Thursday, September 24, 2009

Cool Like 'Dat

I should have posted this a month ago but...

When a company pays an artist to use their music for a commercial, they must pay them pretty well.

I'm not sure who controls the music rights to the hip-hop group "Digable Planets" but for the first time that I can remember their biggest hit "Rebirth of Cool" is being used in a commerical. The product is Tide. The sub-category product is Coldwater Tide Several hip-hop sites that I researched are upset about it. The commercial shows how you can get the same great cleaning of Tide but wash in cold with their special detergent. The most famous words from the rhyme "I'm Cool Like 'Dat" are heard in a loop as the commercial rolls.

You hate to see any art commercialized but you can't blame the artists for making a little more in royalties.

Somehow I think it's a rite of passage for hip-hop music so I thought it deserved a mention. It's hard to say if it's a positive or a negative event.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Tada! Sana! Tadasana

New Insight! I remember my yoga teacher Mary Dunn saying Tadasana is a pose! That means Tadasana needs as much intention and attention as Sirasana.

Now I'm experimenting with starting my practice with Tadasana. It enables me to even out my consciousness watching the action as much as possible without too much effort.

Mary Dunn-My yoga teacher

With Mary Dunn's guidance the NYC area Institute was built. It was her vision. I can't imagine where Iyengar Yoga would be in the NYC area without her. I studied with her before and after it was built. She was a gigantic figure but at the same time so sweet and funny and kind. She would constantly break up the class with a joke or an observation. When she was demonstrating in the class with you as the model, you longed to hear her exclaim with excitement...Ahhh! When you got the action of the pose she was trying to teach.

Friday, June 5, 2009

David Carradine's passing June 2009

Now after a period of time I am writing about David Carradine. We still don't know how he left his body and if he was responsible or someone else was. We may never know. Here are my thoughts on him.

I have had the privilege to study Shaolin Kung Fu with a real Shaolin monk and I probably would never have if it weren't for the part David Carradine played in bringing the energy of Shaolin to the USA.

Who was that wandering man in the TV series "Kung Fu?" Why was his hand so steady, when facing a rattlesnake? Why did he never panic even though he faced very difficult situations seemingly every episode? Why was he content to sit on the bare earth and play his flute?

The Chinese in positions of power were afraid of the Shaolin Temple because it produced men with seemingly super powers. There is a lot of talk about High Intensity Interval Training or "HIIT" these days and how healthy it is for you. Shaolin monks have been practicing it for hundreds of years.

One reason I really liked David Carradine was he was so authentic. I have to admit when I first learned of his lifestyle, I was disappointed. Later, I grew to have a different kind of affection for him. He was from an acting family and began acting very early. It wasn't long before he was a star.

He lived his life openly. He smoked and did other things that were not in the character of Caine, who he played on the TV series. Like Cain he seemingly was a stranger in a strange land. In the series Caine comes to a new place every week, but by the end he must leave it. He seems to be wandering forever. In a way I think that's who David Carradine was. Like his character, he studied herbs and Tai Chi and meditation. Was the seemingly permanent smirk on his face David sort of saying "how can you be spiritual and carnal at the same time?" Watch me. Be human! Like many actors, he got better as he matured. He was real and vulnerable in his struggles and I think unashamed of being exactly who he was.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

An interesting gentleman

Here's a really interesting gentleman. ZahiHawass on twitter, current Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Whatever goes on with any dig in Egypt from The Old Kingdom to Alexander the Great's tomb, Mr. Hawass is usually in on it.

You can't deny his passion. I have always loved Ancient Egypt. I once owned a replica of the Temple of Dendur made of cardboard from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. The temple was brought here and placed at the Met brick by brick. By the way, Hawass wants every brick returned to Egypt along with many other Egyptian antiquities scattered around the globe.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Walking NYC streets...

I find at least one business card a day on the streets. When I read the writing on the back of a card, I wonder..."a business deal blown?"

