
After giving it a lot of thinking, I made up my mind and decided to go to California, destination Santa Cruz, to attend the NLP University with Robert Dilts and Judith DeLozier. My goal was to get the knowledge and skills to become an NLP Trainer, having as mentors two great teachers like Robert and Judith. I read all the books written by Robert, and there are so many, and I attended in the past few of his seminars that significantly helped me in becoming a better person and a coach. Regarding Judith, I had just heard many enthusiastic comments from people who attended the NLP courses, among them my good friend Martina. So, I called Martina to inform her about my decision of leaving for the Santa Cruz Campus. And became a student again.
Martina was very encouraging and she gave me, among the others, one very good advice that got my attention.
She told me about the secret friend
, one of the NLPU tradition. She didn’t get into details, but she told me to bring a present with me, something that at the end of my journey I had to gift to my Secret Friend.
Just one month before leaving, I was strolling around in the city centre of Pordenone, the small town where I live, and I recalled Martina’s advice.
I went to one of my favourite shops in town, and after a little while I was attracted by an object depicting the Noah’s Ark, with an elephant, a giraffe and an hippo getting inside the Ark. Instinctively, I bought it, making sure that it was carefully wrapped, since it was so fragile. And I walked out, not knowing why I had chosen it.
And here we are, first day at school: sixty students coming from all over the world, different ages, languages, cultures, all excited for the beginning of this new journey, some of them at the beginning of a new stage of their life, some of them living their biggest dream.
After the introduction of the teachers, the staff and the home’s rules
, we are asked to write our name on a small piece of paper called fish
. After putting all these pieces of paper in a basket, one of Robert’s assistant asked us to pick one of them with the name of one of the students that we had to keep for ourselves, like a secret, till the end of the course. That person will be our Secret Friend.
My secret friend’s name is Hiroe: she is a sweet lady from Hiroshima, Japan. My task will be to support her journey, with thoughts, small items, creative ideas, without her knowing where the support comes from. After couple of days, I made sure that the Noah’s Ark was delivered to Hiroe, and with maximum discretion I observed her reaction while she was opening her gift.
She was obviously surprised and she struggled — I could tell from the amazed look in her face — to understand what was the meaning of that gift.
I was puzzled myself: I didn’t know why I gave it to her in advance and why I chose it in the first place. But I sensed there must be a good reason, a good intention.
Time goes by, and as we get close to the end of this training I realize how blessed I am, that I am meeting so many wonderful persons, persons that are unfolding their stories, their lives, and that are sharing with me their missions, dreams, visions, skills, fragilities, qualities like passion and compassion, creativity and persistency.
That has been made possible thanks to this special surrounding built by the NLP founders, that allow all the emotions to reveal themselves in this safe environment.
I start understanding the true meaning of the NLP mission Create a world to which people want to belong
.
And this morning, meditating on the top of the hill that overlooks the bay of Santa Cruz and the Pacific Ocean, I finally understood the true meaning of the Noah’s Ark.
The NLP University is the Noah’s Ark that sixty persons have boarded coming from every hidden place in this planet, answering the call of its mission, to learn, share and live for three weeks a new, inspirational experience, as if this environment, so different from the real world
that we experience every day, wasn’t real at all.
Instead, this world is absolutely real, it’s more real than anything else, it’s a sure sigh that despite different languages, religions and cultures people moved by a true feeling of brotherhood and respect, from the curiosity and desire of become better, to define their missions, to make their dreams come true…well, they can live their experience fully with joy and love, that kind of unconditional love that gives happiness.
Thanks Judith, thanks Robert, at the end of this beautiful journey it will be our responsibility to get off this Ark, get back to the real world
and share with all the people willing to listen, open to listen, what we have learned, strong in our faith that with dedication, passion, acceptance and respect, creativity and vision we can create a world to which people want to belong.
Santa Cruz, July 2011
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