“Take on a big project, like Noah.” ~Rumi

I have been having an ongoing conversation with a wonderful woman with ovarian cancer. We email daily, both of us sharing the reality of living/having lived with cancer—me as a caregiver, she as a patient/survivor. Our conversations might be called big projects. Why? Because when we talk, we ignore the cancer so as to engage the shamanic qualities of our friendship.

She has recently come to the realization that she is a natural shaman. Her gifts have healed me in small ways, which is what a big project does. Big projects, as I see them, involve living out our unique visions in as many small ways as we can. The small becomes the big. And so we weave emails through our daily lives.

When I had some rooms in my house painted last spring, she dreamed about it. So did I. So when David came to paint, we both “knew” him from our dreams. Oh, not right away, for dreams are always mysterious. The interesting thing is that David recognized me! Within the first half hour we were sitting in silence together. The magic was happening.

I believe that David and I have known each other for lifetimes, so our friendship may be what you call a “big project.” Certainly Betty and I are weaving an email tapestry that is proving to be a beautiful thing. We have both been through the eye of the needle countless times, over and over and over again. She is teaching me to trust myself more and more fully. I am not sure what I am teaching her, but something is being transmitted.

My writing is a big project. It is a daily dose of both being and doing for me. Vitamin E(ssay) kicks off my day. It revitalizes me and shapes my life into an ark. So there I have found the thread weaving these words together.

“The Ark is ready.
The wind is favouring.
The sea is calm.
So taught I Noah.
So I teach you.

God is your captain, sail, my Ark!”
~The Book of Mirdad, Mikhail Naimy