The journey of a dream. Oooh baby, baby, it's a wild world. And as Cat Stevens says, "It's hard to get by just upon a smile." This Thanksgiving I'm thinking about the journey of a dream.
In seed form, a dream begins in the field of pure potentiality. It requires us to release any learned cynicism and reconnect to the purity and innocence of life, like a child, who wishes for something they have yet to experience.
For years, I would look out my window and do the whole, "star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight." And I would wish to fly. After a solid two years of wishing and still being bound by gravity, I switched my wish to ask for a bike (and got one the next day.) Bam.
We do this as adults all the time. Our heart can dream in a land of possibility and it can resonate as true and bring us joy. However, then when evidence refuses to show up in the timeline we desire (I got tired of WAITING to be able to fly), the mind encourages us to scale back and be more realistic because it feels more safe, comfortable and in control within the limitations of probability.
Maybe something happens that expands the land of probability! Something you never thought likely in the "real world" before. He/she asks you out. The job interview. You're pregnant! You won a 3 week trip to Africa!! Your book was on the New York Times best seller list!!! You beckon your dream closer to you and it feels like it is heading your way.
Or...something happens that makes you give up on the dream. Something you can't imagine could be so cruelly taken away. He/she disappears. You get fired. You miscarry. You can't go on the trip you won because of a family emergency. No one reads your book, even though it is really REALLY good. You tell your dream to bugger off and go bother someone else.
When we're lucky, something else happens that is not solely a shift externally of gain or loss, but internally finding your center. Remembering. Qoya is based on the idea, that through movement, we remember. We remember our essence, our internal truth. The one that can stand aligned with your heart and soul regardless of external circumstances. When you are in that spot, you can stop worrying, because you remember everything is going to be fine. You lighten your heart, because like the wave that rises, it also falls. The best tactic is to learn how to surf. (See more surfing in the Qoya Costa Rica video here!)
Life is always offering you a series of invitations to come into the present moment and enjoy all that is.
I was given an assignment by my teacher in March for 6 months to not ask for anything. Absolutely no desires. My homework was to learn to just say thank you for everything as it is. I learned that more than anything I want in the future, the biggest gift is the ability to savor what is, as it is, right now.
For today on Thanksgiving, I want to share my favorite gratitude practice. It is to put on a song to dance to and say thank you with my whole body, heart, mind and soul. As you dance, acknowledge all the dreams that were born in the land of pure possibility and then came true!!!! (For some, you may also want to say thank you for all the unanswered prayers.) For whatever you choose, take a moment to sincerely say thank you. Humble yourself enough to open your heart and acknowledge the co-creative magic that is supporting and guiding us all in our interconnected web of experience. Dance a thank you for every breath, for every gift, for every challenge, for everything.
The journey of a dream is like our own journey of remembering and forgetting who we are as spirit, becoming distracted by the physical world we feel bound to and then having a transcendent moment where we come back to the power of the present moment, the gratitude for the journey of life itself and that if we truly really believed there was a divine spark in us, we would probably be having a better time. Whatever part of the journey you are on, have patience with yourself, the process, and do not give up (especially on dancing).
Go have fun and enjoy your Thanksgiving! Sometimes it takes discipline to enjoy yourself and sometimes you have to be the catalyst for the group. If you feel called to play the music a little louder, dance a little wilder and feel the love with your whole beating heart a little more, invite others to join you. There's no day like today and today is Thanksgiving, so give thanks for every moment in all it's complicated and simple bliss.
As I take a deep breath today on Thanksgiving, I say a prayer of gratitude for your support of Qoya and of me on this journey of remembering that we are all truly wise, wild and free.
May it be so today and always.
With love-infused gratitude,
P.S. Qoya Costa Rica Retreat April 6-13, 2013
Thanksgiving can also be the time where loved ones start asking you what you want for the holidays. For those of you who have the Qoya Costa Rica Retreat April 6-13, 2013 on your xmas wish list, there is an early bird special of $200 savings until December 1st, 2012. Click here to register and be sure to see and share the video with anyone you think would love to come.
QOYA RETREAT - Costa Rica April 6th - 13th 2013 from jodi jones on Vimeo.
P.P.S. If you are in LA, come join us for Qoya Classes here in December!