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Letter from Carolyn Myss that must be posted....

In my recent Hay House radio show, I described a dinner party in which I gathered friends and friends of friends together for a very specific reason: To participate in an experiment of being a part of a conscious support team for a group of people going through major life transformations. The challenges they faced might include anything from needing to find or create an occupation or generate a stream of income in a current occupation to helping one of the group better serve the local community by figuring out how to creatively care for the increasing number of homeless people. Regardless of the individual experience, however, the common thread was that a crisis of change had been introduced into a person’s life as a result of the greater atmosphere of social turmoil. After numerous conversations with people who are in the midst of watching everything familiar literally melt down around them, I knew that a crisis is more likely to remain a crisis for a longer period of time if a person has to maneuver through it alone. But it also occurred to me that if people experiencing the same challenges were to pool their creative resources and a make a commitment to help illuminate each other’s way, then what begins as a crisis could indeed become a true journey of transformation - and not just for one person but for an entire group of people.

Images of the journey of Ulysses came to mind as I thought about gathering this group of people together. Could we, I wondered, navigate like a crew on a boat together – a type of Ulysses journey – into the deep and uncharted waters of a new future for ourselves? Ulysses and his crew faced numerous obstacles, as the legendary story goes, but he had the assistance of the gods on his side. Could a group of people help each other discover hidden creative resources within themselves that they could draw upon in order to build a new life in these changing times? And was it possible that by sharing our backgrounds, our talents, our experiences, as well as our unexpressed talents, other people could see potential that we could not see? Could others think of possible connections, provide introductions, or even see opportunities of mutual creative entrepreneurial enterprises?” Why not?

Why couldn’t we transcend the boundaries of ordinary thought and invoke the grace of illumination on behalf of each other? Why couldn’t we reach out to each other for the type of help that goes deep into each other’s soul? Why couldn’t we rise to the realm of the mystic? If not now, then when?

As I shared these thoughts with my radio audience, I finally asked if they would be interested in my writing a newsletter describing the details of how to work with this idea. So based upon that extraordinary response, I’ve scripted these instructions for how to gather a crew and initiate the journey of individual and group transformation. Two points need to be highlighted, both of which are richly exciting. First, for those who take this journey, you should always keep in mind that you are embarking on a sojourn that is physical as well as mystical in nature. Your intention is to co-create a new path in life with a crew of people, whom you must come to trust as soul companions. And they must come to trust you. This is a deeply significant bond of trust. Secondly, the symbolic meaning of “navigate” is core to this experience. A crew member becomes more valuable as he or she becomes adept at navigating rough waters. Storms mentor sailors. Part of learning to be a crew member includes learning how to navigate creativity, imagination, and hope as well as anxiety, fear, and frustration.

Could gathering together a crew of people to set sail with really make that much difference?

Well, consider that a person navigating a crisis alone, trying to build a new life, may not know where to turn, especially if the familiar options prove to be dead ends. These days, more and more familiar options are turning out to be exactly that. It may well be that surviving this time of change requires more than just looking for a new job; it may require that you create a new life. That is a journey of transformation unto itself and such a journey is best done by awakening the power of your soul and by having the assistance of what Teresa of Avila called “soul companions”, trusted sojourners who deeply resonate with rigors of these three stage of transformation: from the caterpillar to the chrysalis to the butterfly. Having lived most of your life as a caterpillar, the chrysalis stage begins with crisis. You truly are in need of understanding, companionship, support, and guidance during that stage, but you also need to know that the potential exists to emerge from the chrysalis experience as a butterfly. You need to know how to carefully navigate the mystical part of an experience that expresses itself in traumatic ways in the physical world. A gathering of soul companions, of people who grasp the power of inner Light and understand how to work with that power to assist each other, can help each person imagine and create new possibilities that they might never pursue.

