If nothing changes....nothing changes!

"Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change."
~Jim Rohn

"We must accept through faith that the means to complete our tasks will appear. Then our plans, goals, and actions are aligned with our faith. Surrender brings the resolve to withstand life's stormiest tempests and truly make an enduring difference."
~Steve Brunkhorst

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved."
~Helen Keller

"Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together."
 ~Eugene Ionesco

I am back from a series of trips that have taken me to such varied and vaste places....both physically, mentally, and emotionally. I have been stretched and expanded in various directions....realizing as it was happening that the old saying is true...."once stretched, you can never go back"....or something like that!! I am realizing that this process is changing me, stretching me out beyond myself....to a place that I know nothing about and have no idea what it will look and feel like.

AND yet I am so ready for it....in a strange and wonderful way I feel I have been prepared for it throughout my life and that I have finally come to the place I am supposed to be. And since I am completely convinced that God is sovereign over ALL the affairs of "man", I am clear that it took all it has taken to get me to this place. All the pain, all the anquish, all the suffering and trials AND all the dreams, all the joy, all the miracles, all the inspiring experiences with friends, and family! All of my life makes up who I am and has prepared me to step into this new place.

What I know about myself is I love people. I love being with each one, learning and experiencing everything about and with them....getting to know their history, their stories of their lives....and really connecting with them on a level of relationship that transcends the everyday niceties of our modern culture. I occasionally get the privilege of going on a trip with the artists I work with.... my travels this past month included just such a trip.

We took off for Canada, a place I have not been....one of the few! Travelling with Matt Brouwer and Jackie Key to experience the beauty and the people of Matt's homeland.....meet industry folks and attend an awards ceremony Matt and Jackie were performing in. The awards ceremony was an experience in itself that I will not go into here! The beauty of the Canadian Rockies were unbelievably breathtaking....and Calgary was wonderful! But my favorite part of my entire time was the time I spent talking with Matt and Jackie as we drove around the city and through Alberta. I learned so much about each of them....and gained an incredibly new and powerful perspective of their hearts and their lives...and I think they learned a lot about each other also!! I realized that we all have this deep need within our souls to "know and be known" by others....and that we don't tend to take the time to listen and really hear the hearts of those people whose lives surround us. We find ourselves alone and lonely in a crowd of friends who, to some extent are strangers.....we have accepted a perspective that keeps us emotionally separated from the people that we spend so much of our lives with....

All this to say, that I sense this arrival at a place where, though it is a scary place at times, I am committing to the diffcult and sometimes treacheous challenge of going deeper with the people whose lives fill up my days...to learn of their hearts and their lives...to really know them and be known by them...far away from the stress and strain of our everyday "hustle and bustle " ....and to call each of them up to BE the person God has created and prepared them to be, as they go forward on their own journeys.

Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in His presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored His name.
~Malachi 3:16

Extreme Dreams, LLC
Kathy Douglas
President
10603 Grant Rd. Ste 110
Houston, TX 77070
Office - 281-890-5034
Fax - 281-890-0300
Cell - 713-398-7304
www.extreme-dreams.com/
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kathyd@extreme-dreams.com

"Helping people enjoy the Journey as much as the Destination"

Visit my coaching journal at:

http://extreme-dreams.blogspot.com/