f|back (may '07): my 1994 epiphany and vision

(repost from 05/18/07)

in may 1994, an early saturday morn ... around 5:30 am (pacific), i had an epiphany. from it - the following -

There are BRIDGES yet to be constructed by those who live and

breathe in their ENVIRONMENT — AIR, LAND and WATER. Egos stand firm

on the ground that they were born and choose not to acknowledge that

to get one step closer they must go one step FURTHER.

MY VISION IS TO CREATE THOSE BRIDGES.

[by Shirley © 1994]

a little context ... i was living in san diego, and for nearly 3 years, i had been working for a large corporation's environmental department. meanwhile, california was going through the beginning of electric utility restructuring. for several months, posted in my open workspace was a quote translated from louis pasteur's -

"dans les champs de l'observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés."

translated as -

in the field of observation, chance favors the prepared mind.

and for quite some time beginning toward the end of 1993, i also was experiencing amazing coincidences, which of course i realized later weren't necessarily coincidences but more along the lines of "... the prepared mind." nevertheless ...

a whirlwind began early in '94 ... meeting people and making new friends, reconnecting with old friends and work colleagues, chance meetings resulting in the beginning of an expanding network of people in the environmental field, creating opportunities for friends, ... and amidst all this excitement, i also had challenging work circumstances - gnarly working relationships with a select few, literally negative work space, and did i say gnarly working relationships. (ask me about what may have been "group therapy" with ratepayer dollars, who knows?!) ... and among all this, i also had some sort of funky atypical eyeball thing going on (which no longer exists).

coffee talk ... to keep sane, i coffee-d regularly after work at least two evenings a week with a good friend, dash. to collect my thoughts, i carried a large leather satchel around with a journal, prismacolor pencils, and tracing paper. later, i added a voice recorder because ideas were flying around. i constantly journal'd, scribbled, sketched, and talked about what i saw in the future and how i may possibly shape it.

the result ... what i consider my '94 epiphany.