LIVING AS IF YOU'VE LIVED IT
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When I was in high school in Omaha, miserable and aching to escape, I could cheer myself up by imagining that I was already on the far side of my teenage tribulations. As I did my homework in my room, I pretended that I was a journalist in New York, working on assignments for Time magazine. Taking on the persona of a successful professional lifted me from the tedious present and made me feel I had already sailed into the future I longed for.
I still practice that ploy now and then, not by making believe, as I did then, but by envisioning myself already on the other side of my current challenges, happily living the life I want.
Next time you feel discouraged about some endeavor you're engaged in, try this:
Ask yourself what you'd like to be doing in ten years. Forget about the logistics of age and income; just imagine freely. What are you doing in your life? How are you contributing to the world? What have you accomplished (hint: it's been a lot!)? How do people regard you? After you get a general impression of this picture, begin focusing less on the details and feel into who you are as a human being, how you move through the world. How do you react to obstacles? How do you answer the phone? How do you spend your day? How do you sit at your desk?
Move back into the present while maintaining within you the vital energy of that future self. You may find that the difficulties and frustrations you were facing just moments earlier seem suddenly resolvable, since the future you has resolved them. In this way you feel that what you are actually doing now is in some way being actively ushered into the future you envision.
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EMBRACING ELDERHOOD--WITH TWO INCREDIBLE GUIDES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two wise and insightful teachers, Ann Roberts and Charles Lawrence, who have journeyed widely and deeply within themselves and around the world, will offer a special program, Embracing Elderhood: A Soulful Exploration, June 21-27 in northeastern Vermont. This journey into soulful, conscious aging will include deep imagery, exploration of fears about aging, teachings about human development from the Wheel of Life, reflective walks in nature, and a one-day solo. The journey is about "knowing Self as a spiritual journeyer."
I've known Ann and Charles for years, and I'm recommending to everyone I know over the age of 50 that they take advantage of this opportunity to be in the presence of these remarkable elders for an experience that will likely change their life. Ann was a guide on the very first vision quest I did in 1988. She is a deeply centered woman who has been actively involved in supporting native spirituality. She is a person who never stops doing her own inner work. She is an artist and writer and the most phenomenal listener I have ever met, for out of her listening emerges insightful, incisive, and compassionate wisdom.
Many years ago Charles answered a call from Spirit to bring together indigenous elders from many traditions, and he has done that tirelessly, meeting with, learning from, and introducing teachers and teachings from native people in the Americas, South Africa, Peru, Finland, and many other lands. A man with a booming voice and an attitude of hearty curiosity and openness, he moves into the world as if all he encounters is going to be his friend and teacher. Usually, therefore, it is.
Ann and Charles have worked together for many years, but this is the first time they have done a program like this. It will be extraordinary! Don't pass up this opportunity!
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RADICAL JOY FOR HARD TIMES NEWS
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Why Ainstable?
Harriet Locke hosted a Global Earth Exchange last year at a place near her home in Cumbria, England where a roadway sliced through a beautiful wild place. For this year's Global Earth Exchange on June 23 she and a group of friends will bring beauty and attention to an endangered historic site in Ainstable in northern England. Here Harriet explains why Ainstable calls to her:
Near a quiet Cumbrian village, unbeknownst to many, lies one of the most enigmatic prehistoric complexes of stone circles in England. This beautiful, ancient place lies upon a hill, within a pine plantation, and so the landscape is hidden to the eye. Once, however, the view would have been open and stunning, placing it right in the middle of a linear sequence of large stone circles, leading along the river Eden and into the mountainous Lake District.
Only four of the stones in the large circle still remain, and the surrounding smaller circles, avenues and mounds are also under threat from logging vehicles. The place still holds vast, ancient power, however and it is a very good place to gather, to offer joy and healing, which will spread throughout the surrounding countryside to other forgotten, vulnerable sites.
Tell us why you are compelled to bring beauty and attention in particular wounded place. Write about where you'll be for the Global Earth Exchange and I'll print it here next month.
2012 Global Earth Exchange
It's easy to sign up for the Global Earth Exchange on our interactive website page, the Earth Exchange Network. Your event will automatically be posted and you'll get a "pin" in our world map. You can always change the details later if you need to.
Global Earth Exchanges are planned so far at Los Alamos National Laboratory, along beaches all over the world in honor of dolphins, at a temple in Bali built where a trash dump used to be, the enormous Kennecott Copper Mine in Utah, and many other places. See our website to read more.
Join the world in making beauty for the Earth!
Read about RadJoy on the FAIM website
See my article, "Making Beauty for Wounded Places" on the website of the Foundation for Alternative and Integrative Medicine (FAIM).
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108-YEAR-OLD PIANIST: "I LOOK WHERE IT IS GOOD" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alice Herz-Sommer has sparse, wispy hair and hands bent by arthritis, but her brown eyes glow with a combination of mischief and glee. Herz-Sommer was a pianist living in Prague in 1943 when she, her husband, and their five-year-old son were deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp. She was 39 years old. She is now 108.
