Around seven days before Super Typhoon Haiyan happened in 2013, I had this dream of warning people about a tsunami. It looked like a tsunami but it wasn’t, so I doubted myself. I went to the authorities, they confirmed it was dangerous and they had to evacuate everyone. We all climbed a tree to survive. While I helped lead a regenerative relief assistance to the typhoon survivors, it would be years later that I would start my own non profit working with displaced communities after disaster. It turned out that Haiyan brought with it a deadly storm surge that was likened to a tsunami. I have never heard of a storm surge until that day. Recalling the tree survival today, it dawned on me that I also ended up starting a project called Witnessing Trees inspired by a tree at the COP21 in Paris and the many ways people rely on trees for climate adaptation and mitigation. In my life, I have been earth dreaming all along.
It all started when I was around 7 and I was on a boat on a hot afternoon in real life. While asleep under the hot, afternoon sun, I saw an iceberg out at sea.... right on our tropical waters. Now that I am older, the glaciers and icebergs are melting and this dream shapes more meaning in my life work today. Fast forward to 2005, I was 23 and I was sailing out on the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior on a renewable energy campaign. I recalled this dream as I was out in the open sea learning about climate refugees and the rise of sea levels for the first time. Seven years later, I would work directly with survivors of a climate change related disaster. Then in 2012, I co-founded Green Releaf Initiative, a non profit working with climate and conflict vulnerable communities through regenerative design and solutions.
This self doubt comes up often. Mainly by cultural conditioning of what validates what is credible or not - the academe, technocratic terminology in development, grammar, scientific studies, experts, etc. Like waiting to finish my certificate in Ecopsychology before launching a passion project only to discover at the end, I’ve been on the right path all along. Maybe the dreams were meant for me to trust in myself more than it was for any forecast or warning.
After 10 years of visioning and ideation, I feel ready to birth Soil, Soul, Story. I have more confidence knowing that I should keep on trusting myself more, so my inner self can find its voice... especially now that the dreams that revealed themselves as I slept, and the dreams I shape in my waking life to influence the future, are now interacting together. 🌀
Welcome to this site and may the stories offer you deep remembrance of your own wholeness.
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