Donate to a worthy cause!
Enter your question and receive the wisdom of the Occulatum. You may pose your question in any way that feels appropriate. The answer will come in the form of a small pop up. Try it - your life just might change for the better!
Hypnosis session to make you be more brave, outgoing, or to take a risk for one day. If you'd like, you can subscribe to her free daily hypnosis boosters at PlanetWendi.com.
Finish this sentence with the first words that come into your mind:
Here we have the "wildest dreams" that were posted on Friday. The idea is to brainstorm simple and effective, audatious and daring, unusual and creative, surprising and not so surprising ways that each of these dreams might begin to progress towards reality. Let's think outside the box, and let's be open to big new ideas about ways to actually move towards those dreams.
Yesterday, I read the book "Sweat Your Prayers" by Gabrielle Roth. In it I found a story that I thought would be appropriate to this month's project. Here it is:
"We are whoever we can imagine ourselves to be. Years ago I met an American girl from the Deep South on the beach in Sitges, Spain, who fantasized about being a nanny for Princess Grace in Monaco. On a whim she mailed a letter to Her Royal Highness. A few weeks later she received an airplane ticket to Monaco for an interview. She got the job. I never forgot this story and often tell it to people who think their dreams are too wild to come true."
That little story got me thinking. I was wondering if she got the job because she was extraordinarily qualified? or because it was so audacious? maybe both? and did she tell anyone that she was going to do that? was she excited and happy when she wrote the letter? was she so sure that it was a fantasy that she attached absolutely no expectations to it at all? was she surrounded by people who said to her "you can do anything you choose"?
All of which brings me to my next question: Is there something audacious and wild that you would like to do? Something so interesting, so fantastic, so exciting, that you would never even think of attempting it? Is there a letter you could write that might open the way for that wildly fantastic notion? Is there a phone call? a website you could visit? an ad you could put in the paper? What about Oprah? Is there some small action you could put forth to start that ball rolling? Are you afraid of how interesting and wonderful your life could be? So what if you fail? Approximately one billion Chinese couldn't care less! So how about it? Wanna start something big?
Lets list our wildest dreams here, and then brainstorm with each other as to what small, simple action could be done to get the ball rolling. I dare you to think outside the box... way outside the box... something grand and impossible. Something wonderful. Who's up for it?
Each one helps the other, saying to one another, "Take courage."
At work last night, I read a book about Mother Teresa, and by the end of the evening I was ready to sell everything, go to India, and start washing clothes by hand while taking care of lepers and dying children. Not only that, it was sounding good to me, like something I wanted to do just as much as, and maybe even more than, I want to hang out at the beach and drink margaritas.
As a matter of fact, I had a really great post written about it, but I got so sleepy I went to bed and forgot to save it and when I got up this morning, I discovered that my computer had updated herself and restarted herself all by herself, and that really good post is now floating in cyberspace someplace else.
What I was thinking was that it would really feel good to be doing something that basic and that compassionate and that desperately needed. Initially I wondered if I could extend myself in that way to myself.. putting in long hours of hard work pulling my own pathetic self up off the sidewalk, washing my own dirty laundry, bathing my own imperfect body, and basically committing to taking much better care of me. And doing it in that same compassionate caring way that Mother Teresa did it.
But then I realized that the reason the Mother Teresa work is so rewarding is that it is externalized and it's real. You have a real person in front of you, someone who is destitute and helpless and suffering. Plus you have a rather formidable albeit compassionate group of nuns standing behind you and telling you what to do.
Interestingly, I am not a real person to me. I live inside of me. I can't really see me. Even when I look in the mirror, I'm only seeing the mirror image of me, and truth be told, I haven't really looked at myself at all for a very long time. I glance quickly at that aging face in the mirror, focus on just the hair - is it too messed up? take a quick look at the teeth - do they look clean? And that's about it. And so how can I actually get in there and do compassionate healing work with myself? It might be a lot like trying to paint the outside of my house, and fix the roof, and mow the lawn, all without going out the door.
So, I was mulling this over when I came across this nifty little website. Kiva. I was so impressed with their concept that I put an ad over in the left side bar, right above "go shopping". The concept is to help entrepreneurs in third world countries by lending them money for their businesses and their business ideas. What's really neat about it is that you can lend as little as $25, you pick who you lend it to, and they do pay the money back.
Right now I don't even have $25, so I thought how cool it would be to make a commitment to make a loan of the first $25 that Lady Luck sends me, and to continue to make loans by investing 10% of my winnings. What's even more cool about this is that I will be able to, for a mere $25, make the transition from "flat broke" and "pathetic" and "pretty much a financial disaster" to "lender" and "venture capitalist" and "philanthropist".
Not only that, but it will feel good to my heart, and might even bring me more luck and lots of good karma. Plus, I can put off and maybe even give up the idea of selling everything, and going to India.
On Memorial Day weekend we will be completing our De-Cluttering project by having a garage sale at Melissa's newly vacated townhouse. So lets get busy. If you are participating in the 200 Things Project, here's a perfect opportunity to really make some progress.
If you have any questions about location or logistics, email Shirley or Melissa, or post your question and we'll make sure you get the information.
Posts
All Comments
The Singer of Courage: In our lives we are often, even constantly, confronted with a new world, a new way of being in the world, a new way of seeing and of being seen. Ordinary living takes courage, and to rise above the ordinary into the extraordinary takes even more courage. One of the keys to courage is to consider the fear and find a way to let the energy of the fear itself power the action. That is true courage.
