This morning, I awoke from a dream where I was speaking passionately before a room full of influential leaders, “We will discover, develop and deploy ten thousand young professionals and global change agents to secure, stabilize and sustain one million orphans and refugees at the initial cost of one hundred million dollars, any questions?”

(notice the money but see the people)

This snail shell was discovered among the thick greens around Clairvaux Abbey – the stone beneath, from the orchard lands of Le Thoronet Abbey. I view these beautiful creations everyday and they lead me to prayer.

Now, of course, these might only be juxtaposed things sitting pretty for a picture, like my prayers could end up sounding, juxtaposed and pretty… but there may be metaphors resting between these creations, ancient organic compounds, coral and shells all compressed and shaped over time by the pervasive, perpetual and penetrating flow of water. The development of prayer in the human being isn’t much different. I can pray a fragile fibonacci prayer, but I can also be pressed into something profoundly weighty.

Last week, @markpetersen tweeted, “Talking about how to successfully shift culture in nonprofit orgs. Is it possible? Or shd they just die, and start over?”

This morning, @kirkbartha responded, “@markpetersen economic crisis put zeitgeists into overdrive non-profits can’t manage, creative & collaborative coalitions of interdependence”

Now I’ve yet to meet Mark, but today I unloaded these fluid, cryptic and convoluted comments on his blog regarding this tweet about the culture of nonprofits:

“(quote) Take this fire hose with a grain of salt, a drop of olive oil, a nibble of bread and a splash of wine.

Last October, I snapped this pic of Bono going by on the moving catwalk under the claw in Vancouver. He’s reaching toward the Edge who is coming toward him on the other catwalk; another ceiling in another chapel.

As U2 stands down while Bono recovers from back surgery I sit here reading The DATA Report 2010 remembering Bono’s Ted Prize wish which helped catalyze ONE and DATA. When the G20 spend a billion on security; when BP loses a billion in value and spends a billion in recovery; when billions of people don’t get access to what a billion have… it’s time for a surgery of ideologies!

Reading between the lines of revisionist history, Robin Hood is the sequel to Kingdom of Heaven.

Kingdom of Heaven ends with Richard the Lionheart embarking on crusade; Robin Hood begins ten years later, with the consequences.

From blacksmiths to stonemasons, France to England, feudal skirmishes to draft charters.

In Robin Hood, I find it fascinating that Friar Tuck is depicted as a bee keeper. Bernard of Clairvaux is the patron saint of bees, and certain legends suggest that Tuck was once a Benedictine/Cistercian.

From Fiat Lux in Clairvaux Manifesto,

Last summer, I crafted this cross for a friend. The friend who first taught me how to craft stone, created the limestone tower in the background, historic replica of a stalwart Maltese sentry of the sea.

It took patience and a steady hand to hollow the eye out of the stone, which when filled with olive oil lights, heals and nourishes the stone beautifully.

[Hagar] gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered. Genesis 16:13

I’m crafting a document entitled Clairvaux 3D (started out as 3.0, but now it’s 3D), full of global business initiatives and dreams, and we’ll use this document to raise the first pool of funds coming from philanthropists, to sow into this growing global vision, a unified front of for-profit and not-for-profit, within a platform of international development.

I’ve requested a pre-release of Charlene Li’s book Open Leadership.  I typed into the online form,

“…because we’re going to use social networking and other tools to launch an e-bank and venture capital group by establishing circles of quiet, abbeys of prayer and work, and cities of refuge… among 10,000 young professionals and global change agents to pool their teams, skills, expertise and technologies into greater profitability locally and functioning sustainability among the poorest of the poor globally.”

Coordinates I’m sketching into the fabric of this map:

A friend reading Clairvaux Manifesto sent me these lyrics to a song she has written into the heartbeat of this global armada. These profound words lift the fog of war from my brain…

As I post her lyrics, I am reminded how God gave me a choice 12 years ago: to dance before the people in lights, music and song, or stand there before them in the nakedness of his Word alone (proclaiming words that would one day be written into new songs).

It’s been 12 years since I wrote my last song, but today marks the day Clairvaux Manifesto bursts into bloom.

I just received permission to post a portion of a note I received as my United flight landed in Calgary. Throughout the flight from Chicago, I was praying about the scope of the vision I’d been sharing this past weekend in New York, some of the very same stuff I’ve been seeing and hearing and sharing for a number of years, stuff all over the pages of Clairvaux Manifesto.