WEBVTT

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(Portuguese): The enchanting and
hospitable capital of Minas Gerais.

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Hello.

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So, the first thing that
I wanted to say is

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as I am speaking about my story

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you really want to be listening

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not for the story of Christopher Howe.

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Because my story isn't unique to me.

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It's the story of many people,

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the people that I've encountered
along my travels, along my journeys

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but it's a universal story.

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It' s a story about all of us.

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It' s a story about what's possible

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for all of us when we're willing
to take a great risk,

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when we're willing to step outside
of our comfort zone,

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outside of what we already know

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into what is unknown, into a place
that might not be safe

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for the benefit of other people.

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So this is the story of my life
for the past few years.

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I'll begin because like
somebody said earlier

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these stories of our lives don't really
have a beginning or an end

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but we need some place to start.

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So, I'll start when I was living 
in Germany back in 2004

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and I had a great life, I was 
a high school teacher, in Germany,

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and at the same time
there were certain things

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going on in my life that were not so good.

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I was in the middle of a divorce,

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I had two children that I loved dearly.

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But I was in a depressed place.

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And I had recently graduated
from university,

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I have a degree in History

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and another degree in Biology.

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And I was depressed in a way because

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during school I realized
that things like the Bible

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and the sacred texts were written by man

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and I thought that somehow God
wasn't involved in the process.

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And I became disillusioned with religion

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with spirituality for a few years.

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Until I found it again when 
I was living in Germany,

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a friend introduced me to
a book by Paulo Coelho,

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who many of you know,
who wrote the book "The Alchemist".

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And this book reminded me
of something inside of myself,

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something that I had forgotten,

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something that was part of who I am,

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about being on the spiritual path.

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So, I remembered my deep love

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when I was in college
for the country of Ethiopia.

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And how much I wanted to go there

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since I was seventeen years old.

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And after reading the "The Alchemist",

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I decided to buy a plane ticket to Ethiopia.

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Although it's too expensive.

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I didn't have enough money to get there
so I flew instead to Kenya.

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And on my way to Ethiopia
through Kenya,

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I met two film producers
on a very remote island

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near the coast of Somalia.

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And these film producers,

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they're special film producers indeed,

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they produced the movies
"American Psycho" and "Virgin Suicides",

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I don't know if you guys have seen 
these movies here.

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But they took me into their house.

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And I started working for them
as a writer

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developing the script for
a Paulo Coelho adaptation

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called "Veronica Decides to Die".

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So it's very interesting, one of the first
lessons that I've learned

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was when we take these
great leaps of faith

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to go on our journeys to go
towards our destiny,

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how all the right people arrive
just at the right times

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when we need them.

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So I met these people
right in this moment

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and I lived with them for about
two months in Africa

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and they went back
to Los Angeles

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and I continued on my way
to Ethiopia where I didn't

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necessarily find what it was
that I was looking for.

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I've gone into this great journey
to this other country

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to go some place else,
and I didn't find it.

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I'm not quite sure what it was
that I was looking for in that moment

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but it wasn't there.

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So I ended up back in Germany

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and my friends from Kenya,
the film producers,

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called me and asked me to come

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finishing developing
the script for them

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in Los Angeles,
"Veronica Decides to Die".

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So I flew out to Los Angeles
and we finished the script

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they went back to Africa and I stayed
for four months

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in a beautiful home,
right on the Venice Beach,

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in a house designed by Frank Gehry,
it was beautiful.

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They came back and their manager quit,

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and I stepped right into his position

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and I started managing film companies,

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something that I'd never done before,
I had no idea how to do.

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And I've much respect
for all the people producing

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this event because I know
what goes into it.

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They put me into a very nice house
in the Los Angeles hills

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and where I lived for the next year.

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My children came to live with me as well

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and at some point during that time

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I had my children go back
to live with their mom.

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They were very young and I thought
they needed to be with her.

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So they went to live with their mother

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and about a month later I was in the
mountains above Los Angeles

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when a very strange thing happened.

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I was in the middle of a ceremony,
and as part of the ceremony

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there's a point for meditation.

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It was very zen like in this
meditation where

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you clear the mind of all your thoughts.

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And the best way to do that

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is by just allowing whatever
is there to be.

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And not to add meaning
to the thoughts that come

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into your mind, alright?

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To get to this place of silence

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and of simple being and presence.

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And as I was there inside of the ceremony,

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in the middle of this meditation,

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I went into a visionary state.

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This might sound crazy,
it sounds crazy to me.

