I have a dream, too…
Dreaming is creating. We are all creators. By dreaming, we create. Nelson Mandela said: ‘A winner is a dreamer that never gives up’. To me, this is true. I believe in creating through dreaming. Yet, dreaming is often considered as something vague, happening at night, coming from the unconscious… Certainly in our western society, we are not used to seeing it differently. Imagine if we would all start dreaming consciously…
Martin Luther King taught us as well: ‘I have a dream!’. And in a time, in which nobody could imagine that his dream could be a possibility to begin with, he dared to be courageous and to share his dream with a big audience, thus manifesting it.
I have a dream, too. I dream, that all people in the world, remember how to live a connected life: connected to others, connected to nature and connected to themselves. After 7 years of social entrepreneurship, my travels with indigenous peoples and writing a book (and almost 53 years of experience as an eternal student of life ;-)), I am convinced this is the quickest way to a healthy world. Healthy for humanity and our planet, for the Wellbeing of All Life. In all recent events that I joined, I saw this vision confirmed, inspired from different angles.
Volkert Engelsman, founder and CEO of Eosta (organic fruits and vegetables) obviously shares this vision and wove Otto Scharmer’s wisdom, about the three divides in the world, smoothly in his inspirational talk, during the Sustainable Students Event I attended. One of the events, by the way, that really gave me energy and hope. So cool to see this young generation, integrating the scientist and activist in one person, themSelves, thus taking action towards Wellbeing for All Life. This future generation seems to understand (unconsciously, maybe?), that bridging the three divides starts with themSelves, connecting to their own Self, their own heart.
Which is a challenge in itself, to live a wholehearted life, in our society today. Or in Scharmers’ words: to collectively shift from an egocentric to an ecocentric way of living. There are a lot of temptations, not in the least driven by technology, that invite us to do the opposite: to live disconnected from our hearts. Richard Louv, writer of ‘Last child in the woods’ confirmed that, at the inspiration afternoon of ‘Buitenschool’ (outdoor school). He spoke about the effect of the smartphone, that only exists these last 15 years, imagine!! And how many research nowadays, scientifically, really proves the positive effect of being out in nature. Not only on children, of course, but on everybody. ‘Buitenschool’ encourages this by inviting schools to teach children outside in nature, at least one day a week.
I also re-found a lot of inspirational stuff in my campervan, when it recently took us for a holiday. Next to Project Drawdown (really helpful to go through every now and then to feel the WHY of all the current societal discussions and the necessity to act), I found this paper of professor Rob van Tulder (Erasmus University): ‘Education of the Heart’. I think it has been staying in my campervan for a while and, apparently, now was the time to read it. I did so in one go: amazing stuff!! And again, he referred to one of my ‘friends’ with the same vision: Brené Brown. Her 10 guideposts to wholehearted living are such an inspiration to live a connected life.
When you read these 10 things to cultivate and 10 to let go of, they might look simple, as words. From personal experience, I know that some of these things are really challenging to truly cultivate and integrate into your life. Or to truly let go of, may even be more challenging. Even if it is only one in the list of ‘letting go’s’, it can be a huge blocker in living a whole-hearted life.
Indigenous peoples naturally live a wholehearted life, the natural way of being human, if you ask me. At the launch of Treesistance, an organisation that protects the Amazon and other tropical forest in the world, I saw this, when watching Chief Dadá leading us into a beautiful ceremony, to connect us with ourselves, each other and the forest. So much love, is what I always feel when around indigenous people. Whereas they have all the reason in the world to get disconnected to their hearts, they don’t. They know it is the only way.
We can’t change the world if we don’t change our own world. It will always start with self, or better, Self: being the best version of ourSelves. I think the best way to serve our future generations, is to be the best ancestors we can. This is about doing and being, at the same time. Action from a whole heart. Tri Hita Karana, this is called in Bali, where they matched the SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goals) with the three divides of our current society.
Imagine if we would all follow Brown’s guideposts, to live a wholehearted life in our own small world…and then would contribute to the big world, bridging the divides, by co-creating, together with the future generations, towards a happy and healthy big world, for the Wellbeing of All life…
That is my dream. A winner is a dreamer that never gives up….
What is your dream?
