What does laying the groundwork mean? Friends asked what bees and flowers have to do with manifesting dreams. Visualized during a shamanic journey, what struck me was the miracle of bees feeding on flower nectar, flower pollen sticking to the small hairs on their legs, fertilizing new life as they fly from flower to flower. Pollination is essential for growth, biodiversity and food production. It’s amazing to me that we rely so heavily on such a small creature for life and our well being. Even though pollination is not the starting point for growth, it is an early, critical step that cannot be overlooked.
Rather than writing about how wonderful it is to have dreams and exploring dreams you already have, the point of this post is to get started turning those dreams into reality. After watching Growing Floret on the Magnolia Network, I have a renewed respect for soil and farming. I highly recommend this show that begins with the telling of Erin Benzakein’s journey of literally growing her 24 acre flower farm in Washington state. Laying the groundwork, preparing the soil, pollinating the flowers is the perfect metaphor for starting any new venture. No matter what it is you are trying to do, it will help if you begin by creating the fertile ground in which the garden of your creation can grow.
Once past the initial shock of the pandemic, fear of financial loss, grief of missing out on performing music along with lost friendships and social gathering, having more free time than I can ever remember, this time has been richly contemplative for imaging future creative projects. In terms of my violin playing, it has been a time of physical healing from many years of overuse. It has also been an opportunity for more careful practice and study of repertoire that has spent many years at the back of my music stand. This era has lent me time for exploration and synthesis of new musical styles in my compositions. As I’ve written in previous posts, I have an interest in the presence in classical music of sound healing qualities normally associated with instruments such as Tibetan singing bowls. I will include in a future post my impressions of David Elkington’s book The Ancient Language of Sacred Sound which is a recently edited and republished version of his 2001 book In the Name of the Gods.
Laying groundwork may mean studying your topic from experts in your proposed field. I recently signed onto to Masterclass which I also highly recommend. I had seen it advertised on social media for quite a while and finally decided to try it. It is a huge platform with many topics covered by well known masters. The classes are not one and done. Each class has many chapters, covering various aspects of the topic. Of course I am watching “Itzhak Perlman Teaches Violin.” I’m sure I will be writing more about this class in future posts. I’m moving slowly through it as it gets very emotional for me. What a gift he has given us!
You may also want to adjust your schedule to allow for dedicated time for working on your project. Eventually your new venture may require an entire work or career change. In the meantime, you will need to at least designate time during the week for purely focusing on your new work. In Growing Floret, Erin Benzakein talks about how improving soil quality can take years. Unfortunately she only had one year to make her flower farm financially viable. She and her team had to think out of the box and eventually make a heroic decision about the farm and one flower in particular. Putting yourself out there, possibly risking financial loss or loss of reputation is truly a hero’s journey. When you bring a new idea into the world, you never know how things will turn out. You may be taken, and probably will be taken to metaphorical places you could never have anticipated. Give yourself the time to transform your dreams into reality. Lay the groundwork of fertile soil so that your ideas have the best chance to bloom into something beautiful.