Responding to Vision

“When you say yes to a vision that’s moving through you, it may not always be met with a popularity contest… But if there’s a vision moving through you, you have a responsibility to trust it.” – Lola Wright

Earlier this year, my husband received a new opportunity for growth in his business. At first, I didn’t think it was the right opportunity for us—but with time I came to see his vision, and learn lessons that I couldn’t have anticipated.

When my husband, Nathan, got a business opportunity, he had a vision for his future that I couldn’t see. Gratefully, he was persistent in his belief and I chose to trust him and support his plan. It was only after I accepted his idea that I was able to see the vision that he was drawn to.

In the first part of a series called Three Things I Learned While Digging In the Dirt, I’m bringing you what I learned about responding to vision. Listen in to hear about the power of stillness, how to listen to your own visions, and when to trust your body and instincts instead of the easy path that you can clearly see.

• (00:54) – A new opportunity
• (04:55) – Visioning
• (15:38) – Responding to your vision

Do you want to unleash your inherent love and goodness, liberate yourself, and free humanity from the oppressive systems and structures we have created? We are here to support you in finding your fierce and loving life. Join us in Our Circle, a vibrant membership community rich in opportunities for engagement and transformation. Find out more at lolawright.com/our-circle.

You can follow Lola Wright, on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter and learn more about my work at lolawright.com.

Chicago born and built, Lola grew up in wealth and privilege, yet always sensed something was missing. She sought out aliveness and freedom in music, immersing herself in the hip hop and house music scenes of 90s Chicago. After finding herself on her own at 23, as the mother of two young children, she became determined to create a new experience.

Lola is an ordained minister with a gift for weaving together the mystical and material, she served for many years as the CEO of Bodhi Center, an organization committed to personal transformation, collective awakening, conscious activism, and community-building. 

This podcast is produced by Quinn Rose with theme music by independent producer Trey Royal.

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Lola Wright (00:01): Something is stirring. Maybe you’ve felt it. We are reckoning with the reality of injustice and binary thinking that feeds the political machine. Humanity is in the midst of a heartbreaking and painful paradigm shift. That is a good thing. My name is Lola Wright, and this is Find Your Fierce & Loving. This podcast is intended to help you disrupt, untangle and free your mind of personal and collective agreements, patterns and beliefs that are holding you back and weighing you down. We desperately need your fierce and loving purpose now more than ever. 

Lola Wright (00:54): Oh, I’m so excited to be with you on the podcast. A lot has been going on in my life, and I just would like to get you caught up. I always share my life really as an opportunity to look for similarities. The content can sometimes be incredibly entertaining, but really I hope it serves as an invitation for how some of the threads or themes are relevant to you.

Lola Wright (01:24): I’m going to do this as a three part series, and it’s titled Three Things I’ve Learned While Digging In the Dirt. The first part I’m titling Responding to Vision. Let me give you a little bit of context. In February of this past year of 2021, my husband uncharacteristically started getting like giddy. He started getting really, really excited about the prospect of growth in his business. Now, if you know my husband, you may realize that he’s not a particularly like excitable guy, and he’s incredibly still, and he’s very present. And, as my dad often reminded me growing up, he is not one to get too high with the highs or too low with the lows. It’s one of the things that I love about him.

Lola Wright (02:24): So, when I saw him getting really animated and amplified in February of this year, I was really curious. And, one afternoon he came to me and he said, “I have an incredible opportunity. I have been approached to buy this client list in my industry. And, even more exciting, I have been asked to consider purchasing the property associated with the business.” My body began to contract. I became incredibly cynical, incredibly skeptical, and like no fun. And, I immediately went into all of the reasons this was not a good idea. We have plenty of financial commitments. We already aren’t doing the projects that I would like for us to be doing on our own house. We have kids. We have multiple businesses. Buying another property so that you can receive mulch for your landscape design business. I don’t know, call me crazy. I’m just not that excited about it.

Lola Wright (03:35): And so, I expressed my concern. I expressed my reticence. I expressed my skepticism and still, he persisted. And, I thought, wow, this is so unusual. Nathan just kept speaking about what he sensed was possible through this invitation. Now, this has come to be this really, really potent experience because in my life, what I know to be true is that you can have, or I can, have a particular path, a particular trajectory, a particular plan. And then, out of nowhere, out of no way, a new way is made. So, this idea of responding to vision… I want to break down what I mean when I use the word vision. I want to provide you with a little bit of context around the vision that has been stirring in Nathan, and then perhaps extend a little context into why his vision felt so threatening to me, and then ultimately, how I’ve chosen to respond in like mind with him.

Lola Wright (04:55): You know, the practice of visioning, as articulated by my friend and mentor Michael Beckwith, is the practice of listening to the still small voice, your intuitive knowing, the secret place of the most high, that place inside of you that goes beyond logic and reason, that knows that it knows that it knows. It is not your humanity per se. It is the divine impulse, that universal nudge. It is a practice that is very distinct from visualizing. The practice of visualizing is where you, in your humanness, in your personality, have an idea for something and then, you start to hold it in your mind’s eye very consciously. And, perhaps you’ll do a vision board. Perhaps, you’ll write an affirmation. Perhaps, you’ll start journaling about it and get really, really laser clear and focused on this thing you’re calling forward.

