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OCTOBER MONTHLY for Friends & Members of WWRL
Issue #36-2008
coyote autumn
WWRL
Enlivening the Sacred Feminine Through Education, Service and Sustainability
West Gathering into Mystery
bonfire
SATURDAY OCTOBER 4
10:30 AM - 10 PM
Sacred Groves, Bainbridge Is.

Bring family and friends and join us in the mystery of the west for our third medicine wheel gathering of 2008.

10:30 AM West Ceremony

Noon Community Potluck

1:30-3:30   Singing Out Spirit, Singing by Heart Workshop: Kimber Godsey Songweaver

4-6 Djembe Drumming Workshop with Bill Matthews

Hand-made craft vendors all day.

Local and Organic Dinner by Emilia!
and
Bonfire Festivities 'til 10 PM, featuring Women Who Drum

Proceeds benefit Red Lodge - Cost for the day (at the door):
$20 includes dinner
$30 includes 1 workshop and dinner
$40 for 2 workshops and dinner

Women's Spa, overnite camping and light Sunday breakfast are available (contact Therese for fee and reservations).

Click here for ferry times to Bainbridge and
directions to Sacred Groves. 

Nurture sustainability - please bring your own eating ware.
See you there!
IN THIS ISSUE:
West Gathering
Board Nominations
5 Ways to Step In and Connect
Hoop Donates Comfort Packs
Elders' September Picnic
Samhain Drum Circle
Letter from the Editor
WWRL LINKS
Join Our Mailing List!
MONTHLY LINKS
Sacred Service:  Board Nominations close October 10th
wheel and mother drumWho will come to serve, this next turn of our wheel?  Three open positions are calling for women who love the business of Red Lodge and can serve with ease and joy.

* Vice-Chair
* Abundance Council Chair
* Conflict Evolution Chair

Click here to learn about 2009 Open Board Positions.

We want to highlight here that Abundance Council has been re-structured, with a renewed focus--to promote awareness and take actions which demonstrate that we have enough resources within our community and within our world to thrive.

Juicy ideas will flow through this Council. Like to think outside the box? Consider joining Abundance Council.Conscious of the abundant web of connection that nurtures the whole, Council members will reach out to connect people with available resources.

Abundance Council responsibilities include:
    �     Fundraising and (all in right timing) grant writing
    �     Managing and encouraging use of the Women's Leadership Fund
    �     Creating more ways for Red Lodge to support member's right livelihood
    �     Promoting sustainable practices within Red Lodge

Diverse talents are welcome on Abundance Council, including being a natural networker, having the passion and compassion to see members' gifts and call them out, willingness to ask questions and learn, being good at implementing goals to get tangible results, and the ability to find joy and satisfaction in taking small steps towards big goals.

To express your interest in serving on the Board or a Council in 2009,
contact Julia Bearheart, Nominations Coordinator, by October 10th.  Thank you!


5 Ways to Step in and Connect - Join a Council!
julie and kim
We asked women serving on 5 councils to tell us what brings them joy in their Red Lodge council work - thanks for their thoughtful replies:

Communications Council
Marsha -  "Being on the Communications Council has helped me learn to get along better in group interactions and to feel part of a greater whole that is the voice and pulse of WWRL; after all, the e-NEWS and other publications is how we make our voice in the world heard."

Program Council:
Nancy - "I really love the Red Lodge events we've had--that was the motivating factor for me in joining Program Council.  I went to the original Open House in Belfair and the Fall Festival in Seattle last year. I think it's wonderful what we're doing and I'm glad I can support it!"

Julie - "It's satisfying and creative to work with others to produce programs that are enjoyable for our Red Lodge sisters and brothers.  (And who wouldn't just love the long phone conference calls!) I call together the Plateau Area Drummers on a regular basis--a program supported by Red Lodge.

