Courage needs a Vision to follow

Follow your bliss! Joseph Campbell

One of my favorite stories from Romancing The Soul, Your Personal Guide to Living Free:

Leon’s Story

Moments before he died, Leon Ames, staring at the ceiling
of my ambulance, answered my question. “Yeah, my boat! If I hadn’t been so damn scared of what someone might say, I’d have built my boat.” He turned to me, his face working, his voice tight, “God, how I wish I’d just gone ahead and built that boat.”

For several months before this, I’d been asking people who
were fully aware that they were dying and who had surrendered to
their deaths, the same question; “When you look back now, do you
have any regrets?” I wanted to know because I wondered if there
might be something to be learned by those of us who still had time
to take a different path.

I had heard a few others say basically the same thing, but it
was Leon’s reply that really got my attention; he was the third person in a space of two weeks who basically told me, “If I could do my life over, I would do what I wanted instead of listening to my fear.”

After Leon was dead, I sat alone in the dark ambulance watching rain, like tears, crawling down the windshield.

I knew Leon. Six months earlier, I had gone to his home to take his wife to the hospital. She died within days and, with her death, Leon's  reason for living. When his sudden heart attack came I went to his home and found him strangely calm but deeply sad. Leon did not fear death, but its nearness opened an old wound he had kept hidden from himself for years. The agony he suffered for his loss, the realization that he had come into this life with something important to do which now he would never accomplish. It was too late. Leon Ames understood finally that he had not accomplished his life’s mission.

Was all his sorrow over having not built a boat? I wondered how a boat could be so important. So, he described it to me; and, it was then that I realized he had envisioned a genius hull design that
perhaps no one had ever seen before. It was a hull that would move through the water as water itself, partnering with water instead of fighting it. Leon had a mind full of ideas and even as he lay dying,
a light came into his eyes. His boat would move through the water with a grace and ease that would cause boat builders to transform their ideas of hulls and sails. The design came only through Leon’s
soul. As we are each unique, so are our creations! Leon’s design could never be replicated by anyone else. Because of his fears, he had deprived us of ever having that design in our world; and he now
knew it.

I realized that afternoon that I was stuck. I didn’t want to be stuck; I wanted to grow. To do that, I would have to change not what I thought about things, but how I thought about things. I had to
discover valid, new paradigms that would allow me to see truth not from just one viewpoint, but from as many viewpoints as possible.

I remember another afternoon, yea rs later, again in San Francisco when I, as a sea captain, came ashore to have lunch with an attorney friend. He invited his accountant, a pleasant man I had met before, to come along. During lunch the accountant plied me with questions, “Have you ever seen a whale jump? Did you ever swim with a shark? What is a wild sea like at night?” He couldn’t get enough of my stories.

I walked them back to their office and said good-bye. But as I was leaving the office, this curious man called out to me; “Say, Bob, do me a favor will you? When you’re out on that sea, surrounded by
dolphins and sunsets, think of this sailor, locked in the body of an accountant.” The people around us laughed, but I did not laugh and neither did he. He meant it.

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As a kid I wrote a list of the things I wanted to do in my life and though I was raised to believe I was a clumsy dimwit with a mind filled with crazy fantasies, I have since accomplished nearly everything on that list. Did you know that those who write their visions have an 80% greater likelihood of achieving them than those who do not?

For more than thirty years my vision has been: I am helping create the paradigm in which before the year 2060 we humans live with one another and our environment in harmony. Sometimes that vision feels futile, like we'll never make it; more wars, more anger, more political abandonment of the people. Yet I know we can reach that state of peace if we can quell our spiritual laziness and make our will stronger than our doubt. Meanwhile the mission has gradually chipped hard edges off my ego and allowed me to grow. I know that for my vision to be constantly true, my very lifestyle and everything I do must support my mission. The Great Intelligent Energy in the Universe supports guides and supplies my vision-path as long as I remain focused and actively committed. But when I am without purpose Grace cannot flow through me and then I drift .

I’m betting that our collective human spirit is strong enough for us to create the 2060 Paradigm. After all- what are the other alternatives? (shudder!)

Want to join me? I am available for dialogue, personal coaching, and key-note addresses, call me: 425-868-8448 or write bob@arasfoundation.org

A Bit of Humor For You:
Using new fertility technology a 75 year old named Blanche was able to get pregnant and produce a healthy baby boy.
She was home for only two days when her bridgeclub friends came visiting.
"Blanche; what a lucky woman you are; a baby at 75!” they bubbled. “Can we see him?"
"Not now, just wait a bit." Blanche said.
Half an hour later they again asked and got the same answer. So they had tea and cookies and visited about the pros and cons of being a mom in her seventies, and this went on for almost two hours until finally one of them said, "Come on Blanche, when can we see the baby"?
"You must wait until he starts crying." The elderly mom answered.
"Until he starts crying? Well for goodness sakes, why do we have to wait till he starts crying?
"Because,” she sighed. “I forgot where I put him!"

Our Heroine of the Week:

Pam Bartlett is standing strong against a disease that daily drains her energy, and threatens her future; she does it with the same courage and Grace that has made her a favorite leader of women worldwide. For twenty-five years this magnificent woman has been an example of the best of womanhood to thousands around the world, coaching women to live fulfilling, joyful and rewarding lives. Her work with Fortune 500 companies and with women clients in many countries demanded that she constantly represent what she asked of others despite her own fears or doubts and she did just that. Her Masters degree in Educational Psychology, certification as Somatic Coach by the Strozzi Institute and Executive and Organizational Coach by the Hudson Institute reflect honor, not so much upon her, as upon those who certified her. Despite pain and weariness Pam’s courage and her determination are unshakeable. She is a winner and this is a battle she will win! Can you please take a moment and send Pam your prayers and healing energies? Thanks.


Pam Bartlett, we are deeply honored to acknowledge you as a heroine for all of us.