Lola Wright (06:05): A powerful practice, a beautiful practice, one that I have used many times in my life. Visioning is distinct from visualizing. The practice of visioning and the notion that you actually do have a vision of and for your life is this sense that there is something greater that is sort of stirring in you, and that when you turn yourself over to it. What I mean by that is when you can settle the thinking mind, the part of our humanity that is oftentimes oriented in fear and oftentimes judging and assessing, judging and assessing, judging and assessing, always using logic, always using reason, always using data, always resting on analysis.

Lola Wright (06:59): When you can soften, loosen, rest that capacity and trust in something greater unfolding in, through, and as you, you’re beginning to respond to vision. That’s what was happening with Nathan. There was an impulse that was moving in him. There was all of a sudden an invitation to take an expansion, to take a leap in his business that did not make sense. By that, I don’t mean it was reckless. By that, I don’t mean it was irresponsible. I simply just mean it wasn’t premeditated. It wasn’t part of a growth strategy or a growth plan. It wasn’t reflected in a business document somewhere.

Lola Wright (07:52): Nathan has been seeding his business for over a decade. I would say probably closer to two decades when he was in college, and perhaps even longer ago than that. But, he has been seeding a vision for his life, and it has been oriented around particular qualities. The qualities that he’s wanted to create in his life are collaboration, learning, mentorship, growth, curiosity, and it has involved design and build, the natural landscape, the manufactured landscape. He has this incredible interest in bringing the indoors into the outdoors and the outdoors into the indoors, these sort of in-between spaces. So, he’s been seeding that. He’s been investing in that. He’s been holding that in his mind’s eye while holding it lightly, holding it loosely. And so, of course, he was open and available to opportunities that began to emerge in the field of his awareness. He was approached to buy this client list. He was approached to purchase this property, and he was met by me in strong resistance.

Lola Wright (09:27): So, I wonder, perhaps you’ve been on either side of that equation. Perhaps you’ve had a vision that’s moving through you, and you share it with someone close to you. You share it with someone you love, and you are met with their own cynicism, their own resistance, their own skepticism. That can be a bummer, but here’s what I love about how Nathan went through this process. My resistance had nothing to do with his experience. He knew that this universal nudge, this intuitive sensibility that he had been cultivating, that he has been cultivating for decades now, was so much greater than the fear of my humanity.

Lola Wright (10:14): And so, he just kept speaking into the vision that was moving through him, and he kept taking inspired action toward this property. And, he sort of gently and lovingly and persistently brought me along in the process. Now, here’s the thing. It was the dead of winter. Two of the three parcels of land are vacant. It wasn’t a real looker, and I wasn’t that excited about it. But, I could sense his enthusiasm. I could sense his inspiration, and I know the power of surrendering and responding to something greater than our logic, something greater than our humanity, something greater than our capacity to reason and analyze.

Lola Wright (11:13): So often, we can find ourselves mired in our considerations, in our circumstances. And so, I decided to respond, respond affirmatively. I wouldn’t say I was like jumping up and down. I wouldn’t say that I was like, “Yeah, let’s do this!” But, that first visit we took to the property… I was willing to go along, and I did. It was February. It was cold. It was snowy. The space was crowded. The building… Part of the property was like… I felt like all the stuff in there was sort of caving in. I didn’t have the vision that he had, but I trusted him. And, I knew that he was moving through his process.

Lola Wright (12:10): A few weeks later, we went back to the property. Spring began to show early signs. I started to walk on the outside on this very sacred land. I began to feel the sense of mystery and vision that had previously so captivated Nathan. And so, I started responding to it. I started listening for myself. Now, one of the things that’s really interesting is that Nathan, when he designs, always walks into a space, and before the client begins talking about what’s most important to them, he spends time in the quiet. And, he just invites the space to tell him what it’s wanting to become. And so, I did that myself. I walked the land, and I asked the space. I asked the land what it was wanting to become. And, very swiftly, I started getting words and images and sensations and sounds, and I could feel it filled with a liveness and people and celebration and community and gathering.

Lola Wright (13:33): See, when you say yes to a vision that’s moving through you, it may not always be met with a popularity contest. It may not always be met with great enthusiasm. It may not always be met with strong endorsement, but if there’s a vision moving through you, you have a responsibility to trust it and to respond accordingly, to listen to your intuition. The more you listen to your intuition, the more you begin to acknowledge this universal intelligence that is coursing through you, the more clearly you will be able to surrender into it.

Lola Wright (14:19): And so, Nathan held the vision. Nathan held the vision that moved through him, and he waited generously and graciously for me to catch up. And I did. I caught up on my own time. Not because he persuaded me. Not because he forced me. Not because he thought I was crazy for not getting it right out of the gate. But, because I was going through my own process.