When the Nazis in the camp found out that a pianist was among the inmates, they ordered her to play once a week for the officers in command of the camp. Her son Rafael turned the pages of her music. "Maybe man doesn't need food to survive," Herz-Sommer told an interviewer recently, "if you have something spiritual. The music kept us alive." Her husband died after he was transferred to Dachau, but Herz-Sommer and her son survived.
When a BBC interviewer asked her how she managed to get through that terrible time, she replied that she kept laughing. "You can always laugh," she said.
After the war Herz-Sommer and her son moved to Israel, where she worked as a music teacher for many years. In 1983 she survived cancer. In 2008 a book about her life, A Garden of Eden in Hell, by Melissa Müller and Reinhard Piechocki, was published. Since 1986 she has been living in London.
"I look where it is good," she told the BBC interviewer. "The more I am reading, the more I am thinking, the more I am speaking with people, the more I realize how lucky I am."
Herz-Sommer is now 108 years old. She still practices the piano three hours a day.
Unfortunately, the half-hour BBC video has been removed from YouTube, but you can watch a shorter interview here.
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WRITING AND WORKSHOP NEWS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My book, The World Is a Waiting Lover, with a foreword by Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul, is available from Amazon.com or from your favorite bookstore. It's also available as an e-book!
UPCOMING PROGRAMS from VISION ARROW
 Endless Mountains Vision Quest
June 27-July 1
Northeastern Pennsylvania
This four-day program, held in a secluded 400-acre nature preserve, is specially designed for those who seek a meaningful rite of passage in a beautiful, yet accessible place. You explore many of the same processes and practices as in the longer vision quest, but with a focus on reading Nature's lessons and discovering how they apply to your own life. For the twenty-four-hour solo you may choose from among diverse ecological niches: glacial pond, meadow, beaver habitat, clear stream, and indigenous forest. Minimal backpacking.
Guide: Trebbe Johnson
Cost: $605, plus $75-$125 for one night's lodging in a local bed & breakfast
Youth Vision Fast
(recommended for people ages 17-23)
July 14-24
In the high desert of eastern California
Sponsored by the School of Lost Borders
To recognize and mark the moment when a young person turns toward adulthood takes great courage, especially in a culture that has all but forgotten the importance of honoring this transition. With the intention of finding and facing your deepest truths, your strengths and weaknesses, you then turn toward the critical questions: "Who am I to be in the world?" and "What are my gifts?" This opportunity is both a great challenge and a simple task, providing the possibility of returning home with a timeless memory in your bones and a profound connection to the Earth, ready to embark on the life-long quest of finding and making your place in the world.
Guides: Will Scott and Trebbe Johnson
Tuition: $700-$1,100 (sliding scale)
Fifth Annual Bali from Within
August 23-September 4
Bali, Indonesia
Only 2 places left!
Bali from Within is a journey into the heart of one of the most beautiful places in the world, geographically, culturally, and artistically. In this trip, which is limited to only 6 participants, we work with Balinese guides who, over the years, have become dear friends. Together you will explore Bali in ways that tourists cannot do:- visit the sacred spring Tirta Empul and receive a blessing there, hike through beautiful, lush forests to visit a great waterfall, a gigantic and historic banyan tree, and maybe drop in at the home of gamelan orchestra leader, Made Trip
- join in the gala celebrations of Galungan, when the Balinese welcome the spirits of the ancestors back to the villages
- take a village walk and learn about sacred architecture and its role in everyday life
- enjoy a day at Bali Botanica, a spa by a riverside in Ubud
- hike through rice paddies and forests where native trees mix with cultivated plan and share reflections and responses each night in a Council with our own small group
Guides: Trebbe Johnson, Rucina Ballinger, A. Agung Detra Rangki, and Nyoman Sutarya
Cost: $3,900. For a complete itinerary, see Bali from Within on the Vision Arrow website.
 2-Week Sahara Desert Vision Quest and Camel Caravan December 29, 2012-January 12, 2013 Southern Algeria Sponsored by Foundation Iferouane Following the steps of intrepid seekers throughout the ages who have been drawn to the desert to fast and pray for guidance, we venture into the greatest desert of all: the Sahara. Our guides are a group of nomadic Tuareg, a matriarchal people known for their love of the desert, poetry, camels, and beauty.
Our base camp is truly remote, reached after 1-2 days travel by Land Rover, followed by 4-5 days in a camel caravan. Your three-day solo will take place in a place of your choosing, in a desert valley or in a black basalt wilderness. To undertake this quest, you must have an adventurous spirit and be prepared to sleep under the stars, immerse yourself in the ways of another culture, experience hot days and cold nights, live three weeks without a shower, and move fearlessly into a life of meaning and fulfillment.
Guides : Sabina Wyss, Trebbe Johnson, Adem Mellakh, and Tuareg hosts
Cost : 4,444 Swiss Francs, (approximately $4,900.00 as of 2/28/12), including all meals, camping fees, riding camel, land transportation in the desert, and air travel from a European city to Tamanrasset, Algeria
For more information about Vision Arrow programs, see our website.
Call 570 727 4272 or email Trebbe if you have questions or would like to talk about any of these programs. |
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