No doubt you are wondering, how would I do something like this? Who would come? How do I find “crew members”? I’ve thought of all those questions, believe it or not. Let me suggest that you gather a crew around a dinner, at least the first time. It makes for a relaxed and social evening. I’ve written the guidelines assuming that once you organize a crew, you will meet once a month – at least that schedule would be the ideal.

The instructions were written with the following goals in mind:

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Mutual support and learning
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Practical results
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A commitment to constant mental, emotional and spiritual action in your world on your own behalf and on behalf of your soul companions. Change requires physical as well as emotional and spiritual action and all too often it is the physical aspects that are neglected.

I wrote the instructions as if I were hosting you in my home. I would welcome you in and once we were seated, I would introduce the idea that being a crew member has the potential to be a catalyst to change your life. Based on the mystical law, “Whenever two or more are gathered” – though we do not gather in the name of Jesus or any other religion, to be clear – we do gather under the power of God and with the belief that we have a divine purpose on this earth which governs this journey that is our life. Grace is given to illuminate our understanding of this purpose and that grace is requested.

Following that, I would give an archetypal overview of what is happening in the world around us – why are changes happening as they are? Such a perspective lifts us beyond the parameters of our personal crises and gives us a sense of celestial forces at work. So with that in mind, we bow to the wise elder called “History”.

IN THE SPIRIT OF THIS HISTORIC MOMENT

In my soul, I am an historian, a passionate lover of history. For me, it is impossible to grasp the significance of what is happening all around us without the addition of an historic backdrop. History is our wise cosmic elder, a guiding system of causes and effects through which we find clues that help illuminate why events are unfolding as they are in our communities, or in our nation, or around the world. We turn to history to establish a perspective of greater meaning and purpose as well as to position ourselves appropriately amid the events of history. It is important to maintain a healthy and not a frightened perspective about what is occurring in the world around us. Too many people withdraw from the news or only get bits and pieces of biased reports. What’s true is that it is a privilege to be alive now. You are among those who have been involved in the business of personal and global transformation for years. That the impact of what “transformation” really means should finally reach your life in macrocosmic terms should not really surprise you. The time has come for megachange to reach all of our lives, to take away the illusion that we can control nature, the environment, the dynamics of every nation, and every unseen force in the atmosphere. The greater the perspective you have, the better.

Every event is the result of any number of other events that had their point of origin days, years, or even centuries ago. There are times in human evolution when massive eruptions of events occur, for example, like world wars or like the discovery of electricity, that shift the entire playing field of humanity more rapidly or at least more dramatically than it had changed in the previous fifty years. Megachanges like world wars or discoveries of vaccines or nuclear power change the future of the whole of humanity just like that, in an instant. Megahistoric events along with millions of micro events that occur off the radar but are nonetheless potent in their consequences shape our lives and as in this particular moment in time, actually redirect the course of human history.

So what’s this overview have to do with hosting a dinner party in the hopes of finding a crew of soul companions? Here’s what true for all of us. We are living through a moment in history unlike any other. The changes that we – each one of us – will experience now and in the years to come are unprecedented. None of us will be untouched by events unfolding and yet to occur in our world. There was a time when we were isolated or protected from crises abroad – no longer. What happens in any nation, in every government, in all banking systems, affects you within seconds. All change is now immediate and of equal significance; thus all change is profound in its capacity to impact the individual and the whole. In this we are bearing witness to the mystical truth that, “What is in One is in the Whole.” We have uttered the words of that mystical truth, certainly. But a mystical truth is one that is truly inconceivable to the ordinary mind. Not until a person bears witness to a mystical truth, either through a mystical experience or, in this case, through the collective shifting of a planetary consciousness, can the full force of that truth be glimpsed. Mind you, I said “glimpsed”; not realized, not understood, simply glimpsed, like we glimpse the force of lightning in a night storm.

But the consequences of the descent of this truth into physical form are beyond measure. They are everywhere and in every form of life. We are being led by the unseen gravity field of this single mystical truth into another field of consciousness, one that pulsates from a far more refined altitude of truth. We are all interconnected and in order to survive – and thrive – as a planetary community, we must adapt all of our resources, beginning with fuel, to food, to the resources of our bodies, minds, and spirits, to a template that recognizes we all must survive or none of us does.

