Thursday, September 22, 2011

How To Dream Again


Karsten holds the "pub spoon" (not sure
what it's really called - but it's what you
get when you place your order for food
up at the bar and then they come find
the spoon at the table when your
food is ready).
Tonight I met my first friends from the Garden Angels team after I got to the hotel and joined them for supper (my first English Pub – The Ship).  There were four countries around the table: Sovakia (Andrea), England (Karsten - via Germany), Scotland (Colin) and the USA (Alan - California and, of course, Me - Oklahoma).

Karsten works for Clear Village and is the project manager of the whole garden project.  I was asking about the work they do, and the answers I received started making me think!

What do you do when you go into a place that has lost hope?  Help its people dream again.

What is the key? Trust. 

When they still can’t dream, what do you do?  Have them share their stories … memories about neighbors, children, their own childhood, relatives, etc.  And as I listened to him describe how it has worked, it seems that through the very simple action of sharing stories their dreams were jump started again.

Trust … Dream … Stories … Dreams.  I see the connections.  And I know there is much more to glean when I have time to dig beneath the surface and meditate on some of these things.  But I see the power of these two things:  Stories and Trust. 

It makes me want two things:  1) to experience this for myself; and 2) to bring this to others.  Of course, I see it so easily in light of Girl Scouts.  As we move forward, it’s almost as a sluggish giant that has forgotten how to dream.  But when we hear those stories about Girl Scouting, we are revived.  We dream again.  And trust? WOW. It’s huge.  And after years of constant change (even in my short time on staff), I can see how the trust factor is essential to dreams being unleashed once again. 

Simple. Powerful.

Stories + Trust = Dreams

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