DECEMBER MONTHLY for Friends & Members of WWRL
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Issue #38-2008
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WWRL
Enlivening the Sacred Feminine Through Education, Service and Sustainability
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WWRL Annual Meeting and Wisdom Council
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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7, 10:45 AM - 4:45PM
Hanna's Barn on Vashon
Red Lodge Friends and Members are invited to join us in Going Beyond the Known: Honor North - Bones - Ancestors - Completion Celebrate Red Lodge 2008 Honor outgoing Board and Council Members Welcome incoming Board and Council Members Hear and contribute to visions of WWRL 2009 Receive our Gratitude! Bring a sack lunch, mug and a chair or pillow $5 donation for facility, Hearth Jar Donations welcome For directions, contact ktna@wwrl.org
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| WELCOME TO NEW BOWL-HOLDERS
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 Good news! Five new WWRL Board members are stepping in to hold the bowl in 2009:
Bonnie Lee Cleverdon, At-Large Member
Mariah Hoyt (rejoining the Board), At-Large Board Member
Christiann Howard, Conflict Evolution Council Chair
Kathleen Hanning, Long Dance Representative
Pam Tillson, Elder Council Chair
Our new trustees will join five continuing members:
Mary G.L.Shackelford, Chair; Cathie Stone, Treasurer; Willow Dreamfeather McKean, Secretary; Debbie Fank, Program Council Chair; and Kristina Turner, Communication Council Chair.
Many thanks to Marsha Cook, who will continue to serve as WWRL's Assistant Secretary. And our hearty welcome to 3 new Council Members: Ann Lohr is stepping into Program Council, and Patricia Menzies and Julie Taylor into Communications Council.
Thanks to all for your service!
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FEELING ABUNDANT
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In this uncertain time of economic stress, Red Lodge is taking action to acknowledge the true sources of our abundance and flourish in community.
Looking back at our successes in 2008, we feel abundant. Listening for our priorities in 2009, we see a 4-fold strategy emerging to light the way forward:
4-FOLD WAY TO ABUNDANCE:
o Friendraise
o Express Gratitude
o Encourage Right Livelihood
o Live Sustainably
Friendraising attracts new people and resources to Red Lodge simply by doing what we love and what we do well. In 2008, our friendraiser concert, drum circles and hoops, Medicine Wheel Gatherings and workshops brought us new members and abundant donations. In the spirit of friendraising, we gift our Moonsongs CD to new members. And on our CD order form we now offer a 50% quantity discount, so it's even easier to buy five and share our music with friends in local communities.
Expressing Gratitude opens our hearts as we serve. Members' abundant gifts, talents and participation expand our programs. Many have renewed their memberships this year, helping to fund our organization. Our special thanks to Della, Suzanne and Christine for donating handmade gifts this year to honor women who put in countless hours serving WWRL. We are deeply grateful to all!
Encouraging Right Livelihood helps us to feel abundantly inter-connected. As we design Red Lodge programs we are looking for ways to grow and honor people's skills so more and more of us can make a living in ways that nourish us personally, enrich community and sustain Mother Earth. In 2008, WWRL took many steps in this direction as we lowered vendor fees for our events, sponsored and produced workshops led by Trudy, Julia, Willow, Kimber and Bill, offered Drai a monthly stipend (albeit modest!), paid Emilia to cater the West Gathering dinner, supported like-spirited communities by holding our meetings at Sahale and Sacred Groves, and through KIVA funded a micro-loan to a mother in Togo who sells her chiles at market.
Living Sustainably is the mantra that we must continue to chant through all our Red Lodge activities, as we carpool, recycle, re-use and model simplifying our lives. Every small step matters, as we learn to deeply honor the abundant source of our well-being--this increasingly fragile web of life.
