the man who trades everything he has for the “pearl” of great wisdom. Imagine a man who in today’s standards would be considered very rich, like a Bill Gates or a Richard Branson, trading all of their millions for a single pearl. Everyone would say that they had lost their mind, but if that pearl was their dream, their passion, then they truly would walk away from everything else just to obtain that pearl.

When I think about that I realize that a true dream is never a possession – it is never a particular net worth. This dream is an idea that you have that not only changes you, it changes your world, it changes everything. It is like a leap of evolution, where the actual DNA within you changes, because you can’t imagine your life without this dream. And it evolves with you, so that it isn’t so much the accomplishment of it, as the doing what needs to be done, because it changes as you change. It becomes clearer, it becomes bigger, it is a lifelong passion that you revel in the doing of,, not the accomplishing of.

I don’t know if this makes sense to anyone else, but this is what I feel in my heart and soul about community, connection, collaboration. It isn’t a goal that I accomplish, it is the life that I am living. The passion is to share this dream with everyone that I meet, so that my dream can be fuel for their dream. That is my passion – what is yours?