The black folders arrived ahead of the promised date. They don't look like that old black folder that I have. Mine is sturdier than the ones that are available for purchase now. Maybe I'll keep looking after I use these 100 folders.
So, there is no more waiting. I need to put the final touches on the workshop.
Everywhere I go I think of something new to put into the experience that I want others to have.
Kahlil Gibran
Yesterday on my daily walk around the block I was meditating on the lines in Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet (because it's a small enough book for me to read and ponder as I walk): "Say not, 'I have found the path of the soul'. Say rather, ' I have met the soul walking upon my path'. For the soul walks upon all paths." That stopped me in my tracks. It was powerful. It helped me to connect so many dots that have led me to this project and to the inner-knowing that I need to do it. That I can't NOT do it. That I don't need for anyone to validate it. There is something that just feels right about it
A Soulful Experience
It also made me think of people as souls and not as just individuals with bodies, minds, thoughts and problems. It made me want to be especially careful with this work. It seems like a special work because it is about the subjects of life and death. But it also made me know that I can't put it off trying to make it "perfect". My mind wants to make it "perfect", but my soul says that I just need to go ahead and get in the drivers seat of this bus. Draw on my talents, skills and experiences and know that it's alright to let folks get on this bus right now. To just use the adult learning principle of self-direction that I so much believe in and course correct as we go. This has nothing to do with me, it is something that needs to be done that has been given to me to do.
Just Start
I don't think I know the destination for this project. I don't even want to write a business plan like I've done for other ideas. I just want to make this a journey of sorts. Like a bus ride. Just drive people where "they" need to go. Where "their" soul needs to go. It's not one path, like Kahlil Gibran says.
This project will be both individual and collective. One that all those adults that go through the experience can offer-up their stories and their ideas. A project that will help them to live out (or maybe discover) their own passions as they work on their Black Folders.
This is what my intuition is telling me. I'm just going to go with it. This doesn't need to be complicated for it to work. Even if just one person shows up at the first workshop, wouldn't it be worth it to help that one person create their Black Folder? Yeah, I think so.