Transitions

I was just reading over my first blog here… all about my lofty dream.  I still have that dream, but some of the specifics have changed a bit.  I said in that entry that I wanted to run my own “Art 4 Justice” company and website.  That part has evolved into something I’m now calling Voice Is Power (VIP).  The idea is to start a non-profit organization called the Voice Is Power Foundation, which will raise money through educational programs, performances, and donations to bring more peace and justice into the world.  The Foundation will give 100% of its profit to organizations and projects that help bring people out of poverty and into lives of dignity and authentic power.  One idea of an organization I’d like to put some money into is Kiva (www.kiva.org), which changes people’s lives and helps to bring them out of poverty by giving micro-loans.

The main educational course, Voice Is Power, will be a holistic course for writing, singing, and speaking out, designed to teach people to recognize the power of their own voices, how to use their voices for healing, empowerment, justice, and peace, and to find where their passions and the world’s needs connect.  I’m working on writing the curriculum for this course now.

Right now, I’m in a transitional period in my life – looking for a job in order to save some money to move to the mainland with Susan, still working for Kids Talk Story (a creative writing program) part of the time, working on my own curriculum ideas when possible… dreaming and planning for the future.  I suppose one could argue that life itself is a bunch of transitions, because things are always changing.  But right now, I have that very strong feeling of being unsettled that usually comes with big transitions – of being simultaneously excited and scared of what will come next.

 

Finding My Own North Star

Martha Beck

Finding Your Own North Star

I began this blog as I was just finishing a life-changing book.  It is Martha Beck’s Finding Your Own North Star:  Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to put some real time and energy into creating the life they truly want.  It is a well-written, personable, and funny book that guides you on a path towards realizing your dreams with the right balance of dreaming and good ol’ hard work.

In the book, Martha talks about 4 main parts, or “squares,” to making your dreams come true.  They are:

1. Death & Rebirth
2. Dreaming & Scheming
3. The Hero’s Saga
4. The Promised Land

As far as I can tell, I am in “Square 2″ right now.  Square 1 is some kind of departure from your old life.  For me, that came from having a lull of work in the summer months (I’m a creative writing teacher) and having a lot of time on my hands to really think about how I’m living my life and what kinds of changes I’d like to make in it.  With the creation of this blog, I stepped into Square 2 and began to dream. That dream has been posted here for all to see, and now it is time to “scheme,” or make a plan of action for realizing that dream.

One of the first realizations I had in starting to scheme was that there are several dreams within my dream. So, if I want to break that dream into manageable steps (or what Martha calls “turtle steps”), I’ve first got to break down the dream itself into its different parts.  As I looked over my dream more closely, I decided that it centers around the desire to start an “Art 4 Justice” company. Here are the different pieces of that company:

• WEBSITE – I want to create a website that brings together already-existing resources, artists, and organizations that are doing some form of “art for justice.”  This would include reaching out to those people and organizations and building a strong community of artists dedicated to justice in the world.
• EDUCATION – This would involve writing a curriculum and teaching “Art 4 Justice” classes.  It may also include writing a book about it for publication and sales.
• PERFORMANCE – This is the part where I would build a performance group (music, poetry, etc.) dedicated to bringing about justice through performance.

So, I’ve begun to gather resources into I-Web on my MacBook to create a website.  I’ve started putting resources into a folder on my computer also as research for a curriculum and possibly a book.  And my new a capella group and poetry workshops are my first “turtle steps” in the direction of a performance group.  How exciting is this?!? 

Links

For more on Finding Your Own North Star, go to:  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812932188/1n9867a-20

For more on Martha Beck, go to:  http://www.marthabeck.com/