Day 12: My Ideal Life Narrative

In my everyday life I am getting up early and making time to meditate, to center myself and assess what the day's plan will be. I have my clear, organized workstation with my highly functional computer and camera and videorecorder (and portable tablet) ready for their assignments. I look at my calendar of upcoming events to attend and projects to continue or begin and my life is full and rewarding. I see my timeline carefully etched out where I see my financial goals coming together every small step of every day. I have side gigs that allow me to sing and travel with my singing group and grace whatever gathering we are scheduled to perform and interact with. We discuss the theme and intent behind our life's work and inspire others, or make collaboration connections. We may even be featured in a local documentary of college-based arts movement. I am using my ethnographic research skills to have people tell their own stories with me, to effect their pwn realities so others may hear and be informed.

I work on smaller projects instead of a long drawn-out endless repetition leading to no particular goal or resolution. I am in a space that promotes group project work, yet allows for individual innovation and creativity, whether it is brainstorming how to launch an education center in a village and managing the securing of local sponsorship and pride as well as outside influence. I have many pots simmering, not burning, on my innovative stovetop. I am not overwhelmed with searching for opportunities because they appear and connect before my eyes in my everyday interactions with people and events. They light up in colors as beacons on a postboard, saying, "hello, over here, this is you right here!"

I am not afraid of joining a group or committing to a board position where I feel that I have the authority and experience to lend my voice, my concentrated effort in whatever the task or oversight may require. I am writing my books, my poetry, my children's observation series, my family's biography. I am taking small trips to all the edges of the world that define my origins, and cataloguing the huge undertaking that made me who I am today. And publishing it. I have found an acceptable and non-dream-crushing solutin to my school loan debt and repaying or absolving it.

I am working with progressive Guyanese historians, writers and government officials to revamp the country's faltering education systems, providing (or coordinating) consultant services on infrastructure projects aimed at providing access and equal opportunities for all Guyanese and foreign visitors to Guyana, outside of political factions or agendas (a tall feat). I am a forerunner in attracting talent, intellect and people to Guyana for long-term, maybe permanent involvement in a new government, a new economy, a more vibrant and sustainable Guyanese ruling society.

I have a home in my native Guyana that I visit often and manage the land well. I hire a caretaker when I am on a work jaunt. I maintain a home in the United States somewhere, and I am also an active member in the watershed protection programs of New York State, for it is truly one of the most beautiful treasures I have come across, and I do have a strong sense of ownership and its continued health. In the winter I find myself in warmer climates on a development or language project, consulting or building. Sometimes I house-sit for a faraway friend to facilitate a fluid sense of where I belong, as well as a cheaper and more creative way to see other parts beyond.

I have a healthy space for appreciating good food and other creature somforts, whether it is a spa retreat or an investigative report on alternative living or homesteads. I am fascinated by those that successfully live off the grid in America or elsewhere, and am convinced that they could contribute to better living models for many others. I have a literal and a virtual library in every homestead I lay my head to rest. I challenge communities to be literate at all ages, and provide access to inspiring and progressive materials in multiple languages.

I make time for my friends local and global. I am adept enough in the latest communication technology that I can Skype call my uncle in the rainforest and videochat my niece in NC, or my sister in Brasil. My friends also come and visit me wherever I am stationed, so that there is a more balanced desire for each of us to be in each other's lives. I am not intruding and they are not going out of their way. I am comfortable around their kids and become that fabled "aunt" that goes everywhere with strange stories. I may have a child, but I don't see it happening in the next five years, not with this narrative, anyway. I may find a mate along the way, but he would have to be within the same field or frame of mind, doing something I aspire to do or am already capable of. I don't need to measure up to my mate, and he doesn't need to reign me in like an errant possession. My family will have come to terms to the roving in my spirit and my footsteps and those who would support and encourage me will look forward to my triumphant returns (and give me their numbers for the occasional late-night time zone phonecall!)

Day 12: Ideal Life Narrative