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COMMUNICATING THE WISDOM THAT'S CHANGING THE WORLD
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The sun is peaking through the misty rain as its light brightens the Ukiah valley for the first time on the first day of the New Year. I'm curious about this New Year and feel compelled to do some retrospection of 2009 and contemplation of 2010. I know this is a good idea, but I'm procrastinating. Although there are many more important things calling to me, I distract myself with seemingly meaningless tasks including rooting in one of my closets for a brass ring in order to repair a purse. (Note the symbolism of looking for a brass ring.) I pull out a purse I haven't used in years, but no brass rings are attached to it. I'm compelled to see if anything is in the purse as I consider that it's in good enough shape to take to a consignment shop. It's mostly empty but for a little coin-shaped, pewter angel, an old brush, a compact, and a few old notes. One note is on a bright orange 3 x 5 index card that is wrapped in transparent tape. This is a poor man’s kind of lamination used to protect and preserve it. I sometimes save notes to myself this way. Holding the angel in one hand and the card in the other, I begin to read. It's a series of questions taken from a book I was reading at the time: The Last Word and the Word After That: A Tale of Faith, Doubt, and a New Kind of Christianity by Brian D. McLaren. I'm amazed to find these questions popping up in a remote place in the bottom of a little used closet on this the first day of the new year. Here are the questions: How is your soul? * I noticed that I actually added these words to the original on the card. My first answer is that I'm grateful that spirit is giving me a helping hand on this new day of a new year. I wish for you a new year filled with spiritual wonder and joy.
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January 2010 Broadcast Schedule
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| The Broadcast Week Beginning Wednesday, January 6 - 12, 2010
Topics Explored in this Dialogue:
"Is it possible to be downsized, get a pink slip, hunt for a job, go through rejection, and keep your spirit intact?" This is the question Carol Orsborn faced when she, like so many others, was forced to reassess her values, her courage, and her faith during one of life's difficult times. Riding the ebbs and flows of fortune, emotions, and faith, she paid careful attention to the ways she retreated in defeat, and what inspired her to regain her optimism and her belief in herself. Through it all she discovered a new understanding of her spirituality, and found that life's twists and turns provided surprising opportunities to create new ways of expressing her truest self. In this intimate and uplifting discussion she discloses that "one of my main discoveries is that all the things I was doing were really not about me saving my soul. But it was ultimately about my soul saving me. And that is the relationship to God and spirituality that is my abiding lesson." (Hosted by Justine Willis Toms) Carol Orsborn holds a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University, and is a leading global authority on issues related to women of the boomer generation. She serves as senior strategist for VibrantNation.com, a peer-to-peer information sharing site dedicated to women over fifty. Dr. Orsborn is the author of sixteen books translated into fourteen languages, including The Art of Resilience: 100 Paths to Wisdom and Strength in an Uncertain World (Three Rivers Press 1997) and The Year I Saved My (downsized) Soul: A Boomer Woman's Search for Meaning…and a Job (Vibrant Nation Books 2009). To learn more about the work of Carol Orsborn go to www.VibrantNation.com.
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The Broadcast Week Beginning Wednesday, January 13 - 19, 2010
Topics Explored in this Dialogue:
There's no shortage of reports on the deepening ecological crisis, and many of those are linked to forecasts of global cataclysm at the end of 2012. Professor Ervin Laszlo's projections are as grim as any—he says our planet can't sustain current populations for more than ten or twenty years unless we make some radical changes. But he also believes that a simple shift in values and beliefs will enable us to implement the necessary changes and lay the groundwork for a new culture, a new civilization—a new world. The technologies we need are available to us now, but applying them will require us to step up to a higher level of consciousness. Dr. Laszlo explains, "The old way of handling ourselves and the planet are producing more heat than light, and this epoch is coming to an end. This is an emergency that gives the opportunity for an emergence of something new. So the objective is to have enough foresight so that we can start changing in a way in which all human beings, in the embrace of nature together with all the other species, can survive and can develop and further evolve." Ervin Laszlo holds a Ph.D. in Lettres et Sciences Humaines from the Sorbonne in Paris, an honorary medal from the Kyung Hee University in Seoul, an honorary doctorate in economic sciences from the Turku School of Economics and Business in Finland, and an honorary doctorate in human sciences from the Saybrook Institute in San Francisco. He is the author of more than eighty books translated into twenty-two languages. His most recent is Worldshift 2012: Making Green Business, New Politics, and Higher Consciousness Work Together (Inner Traditions 2009). To learn more about the work of Ervin Laszlo go to www.WorldShift2012.org or www.ClubOfBudapest.org.