Conflict Evolution Council:
Kim - "I have found an amazing and engaging opportunity, while serving on Conflict Evolution Council, to try on new ways of being with and moving through my own internal personal challenges. Being more aware of what comes up inside, I can then be with myself and others in ways that are positive and healing. Increased awareness and clarity shines into and enriches the relationships I treasure. I like contributing at the level I am able and having that level shift and deepen in gradual ways that grow and stretch me.   I am grateful for the experience of more easily meeting myself and others right where we are."

Christiann - "Being on the CEC has redefined how I look at conflict in my life. This is far reaching because conflict is at the core of so many ways of relating that I took for granted before. Drama, judgement, expectations of others, neediness - these things all have their element of conflict. Therefore, studying the tools of conflict evolution has been a means of achieving freedom and creating the miraculous. Evolving conflict has become a source of spiritual growth and empowerment."

Elder Council:
Patricia - "Being moderator of our Elder Council yahoo code purple group is fun and I'm definitely learning patience and compassion! "We'll work it out! Just think how good you'll feel when you can actually use this yahoo group, and what you're learning in the meantime."  I'm also learning a whole new vocabulary, like for confusion, cronefusion (which is actually a powerful thing). Most of all I'm learning that when we show up, the energy shows up.  I learn something new everytime I show up."

Abundance Council:
Mystery Guest -   "I like the part about juicy ideas being welcome on this council!  And I love connecting women with available resources. I am eager to see who joins me on this council."

Click here for information on Joining A Red Lodge Council in 2009. Then contact Julia with your questions or interest in joining. 
Vashon Hoop Donates Comfort Packs
vashon hoop of service

When Red Lodge member Chalice sent out an e-mail asking for emergency hygeine supplies for the Downtown Emergency Services Center in Seattle, the Vashon Hoop of Service saw a need we wanted to help meet. 

Seven of us gathered to create thirteen comfort packs for new women residents at the center.

Along with towels, toothpaste and toothbrushes, soap, deodorant, hairties, pens and sanitary napkins, we also sent vitamins donated by a local Thriftway, and hand-embroidered purple hearts filled with lavender from Mary's garden. 
 
The need at the center is great.  If you want to contribute supplies, contact Chalice and find out how you can help.
Elders September Picnic
wwrl elder picnic
Looks like this may become an annual date--2nd Saturday in September, elders gathering for ease and fun (with a little wisdom consulting mixed in)! Thanks, Sarah for bringing us together.

And thanks, Pam for stepping in to Chair this ad-hoc council next year! Elder Council is open to all Red Lodge crones, who are invited to contact Patricia and sign up for our e-mail prayer circle,code purple.
Oh My - Such Gratitude to Norleen and Drai!
goddess
Two Communications Council goddesses who have given abundantly of their awesome talents and time to Red Lodge for several years have let us know this is their time to step back.  As of December 1st, Norleen is no longer our Webweaver, and on December 31st Drai will move on from her service as Graphic Designer.   Look for a full tribute to these glorious women in our November eNews!!!

Yes, we are a bit breathless at this pace of change, and still breathing into the emptiness, trusting that whatever happens next will reveal itself in mysterious ways. Please join us in spreading the word that we are seeking new volunteers with website maintenance, web-building and graphic design skills. 
 
Prayers of Peace and Gratitude
drum the heart
Drum the Heart, Heal the Earth
October 10-13th
Washington, D.C.

Beginning at sunrise October 10th, join Turtle Women Rising to drum, sing and pray for 4 days. Our sister, Eli Painted Crow, asks women from all parts of the world to gather to make a stand and be seen connecting our heartbeats with the heartbeat of Mother Earth as we pray for peace, balance, and the healing of the Earth.  In alliance with the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers and others, Eli  is organizing all the logistics to bring women to DC to drum day and night throughout the vigil. Whether you plan to travel to DC or bring friends together to drum for one of these evenings in your home, register your solidarity at turtlewomenrising.org.  Blessings!


