a page from my journal…

I’m sitting here on the balcony of my condo in Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador looking out at this little town with its haphazardly built buildings sprawling up the lush, green tree filled hills. On my left is the wide, brown Chone river emptying its inland energy into the Pacific, and on my right is the vast Pacific Ocean where sunsets become a daily spiritual experience for me. I can’t believe I am here.

In the beginning I could not have identified this as my dream; but over time, getting to know what the important parts of myself are, what lifestyle desires truly matter to me, what obstacles and fears I have to address, and then setting intention to move toward living as my best self, I am living my dream.

What is your dream?

How are you moving toward it? How are you living it?

This is the crazy thing about dreams…they become reality with intention and action. They move from the ethereal dream space in the head and become a palpable heartbeat through physical movements of the hands, the feet, and the mouth.

That heartbeat grows stronger. It gets louder as the actions of the body bring more nutrients to feed it. After a while it isn’t only a heartbeat, but form takes shape. For me that form looked like me operating in a specific place, doing a specific thing.

“Operating in a specific place doing a specific thing” is a small sentence. The bigger implication of course was how to change the place I was in and how to change what I was doing.

I realized before I could answer the “how” questions, the “what” questions needed to be asked. What am I feeling that is prompting my dream? What makes this feeling stronger or weaker in my life? What does it mean for me, and those I love, if I don’t do anything different…what does it mean if I do? What do I need to let go of to make my dream happen…what do I need to hold onto?

Asking the “what” questions helped me figure myself out. This is important because no matter what I want to do or where I want to do it, I am always “here” now. The answer to my “whats” provided clarity for me to move toward where I wanted to be.

Clarity then creates an inner energy to take on the next three questions:

1. Where do I need to be spending my time?
2. What new actions do I need to be doing for that heartbeat to begin to take form?
3. Who do I need to be talking too to help make my dream a reality?

You are a brilliant being who has every right to live in your fullness. What is your dream? How do the answers to your “what” questions shape the pursuit of your dream? Answer these questions…and then I dare you to give that dream a heartbeat.