The following is a book excerpt from
THIS TIME I DANCE! Creating the Work You Love (How One Harvard Lawyer Left It All to Have It All!) by Tama J. Kieves
(www.ThisTimeIDance.com) reprinted by permission of the author.n nI invite you to this dance. We live in times that cry out for love and radical resourcefulness. We live in times that beg for new voices of bold grace. Safe choices have led us into unsafe times. Hunger. Pollution. Crime. And barren spirits. We believed we needed “good” jobs. But those “good” jobs did not lead us to the goodness we desired.nnIt’s obvious, now, that work needs to support not just our lifestyles, but our lives—and life, itself. We need artists, artists in every profession, who can lead the world love-first into the healing realms of devotion expressed.nnTake up your love, your desire to express world beauty or bone wisdom, to cherish potential, or to devise and promote that preferable way. A universal intelligence has gifted you with a whispering wish, not to question, mock, or dilute, but to give your life to—and be given life in return. Trust these meek and gargantuan ideas. Tend even the preposterous seed. The idea begs you. I beg you. nnYou do not know where love will lead. nYou do not know where love will lead.n
You do not know where love will lead. nnThroughout the world’s history, it’s taken desire, not safe, predictable, acceptable, and impenetrable thinking, to spark cures, breakthroughs, shifts in consciousness, revolutions, and renaissances. Discoveries dawned on the minds of the ardent and engaged, the jubilant and enraged, not merely the employed. The worship of convention has never yet led to astonishment and a joyous leap in human potential. Only enthusiasm plants wild gardens in the mind and harvests inspired fruits and flowers. Only enthusiasm, born of light, conceives of brighter worlds to walk in. nnWhat if we all followed our natural desire to share our love and creativity? Can you imagine the loving and the gifted teaching, writing, singing, selling groceries and carburetors, and leading nations and scientific and economic explorations? Can you imagine impassioned, grateful souls at corporate headquarters, in the courtroom and the newsroom, in the wheat fields and the bean fields, and in the operating room? If we each stood in our right place with invincible hearts and visionary minds, would we not stand in a different world? Of course we would. And our feet wouldn’t even touch the ground. nnWe live in a world of infinite possibility waiting to unfold. We all have so much to give, so much secret richness encoded in the passion of our dreams. Love transforms us into healers and leaders, lights and fountains, and movers of mountains. When each of us pours our life-energy into the art, service, or industry that enlarges our existence, we will, at last, avail ourselves of the most untapped and unsung resource on the planet: creative inspiration. nnChoose to use your gifts and live the adventure of this lifetime. Step into the larger scheme of following your dream. Let’s deluge the world with the ultimate dancers, people who feed their souls with work and feed their work with soul. nnSoul will see us through. nnnCopyright 2008 Tama J. Kieves, All rights reserved.n