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IN THE JUNE NEWSLETTER-
This month various quotes and stories will relate to the initiation of a salon, a setting established for people of like minds to share their views on life. Perhaps you'll find something in these offerings that will inspire you to initiate a salon in your own area of the country. The one thing to remember is to have FUN; so many of us take ourselves way too seriously, after all. Serendipity and spontaneity bring amazing gifts of grace to Life...why limit ourselves to less?
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"Music was what bothered me, what interested me."
Lou Reed
"We see our troubles through our own imperfection, which makes solving them much harder."
"Golfing with God," Roland Merullo
Zorba to "Boss":
"The same thing happened to you that happened to the crow."
"What happened to the crow, Zorba?"
"Well, you see, he used to walk respectably, properly--well, like a crow. But one day he got it into his head to try and strut about like a pigeon. And from that time the poor fellow couldn't for the life of him recall his own way of walking. He was all mixed up, don't you see? He just hobbled about."
From: Zorba the Greek
Nikos Kazantzakis
"Reason is powerless in the expression of Love." Rumi
"The continuum of infinite, immortal Life is occasionally interrupted by a brief stroll into a body of highly limiting thought. " JY
"Gnosis: intuitive apprehension of spiritual truth."
Lothar Schäfer
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mystical. It is the source of all true art and science."
Albert Einstein
"You can knock forever on a deaf man's door..."
Nikos Kazantzakis
"A man of courage can do without a reputation." Ghandhi
From the Source worth listening to:
"May no seed of Love lay fallow in your field of dreams." JY
"Devilish laughter revels in chaos, says Loyola University philosophy professor John Clark. "It's an assault on excessive order, authority, and seriousness." Angelic laughter, on the other hand, "expresses delight in the wondrousness of life and in the mystery of the order and fitness of things." I'd like to suggest that the time is ripe for you to revel equally in the devilish and the angelic varieties of laughter. So get out there and seek funny experiences that dissolve your fixations and celebrate your life's crazy beauty. The healing that results could be spectacular."
Adapted from Rob Brezsny
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
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Kindness
"Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness. How you ride and ride thinking the bus will never stop, the passengers eating maize and chicken will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness, you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho lies dead by the side of the road. You must see how this could be you, how he too was someone who journeyed through the night with plans and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow. You must speak to it till your voice catches the thread of all sorrows and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore, only kindness that ties your shoes and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread, only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say It is I you have been looking for, and then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend."
Naomi Shihab Nye
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"You have no idea how hard I have looked for a gift to bring You. Nothing seemed right. What is the point of bringing gold to the gold mine, or water to the Ocean?...
Everything I came up with was like taking spices to the Orient. It's no good giving my heart and my soul because you already have these. So - I've brought you a mirror. Look at yourself and remember me."
Rumi
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GREAT CONFERENCE ON THE END OF THE MAYAN CALENDAR IN 2012 -
On the weekend of June 10-12, THE WAY BEYOND CONFERENCE in HOT SPRINGS, AR will be hosting a variety of experts making presentations about the end of the Mayan Calendar in December 2012. This is an important meeting for those interested in coming to their own conclusions related to the prophecies, various potential impacts on Mother Earth, etc.
To learn more about the conference and to register:
VISIT CONFERENCE SITE HERE
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THEY'RE GOING FAST!
2013! THE BEGINNING IS HERE, is a book of 13 chapters written by authors with a wide range of views pertaining to the end of the Mayan calendar on December 21, 2012. If you are interested in learning more about this topic in a way that will not only broaden your understanding, but also encourage you to discern for yourself what your response to the issues will be, this definitely is the source for you. Be wise, be informed, be aware: ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! |
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Dear Creation Spirit Friends,
I want to introduce you to what is becoming a monthly event in our neck of the woods, an event I'd like to think you would want to emulate. Long story short, last month ten of us--five women and five men of all descriptions and backgrounds--decided to form The Eureka Springs Salon. No, I'm not talking about a hair salon, but rather a facsimile of the intellectual salons (private social gatherings) commonly associated with French literary and philosophical movements of the 17th and 18th centuries and beyond. Artists, writers and such met to share their ideas with others of like mind.
They weren't like-minded in that they all thought alike or labored in similar vineyards of artistic or intellectual endeavor. They were kin in their common focus on the freedom to share ideas in an environment that fostered expansion of consciousness on a vast array of topics. And some of the salons were havens for women, a successful vehicle for women to pursue their way out into the world previously prohibited to them.
Our salon was formed on the basis of that same willingness to consider ideas and experiences different from one's own, and with absolute equality among men and women, thus also celebrating the inner Wisdom that unites us as One.
We have included the sharing of food and drink as a way of providing a certain level of comfort and ease to the gatherings. The host provides a main dish, and the others contribute side dishes, wine, etc. to fill out the offering. This way, no one has an undue burden, and this has worked to good advantage.
As the gatherings have their way with us, trust and confidence in one another continues to grow, and the discussions glow with the buzz surrounding the exchange of ideas. And it's important to say that such sharing comes not only from the intellect; intuitional offerings are equally welcome.
