Day 48. May 29. Sunday

.Wow! What an inspiring and full day! First I met for a breakfast counseling session with a Norwegian fellow who contacted me. He allowed Richard to observe. Not only did he see something new for himself, but I saw something new for myself!

My realization

I realized when I tell people that when they have an unhealthy feeling it’s a signal not to believe, trust or follow that thinking, I am not taking into account that if they are still seeing reality, then that is just frustrating for them and I am doing them a disservice. First they need to call that reality into question and see it for the illusion it is; then when they continue we get such thoughts they don’t have to believe, trust or follow them.

Seeing that was big for me to see that. I should have paid him for the session : ). He bought me breakfast, too.

Last day of One Solution Conference

Then on to the last day of the conference. It was truly inspiring. I am so impressed with what Mara and Eirik dreamed and pulled off. All the speakers were inspirational. The possibility for the Principles to intentionally go out into the world on a global scale is a huge step and an idea whose time has come.

As I sat listening to a panel with Mara, Stephanie Fox working in Gaza, Simon Charters working in Kenya, and Mahima Shrestha working in Nepal and listened to the hope they exuded the thought came to me that with that kind of hope, you cannot possibly lose. Even if nothing came of it or if it didn’t come out the way you envision, with that kind of hope the worst that can happen is your hope stays intact and if you’re lucky you might help one or more people have a big insight in the process and then those people, in turn, spread it out more into the world. You can’t possibly lose! Amazing conference, really. I am very proud to have been part of it.

On that same panel, when I heard Stephanie say she was planning on getting animation done to attempt to explain the Principles to little kids in Gaza, I excitedly tracked her down at the break and told her about my children’s picture books that I co-wrote with Amy, the second of which is just about to come out. She had never heard of them and was thrilled to. There could be some collaboration in the works there.

Lunch

At lunch I met with a woman who works with fishermen in the European Union to attempt to get them to comply with E.U. regulations so ocean areas don’t get fished out. She had been very moved after hearing Simon and John, the head of police reform in Kenya, talk about changing from a Police Force to a Police Service, and she wanted to apply that to enforcement of fishing regulations. I helped her see that if the fishermen can see that this is in their own long-term best interests then compliance is a piece of cake, and the pathway for them to see this is the Principles in action in their own lives, or, as it was put in this conference, dealing with their hearts and minds. What happened in Modello is the model for how this can happen; the only difference is the grander scale. I volunteered to help edit the proposal she concluded she needs to write, and because her organization has no extra money in their budget for training, because this has such wide impact possibilities I suggested if she puts out a request over 3PGC, she may get 3P trainers willing to volunteer. She got excited. She bought me lunch for helping her.

After my Modello presentation many people came up to me yesterday and today asking me about community work from a 3P perspective, and it occurred to me that I should ask Elsie [Spittle] if she would be interested in putting together a community work from the inside-out training. I found her and she got excited about the idea; especially because when I gave her a shout-out during my presentation for being the one with the most experience in working with these communities, a bunch of people had come up to her asking, too.

It is such a thrill for me to have people from a country I’ve never been to before come up to me and tell me how much my book, Somebody Should Have Told Us! has impacted them and has changed their lives. Man, that makes all the blood, sweat and so much time involved in writing my books worth it a hundred-fold!

After the love-fest of the conference ended I met up with a friend of Sandra’s from Denmark, Ingeborg Cappelen Lindheim (who did not attend the conference), who also read my book and wanted to meet me. I had walked in the wrong direction to find the Theatercafeen, a beautiful restaurant she suggested, and Richard helped me get un-lost and find it.

Then Richard and I parted company; it has been really wonderful hanging out with him. The lovely Ingeborg—attractive rebel that she is—and I had a really nice conversation, and we didn’t get out of the restaurant until after 10:00; we were there for four hours! She bought me dinner. Not bad—all three meals covered! Did I say this was a full day?!