Lola Wright (14:54): You want to be more alive. You want to unleash your inherent love and goodness, liberate yourself, and free humanity from the oppressive systems and structures we have created. We are here to support you in finding your fierce and loving life. Join us in Our Circle. This is an affirming and radical space that will gather weekly, on-demand or live, whatever works best for your life. For more information on how you can engage in Our Circle, visit lolawright.com/our-circle. I’d love to have you with us.

Lola Wright (15:38): So, I would love for you to just take a few moments and ask yourself what vision is moving through you right now. What intuitive nudge are you receiving? What universal intelligence and guidance are you getting? Very, very often, I sense that in my body. I would encourage you to move beyond your mind. Start feeling the sensations in your body. Notice the emotions that are associated with those feelings, with those sensations, and begin to trust newly your intuition. Responding to vision is a very different way of orienting ourselves. It does mean oftentimes being out on the skinny branches of life. It involves leaning into a sense of faith, faith in something greater than just your muscle.

Lola Wright (16:42): So, as we have responded to this vision for this emerging space in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, I really have been leaning in to the mystery of life. Everything that I thought I’d be doing right now has gone a different way, and yet I can totally see how it is organized perfectly. When you respond to vision, it is not ruled by logic. Of course, that doesn’t mean we need to be negligent or reckless. It just means that something greater is happening here, and you can trust that. You really, really can.

Lola Wright (17:35): So, how do you know if something is part of a vision? That’s oftentimes the question I receive when people are learning to listen to their internal knower, their still small voice, that secret place of the most high within your very being. Oftentimes, people will say, “Well, how do I know if that’s really something divine, really something guided versus just sort of like my own agenda?”

Lola Wright (18:06): I can’t necessarily give you the exact formula for that, but it is why I always encourage us to cultivate a relationship with our bodies because I don’t believe our bodies lie. And, the more we cultivate a sense of self-awareness, the more we begin to understand our body flags, our cues, the clues that our body is giving us all the time, the more easily we can respond to vision, the more easily we can trust and know that we are not ever forgotten or forsaken. So remember, when you choose to live a life by vision, when you choose to respond to vision, it means that you’re choosing to go beyond just your logical and thinking and analyzing capacity. Something in you knows. You do know what you’re here for. You do know what’s yours to do. You do know when to turn left and when to turn right.

Lola Wright (19:14): It may be that that sense of knowingness has been suppressed, diminished, marginalized, voided, but at any given time, you can quite literally dust it off. You can begin to nurture it and respond to it, and it will become increasingly clear. Now, the thing is that it was my responsibility to listen and respond to my vision, and it’s been Nathan’s responsibility to listen and respond to his vision. And, the beautiful thing is that we’ve found a place at which they intersect. So, here I am now knee deep in Nathan Wright Landscape Design. I’ve never had a meaningful interest in his business, but somehow, some way, this property emerged, and it has been the most extraordinary and exquisite opportunity for us to dance and play and imagine and create and collaborate.

Lola Wright (20:22): So, here we are, we’re just responding to vision. We’re taking one step at a time, inspired action after inspired action after inspired action. There have been obstacles along the way. I will tell you about many of those as I continue on this journey, but there have been already so many miracles that have caused this transaction to move forward in ways that we never could have predicted. So, when you respond to vision, when I respond to vision, we avail ourselves to support. We avail ourselves to miracles. We avail ourselves to insights, and we become magnetic. When you respond to vision, you become this resonant match for everything that you need and want for that vision to come to form. It is said, I believe by Rumi, that, “There is never a desire placed on the heart of any one person that does not have all that it needs to come forward.”

Lola Wright (21:43): So, begin in micro moments, responding to your vision. Share it with people who you trust that can hold it sacred, even if they can’t get on board with you, even if it takes them a little bit of time to catch up. Sure, it’s nice to have support. Sure, it’s nice to have the cheerleading of your friends and family, but remember, it’s your vision. You are your responsibility. Your vision is your responsibility. Respond to it. I can’t wait to have you at this space in Logan Square. It’s already magical. It is that which I always thought I would have in a very different form. It’s already emerging with art and music and collaboration and imagination. There’s already meditation occurring there. And, that’s just among the people who are tending to it, to bring it to a place where we can invite you into it.

Lola Wright (22:54): I can’t wait to have you. Stay tuned to learn more about it. And, until then, respond to your vision. May my life be a demonstration of how uncanny and unpredictable a life of vision may be. It’s not neat. It’s not tidy. It doesn’t live on a linear timeline. It’s dynamic. It’s emergent. It’s unexpected. It’s exciting. It’s alive. Responding to your vision produces aliveness.

Lola Wright (23:32): If you enjoyed this show and would like to receive new episodes as they’re published, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts. Your review helps others find this show. You can follow me at Lola P. Wright on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and learn more about my work at lolawright.com. This episode was produced by Quinn Rose with theme music from independent music producer, Trey Royal. 

Lola Wright (24:19): The more you listen to your intuition, the more you begin to acknowledge this universal intelligence that is coursing through you, the more clearly you will be able to surrender into it.