A Tale of Two Dreams and 101 Hearts
Because we CAN make good things happen.
When it comes to writing, I am rarely stuck. Rather, writing is a release for me - a need, rarely an effort.
So why is it that I have been doing all I could this morning to distract myself from coming to the keyboard?
I think the main thing in my way is: “How will I pass this on without it being confusing or unbelievable?”
As always, the first step is to start. My house is clean - I even swept the gravel - my dogs and cat are fed, I have said hi to my neighbors, and I even had a long phone call with a friend. There’s no more dodging this, it’s time to start.
Here goes.
First, I want to tell you about two dreams conceived about one year apart.
Dream #1.
On my third night of sleeping in the village where I now live, in the first week of March 2020, when I thought I was “just visiting,” I had a dream. A very vivid dream which I remembered in the morning, which is not common for me.
In my dream, there were red hearts. Beautiful, simple red hearts which were very contagious. These hearts were passed from person to person, and whenever someone caught one of them, they were instantly enveloped by a deep and unmistakable sense of peace and of love. I opened my eyes and, still half asleep, told my bed companion about it. I could feel the red hearts, I could feel how fast they were jumping from one person to the next, seemingly unstoppable in their mission to contaminate the next person and then the next. A couple of days later, news of a very contagious virus reached the village. I went back to the States and spent the spring and summer painting as many hearts as I could in my garage. I experimented with styles and materials. I sold and gave a lot of them away, and still, many more kept popping up.
Dream #2
Having moved to the village less than a year later, I continued painting hearts in the tiny orange cabin I was renting. Inspired by the colors of Mexico, I painted bright, shiny Corazones de Colores. Created on lovely squares of wood from a local carpinteria, they are happy and, I am told, joy-producing. One day, a friend suggested I try painting several Corazones de Colores together on one piece of wood. I did. I think I painted six of them, and as I looked at them, all different yet connected, all somehow energized by each other, something inside of me said: “One day, I am going to paint 100 of them and then they are going to live on a big wall, possibly in the reception area of a children’s hospital.”
Enters Kathy Nicoletti.
Kathy is a good friend, someone I very much admire, and the director of Mujeres Movimiento a heart-based (of course) organization whose mission is “To assist and support financial, educational, and health-related projects that provide opportunities aimed at improving the quality of lives of women and their families in Riviera Nayarit and Jalisco.”
Having read this, it may seem obvious to you why I would admire Kathy, but one of the big reasons I admire her is this: She does all of this big work with joy. I know she’s going to have things to say when she reads this, and I know she is going to counter that she has a big team, that she’s not doing it on her own … and well, that’s part of the point: she does have a big team, because she has created a big team. A team of extraordinary women who love her and whom she has mentored into letting their extraordinariness blossom. I have done several projects with Kathy and her team over the year, and it is ALWAYS a pleasure. There is always laughter, kindness, love. Never at any point, no matter how serious the topic might be (and there are serious topics addressed by Mujeres Movimiento), does anything feel heavy or a burden. This, to me, is the magic sauce. There are plenty of people doing good work all over the word, thank goodness, and in my experience, Joy is an ingredient, an Essence that is sometimes overshadowed or misunderstood.
I fully believe that well-harnessed Joy can move mountains at least as big as Heaviness and Burden can.
This is to say that when I was introduced to Kathy almost four years ago, I knew instantly that I wanted to work and play with her.
Worked and played we have, and I am proud to say that together, we have also created some good stuff. I am proud to be a little drop in her tireless ocean of goodness.
Also, confident in the power of her team and also blessed with an ability to ignore unnecessary hurdles, she moves fast. I love moving fast with her.
So when we were on a simple check-in morning phone call together early last January, she a few miles away and me in my fuzzy pink bathroom at home, I wasn’t surprised that by the time we hung up, we had somehow devised a new project.
During this phone call, two things happened:
She told me that she was still processing how awesome our December "Portraits of Mujeres Movimiento" art exhibition had been. The event celebrated the incredible women of Mujeres Movimiento, with the unveiling of the portraits of 50 of the women, which I had spent the summer painting. In true MM style, it was an affair filled with love, laughter, hugs, beauty, and a few tears of joy. The special exhibit was a way to honor and celebrate the women as well as raise funds for their ongoing projects. Each woman received a print of her portrait, and each woman wore a flower crown on her head throughout the whole evening. It was magical, and for me, it will take a bit longer to fully digest it. So yes, when Kathy said that she was going to lay low for a while and process this whole big beautiful thing, it made much sense to me.
This was probably 10 minutes into our phone call.