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But the case was I went into
this visionary state

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where I saw myself walking
from Los Angeles,

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first through the deserts
of Northern Mexico,

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just walking by myself.

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Simply with time alone
and with time with God.

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In the next scene I saw
myself walking through

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the mountains of the
Sierra Madre in Mexico,

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being helped by people along the way.

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And I realized as I was walking that I was

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in the middle of this vision
and that I shouldn't

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be having it, that I should
somehow stop it,

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it was crazy, it was nuts
there was no way

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I was going to be walking through Mexico.

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So I stopped it and I returned
back to the place

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where I was and I went back
into my meditation

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and as soon as I did that
I was transported

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back into this vision where again
I was walking

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through the mountains of Mexico,

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through Guatemala,
through the forest of Panama,

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through Colombia, Ecuador,
through Peru ending up

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eventually in this place in the middle
of the Amazon forest.

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And as I going through
this journey in my vision,

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I kept cutting it off.

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Saying: "No, this is crazy,

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I'm not going to do this,
this is nuts", right?

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Then I decided at some point
that I was going to

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just allow this vision to be,
just allow it to have that.

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Before I came into the ceremony,

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I prayed, I was looking for something
to set me back on my spiritual path.

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And I asked God just to be of service.

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And I realized during this vision,
that this vision was the answer

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to my prayer to be of service.

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I wasn't quite sure how yet.

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I took it on that this was something
that was actually possible, right?

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And this is something that you guys
want to hear, right?

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When we have an idea for a project,

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when we have an idea for a place
in our communities,

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in our lives when
we can make a difference,

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oftentimes, the first thing
that comes to us

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are the borders, the blocks, the barriers,

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"Oh, I can't do that, that's not me.

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Maybe I'm not a scientist,

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or maybe I'm not a film maker,
maybe I'm not this or that".

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We put all these borders
and limitations on what it is

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that we can do, none of them
are true, ok?

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Who you are is that anything is
possible in your life

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and you can make a big difference.

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Just one person, especially
when it's in contribution

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to the world around you and
that's the metaphor

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for what it was that I was about to do.

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So the first step after taking it on,

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and saying that this
is indeed possible,

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and ok I'll look at this,

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is that I had to tell people about it.

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I had to make a verbal declaration

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that I was walking to Brazil.

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So I had to tell my bosses,
I had to tell my mom,

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I had to tell my family
that I'm actually leaving

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this mansion that I lived in Los Angeles

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and I'm going to live
like a vagabond.

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On the road.

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And didn't even know
how I was going to do it.

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I had no plan, no plan, none.

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Just that I was doing it.

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So for the next two weeks
I was very excited,

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telling people about this
new possibility

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that was available for me.

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Something that was so crazy
that I couldn't have sat down and thought:

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"This is what I'm going to do,
this makes a lot of sense", right?

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It made no sense at all and that
was kind of the beauty of it.

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Two weeks later there was
another ceremony

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and I went to the ceremony
praying, asking for guidance

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because I had no idea
what I was doing.

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And again I saw another vision,

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the second of this series,

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where, again this is going to sound crazy,

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but I saw a vision of Mary in the sky

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over the sea of Cortez.

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And she didn't say anything to me.

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But only her hands were like this.

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And I saw myself handing out
blank pieces of paper

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to the people that I met on the road.

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Who wrote down,
whatever they wanted to write.

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They wrote down prayers,
to complete their past.

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It was a perfect moment
with a perfect stranger,

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someone who they didn't know

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and with whom they didn't have to pretend.

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And they could just be
totally honest with.

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And that they can finish the past

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so that they can see into the future

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this expanded horizon where
there were no limits.

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They weren't dragging a limited past
based on what they know.

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Maybe those experiences were good,
maybe they weren't,

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but if we're still just going based
in what it is that we know

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we're just going to keep creating more
of that into the future,

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So if you can clear your past,
even if it's just momentarily,

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and look fresh into the horizon,
without limitations,

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and see what's possible there and again,

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outside of fear or trying to make it,
or just survival.

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You know, survival is a game
that we all loose, right?

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So ultimately, we're all
going to loose it.

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And if you can get over your
fear of death,

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most other things like public speaking
for example,

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that most people are very afraid of,
myself included,

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these are irrational fears

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and it's very easy and very simple

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to take a step out
and just to go through it.

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You know, courage is the
art of having fear

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but doing it anyway, alright?

