"I'm Down for Something Positive!"

[—Joie Lee's character in Do the Right Thing]

Last night I met with some women from the Unitarian Congregation. Our conversation drifted in the direction of the power of writing down our intentions to make them real. A touchstone for the discussion was the book Write it Down, Make it Happen, which a few of us had read.

The greatest events in my life have happened after I wrote about them: making lists, elaborating wishes, envisioning. I described my husband and carried the little piece of paper about him in my wallet for months before meeting him. I wrote about the house and community I live in for two years before we moved here. Acknowledging that I had no power to direct the specifics of the birth process, I wrote my desire to birth my daughter in the water, and did.

Each year I make a list of intentions for various areas of my life and post it where I can see it. I carry a second list of tendencies I'd like to have enter my life, and on New Year's Day, burn a list of attitudes (with fire, not onto a CD!) that I'd like to release.

This year's list has a title, "Deep Play in a Sustainable World." A friend suggested heading the list with the phrase, "Effortlessly, these things come to pass," so I added that, too. Toward the bottom of the list the scope expands from my own life to that of family, friends, community and world. The last item on my 2005 list reads, "We feel part of a community and world that is becoming peaceful, sustainable and abundant, a world that is caring for its refugees (of war, of disaster, of the body)."

When we do group envisioning, if we do it on a large enough scale, I believe there is nothing we can't do to turn things around for our planet.

I love to meet people who support this simple idea.

So I was thrilled to talk to LifeCoach Deborah Ager last week. I'm going to spend the summer doing one phone session a month with her, to focus on my writing aspirations, and my need to make some money, and the places where these might intersect. At Ager's website you can sign up for her coaching e-zine, which is full of great tips, and her poetry blog is fun to read. A post-script on the e-zine I got from her this morning said, "Don't keep me a secret!" Check her out, if you haven't! Then write for a while about why you did.