Now that the Circle is more than eighteen years old, it seems to have entered a new stage of development as a spiritual community.  Take for example the amazing gathering that occurred at the Valentine's Day Dance last week.  Sure, it was nice to enjoy the good music, good company, and good snacks - but more importantly, it was another big step towards a growing sense of cohesion emerging within the Celebration Circle.  An event like that wouldn't have been possible without lots of volunteer hearts and hands-in other words, without a strong community effort. Preparations began a week before, when a score of volunteers had a great time coming together to paint, build, and clean at CircleSpace.  And then there were all the loving folks who pitched in on Valentine's Day to help bake, decorate, serve, and cleanup before, during and after the dance (with special thanks to Momo Brown for volunteering as event manager).  It was fun, but it was more than just fun...something magical happened as stories were told, connections were made, and laughter was shared by both new and old friends.  You can see some of the joyfulness reflected in the photos shown here (thanks for sharing them, Gary O. Smith), and much more of the loving vibe will be bouncing around the Circle for a long time to come.
 
Of course, it didn't happen by itself.  Much of our growing sense of community can be attributed to the sweet energy and hard work of our new Community Director, Jai Medina.  Jai was originally hired a year ago to help me in the office.  As time went by, Jai demonstrated an amazing capacity and heart for doing much more, taking on increasing amounts of responsibility in the Circle and in the office.  But with only 10 paid hours a week, it was barely enough to keep up with just the most necessary work - let alone everything else that should be getting done. So as of the first of the year, the Council voted to double Jai's hours to 20 per week, and we created the position of Community Director.  
 
It's a natural fit, because Jai has a passion for helping create community at the Circle. As Community Director, Jai's been able to coordinate events like the Valentine's Day dance, and schedule guest musicians and speakers for Circle, while raising our collective vision of exciting projects and future possibilities.  Of course, it's also wonderful that Jai has made her warehouse/livingspace available for our functions - and it certainly helps that CircleSpace is located so close to Jump-Start Theater.  Thanks so much to Jai, Momo, and each one of you who have been so generous with your time, talent and treasure in this process.  You know who you are, and we trust you feel showered with gratitude and blessings.
 
In the coming months, we intend to continue building on this momentum by offering a full slate of spiritually-oriented workshops, concerts, and events.  We plan to expand our website and make it more user-friendly, thereby making more of our words, music and services available.  We also hope that, as a Circle, we can serve the broader community with an appropriate service project, so please let us know if you have any ideas along these lines.  And in the meantime, please join us and/or pitch in when you can.  It wouldn't be the same without you.
 
With gratitude and blessings,