So far, we have elected to meet on Sunday afternoon. I have a sense that meeting on a weekend evening could add another ingredient or two to the gathering, but that's a personal thing with me. There's just something to be said about celebrating wisdom in a candlelit setting, unwinding from anything that may have encumbered us during the week, so we can be free to just "be" in the company of those who care about sharing like we do.
It's equally important to have no time limits imposed--no other commitments waiting in the wings. There's no telling where the conversations will go, nor how long they could last. Rather than just cutting out a "block of time" for this gathering of kindred souls, it's more about trusting freedom to lead the way. Without limitations, time just disappears from view.
In our case, a topic for the first salon was assigned--creativity. Our agenda for the next session was imagination, yet a topic or a suitable array of threads for discussion could just as easily evolve over dinner or cocktails. It depends on the cast of characters, I suppose. I can say this with assurance: if the next Eureka Springs Salon gathering is anything like the first two, I know it will be a marvelous exchange of ideas, and a true incentive for continuing to set free and celebrate what lies beneath the surface in our own minds.
Is there an intention beyond the goings on of our own salon? At the very least, some of us would hope that other groups--other salons--would form, if for no other reason than to provide the impetus and safe setting for exchanging ideas found to be important in this day and age. Surely, we could do better than simply letting such creativity and imagination lay stillborn in the womb of the chaotic and fearful world we venture out into each day.
Let's join together in rejuvenating the salon movement. Perhaps we do have a hand in similarly rejuvenating our own culture at this time in history, after all. Wouldn't that be grand! Will you take up the challenge? I certainly hope so!
Have a marvelous June exploring the good in life--and, by all means, do let me know if you start a salon group of your own.
With Love's blessings,
Jim
PS: For further information, you might want to refer to Wikipedia/salon (gathering). And/or you can
EMAIL ME (Jim) HERE
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT -
"When the world is storm-driven and the bad that happens and the worse that threatens are so urgent as to shut out everything else from view, then we need to know all the strong fortresses of spirit which have built through the ages. The eternal perspectives are being blotted out, and our judgment of immediate issues will go wrong unless we bring them back. We can do so only, Socrates said in his talk before his death, 'when we seek the region of purity and eternity and unchangeableness, where, when the spirit enters, it is not hampered or hindered, but ceases to wander in error, beholding the true and divine (which is not the matter of opinion).'"
Edith Hamilton, The Greek Way
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FROM ARISTOTLE -
"There is a life which is higher than the measure of humanity: men will live it not by virtue of their humanity, but by the virtue of something in them that is divine. We ought not listen to those who exhort a man to keep to man's thoughts, but to live according to the highest thing that is in him, for small though it be, in power and worth it is far above the rest."
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FROM A RECENT EXCHANGE -
"The reason I say what I do about seeking is because I've come to understand (at least for me, which is all I can experience with any assurance) that when we seek it's generally because we're striving to become something we think we are not. In spiritual Life, we're already all we're ever going to be: divine and just perfect. And nothing, absolutely nothing, can change that. The unfortunate thing is that our habitual thinking, grounded in belief and opinion, leads us astray and we understand erroneously.
In order to counter our habitual thinking, then, our goal becomes simply to surrender to the awareness of what we really are, instead of trying to be better than we think we are. The practice of being aware thus becomes the journey and the end, all in one. And this journey takes place inward--listening to the voice of Silence, Source, Wisdom--Love, by other names. Thus, our only imperative is to listen while Love comes to awareness--and then to act from that deeper meaning, simply because Love is really what we are.
So, all this says is that we have an honest difference of view. It would be a dull world if we all thought the same. But even if dull, at least it would be authentically Loving, instead of what we've been led to believe Loving is.
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YOU'RE INVITED--YES, YOU!
Bobbie Martin, a long time friend in Kansas City, MO has graciously invited me to make a presentation about the end of the Mayan Calendar in 2012, taken from my latest book, 2013! The Beginning is Here. The presentation will be followed by a Mayan ritual conducted by Barbara Criswell, who has been initiated as a Priestess OL Zazil of the Itza Mayans. Beginning at 4 PM, this fun-filled gathering will feature an informal reception, food and a chance to connect and exchange views. The presentation itself begins at 6 PM. YOU ARE INVITED, GRATIS. The only requirement is to RSVP Bobbie by June 11:
RSVP BOBBIE HERE NOW!
LIVE 2013 NOW! & MAYAN RITUAL CELEBRATION
SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 4 PM
300 E WINTHROPE RD.
KANSAS CITY, MO
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JUST IN CASE -
Just in case you think you're too old or too tired to reinvigorate Life, take the following to heart:
"On November 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City. If you have ever seen a Perlman concert, you know that getting on stage is no small achievement for him. He was stricken with polio as a child, and so he has braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches.
To see him walk across the stage one step at a time, painfully and slowly, is an unforgettable sight. He walks painfully, yet majestically, until he reaches his chair. Then he sits down, slowly, puts his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on his legs, tucks one foot back and extends the other foot forward. Then he bends down and picks up his violin, puts it under his chin, nods to the conductor and proceeds to play.