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| The Broadcast Week Beginning Wednesday, January 20 - 26, 2010
Topics Explored in this Dialogue:
The war in Iraq has been called a war between the sons of Sarah and the sons of Hagar, the two wives of Abraham. Biblical scholar Charlotte Gordon has examined the story of these women in all its complexity, unraveling key elements that were lost in translations of the Old Testament. Her compelling work gives us a new perspective on Sarah's son, Isaac, the traditional father of the Jews, and Hagar's son, Ishmael, ancestor of Mohammad. Were their descendents destined to be eternal enemies? What does the Koran and Bible say on the matter? How can these insights inform the way we relate to the people of the Middle East today? Dr. Gordon calls on us to move beyond polarity to recognize our common ground, when she says, "So often our conflicts in the Middle East and in Afghanistan have been painted as struggles between Islam and the West. I want to shake some of my fellow Americans, and say that Abraham and the Bible that you revere and love actually originated in the land you often describe as being the land of your enemies. That's not a useful viewpoint." She urges us to explore the true message of the Old Testament to discover, "a language that is far more complicated, rich, and filled with love and peace as opposed to hatred." (Hosted by Justine Willis Toms) Charlotte Gordon, Ph.D. received her doctorate at Boston University, and taught as a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Theology. She is the author of several books, including The Woman Who Named God: Abraham's Dilemma and the Birth of Three Faiths (Little, Brown & Company 2009). To learn more about the work of Charlotte Gordon go to www.CharlotteGordonBooks.com. |
The Broadcast Week Beginning Wednesday, January 27 – February 2, 2010
Topics Explored in this Dialogue:
From the dark terror of his own breakdown, Kirk Schneider has come to live in a state of awe. He explored the roots of his nightmares and anxiety, and the habits that kept him depressed and disengaged, and found that life is something to marvel at. Now he shares the long, winding road he traveled from there to here, and offers guideposts each of us can use to find our own way. Join him as he explains the reasons we spend so much of our lives disengaged from our sense of wonder, and the many tools and teachers that surround us, ready to help us regain it. The rewards, he assures us, are many. "Awe is a vital way of experiencing life," he says. "It has the capacity to lift one out of one's narrow identifications. We so often get stuck in certain fears or judgments. And awe is able to acknowledge that we're creatures, we're anxious, we're fragile somewhat. But at the same time it points us to the more— the more of who we are and the more of what we're participating in." Inspired by the wisdom of Dr. Schneider you'll find a renewed capacity to occupy parts of your being that you may not have considered before—your most vital, essential self. Kirk J. Schneider, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist, editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, and adjunct faculty at Saybrook Graduate School, the California Institute of Integral Studies, and the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology. He is the author or editor of numerous articles and eight books, including The Paradoxical Self: Toward an Understanding of Our Contradictory Nature (Humanity Books 1999) and Awakening to Awe: Personal Stories of Profound Transformation (Jason Aronson 2009). To learn more about the work of Kirk J. Schneider go to www.KirkJSchneider.com.
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Small Pleasures : Finding Grace in a Chaotic World by Justine Willis Toms THE WINNER OF 2009 Award in the Spiritual Books Category Small Pleasures: Finding Grace in a Chaotic World by Justine Toms Announced at the 13th Annual Awards Event of the Coalition of Visionary Resources |
Michael and I love to watch movies. It is a magical art-form. They inform, inspire, and touch the heart and soul in so many ways.
Did you know that many visionary, soulful movies are made every year but never get into the theaters? Independent, spiritual filmmakers are creating movies with heart and soul, movies that really matter. Until now, though, hardly anybody got to see them.
Spiritual Cinema Circle® is a DVD club that sends out 4 features and short films in the mail each month on DVD. You keep the DVDs. The movies you get are full-length features, both dramas and comedies, short films, and documentaries on mind-opening subjects. They are about many different subjects, but they all share common elements: All our movies are carefully-chosen to provide genuine nourishment for the heart and soul, a much-needed nutrient at a time when more and more Hollywood movies are violent, profane and devoid of meaning. These movies inspire wonder, insight, deep feeling and transcendence. Above all, they make you feel better about being a human being.
Consider joining Spiritual Cinema Circle by using the link below. You can start with a free trial.
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Join with others from around the world for the monthly |
| Let us know where you are from, we are mapping all the places around the world where people are participating. | |
 Parties with a Purpose; Celebrating what's working in our communities, for people, for business and for the environment www.greenfestivals.com |
 Expand Your Consciousness in Optimal Learning Environments www.conferenceworks.com |
 Books for the Evolving Human Spirit www.hamptonroadspub.com |
 Transform the Way You Live and Lead with Purpose, Passion, Energy, and Joy www.getclarity.com |
 Books and Audio to awaken consciousness and global social potential. www.newworldlibrary.com |
 To Help Individuals Realize Their True Relationship with Life Through Higher Self-Studies Guy Finley, Director www.guyfinley.org |
