At the TED 2016 Dream Conference, they had two artists stationed outside the Main Stage, sitting at tilted drawing desks, waiting. I didn’t notice them at first. Hundreds of people milled all around them, busy ordering coffee from the barista and checking their messages before the next session. But, I am a fan of artists and I love tilted drawing desks.
A nice TED volunteer handed me a pink blanket and a journal and asked me if I would like to have my dreams expressed in a drawing. If this ever happens to you, say ‘yes.’ The volunteer gave me some homework and scheduled a time for me to return to meet the artist.
The homework was to answer these three questions:
- If you could adventure anywhere, without limitations, where would you go?
- If you could do anything tomorrow, without fear, what would you do?
- If you could change the world, without any barriers, what would you do first?
Before you read the rest of this posting, answer these three questions for yourself, privately. On behalf of the Universe, I am telling you to stop and do this.
Here were my answers:
- I would travel to small, beautiful and diverse places all over the world – starting with a treehouse, to a cabin in the woods, a tepee, always exploring.
- I would take a year off from my job to write my book about how working in the field of organ donation has transformed me into a person of deep love and service to the world.
- I would come back to work to solve the kidney donor shortage so that 100,000 people in the United States and many others internationally would live years longer with functioning kidneys.
Above is the picture of me that the artist drew. I cried when I got it.
I am already the book of ever-expanding adventures. The people hugging around the book are kidney recipients and their donors who have donated a kidney to them. The donated and received kidneys are outlined in their backs. They face forward to their own life of adventure. This is a possibility of who I am and what I can accomplish during my small lifetime. Thank you, listening artist.