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Last fall, a friend of mine sent me a link to a video on YouTube.
It took me a while to get around to watching it, but when I did,
it had a powerful impact on me.
Here’s the video:

There’s a whole series of these videos on YouTube, and as I was
watching them, I got goose bumps on top of goose bumps. It touched me
deeply to see these musicians connecting from all over the world. I truly
believe that music has the power to connect us and help us make the changes
we want to make, to make the world a better place. (BTW, if you want to support
the beautiful work of Playing for Change, they are coming out with a CD and
DVD of what they’ve done so far. You can also stay up to date by going to
playingforchange.com.

I see the current economic state of affairs as a great equalizer, and while it
has created a lot of fear and pain for many of us, it’s also a huge opportunity
for us to reach out and connect with the world in a way that isn’t as likely
when we’re living in the status quo. After 9/11 here in New York City, the
magnitude of this event drew people together in new ways. I think of the
world economic crisis as that sort of opportunity — and a chance to hopefully
make it stick. It got me thinking about the kind of world I dream of:

I dream a world where we create peace, using music as a vehicle of connection
across cultures, economies, geographies and religions. I dream a world where
we all have enough because we all share. I dream a world where all people’s
gifts are honored and appreciated and used for the greater good. I dream a
world in harmony with creation. I dream a world that trusts the love that created it.

What kind of world do you dream of? And what can we do today to bring it a little
bit closer?

A friend of mine recently recommended  (well, commanded is more the word) that I watch a video of Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat Pray Love) on Ted. We were talking about the promptings we had been receiving to write and my friend stopped in mid-conversation and said, “You have to watch this video! Watch it then tell me what you think!” So I did. And just so we’re all on the same wavelength about what this video is about, here it is:  (Please note that it’s about a 20-minute talk, but well worth your time and energy.)

Now the interesting thing here is that as a coach and creative person, I have been really focused on creating abundance in my own life and in the lives of others. Not just material abundance, but abundance of joy, freedom of expression, inspiration, service, love, connection to Source — all that good stuff. But what I have missed, it seems, is that unless and until I negotiate with that Source of Inspiration when it comes and find a way to stay tapped into it on a regular basis, I am going to miss opportunities for it to express through me.

This is the sort of idea that makes many very talented people become addicts, I know, or give up on doing what they love because it can seem just too damn hard to let creativity flow through you when you’re worried about all the other things you feel are important to do in this life.  One idea that really resonated with me in Ms. Gilbert’s talk was this idea of no longer feeling at the mercy of my creative urges, but in fact, working with them in a way that allows me to have a little more say-so in how and when I act on them.

One of the examples that is given in the video is of Tom Waits driving down the freeway and hearing this beautifully tantalizing melody and feeling that angst that accompanies inspiration for many of us, especially since he was driving down the freeway and couldn’t exactly stop and write a song! Has anything like that ever happened to you? Have you ever been struck by an idea right at the most impossibly inconvenient time? Sometimes I think that the Universe is just torturing me when this happens. But what Tom did that changed his creative process was to look up and negotiate with his Muse and ask it to come back at a more convenient time.

I love this. It means that instead of feeling like I better hurry or else I’ll miss the idea that’s thundering around in my brain, I get to be creative on my own terms.  I don’t happen to believe that creativity is the gift of an elite few. I think creativity shows up when we allow it to. When we make space for it in our lives. When we love it enough to ask it to come back at a more convenient time and then keep the appointment.

“A long,  long time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile.” ~~ Don McLean, American Pie

There is nothing like music for taking us back to another time and another place. The music could be music we grew up with, or music from an entirely different era, but it evokes feelings that can harken back to places other than where we are now.  Sometimes it can be a wonderful trip down memory lane and other times it can mean remembered pain that we would just as soon not feel — or maybe we would.

Today I was reminded of an old dream I had that was formed out of a meditation. The dream had been to create a Concert for World Healing. In my dream, the concert was set in Geneva Switzerland. The idea of the concert was to bring indigenous healers together from all around the world, plus musicians and sound healers, and to create a celebration of the Earth and its people. The focus would be to provide understanding and appreciation of indigenous traditions and to share ideas and information that would help us deal with the environmental and social challenges we face.

I first had this vision in 1996.  I really didn’t know what to make of it at the time. But it wouldn’t go away. Finally in 2000, I was at a place in my life where I wasn’t sure what was next for me.  It came to me that I should pursue this vision. So I did my best to begin to find people of like mind to help me figure out what the next steps were. I wrote letters. I talked to friends. I looked for others who were putting on similar events. In October 2001 (yes, shortly after 9/11) I even went to Geneva and connected with some Sufi friends there to discuss the likelihood of this event being held in Geneva, as it was in my dream. I think they thought I was just a crazy American (they said so) and they tried to encourage me to think of this as an inner project, rather than an outer one. They pointed out that similar things were happening already and maybe I should just rethink this.

So I did. And I let it go. And I contented myself with the notion that maybe I was a crazy American after all. Maybe I was chasing rainbows and I had just picked up on somebody else’s vision. All of which may or may not be true.

But one thing I have learned in the intervening years is that going with one’s gut is never wasted. I may never understand exactly why I had that vision and why I felt so compelled to find a way to bring it into being, only to have it not happen — at least for me — but it did help me to put myself out there in ways I would never have imagined. It did keep me on the trail of who I really want to be and what my life purpose is. And I know it led me to this place of being a spiritual life coach and learning to nurture my creative side in a whole new way. Even the hurt of somehow not being able to birth my vision has led me to look around and to champion others who are doing similar things.

Interestingly, I have a friend who has been creating an Earth Day event for the last few years (check out information on this year’s event here) and his events, although on a smaller scale, are very much in the spirit of my original vision.  I’ve been involved from the first year and it’s been very rewarding, assisting my friend and also performing.

But sometimes I still get caught in thinking of myself as a failure. I still hear that old music that makes me cry and remember things that really aren’t true about me, that are lesser visions of myself.  While I’ve learned it’s important to let out those old feelings when they show up, I’ve also learned that feelings are not facts. They exist in the moment and they can change in an instant. I get to choose which songs I listen to and what they say about my experience.

If following my inner guidance as far as I can go seems to lead to a dead end, does this mean that I can’t trust my inner guidance? No. It just means I haven’t got the whole picture. It means that there’s more for me to see and be before I’m ready to realize my vision.

So let’s try this on together, shall we? Let’s agree that we can absolutely trust the music of our inner guidance. We will know by how it feels if it is leading us in life-affirming or life-denying directions. It may not always lead us to the vision we originally had, but it will always lead to a larger place than we now stand.

I hold it true, whate’er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

~~Alfred Lord Tennyson