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Trebbe Johnson's Newsletter

January 2014





   

 

About ten years ago, after fasting in the Utah Canyons on a quest I was co-guiding with Louden Kiracofe, Carol Iverson suggested I write a monthly newsletter for people who had participated in or were interested in my programs. I thought that was a great idea, but it took me a couple of years to get anything going. However, since (I think) 2005, this newsletter has been going out every month to a growing number of people. Thanks to your input, I've made changes in it, such as shorter articles, the occasional inclusion of poems, and a more international focus. And thanks to a suggestion from Paulita Pranschke, it now aims for an alluring title each month, instead of coming to you simply as "Newsletter."

 

I love working on the newsletter.... thinking up the theme, writing the stories, finding images to go with them. And I love hearing from people who've been touched by a certain story, who disagree or have a different perspective, or who make suggestions. THANKS, EVERYONE!

 

This is the last day of 2013, so the theme of this month's newsletter is dealing with the doldrums that can infect us at this supposedly cozy, jolly, holy time of year. If you're someone who loves everything about the holiday season, you are blessed and an inspiration! If you feel some sadness, maybe the suggestions and ideas here will help a bit. 

 

To those who are receiving this newsletter for the first time... welcome! Here you'll find news of upcoming Vision Arrow and  Radical Joy for Hard Times events, writings by us and about our work, reflections, profiles of  people doing extraordinary things, and stories of transformation that occur when we accept in small, bold, startling ways, the invitations the world is always sending us.     

 


WELCOME, SADNESS       

 

Bench in snow  

Sometimes there's just nothing you can do about it. Holiday sadness comes to visit and won't be pushed away, despite (or because of) all the jollity everyone else seems to be experiencing.

 

Three years ago, on the day after Christmas, I hugged my brother Frederick goodbye in front of his apartment in Montpelier, Vermont. Four months later Frederick drowned in the flooded Winooski River. For me Christmas is a reminder of how what is precious can be so quickly snatched away.

 

I have a friend whose husband is dying of a brain tumor. She's living with the knowledge that this is the last holiday season they will have together.

 

You can't escape. So you might as well welcome Sadness instead of trying to make it go away. "Hi, Sadness. Sorry to see you right now, but let's just muddle through this as best we can together. Because, although you make me feel like I'm alone, there are a bazillion others inflicted with you as well."

 

Here are my own best remedies:

1: Look for beauty and generosity. It's everywhere: where will you find it today? The day after Christmas, I found it on a wild apple tree filled abundantly with frozen, colorless apples, each of which was crowned with a cap of snow.

 

2. Look for little opportunities to offer beauty and generosity. Smile at the check-out person at the supermarket. Shovel somebody else's sidewalk. Welcome a stranger at your church or organization. Call a friend just to say hi.

 

As Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks) wrote:

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

 
Empty bench in snow by Trebbe Johnson 

PRACTICE HYGGE
 

Thanks to Tomasen Weinbaum for this. Hygge (pronounced hYOOguh) is a Danish word that is hard to translate but is supposedly high on the list of national traits that make the Danes among the happiest people in the world... even though their land is plunged into darkness all day long during the middle of winter. On the surface hygge means "coziness," but it's a quality people are expert at cultivating for themselves and others; they don't wait around for the right circumstances to occur in order to enjoy it.

 

Here are some of the ways that people defined hygge on the Danish Twitter page devoted to it:

 

"Arrived at the cabin, sitting in front of the fireplace with a book and biscuits."

 "Grandmother, grandfather, mother and father for coffee and cake in an hour."

"Will spend as much as possible of my day off Friday under the blanket with books, magazines, movies and tea in gallons."

 "Taking a coffee and a walk with someone from work."

 

How can you make some hygge today?


Photo by Joakim Eskildsen


WATCH MOVIES
c 

 

These two movies couldn't be more different from each other, and you may conclude that I am in need of professional help because I love them both.

 

Love Actually is one of my all-time favorites. It's the love (and sometimes loss) stories of about ten British couples. Some of the stories are heartbreaking (Sarah, who can't be in love because she's tied to her mentally ill brother), some fantastical (Colin the sex king), some heart-warming tear-jerkers (the writer and his Portuguese sweetheart). Great cast, including Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Laura Linney, and Bill Nighy as a sexy, over-the-hill rock star. Wonderful music, too.       

