Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Incubating

I recently read that the secret of success was being able to make what you are doing interesting to other people. The key to this is to be personally interested and enthusiastic enough about your own doings and this is what others will find interesting, Great, I thought. I’m doomed. When all is said and done, my life has not been particularly interesting and more than likely only those who love me and are personally involved with me would find it so. Still, I did realize one thing about me that people seem to find interesting. Fortunately for me, this is the arena in which my dreams of success lie.

The other day on a walk I spotted a rope swing with a wooden seat hanging from a large old maple tree in the front yard of a home on North Broadway. We don’t see this kind of homemade swing all that often anymore and the sight of it filled me with nostalgia. A favorite activity as a child was swinging. Each summer my two grandfathers would install a big rope swing somewhere on their property for the grandchildren, hanging them from as high a branch as it was possible- the higher the better of course for the long, deep swoops and lofty updrafts. I was never happier than when I could swing for hours, soaking in the summer sunshine and fresh country air, my mind and spirit suspended somewhere above the trees, in the clouds, in the land of dreams. I feel sorry for many children today who rarely have this kind of solitude and undisturbed time to incubate their thoughts and ideas, to repose with the creative angels in the land of new births. This is where I developed a deep and satisfying relationship with myself, with my own thoughts, and ultimately with God.

When I was young, I thought I would be an actress or a dancer, a writer and producer of important plays and programs, or of a great novel like Gone With the Wind. I dreamed of being a scholar and teacher, or perhaps a preacher, someone who would inspire fertile young minds with a love for learning, for reading and writing and to following God. And then there was the constant urging of close friends who saw my future in social work and psychology, counselor to them all that I was. It all sounded good and some of it I did pursue for a time but I became sidetracked and never achieved any level of professionalism nor have I viewed myself as particularly successful.

I’m at a crossroads in my life again, seeking this success somewhere, somehow, chasing what has seemed like an elusive life’s purpose. My latest endeavor is to participate in an organization called Ladies Who Launch. I’ll be attending a session they’ve entitled an incubator, along with other searching women like myself. We will share our dreams, our ideas, our needs. From here we will hopefully “launch.” I’ve toyed with the idea that I would make a good leader for one of these groups. I’ve been preparing to launch for years. In this vein of thought this morning, I considered the idea of how I would go about effectively coaching another person on how to launch and the thought came to me to “make love to your own thoughts. All births begin with such a union.” Let’s face it, if we’re not in love with what’s inside our own hearts and minds, what have we really got to give to others. I like that. Birthing new ideas, this is what I want to do, being a mid-wife of sorts, encouraging and inspiring in a world that is desperately in need of both. Daydreams, night dreams, it’s all the same. God speaks us into being and we learn to do the same, speaking some wonderful thing into being that wasn’t there before we came. I’m excited about this. I’ll keep you abreast of how it goes.