By now, the audience is used to this ritual. They sit quietly while he makes his way across the stage to his chair. They remain reverently silent while he undoes the clasps on his legs. The wait until he is ready to play.
But this time, something went wrong. Just as he finished the first few bars, one of the strings on his violin broke. You could hear it snap--it went off like gunfire across the room. There was no mistaking what that sound meant. There was no mistaking what he had to do. People who were there that night thought to themselves: "We figured that he would have to get up, put on the clasps again, pick up the crutches and limp off stage--to either find another violin or else find another string for this one."
But he didn't. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to begin again. The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. And he played with such passion and such power and such purity as they had never heard before. Of course, everyone knows that it is impossible to play a symphonic work with just three strings. I know that, you know that, but that night Itzhak Perlman refused to know that.
You could see him modulating, changing, recomposing the piece in his head. At one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new sounds from them that they had never made before. When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium. We were all on our feet, screaming and cheering, doing everything we could to show how much we appreciated what he had done.
He smiled, wiped his brow, raised his bow to quiet us, and then said, not boastfully, but in a quiet, pensive, reverent tone, "You know, sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you still can make with what you have left."
What a powerful line that is. It has stayed in my mind ever since I heard it. And who knows? Perhaps that is the (way) of life--not just for artists, but for all of us. So perhaps our task in this shaky, fast-changing, bewildering world in which we live is to make music, at first with all that we have, and then, when that is no longer possible, to make music with what we have left."
Jack Reimer, Houston Chronicle
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HARMONY REVISITED -
Recently, I had the occasion to revisit the harmonizing process called Resonance Repatterning. In just a single, powerful session, I came to grips with an internal block of which I was not aware. Once loosed from its hook, my emotional and spiritual life came immediately into balance. Ever since, that particular pattern has continued to free itself from various aspects of my life, lovingly, one by one. And now my physical balance is following suit. Perhaps the following description will be helpful to you. If so, you may wish to connect with Bobbie Martin for a face to face, or "distance" session by phone or Skype:
SET AN APPOINTMENT HERE
"Resonance Repatterning is a process designed to clear beliefs, behaviors and negative emotions that create limitations in your life. Much of what holds you back originates from subconscious patterns (or programming) which took place early in your life. These subconscious patterns interfere with your ability to create the happiness, abundance, fulfillment, love and health that you desire. Repatterning works by bringing these subconscious patterns into your consciousness so they can be addressed and cleared, allowing you to move easily and naturally towards a state of what we call coherence. Coherence, as defined in Resonance Repatterning, is a greater balance, aliveness, harmony, and alignment with your goals.
To create this coherence, the practitioner utilizes the client's input through the use of muscle checking or kinesiology. Through kinesiology, the practitioner selects healing modalities which empower the client to move past their limiting patterns and create positive change in any area of their life. This process can be used on its own and also complements many other kinds of personal growth, healing, coaching and therapy work.
Repatterning is based on the idea that everything has a vibration (resonance), and that what we resonate with is what we will experience. These principles are not at all new. In fact, these ideas have been taught in ancient cultures and practices for thousands of years. What is new, is that the ideas are now being validated through scientific research in Quantum Physics."
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SPEAKING TOUR SCHEDULE...
As Springtime unfolds into summer, and then into autumn, the formation of the upcoming presentation tour schedule beckons. What follows is the schedule of events and presentations to date.
Should you wish to schedule a presentation or program with Jim,
SEE ASSORTMENT OF PROGAMS HERE
SCHEDULE A PROGRAM WITH JIM HERE
A SPECIAL PROGRAM NOTE: The presentation in Athens, Greece on May 8th was amazing. The musical renditions of poetry were spectacularly well done and my presentation seemed to be well received by those participating in the event. My heartfelt thanks to all who made it possible!
Sat., June 18, 4 PM - LIVE 2013 NOW! & MAYAN RITUAL CEREMONY. 300 E. WINTHROPE RD., KANSAS CITY, MO (See invitation earlier in the newsletter.
Thur., Sept. 1, 7:00 PM - Spiritual Frontier Fellowship, 4900 Waters Edge Dr., Raleigh, NC: 2013! The Beginning is Here.
Sat., Sept. 3, 10 AM-2 PM (registration 9:30 AM) - Spiritual Frontier Fellowship, Raleigh, NC: A workshop - Living Beyond 2012.
Sun., Sept. 4, 10:30 - Triangle Center for Spiritual Living, 4900 Waters Edge Dr., Raleigh, NC: Live 2013 Now!
Sun., Sept. 4, 12:30-2:30 -Triangle Center for Spiritual Living, Raleigh, NC: Living from the Inside, Out
Sun., Oct. 16, 6 PM - Fellowships of the Spirit, Lily Dale, NY: 2013! The Beginning is Here. (716) 595-2159
Fri., Oct 28-Sat. Nov. 5 - Speaking tour in Germany, related to the German translation of: AWARE IN A WORLD ASLEEP. A specific itinerary will be announced at a later date.
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MANY THANKS!
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for continuing to welcome the Creation Spirit Newsletter into your lives each month. More on the way, with Love's blessings.
Sincerely,
Jim
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