Burton Hill Sweat Lodge Work Party
Sunday, October 12 on Vashon, 10:30 AM - 3 PM
followed by Vashon Drum the Heart at 3 PM
 
In gratitude, join in on a work party to prepare Burton Hill lodge for the winter. "There are hundreds of ways to bend and kiss the earth" - Rumi.  Bring gloves, tools and food. We'll do kindling and woodwork, light pruning, recover and strengthen the lodge and dig out the firepit --a rewarding experience in itself. And if you decide to stay for more community weaving, join us in the cedar grove and bring the rhythm of your heart to drum in resonance with all those at the DC Drum vigil.

Giving Thanks Lodge
Burton Hill on Vashon
Friday, November 28th
Time TBD
Poured as a Woman's Way sweat lodge ceremony, come to pray and purify. Open to all women.

For more information on both Burton Hill events, contact [email protected]
Plateau Area Samhain Drum Circle
pumpkin

Friday, October 31,  7:00 PM 

Home of Julie and Debbie, Enumclaw

Open to Women and Men


All Hallows Eve, Halloween, Samhain (Sow'eine), marks the transition from West to North. At this special time the veil between the seen world of matter and the unseen world of spirit becomes thin, especially at dawn and dusk.  This creates opportunities for us to slip through the fabric of space and time, beyond the limitations of our rational mind, and gain wisdom from within. Come drum. Donations to the WWRL Hearth Fund encouraged. Enumclaw location, for directions click here.
Truth Telling Ice:  Letter from the Editor, Kristina Turner
ice melt
Dear Readers,
At our September Red Lodge Board Retreat we invited WWRL Members to join us in a Truth Mandala, a ceremony developed by Joanna Macy as part of her Work that Reconnects.  Sixteen women came together to experience a ceremony that reconnects us to our deepest feelings about what the industrial growth era has done to the natural world.   Feeling with the world activates the compassion that connects us and inspires us to move into the flow of awareness and actions that sustain life. Joanna calls that flow the Great Turning. 

We placed this block of ice in the center of our Mandala, watched it melt, used it as a touchstone for our sharing. The next day, sitting in the empty circle with the bowl of clear water, I reflected on the power of the feminine to melt all form and carry us as deep as we need to go. . .right to the Source. . .in our great thirst for change. 

We all have a vote in the changes coming in November.  Whatever the outcomes, may our hearts continue to melt with compassion for all beings. 
Kristina  
New! MoonSongs CD Quantity Discount
Moonsongs CD Cover
Our music comes alive on Moonsongs for the Goddess Soul.  And our new quantity discount offers a wonderful way to share this gift with others! Order 5 CD's (or multiples of 5) to gift your friends or to sell at local events, and save 50%!
 
List Price: $15.00
Quantity Price: $7.50 each, when you order 5 (or multiples of 5)
S & H: $3.00 for 1 CD, $5.00 for 5, $7.50 for 10

Available at the West Gathering (save shipping costs).  Or, click here for secure online ordering with credit card or via PayPal. 
Aloha - Welcome New Members!
aloha lei
A heartfelt welcome to 4 new Red Lodge members from the Puget Sound area.  We continue to ripple out:

1 Lodge Sister from Sumner, WA
1 Lodge Sister from Vashon, WA
1 Support Circle Member from Olympia, WA
1 Support Circle Member from Aberdeen, WA
Reader Contributions

Submissions to The Monthly are welcomed from WWRL Members.  Send photos or brief articles (a few paragraphs only) with news of Red Lodge events, programs or human interest stories. Deadline is the 20th of the month preceding JAN, MAR, MAY, JUNE, JULY, OCT and DEC. Send to: [email protected]

EARLY eNEWS DEADLINE ANNOUNCEMENT:  October 15th (usually it's the 20th) is the deadline for our next Quarterly eNews in November:  Send articles, photos and announcements before that date if at all possible, to [email protected]
 


WOMAN'S WAY RED LODGE is a 501(c)3 Non-Profit Organization

We are grateful that contributions and co-creative members support our programs and ongoing services in many Northwest communities. We are excited that several Lodge Sister Members are percolating visions to bring WWRL to more states.
www.wwrl.org
Click here to join us or make a donation.