Put your whole life into life

I receive a great deal of guidance through dreams. Sometimes, lately, I sense that this guidance is for all of us. 

I dreamed of a mall with many floors with all kinds of diversions and distractions: Rides, incredible restaurants, they even had a wave pool, undulating and rolling in the basement. There was opulent shopping, and performers juggling live animals and a fire-breather. There were restaurants with moody atmosphere – elaborately tempting food and drink – one particular glow-in-the-dark frozen drink tempted me for a moment. But I had to press on, I kept moving through.

I must find the door, I kept telling people. I am looking for the way out.

In the dream, I was driven by a vision: The image of the rain forest tumbling; the trees being sawed into circles and examined – people were counting the rings and sighing. “There isn’t much time,” a woman said to the man who crouched with her beside the fallen trees.

My heart was breaking.

I woke with a question and a slew of images: What if it were true that if you don’t do the one thing you were meant to do, no one else will do it? What if the one thing you were meant to do – even if it seems simple or trivial or not that important – was the link in a chain of activity upon which the entire fabric of the universe depends?

This morning, I found this masterpiece on Bindu Wiles‘s website:

Here’s the message that arose from this dream:

If you don’t. . .

Paint the portrait

Shoot the movie

Have the baby

Leave the marriage

Raise organic chickens

Fight the fire

Solve the puzzle

Heal your body

Walk the Camino

Write the letter

Give her a call

Attend the audition

Clean up the oil spill

Train for the marathon

Open the E-store

Give him another chance to explain

Make the donation

Sing

Recycle your plastic

Ride your bicycle to work

Write the love poem

Earn the diploma

Make the journey

Say that you’re sorry

Study that thing you’re so curious about

Teach the children

Purchase the painting

Invest in what you believe in

Listen to the elderly

Hold the babies

…. who will?

What if the thing that your soul is pushing and urging and aching for you to do, is the one thing that’s needed to shift the world toward balance, toward light? What if THAT’S why you’re being guided, so strongly, to do it?

What if the fate of the entire world rests in you?

It does – it does – it does . . .

Who else is going to do it – your thing, your part, your dream? Who else is going to love it into being the way that you would, if you only would?

Oh, help!

Add your voice, your talent, your idea, your words, your color, your music, your dance to the collective There’s so much power there – in the coming together of energy, interest, activity, intention and prayer.

Your energetic ‘vote’ counts; your physical action counts; your willingness to get up and try again counts most of all.

Inspire each other

Your muses, your guides, your angels are constantly guiding you to do or not do the things that will keep you on your chosen path; the things that will lead you to the moment when you place your piece into place in the puzzle of life.

You are not meant to be a watcher . . . you were born to be a doer.

You are not meant to let other people do the living for you: to dance with the stars, explore dessert islands, diagnose illnesses, solve crimes, fall into and out of love while you sit on the couch and eat take out pizza.

If you are touched by what is going on in the Gulf, in the Middle East, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Africa – and do nothing about it, you are ignoring guidance. That news show you caught as you walked in after work, that headline on the newspaper, that feeling in your gut when you read it, when you heard about it – that was guidance.

This dream was for me, too.

When I watch PBS specials about the loss of the rain forests, the oceans, the ice caps, I get so sad tears fill my eyes. Do I do anything? Not yet. But after this dream, I understand that I must.

Rilke said, “What we call fate does not come into us from the outside, but emerges from us.”

You are not meant to be fat and bored and desperate . . .

to molder in a dead and empty relationship

to live in a town that you hate

to continue to do a mind-numbing, soul-killing job just because you are afraid that you don’t have what it takes to do anything else.

You are meant to shine. And you know it.

I know you’re afraid. But doing one little thing – one small step – at a time can make all the difference. Imagine if you wanted to walk ten miles but you only had a minute each day. A few small steps each day bring you closer. In a week, you’re closer stil..

The things we’re guided to do are this simple.

A switch of diet, a change in routine. Maybe it’s taking a walk around the block each morning or switching your breakfast of choice from a donut to a piece of fruit. Even if we’re guided to build a skyscraper, that building will be made one brick, one screw, one sheet of glass at a time.

Begin.

You already know what your one thing is. You know because you’ve been guided – are being guided- constantly by the small, still voice within that urges: Get up. Show up. Try.

Do your one thing. It’s okay to be afraid. The fear will go away when you show up. You will take the first step and the Universe will take the next one. I promise.

Get up. Show up. Begin again.

If not you, who? If not now, when?

You can save the world.

You.

YOU are the one you are waiting for – YOU are the savior – you. Do the work. Bt the one you are called to be: Be the lover, the doctor, the mother, the lawyer, the activist, the politician, the chef, the fitness instructor, the inventor, the peacemaker, the university professor, the publisher, the artist, the street vendor, the language arts teacher, the college student, the dancer, the author, the Jurist, the General, the screenwriter, the hero. YOU.

Don’t let you down.

It matters that you live. The universe is a living, breathing organism – always seeking balance. By following guidance and doing your work, one step – one brick – at a time, you will save the world.

This morning my dream showed me, God showed me, “The fate of the entire world rests with you. And you know it. Eat the right thing. Do the right thing. Deal with your issues. Live so that all may live.”

{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }

Nicola

I can’t believe I’m reading this post now! Well, of course, I can believe it! What you write confirms very much my experiences of late. You have just put it so succinctly. I don’t tend to download in dreams but I get downloads in other ways. Often via Google! And quite often in movies – it’s amazing how many “messages” can be in scripts.

I’m so glad to have found your blog – it was no coincidence!

