Response-Ability Our Dreams

What and How?

   Chris and I are traveling from Arizona to British Columbia in a few weeks.  We are going by car and taking our time along the western coast.  Chris has created an itinerary that includes daily driving time, overnight stops and special sights.  We have a desire to see all of this country and we have the ability to respond to that desire.

   Many of us have had dreams that we never really reached for because we just couldn’t see how they could come true.  We are such a task oriented society that we want to be able to see the whole road, from the first idea that struck us all the way to its final outcome; manifesting our dream.  We want road maps and time lines and motels along the way.  Launching our dream can be sort of like driving across country without a map or GPS.  If we can’t see the entire path we have a difficult time taking the first step.  Yet we do have the ability to respond to the urge contained in that dream.

   There is a quote from Laurence J Peter, which goes something like this:  “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else.”  That speaks to the most important part of making dreams come true.  You have to know what it is.  You have to be able to pin down your final destination.  For instance, I want to be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey about one of my books.  Do you suppose I have any idea how to make that happen?  Not so much, but its clear the first step is writing the book and getting it published.  The next step is calling attention to it.  That could be steps three through umpty-hundred.

   The point is, each step you take reveals the next step.  You see, we are not responsible for the “how,” we are only responsible for the “what.”  When you nail down your “what” and begin taking steps in that direction you might get a great surprise.  The “what” just might morph and change into something else; something so great you never would have dared to dream it in the beginning.  As you are guided in the steps to take, you may also be guided to a higher path and that higher path is guaranteed to give you greater joy.  That always happens when you choose your “what” and trust to Spirit to guide your steps.  You’ve got the ability to respond to your dreams.  Let’s get walking!

Response-Ability Our Elders

Our Elders

Chris and I have a delightful habit on mornings when the weather is good, which it is most of the time.  We take our first cup of coffee out on the back patio and sit surrounded by flowers and birds and the amazing Arizona sky.  Most mornings it takes us an hour or more to drink that first cup (thermal mugs) because we tend to slip into a meditative state for a while.  Yesterday was one of those long mornings.  We were still sitting out back, in our jammies and coffee in hand when an elderly gentleman I will call Ron walked in our front door, through the house, and came out to the patio.  We had never seen him before.  We engaged him in conversation.  He knew his name but not much else.
We asked to see his wallet and it had some cards in it.  Two of them were employee ID cards, one from Allied Signal and one from Honeywell.  Another was a 1996 insurance card for a 1996 Cadillac.  Seems he did well in his working years. He said he was somewhere in his 90’s, probably 95, which would be my father’s age if he were still alive.  Dad also worked at Allied Signal and Honeywell at about the same time as Ron.  Bit of a chill from that one.  There was one card in his wallet with a local phone number, which I called while Chris called the police.  The phone number belonged to his sister and the police had a missing persons report on a man fitting Ron’s description.
The two officers who came within minutes were very gentle with Ron and asked his permission to take him home.  They stayed and chatted a few minutes to make sure Ron wasn’t frightened of them, then drove him home.  Turns out Ron lives on the block just behind our house and had wandered away and didn’t know how to get back.  Our front door was probably the only one unlocked in the neighborhood and I’m glad it was.
This got me thinking about our society and its potential direction for the future.  In China, Japan, some European countries and among most indigenous people the elderly are revered and cared for.  Their wisdom is sought, respected and often heeded.  Here, we stuff them away out of sight.  Now some want to take away the pittance of the social safety net called Social Security and Medicare, even though the money for that safety net came out of their own wages for years.  No wonder many societies consider us barbarians.  In the matter of care of our elders, we are.  I pray we learn and grow enough to rise above this.