Well, I've loved a good soup and salad for quite some time now, so I think I'll do just fine.
Someone else asked me what my dreams are for this next decade. A great and important question. I answered along the lines of continuing to become who I truly am, saying "yes" to what makes me happy and not to other people's expectations for me.
I realized how free I became when I made that choice for the first time--the choice to say "yes" to my happiness. I became a teacher. Making that choice opened me up for so much goodness that followed. And most of that goodness came in the form of meeting really wonderful people, some of whom became dear mentors in my life.
I do believe that each person has a central message in her life that she tries to proclaim; it probably centers around one's vocation. Some people's message might be "Love," or "Evolution," or "Spirit." I believe mine has to do with mentoring. I adamantly believe that we are not meant to walk our journeys without the wisdom of those who have journeyed farther and longer than we have. We actually do ourselves a disservice when we discredit those voices; their voices might not coincide with ours, but there is a definite wisdom that comes with living over time.
Part (or more accurately, a great part) of what made my 20's so beautiful was the cultivation of those mentoring relationships in my life. These were the people who helped me find the voice inside myself that allowed me to say "yes" to my happiness. How couldn't I be grateful? They taught (and continue to teach) me about the interconnectedness of all. They teach me about these lines from Gregory Norbet that we sang during Liturgy today:
Healing presence of God's Spirit,
within all humanity, teach us to live compassion freely,
to thirst for truth's integrity.
After listening to these words, I realized that another dream of mine would be to practice living this way--to be a healing presence through shared humanity, to live compassion freely, to thirst for truth's integrity. Mentors are my models for this way of living.
I guess I really do have quite a few dreams for the next decade, which is a great thing. One of them involves sitting down at a quiet restaurant with a dear mentor and ordering some soup and salad.
Let us walk in the holy presence.
a frozen, yet beautiful lake