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Amy

Nicola – I love that you get messages from movies! My daughter and I literally decode them together. She’s a film student and budding screenwriter; I’m a lifelong film lover and story teller. We sit over coffee in diners and take them apart together – one of our great joys. yes, many messages there. But in Google? How delightful! And yet, of course. Makes so much sense. Thank you for visiting my blog! Glad to meet you.

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Adam A

You are still a great Mother’s Helper! Thank you so much for this beautifully inspirational message. It speaks to everything in my life right now. Thank you so much for being a great writer and artist and alchemist and mother and friend and hero. Your words are lifting the veil for me now. Thank you Amy!
Love
Adam

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Amy

Adam – My dear friend. My heart literally leapt when I saw your name, your note. So glad you are in my life.

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Joyce Cherrier

I love this Amy, so inspiring. It causes me think deeply about the things I allow to hold me back and usually it’s my own fears. I needed to read this today & you’re right, it’s no accident I read this on this particular day! :)

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Amy

Joyce – No accident, no. I’ve given up believing in coincidence. And it’s no accident that we’ve met recently either. I’m finding myself connected, through Twitter, to so many powerful, positive people lately. So glad you’re one of them!

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Lisa MB

Amy, this is exquisite. Thank you for sharing the dream. I am so glad @juliedaley shared this on Twitter.

It reminded me of a poem that I love by Andrea Gibson – Say Yes. I am saying YES to my dreams. My call. The thing(s) only I can do.

I am sharing a link to the poem if you are interested:
http://youtu.be/hee7T8MbHGs

Much love & gratitude.

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Amy

Lisa – Of course I’m interested! Thank you for sharing the poem – SO POWERFUL! Means the world! This is how we will do this thing – our thing – whatever it is: We will do it through sharing and caring enough to speak and share. (Note to others: This poem is a video of the poet speaking it passionately. Don’t miss it!)

Julie – :)

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Julie

oh, Amy …. there you go again, making sense!

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Wren

wow, that was inspiring!

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Square-Peg Karen

Needed this! Thank you thank you!!

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Alice Langholt

Amy, your words always touch my heart and resonate deeply with me. Just when I am taking the risk of putting it all out there and into my next steps no matter what people think, I get the little nudge and encouragement I need to support me in your beautifully woven words…yet again. You’re magical. I love you.

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Amy

Alice – YOU are magical!
Karen and Wren – thank you!

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Annie T

Amy – thank you! I have your writings in a Story, Spirit, Seed folder in my email…. I haven’t had the chance to read many of them this year with my Dad in hospital and then passing away recently – plus a gazillion other things….. And today? Yes, I clicked to read you before ‘filing you’ for later! And the most perfect message to support the ever growing feelings within me of which you write (so eloquently).
Recently I had a ‘moment’ where I thought I would grieve and rant and ‘suffer’ – but instead this great ‘YESSSS!!!!’ grew from deep within and I felt like a lion roaring it and a Phoenix rising from the ashes….. For why I don’t yet know, (although maybe, as you say, I do!!) but reading your words today is magical!
Thank you!

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Amy

Annie. I’m so sorry for your loss. I’ve been going through similar ups and downs with my own parents.Isn’t it extraordinary the way that we find these things just when we need them? The dream – and then the video I included with this post – as well as the spoken word poem left in the first or second comment arrived in that kind of divine timing for me.

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Erin

I fancy myself a writer and have lofty notions of someday writing a book. Then I come here and read your blog and cry…because I feel I will never write as well. I am a doer…but I am stifled and scared and immobile sometimes. Yet I do a lot and sometimes feel overwhelmed. Too many good causes. Too many wonderful people out there. Too many insightful and inspiring blogs to read. Not enough time. My kids are little, days are flying by. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, but I do know I want to do special, amazing, important, & incredible things. I want to save the planet. I want to write a book.

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Amy

Erin – I used to feel the same way – so small – a drop in this vast sea of humanity, all trying to be heard. But I realized something – I mean down to my toes: There is only one me. No one else sees the world quite the way that I do. No one else cares about exactly the same configuration of things that I care about. My little piece of the puzzle, though it feels, at times, infinitesimal, is vitally important to the whole. And so is yours.

Yes, there ARE so many wonderful, beautiful people out there and so many of them can write! And that has nothing to do with you. To make a difference, begin where you are. The kids will grow and you’ll have more time. You will feel, more and more, guided toward your “one thing” – your special puzzle piece – and you will express it, as only you can. And you will write a book. I see that for you. You know why? Because you want to – and if you continue to want to, it will manifest.

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wholly jeanne

well, first off, i meant to leave a comment the other day when i read this lovely post the first time, but then i got distracted doing things that nobody else would do . . . which is usually (and it was intended here) as a complaint but then you kinda turned my head around on its axis and gave me a different perspective. thank you for that.

secondly, does your mr. sandman perhaps have a brother?

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Amy

Ha! My sand-person has a host of relatives. Just ask!

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Terri Fischer

thank you thank you thank you

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Amy

You are so very welcome. Thank YOU for stopping by – and leaving a comment!

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Lynn Fishman RN

Hi Amy,

I wanted to leave a short note to say that I was very touched by your words. I think that you speak for a lot of people who are feeling the same way.

Words do count. Let us join together as like minded individuals who are committed to making the world a better place.

As it turns out, yesterday I found this video and I am sending you the link. The singer wrote the lyrics before the oil spill- a poignant premonition of what was going to happen to the wild life. Take a look if you feel inclined.

http://fragileday.com/index.html

Best regards,

Lynn Fishman

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Amy

Lynn – Thanks so much for the song!

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