Feel inspired to help Red Lodge continue on our 4-fold path to Abundance? There are many ways to contribute to this picture: help create a friendraising concert, help market our CD more broadly, make gifts to thank member volunteers, get passionate about sustainable practices in Red Lodge. And/or consider stepping in to Chair or be a member of Abundance Council and before Dec 31st, contact chair@wwrl.org
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WEAVING THE HOOP: Connect Women in 2009
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When women of different generations come together in circle to share what is real and create meaningful ceremony together, we grow genuine connections and re-weave the torn web of sustainable culture. Weaving the Hoop that Connects is a Red Lodge service program that guides women to form nourishing inter-generational circles in their own communities. Designed as a 9-month journey with once-a-month meetings, we offer a free,comprehensive handbook (digital format) on how to create your own Red Lodge hoop. Now is the time to contact us if you would like to start a hoop in 2009. The handbook is full of ideas and resources to spark your own inspirations for meetings that follow the rhythm of the seasons. Women who have participated in hoops on Vashon and in Enumclaw have warm feelings and praise for this program. To learn more, contact: weavinghoops@wwrl.orgInterested in starting a Red Lodge Hoop? FREE GATHERING: For women wanting to facilitate or connect in a Red Lodge HoopSUNDAY, JANUARY 10, 2-5 PMin TACOMA, WATo register and for directions, contact weavinghoops@wwrl.org |
EVOLVING: Through Self-Inquiry
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 On October 26th the Conflict Evolution Council (CEC) gathered to share, deepen and broaden our skills and connection. Our council's theme for 2008 was to help create a climate of ease in moving through conflict within Red Lodge. This begins with ourselves.
To grow our toolbox this year we explored The Work by Byron Katie--a simple yet powerful process of inquiry that teaches us to identify and question thoughts that cause suffering, so we can address our problems with clarity.
CEC members have been examining the nature of conflict and have proposed that conflict is a feeling that comes from within. So we decided to play with a self-examination tool. Through self-examination, we believe that one can understand, transform and/or create new meaning about a conflict without even having to "clear" or talk with someone you are in conflict with.
Rather than avoiding conflict, this approach creates awareness and responsibility for how your thinking, feeling, and believing affect the way you see and relate with another. It's actually really empowering to evolve the conflict through your own inquiry. Then, in clearing or talking with another (if you decide to), you have a more grounded way of communicating through insight what is going on for you, what you want and how to move forward.
In the spring we spent a day with 2 facilitators of The Work and since then have been practicing in partners and noticing how it affects our lives. As a follow up, we got together on October 26 to continue our practice.
The day was rich and meaningful to us all and we are excited to bring this to WWRL! We believe the philosophy and practice of The Work can benefit our organization, and have been dreaming and exploring what this could look like in 2009 and beyond. We invite you to consider discovering and using this powerful and effective tool and to keep your eye out for coming opportunities to learn and grow with us.
We welcome the opportunity to serve and are grateful to be a part of helping WWRL flourish as an organization. An organization that evolves through conflict as well as through joy, through respecting difference as well as celebrating our commonality, through honoring what is true for us as individuals and as a collective.
"I came away with affirming how powerful and simple
a tool it is. I think it's something good to take to Red Lodge
in some way" ~Patricia Menzies
-Kendra E. Thornbury, CEC Chair
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| PLANT A SEED OF COMPASSION
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As the days get shorter and many of us begin to turn inward to replenish and build up energy for spring, I ask you to look outward for a moment. Look to your neighborhood, place of employment or wherever you are. See if there is one person you could drop by and share a cup of soup with, rake their lawn, take their dog for a walk, go grocery shopping for or....sit and spend time with.
Reach out to someone. Let them know you care, we are connected, we are community. Plant a seed of compassion so all of us can reap a more bountiful harvest next spring.
-Debbie Fank |
| LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Kristina Turner |
Dear Readers,
Watching the leaves fall to carpet the earth last month, when cyberspace was alive with political and economic change and Red Lodge e-mails were flying thick in the wind to prepare our annual reports and visions for 2009. . . .whew!. . . . I gained a new understanding of how organizations dance to the rhythm of natural cycles.
Now, we enter the quiet time. The blessed season when we celebrate all we have. May we share an abundance of sustenance and spirit and rest deep in the knowing that all is well. As we dream the New Year into being, may we be peaceful and at ease. -Kristina Turner, editor |
| Readers Write and Send Photos
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Submissions to The Monthly are welcomed from WWRL Members. Send photos
or brief articles (150 to 400 words) with news of Red Lodge events, programs or human
interest stories. Deadline is USUALLY the 20th of the month, and because of the winter holidays next month's deadline is December 15th. Send to: monthlyenews@wwrl.org
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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. Click here to join us or make a donation. |
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