Craft of Why

I have been thinking about shelter. This is a theme in my life that I do frequently contemplate. I have done presentations on this subject of my heart. It is vast and wide in scope, breadth and vision. Short of getting oneself clothed and fed, shelter is the necessary next step. I was thinking yesterday that maybe one of the best things that I can do in this life is begin to help manifest some of my vision that has helped guide me, lived in my dreams in sleep, learned from study and witnessing and mostly share in some way a view that might be possible. I am most likely in the dwelling in the world of dreamer or vision seeker. However, I believe that what I can see is what is ordinary and simple and not radical or different. It is the world at large that is off track and clouded with a drudgery that seems a, push a stone up a hill kind of thinking of living and breathing. I am certain that I will not be able to see my vision manifest in this world. Pockets of dream fragments abound in a disconnected way throughout the land based world I have seen. This is heartening. I have seen it in people, in art, philosophy, imaginations and visions that come to be shown to us in a variety of ways through thought and process.

I draw maps of what my platform is. Mind maps and story boards fill notebooks of my dreams. People and land dreams blanket a lifetime of hoping. Steps that have been tried have been many. Attempts, however small, that I have managed to make some difference with. What has been most important? I suppose all of it has been. I imagine that conversation that I had in the loo the other day with a little two year old and her mom was a recently poignant one. We were in different stalls. I heard her sweet little voice chatting away with her mom. She so unaware that anyone else might be nearby. I enjoyed the sounds of her voice echoing throughout the room. Her mom was ever so patient talking with her. It reminded me of my days as a young mother and I felt that burning feeling welling up in my eyes at the nostalgia of it. Yet, it was what the girl was saying that was so meaningful to me.

”Why mommy,” was what the little girl kept asking. Over and over again she asked, “Why”. It is in fact one of my most favorite questions. When we came to meet, all three of us, we each were all busy at the sink. I paused for a moment watching and listening to the scene. I turned to the little girl who was eyeing me out of the corner of her eye with curiosity. I said to her, “You have been using one of my very favorite words”. She looked at me wide eyed and turned up to look at her mother. I said, “You have been using the word, WHY, many times. Did you know that I love to ask that question all of the time?” The girl smiled so big and then said, of course, “Why”! Her mother was thrilled. I was thrilled. Her mom said that when you are two you want to ask a lot of questions. I said that even at my age, all grown up I want to ask, “why” about so many things, so that I can understand. The girls mother told her that, “You see, even when you are all grown up you can keep asking questions!” She thanked me. She said to the little girl with piles of curls on her head, “We can thank the lady.” I said to her, “Thank you for reminding me that it is good to be a grown up lady and to always be curious and stay like a small curious child inside.” What a moment!

Like so many times in my life, this moment will stay with me. I will be reminded that what lives inside of me is worthy of exploring and asking about. Just because a world that does not share my view or experience of what I might have to share, does not mean it isn’t worth sharing. Perhaps it is just for me in this lifetime and a few notebooks of excitement. For me to know that if only someone would or more people would try to walk down a different lane that more of our hopes could manifest in a world mired by boredom, fear, lack and stuck thinking. I do not know all the ways to create a vision. I do know that one of the ways to begin is to share a vision of what lives inside of me. How we take what is here in this moment and try to offer pathways up to begin to frame a new view or a very ancient view of what we humans can hold while we are here. I would like to begin to hold conversations that create a space to share what could be created. I have a piece of that story. You have a piece of that story. I wonder if we would be brave enough to share.