Not Just Daydreaming: Visualizing Success

Not Lost.  Just exactly where I’m supposed to be.

On Saturday I spent several hours wandering slowly around town visualizing what I wanted my sustainable life to be like. A guy at the Farmer’s Market noticed this, gave me a funny look, and asked, “Ha, are you lost? You have such a big smile on your face but you look lost at the same time!”

“No, I’m just happy,” was my response. True story.

Beginning with Visualization: Add in every detail of your success.

Morning brings sun rays into the bedroom to gently set off our internal alarm clocks. The smell of the cedar chest at the foot of the bed reminds me of my French great grandmother, and I braid my hair hoping it looks a little like hers did.  I scratch at the single chigger bite on my otherwise uneaten right foot, slip into a teal sun dress, and stumble down the tree-branch-inspired stairs.

The best way I’ve found to wake up is to put off all obligations until the day has been sufficiently celebrated with a cup of tea.  Waiting for the kettle to get hot gives the feet time to shuffle and the mind time to meditate.  Cradling the teacup in my hands like a fragile egg, I watch the steam do Tai Chi through the kitchen air.

Going into the garden is more sacred, more satisfying to me than a lifeless church could ever be.  The sweet basil balloons its umbrella leaves above the soil and fills the air with summer.  Tomato vines climb ever higher on their quest to see if there is an end to the twine ladder I made for them.  I am working together with the insects, the birds, the soil, and the roots, doing more for the trees than just exhaling.  As I stand in the yard baking like a cookie in the sun, a mourning dove bobs its head over the grass, immobilizing me with its cuteness and shy nature.  Despite the heat I feel like this is why I was born.

But what do you do for a living?

The afternoon brings a time for reaching out beyond the splendor and confines of Local, with conference calls to colleagues working in Sri Lanka, Denmark, and Colombia.  We have demolished the limited social contact allowed by exclusively face-to-face interactions, soaring to something called global unification.  By redifining “neighbor”, together we can visualize global problems and act locally to solve them.  We are eliminating hunger, war and pollution like a game of Wompin’ Wombats at Chuck-E-Cheese, bopping problems on their heads with the power of empowerment.  I often feel as though I’m at a potluck, when everyone brings tools to the table unique to their own experiences. “Please pass the fundraising manual,” “Anyone for seconds on the tasty web design ideas?” “For dessert, here’s our report on the number of villages using solar lanterns.” “Feel free to take home the leftover compost toilet designs.”

This is my future, but in many ways this is my present, as every moment is filled with thoughts of hope and true experiences that could just as easily have happened on our homestead.  Given half a chance, they will happen.