Saturday, May 2, 2009

Doing The Unimaginable

From 3 amazing weeks in Israel and the West Bank In March to 3 sweet days in the US midwest in April … As fate (otherwise known as the infinite intelligence of the universe at work!) would have it, a minister and a professor played on my pro-am team last August when I competed in the Ohio Women’s State Open. Of course we got to talking about KiAi Golf and how the non-violent principles of Aikido help golfers to score better through more calm, balance, focus, and centered “peaceful power.”

By the back nine we were absorbed in conversation about Aikido and peace in the Middle East. My playing partners told me that community members from Ft. Wayne IN and Defiance OH have been visiting the Holy Land for years; how they love the people, sights and sites of Israel; and that they have been working with Palestinian educational projects in Bethlehem and the Galilee. They thought their colleagues would be interested in our Middle East Salaam Shalom Aikido peace project and lo and behold, eight months later they flew me out to speak at their church and college!

There are so many morals in the stories of our lives, the unfolding inter-related happenings of our daily experience. During these three chilly wonderful early-spring Midwest days, I feel like reminding myself and everyone to:

1) Be open and aware every minute, keep following the flow and connecting the dots each day. We just never know who we may meet, why we’re where we are, doing what we’re doing, being with the people we’re with and what may come of any meeting or experience.

2) Tune in to the deeper forces and greater intelligence that are at work at all times and places, and for what positive purposes.

3) Engage, enjoy and “trust the process” of things.

4) Relax and find how to accomplish much more with greater ease and unlimited natural power.

5) Keep seeing that as big and complex as the world has grown, its also becoming smaller and simpler. Likely and unlikely connections happen all the time, carrying much delight and emerging new possibilities and creativity.

Bottom line: Don’t be afraid to get together and to do great unimagined things!