15 minutes into our phone call, she mentioned that there had been a few health crises within the community and that she had become aware that these could get prohibitively expensive as the government health insurance often falls short of being able to deliver what’s needed. She gave me a couple of examples that were indeed challenging, and as the sun got higher in the sky and as our joint wheels started turning despite the pre-announced laying low period, ideas started traveling back and forth from her village to mine. Then Dream #1 and Dream #2 decided to join the party, and well, what can I say? The Amate project was born.
The Amate Project.
WHY: The Amate Project was created with one goal: To create a pool of money to help women as many women as possible with preventive as well emergency medical expenses
HOW: That’s when Dream #1 and Dream #2 came out to play in a way I am still shaking my head about, in wonder.
Amate Part #1 - Dream #1
In late January, Kathy and a group of several women came to my home, and over the course of a couple of wonderful days, together we created … get ready … a wall of 100 hearts! One hundred colorful, beautiful, vibrant hearts. On March 8th, in celebration of International Women’s Day, the Wall of Hearts will be hung and unveiled in a local restaurant, and I trust that as people walk by it, their own hearts will feel its power. In the last few weeks, local people and businesses were invited to join in the vision of supporting women’s health by sponsoring/adopting a heart. As of this week, each of the 100 hearts has been adopted.
Amate Part #2 - Dream #2
As Kathy and I were brainstorming possibilities, I shared with her that I had received the super big honor of being introduced to a family of artisans from the state of Puebla. Julio and his family specialize in the making of a handmade pre-Hispanic paper called Amate. The oldest known Amate paper dates back to 75 AD (the Maya and Nahua civilizations called it amatl, which is where it gets its name). It is made from the bark of various trees, including fig and mulberry trees, which is peeled, boiled, soaked, and beaten into a pulp. A glutinous substance from orchid bulbs is added, and the paste is formed into sheets and dried in the sun. Magic! Otomi artisans in central Mexico still make amate paper using the same methods as their ancestors, and because I am incredibly lucky, Julio had agreed to print some of my work on the paper he and his family make, using zinc-plated and special water pigment inks.
I was still high on the honor, and when I mentioned this to Kathy, it all came tumbling out of both of us: In order to involve not just the local community but pretty much The Whole Big World (note that I don’t even drink coffee), we would ask Julio to make prints of one my hearts on his beautiful paper and then we would make the prints available to anyone who wanted to join us in this project! Because dreams come true, Kathy chose one of my RED hearts, and because Life can sometimes be quite poetic, it occurred to us during this phone call that Amate, the name of the paper, also means “love yourself” in Spanish. I did check this almost too-good-to-be-true coincidence with a couple of native speakers who gently let me know that while it is written the same way, it is pronounced slightly differently, which we promptly decided to ignore because come on, this is way too lovely to let the emphasis in the wrong syllable get in the way.
So just like that, The Amate Project was born, and Dream #1 and Dream #2 came true.
A wall of 100 Hearts will be unveiled this coming Saturday, and a highly contagious crop of Red Hearts, full of Love and Peace has already been traveling all over the world (see map). People who have ordered the hearts have been sending in photos of themselves holding them, holding A Red Heart, and really, holding a piece of my own heart. I am awed. Also, they are a truly beautiful work of art, infused with hundreds of years of craftsmanship mixed with some of my own love.
Through this project, women will have access to free mammograms, and complete gynecological exams (including,support and preparation and transportation as this will be a first for almost all the women). Also, nutritional education will be available. And dental check ups. This is a big deal.
My friend, dreams come true.
Sometimes it takes a while, sometimes it shows up in a slightly different Form (I still want to see a Wall of Hearts in a children’s hospital), but when we focus on the Essence, we are able to notice them when they arrive. In this case, Joy, Support, and Joy are certainly present.
Finally, I invite YOU to come over and play. I invite you to join me and all the women at Mujeres Movimiento in this highly contagious project.
Each very special Amate heart is $30, and it includes shipping anywhere in the world. From today until Mother’s Day, you can order them to be sent to your women friends, and we will send them there on your behalf.
We will add your heart to the map Then we hope you will send us photos of you holding it.
Because even though things might seem overwhelming right now, we can create changes.
Whatever your dream may be, I wish for you to find just the right people to join you into giving it wings. Because it matters, because YOU matter.
PS: Back to Me Retreat is next weekend and I have room for ONE more person to join us. Two intensive days in my home in Mexico getting really close to who you truly are so that you may get back into the world on Monday with a whole new readiness to shine and thrive. Text me for more info at 360.421.1618.