This is what happened in 2017, one story of connecting with future self

Sunrise on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

Harry Pickens is one of those magical people who show up in your life, sometimes only for a moment, but leave gifts behind that often take a long time to unwrap. Harry is brilliant, wise, heart-centered and an incredible musician who has played with some of the great jazz musicians of our time and even played for the Dalai Lama.  At 6’7”, he’s bigger than life in all ways.

I was fortunate enough to be on a visioning call with him on New Year’s Eve and, within an hour, life shifted. The call was like my past tapping me on my shoulder saying, “Remember me?” and my future crooking its finger saying, “Come this way.”

When I got off the phone, I had the thought that I have spent a good deal of my life like someone who reads a diet book and then goes and weighs to see how much weight she lost. I spent years reading about change processes: creativity, positive thinking, mental rehearsal, affirmations, dream tending, intentions and so on and so on. But, there was always a new book available, so I would open it and then another, and another, until I began to wonder why all these magical things weren’t really working.

Oh, life was good and I was learning and growing. But, something was missing. The synchronicities weren’t syncing. Things were a little too hard, rejection was coming a little too often. I didn’t feel like I was in flow.

For some reason, though, several months ago, I decided I needed a “practice.” Not that I haven’t had that thought for years … decades, actually … but, for some reason, this time I decided to actually make gratitude a practice. And, in order to do that, I needed a journal … but not just any journal, I wanted one that was easy and simple, one that would support making gratitude a practice rather a chore.

About this time, synchronicity did sync. An online workshop showed me how to create a specialty journal and within a few weeks, Gratitude Miracles was on amazon.com and I was writing my gratitudes every day and noticing miracles happening. I have done this consistently for 32 weeks. Every day. Me, who has never managed to be consistent regarding any other practice. That in and of itself is a miracle.

I think this is one reason Harry showed up again, offering a visioning session that asked me to think about what I truly wanted to create in 2017. More importantly, he asked us to imagine it being New Year’s Eve in 2017 and, looking backwards, what would we feel pride in saying we had accomplished? Harry called it imagining our future self … imagining already being the person we needed to be to create what we wanted in 2017.

Intention Buddy

When Harry opened the call, he reminded us that when people come together in a common intention, the intention is multiplied. This set up a yearning for an “intention buddy,” someone to share intentions with for the coming year, someone to help with accountability. After going through all of my friends, I thought of two who might be interested in committing to an intention process for the year.

I sent an invitation and a sketch of the idea and process to them and, within minutes, one of them responded that she had just been thinking the same thing and was about to invite me to coffee to talk about it! LOVE synchronicity.

So we’re meeting Wednesday and I’m in a flurry of index cards and possibilities. Heaven! The first step I’ve chosen is to write 12 intentions from the viewpoint of 12/31/2017. Things I want to be able to say I did in 2017, things that would make me proud to say them.

Here they are … the 12 things I’m putting on index cards to place in a prominent place, all twelve visible at once, but focused on one for each month. I will post a progress report at the end of each month as part of my accountability process.

My Twelve Accomplishments for 2017

 In 2017, I …

• honored the Universe that magically connects me with people and events and opens doors     seen and unseen
• deepened my ability to listen to my inner wisdom
• made friends with interesting, dynamic people who believe in me and my gifts
• kept the promises I made to myself even when it involved discomfort
• honored my physical being as well as my spirit and creativity
• honed and enhanced my writing and storytelling skills
• listened and learned life lessons from wise teachers
• poured stories and art of courageous, positive action into the world
• collaborated with powerful, wise people to make peaceful, joyful change in the world
• powerfully and lovingly launched Yellowstone Howling and Mobius Dreamtime into the     world
• attended two major writing conferences and learned from masters
• explored two new worlds and spoke to people in Spanish

** After writing 12 serious things, I realized there was one missing, one I really want to be able to talk about at the end of this year:

• got to spend time on a houseboat on a beautiful lake where I swam, kayaked and had long, wonderful conversations and fun with remarkable friends.

If any of this process speaks to you, please feel free to use it and share it.