Occupying My Dream

I am starting to live my dream. Literally.

Last week I was grateful to be at the debut screening of the film Occupy Love here in Baltimore. Several words and phrases jumped off the screen as they resonated deeply with visions, images and ideas that have been stirring within me for years - new ways of expressing and inviting us to that which is being born in the world at this time of great chaos and great potential.

“Imagine non-monetary abundance” was the first one I wrote down. It was on a cardboard sign someone was carrying in the crowd of people at an Occupy event. What a perfect phrase to capture what I am super passionate about... and what is also at the core of the non-profit I started, Community Supported Wellness. (More on that in a bit.)

I am humbled and inspired by the ways I've been experiencing non-monetary abundance in my life recently. After getting clear that a change of my living location is important to pursue in the near future, a more-than-I-could-ask-or-imagine place showed up within 5 minutes of sending an email to friends asking for leads and connections. Then, soon after I had been entertaining fears about finding enough people and not having the funds to hire others, several friends volunteered out of the blue to help me move. Several “coincidences” nudged me to show up at the Occupy Love screening despite there being a super long list of things to get done at home... and within minutes of being there, I bumped into an acquaintance who I didn't know has non-profit consulting experience and offered to join my advisory board before I could even get the words out of my mouth to ask! And the love, connection, community, resources and opportunities that flowed from the sharing and discussion time after the film.

These are a few of the cornucopia opening up in recent weeks. I could go on and on.

And, I'm no one special. I didn't do anything to deserve these gifts any more than someone else. I've spent more hours, days, weeks and months of my life stuck in fearful scarcity-based thinking that blocked me from believing I could receive so much abundance without it being attached to or somehow made possible by a flow of money.

At the same time, I recognize that it's not totally random either. I have been doing the inner work to let go of that fear, and the self-limiting beliefs and societal conditioning that one needs to have lots of money to be happy or experience abundance. Abundance is actually what we are at our core. But more on that another time...

As Community Supported Wellness has been slowly evolving over recent years, I occasionally thought that perhaps the simple living-out of the dream and vision - of connection to ourselves, each other and the Earth in ways that wake us up to the “non-monetary abundance” in and around us to the point that “poverty” is no longer a useful term - that imagining and even living that day to day is perhaps more powerful than developing programs and chasing grant money to do them.

Perhaps there's a new way emerging. A way of BEing that which we desire... of presence-ing what appears to be missing. I've been moving in that direction and continue to experience more and more examples that it is a powerful avenue to true transformation and true abundance.

What if we imagined what non-monetary abundance looks like—in our own hearts, minds, families and communities? What if we tapped into our abundant potential and infinite creativity and began to take steps to live it? What if we occupied our deepest dreams?

It's already happening all over the globe. Go see Occupy Love. Catch the vision....especially the unique one that is within you.

And stay tuned for what continues to evolve from mine as I occupy my dream.

Please join me in occupying yours. I'd love to hear what it is and what you notice. And remember... it IS possible.

 The survival and thriving of our species depends on it.

What if.....?

The current gridlock in Congress about healthcare reform is yet another reminder that our system does not have the public's true health and wellness interests at the center. Is it really a healthcare system? Or a wealthcare system for insurance companies? What kind of reform will our current system need to ensure that everyone has access to quality, affordable healthcare? Is it possible? I certainly don't know the answers, and I'm not sure anyone does.

However, I am dreaming of an alternative system. What if we had community-based wellness centers that provided direct acess to education and prevention of chronic disease? What if such a center would value relationship over transaction? What if those centers were accessible to everyone, regardless of income? What if the services were MOST accessible to those who were the sickest, who needed the services most? What if the focus was on removing the root causes of symptoms, and helping the body heal naturally, with the smallest possible intervention? What if we all pitched in according to our income and ability to pay...for the sake of the health of the whole community? What if... ? What would you like to see? Will you dream with me? ... and help make it a reality?

In the words of my teacher, acupuncturist, and friend, Melora Scanlon, this is "a dream that wants to be dreamt through us."