For a preview watch this scene of Hugh Grant, as the new British prime minister, dancing to the Pointer Sisters' "Jump" when he thinks he's alone.  

 

Bad Santa is an irreverent movie filled with sex, booze, crime, and obscenities. It stars Billy Bob Thornton as a bad-ass department store Santa who gradually has a change of heart because of an unlikely friendship with a chubby, lonely kid.

   

 Photo from Love Actually: Laura Linney having a private moment of ecstasy because she's just brought home the sexy Karl (Rodrigo Santoro)  


LAUGH

   

Goose Nativity  

No matter what your religious persuasion (or lack of persuasion), these variations on the Christian nativity scene, posted year by year Mark Oestreicher, are hilarious.

My personal favorites: the goose nativity and the spam-and-bacon nativity.

NOTE: the 2013 link doesn't work.  

  

 

Goose nativity 

 


CONSIDER A NEW WEEK'S RESOLUTION 

   

 

As the dog in the cartoon says, A New Year's resolution is a to-do list for the first week of January! This may not be a bad way to think of it. Resolutions are worthy intentions for how we'd like to make changes in our lives. But instead of putting a lot of pressure on ourselves, let's just make a resolution for the first week of January and then ask ourselves seven days later if we're up to renewing it.

 

The Daily Beast offers a tongue-in-cheek list of 15 achievable New Year's resolutions, with the caveat: "Don't shoot for the moon; shoot to beat the best by the thinnest of margins." The list includes one for President Obama about a certain promise he kept making throughout 2013.

Washington Post writer Petula Dvorak actually devotes an entire column to making New Year's resolutions on behalf of others, all famous miscreants during the past year. 

 

As for me, I'm making a New Year's Eve resolution: I'm planning on creating some hygge tonight with my husband by making a fire in the fireplace, having some snacks, and watching a Taiwanese movie a friend recommended (I just watched the two recommended above last week). I have a couple of year-long resolutions, too, but I'll hold off on declaring them.

 

Cartoon by Annie Taylor Lebel 

 


WRITING AND WORKSHOP NEWS

Book cover



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 VISION ARROW PROGRAMS
  

Youth Quest

(recommended for people ages 17-23) 
July 15-25 
In the high desert of eastern California 
Offered 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: $800-$1,200 (sliding scale)

Atlas Mts.
August 9-16 
Atlas Mountains, Morocco

 

 Lead Like a River was chosen by the Times of London as one of their "20 Retreats That Will Change Your Life"!   

  

In the lives of certain women and men there comes a time when garnering more successes and earning more money is not enough. What they long for is to undertake work that will contribute to the well-being of the planet. If you are a leader in the arts, community service, or business  this program in the Atlas mountains provides the ideal opportunity to reflect on your path, gain strength through connecting with nature, listen to what is important to you... and take the first big step toward shifting your attention to a truly meaningful path.

You'll stay at the beautiful Kasbah du Toubkal, just over an hour from the Marrakech airport. Perched on rocks with stunning views of remote valleys and the summit of Mount Toubkal, the highest mountain in North Africa, the kasbah is a remarkable venture between Berber and English owners, and has been named one of the top eco-lodges in the world. We'll spend five nights in the Kasbah and two nights high in a mountain lodge that we will trek to. You will have a dawn-to-dusk solo in a wilderness place of your choosing, where you will reflect on both the landscape around you and the landscape within as you mark your passage to a new height of personal leadership.

Program is limited to ten participants.

Guides: Eugene Hughes and Trebbe Johnson
Cost: €2,950 / $4,500 (includes all meals, lodging, and transportation to Kasbah du Toubkal Lodge; does not include airfare)   

   

Balinese dancer Seventh Annual Bali from Within
October 19-31
Bali, Indonesia

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 4 participants, we work with Balinese guides who, over the years, have become 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 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
*take a village walk and learn about sacred architecture and its role in everyday life
*luxuriate at Bali Botanica, a spa by a riverside in Ubud
*join a Balinese odalan, or temple birthday, where music and dancing are performed not for people but for the gods
*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: $3,950.
Quick Links...
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Contact Information
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phone: 570/727-4272
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