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So you're going to have all these fears,
all these blocks

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about why you can't do the things
that you want to do

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and do it anyway, be who you are
in contribution to the people

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around you and to your communities.

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So, once I said yes to this project,

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everything started lining up perfectly.

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I thought again that:
"Ok, I can make it

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I'm going to do this on my own."

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But of course that doesn't work.

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And it's no fun to like make it like:

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"I'm going to do this. I'm going to force
my way through the Amazon forest.

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To Brazil."

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That just doesn't happen.

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But naturally, once I declared this,
all the pieces started

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aligning themselves perfectly,

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collaborating towards my reaching my goal
deep in the Amazon.

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So, soon after I met a filmmaker,
his name was Mikki Willis,

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from Elevate Films, who decided to promote
my project through a documentary

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where the plan was we were going to raise

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10 thousand dollars that would
fund my trip.

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It was great, it was a platform
kind of like this.

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And I was able to speak my project

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and the problem was
we only made 800 dollars.

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(Laughter)

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So I didn't know how I was going to do it.

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And yet, I did it anyway.

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So I'm very grateful for Mikki Willis

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and for Elevate Films for giving me
the mouthpiece because this is

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the most important thing.

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You have to share what you're going to do

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and then you have to do it, right?

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So it does no good to have an idea sitting

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up here if you're not sharing it

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which is one of the reasons
why I love TED,

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because we're sharing these ideas.

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But also you have to take a step.

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What is it than you can today

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to turn these dreams,
these visions into reality?

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So I want to really encourage
all of you to be able to do.

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So my project what it symbolized in part

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was the possibility of people getting clear.

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Of people removing
the confines of the past

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and be able to step into a future

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that was limitless and free.

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And to able to see through
this person walking

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this gringo that if he can walk
from Los Angeles to Brazil

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what else is possible for me
in my life? Right?

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Like, anything is possible.

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So of course the journey is fraught,

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is filled with temptations,
with breakdowns,

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anytime we're on the road of life

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for sure we're going to have flat tires,

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the car is going to break down,

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we're going to feel sick.

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A great mentor of mine
once said,

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and I don't know if the joke
will carry here in Brazil

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but, sometimes, you just don't feel
like doing something,

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you said you were
going to do it,

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but you just don't feel like it right?

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Well, in California we have a lot
of Mexican food or Tex Mex food.

NOTE Paragraph

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And we have this thing
called a burrito.

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Which, sometimes they're
not always so good, right?

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And he said something once,

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"You know, my feelings can change
with a bad burrito." Right?

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Am I really going to let this stop,
what it is that I'm up to in life, right?

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So when you're feeling scared
or feeling these things,

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continue to be up to it,
no matter what.

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That's the idea, right?

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So, also this is the art of
writing down your prayers.

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Or write whatever it was, even atheists
took advantage of this project

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when we were writing down stuff, right?

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It was a cathartic opportunity for it.

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The idea is that when you give your word

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this is your promise, your promessa, right?

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And the art of catholic pilgrimage.

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You give your word to something

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and then you do it, right?

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But it's not in the realm
of right or wrong,

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or good or bad or evil
or anything like this, ok?

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So Aristotle was the first person
who used the term "Harmatia"

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which is where in the New Testament
we have the idea for sin.

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It's when you have a bow and arrow,

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and you have a target,

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and you shoot the arrow
for this target, right?

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But you miss the mark.

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And there's no morality involved
in this at all, right?

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We had a promise and we didn't
keep our promise.

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We had a promise to our wives,
to our children, to our communities.

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And somewhere along the way
for whatever reasons,

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because the very fact that
we are on the road,

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we had a breakdown and we
did not keep our promise.

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So the idea is, when we break our word,

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when we break our promise,

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to restore our promise,
to restore our word

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literally by speaking it,
or by writing it down,

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so that we can come complete
with the past

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and then make a new promise, right?

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So there were a few places where
I didn't keep my word in this walk:

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I didn't walk between Panama
and Colombia, for example,

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because the police prevented me
from doing it, ok?

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But there were other places where
there were incredible triumphs.

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Walking for 30 days through the Amazon

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without any maps or compass,
I was lost ten times.

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Just on rivers and just kind of
feeling where I was.

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It was an incredible project.

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So, I would like to bring your attention
to my website:

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iamwalking.org

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Where you can go and actually
write down your own prayers

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to clear your own past in a way
that's totally anonymous and safe

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and also declare
your new possibilities in life.

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Thank you so much for your time.
(Applause)