In an earlier post I made reference to my time at university and how I had no idea what I wanted to do. And that’s true. However, somewhat bizarrely, I did have some sense of what I would do. It was intangible and ephemeral. If I thought about it, it was like catching a glimpse of something fleeting out of the corner of my eye. No identifiable form, just a sense of something existing in time and space.

Not easy to describe in a post on a blogsite, but essentially I had a vision in my mind’s eye of a foundation. Well, when I say I had a vision, what I mean is that when I asked myself what I would do (mirror mirror on the wall, tell me what Tink will do when she grows up) the word that came back was ‘foundation‘. A legal entity? The foundation of a building? I had no idea. Just that I knew I would be involved with building something and be part of a team that would create something pretty darn cool. Innovative. Beautiful. Good for the planet.

While I was at university studying law, I doodled words relating to the foundation in case notes at the edge of the page. When I travelled after graduation, I sketched a three storied building in my journal and in the back of a beautiful little leather bound notebook, I drew a very simple little diagram of the foundation.

I am not a regular journal writer. Over the years I have written in fits and starts. But I kept those fits and starts. Ot at least I did until I moved to Sydney in 1998. At that point, I bundled everything up in a box in the garage and wrote all over it ‘Do not throw out!’ While this may seem a little extreme, I should explain that Dad had a habit of embarking on these massive cleaning sprees, a shock and awe approach to spring cleaning. Nothing was safe. Not even, apparently, boxes belonging to his absent daughter even if they did have instructions written all over them with exclamation marks. So yes, none of the notes I wrote on the foundation survived. Or so I thought…

Just over a year ago, as I was preparing to head of to the United States in search of more pieces of my foundation puzzle, I was flicking through the little leather bound book I’d bought in Italy many years ago. I’ve used very little of it, just a few pages at the front and I had not looked at it in fourteen years. But this time last year, something made me flick to the back pages and lo and behold there I found the little diagram of the foundation. And it was far, far more accurate than I could have ever have imagined, at the time I put pen to paper.

It seems that having faith in a long held vision and a commitment to being in my element, has led to more and more serendipitous and synchronistic meetings of kindred spirits. And within the last seven days, a long held and nurtured vision has begun to feel much, much more tangible.

At our last Onemeall lunch of 2010, eighteen amazing people in their element gathered to connect and collaborate. At a test event for NourisHer (see separate page on this site) twenty wonderful women sat around a work bench at Urban Harvest HQ to learn about olive oil. And just a few nights ago, eight people shared a wickedly good chocolate brownie and discovered that they have for many years shared the same vision, seen from different perspectives, of a foundation and a three storied building.

Hold the vision.

Keep the faith, in yourself and in the mysterious workings of the universe.

And never underestimate the alchemy of eight people sitting around a table, sharing chocolate brownie.