Reflections on Your Heart’s Desire, and Your Impact in this World

One of my favourite books is The Art of Possibility; Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander.  If you have a young musician and/or teacher in your life, this book would make a terrific gift. It is tremendously inspiring and uplifting, and has plenty of practical ideas for supporting the best in others.

The following quote is found in the chapter, Giving Way to Passion, which reminds me of the conversations we had in February about Your Heart’s Desire:

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.”
-                      MARTHA GRAHAM, quoted by Agnes DeMille, Martha: the Life and Work of Martha Graham

This passage got me reflecting on some of the conversations and the question we explored – what if what you strongly desire – to do, to be, to have in your life  - is really ‘God’s’ (or the Universe’s) way of telling you this is your path and your passion, and its meant to be shared in this world?  What if you opened the channel to your desire and let the passion flow? I believe you can make a difference in this world and impact others’ lives by simply living your values, and loving who you are and what you are doing.

I just received the Spring 2010 issue of Company of Women’s great magazine, Company.  Anne Day, who is the founder of Company of Women and the Editor of Company, starts the issue with her thoughts:

“Ten years ago, I received the prestigious ATHENA Award for assisting women in achieving their leadership potential. At the time, I was totally surprised, as I didn’t feel that I had done anything special. In hindsight, I realize that, like many women, I had underestimated the impact of my actions on others.”

I have been considering my own place in this conversation.  What is it that I’m passionate about and how can I make a difference in the world?  What’s ‘worthwhile’ for me to do?  It turns out that it may not be a big thing (to me) and feel quite natural to do – and it still impacts others in a way that will make a difference in their lives.

My coach reminded me of the Starfish Story (returning starfish to the ocean one at a time), and Anne’s words underline the message: It turns out that it may not be a big deal (to me) and feel quite natural to do, it may be just a little bit at a time… and it still impacts others in a way that will make a difference in their lives and in the lives of others around them.

What’s Your Heavenly Experience?

At the beginning of a New Year, I like to spend some time thinking about what I’d like for myself in the coming year. I don’t set resolutions – haven’t for years – mainly because I have a monthly goals-setting call with a couple of  friends, and we have been meeting almost every month for the past 13 years (despite moves around the globe!).

However, I do try to set intentions for different areas of my life (and then I create monthly goals to move myself toward realizing those intentions.). My focus areas include personal growth, health & well-being, relationships, career and fun!

This year, I was drawn to Debbie Ford’s ‘21-day consciousness cleanse’ and with my coach, I have been re-focusing on clarifying my values. The whole point of this for me is to become clear about a strong purpose and vision for my life going forward.

I’ll write more about the consciousness cleanse in another post, but the first day is about connecting to our desires and realizing that our soul’s desire is what Debbie calls ‘the voice of God.’ For me, it means that what I would trust love to be doing is really what I’m supposed to be doing. I have created a small vision board for a couple of my strongest desires and it is powerful to look at this each day.

What if what you absolutely love doing, and how you absolutely love being – your strongest desires – are your unique gifts that are meant to be expressed in this world? How great is that?!?!

I recently had the opportunity to spend a blissful weekend entirely on my own (for those of you who know my life, you will know that this is rare). As much as I love my husband, and have fun with my step-kids when they are here, I also love having time to myself. I went off to the spa on Saturday morning and came home to 24 hours of quiet time all to myself. I spent much of it reading and writing about my soul’s desire, my values and my purpose. As I sat in front of a fire that evening, surrounded by my books and journal with a glass of wine and a few chocolate truffles close at hand, I thought, ‘this is Heaven!!’

One of my intentions this year is to create opportunities to connect with other women and have conversations around topics such as this – what would be ‘heaven’ for you?  How can you enrich the world with your strongest desires?

How would you answer those questions? Let’s have the conversation and inspire, encourage and support each other in our quest to find our own ‘heaven on earth’!

Wishing you much peace and joy in 2010.

We’ve made our kiva loan

Well, with a lot of leg work, my friends and I have decided on the recipient of our loan through kiva.

Our money will go to Amina Barungi, who is a 42-year-old woman and the leader of her lending group in Bushenyi, Uganda.  She is a friendly, determined and very hard working lady with a business of selling matooke (green cooking bananas) in Kizinda for eight years.  Her matooke is mostly for home consumption since she has not yet grown enough to sell on a wholesale basis.  Her group is now 45% funded on the loan amount they have requested, and they plan to repay the loan in full over 11 months.  If all goes well, they be fully-funded soon and we’ll have our loan repaid by this time next year, so we can re-loan to someone else to help them out.

Looking for a hand up in their small business

The Invitation

I have always loved the poem by Oriah Mountain Dreamer called, The Invitation.  As I’m about to send out invitations to my friends to visit this site, I thought I’d post The Invitation for their (and your) savouring – enjoy!

The Invitation by Oriah

It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know
if you will risk
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me
what planets are
squaring your moon…
I want to know
if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.

It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.

By Oriah © Mountain Dreaming,
from the book The Invitation
published by HarperONE, San Francisco,
1999 All rights reserved

Women Support the Eradication of Poverty

Over lunch recently, a group of long-term, dear friends and I decided that since our lunch was originally scheduled for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, we would take a step to do our share, in our own small way, to help eradicate poverty in this world. We agreed to pool our funds and contribute to kiva, with a focus on supporting women. We will research who we’d like to make a loan to and celebrate making a difference in someone’s life.

Where can you make a difference?

“The campaign to make poverty history-a central moral challenge of our age-cannot remain a task for the few, it must become a calling for the many. On this International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, I urge everyone to join this struggle. Together, we can make real and sufficient progress towards the end of poverty.”

United Nations Ex-Secretary-General,  Kofi Annan
Excerpts taken from his message to be delivered on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty,
17 October 2006