Thus, we must now say farewell to the world that is disintegrating around us, to that which was once familiar. Perhaps you did once have a job with a pension and a company car and all those benefits; well, those days might be gone – and probably are gone -- for good. The dramatic shift in manufacturing, industry, banking, all systems familiar, is not temporary. They portend more than just job losses with more job losses to come.

The present dismantling of the outmoded automobile industry, for example, represents more than just the foolishness of industry bosses who, while making long range plans for their companies, refused to take into account the lethal combination of carbon dioxide pollution, low mileage cars, and a rapidly depleting oil supply. It represents corporations blinded by entitlement whose policies have been – and still remain in part – directed by the belief that a nation can maintain a lifestyle of endless abundance regardless of the cost to the rest of the world. Such thinking is dangerous for many reasons, not the least of which is it’s simply not true. But in addition to that fact, such reasoning is blatantly self-serving, ignoring the needs of the environment, the nation, and the future – the future, the twin “wise elder” to history that, unfortunately, has never had a seat at the table for the decision-makers in the western world.

To sum up this moment in time, let me put it this way: The fossil age and all that it represents – the oil industry and oil/fossil finances and product manufacturing, including heating systems, lighting, travel, and (especially) war – are coming to a close and it’s happening faster than we can even comprehend. In fact, it’s happening more rapidly than we can absorb financially, which is why our global economy is shattered. The financial structures of our global society cannot adapt fast enough to the speed at which the “solar” changes are now underway. The solar age with its rise in energy technology, the Internet, energy communications, energy medicine, energy or on-line business, education, Facebook, news, blogs – the world of instantaneous contact – will ultimately eclipse all fossil systems. In this massive Axial shift, from one template of power to another, more than just “fossil-based” jobs, such as drilling for oil, will be lost. The fossil-based economics of nations will have to be undone and rebuilt around solar economics, literally and symbolically. Consider, just as something to ponder, that fossil fuel is limited in location and in quantity but solar power is abundant and free, which is to say, no one can claim ownership to the sun – well, Halliburton will no doubt try, but suffice it to say, no one has yet to pull that one off. That alone is symbolic of “one earth”, one global community; that is the template of holism, a template that you have been actively pursuing as an individual for years, if only through how you have approached your own health. This shift that is now unfolding faster than any one can comprehend should not really feel like a surprise, but as something you were expecting, and even more so, as something for which you have been preparing for years.

Like so many other times in history, this is a time when people have sensed changes coming, but nonetheless have gone in the extreme opposite direction than their spiritual instincts would have them go. That is, while the soul emerges with messages of preparation, the ego often enters into the thick fog of denial. That condition explains the contradictory choices so many people have made during these past ten to twenty years, living beyond their means, amassing huge credit card debt, while simultaneously pursuing a path of inner consciousness. The particular combination of forces that can make a person most vulnerable to foolish personal decisions is this: a prolonged focus and nurturing of personal wounds which, in turn, leads to a sense of “wounded entitlement”, combined with the belief that you “deserve” to get whatever you want because you are unhappy or an unfair event happened to you, like losing a job or a divorce or just a bad day in earth school. Such thinking creates a pattern of comfort through negative permission to spend, to eat, to act against the forces of your personal survival instincts. If you can’t pay back your bills, so what? You were entitled to spend that money because you were sad or abused or suffering in some capacity. Unfortunately our society has indulged our sentimental (if not mythic) attachment to suffering and entitlement. I bring this up because one of the emerging but wise realizations we must now all face as we move forward in our lives is that no one is allowed to go into debt anymore just because they are sad.

Let me conclude this section by saying that history, our first wise elder, is a formidable teacher, a guide through the storms of life. The changes that are sweeping across the planet and will continue to blow, sometimes like gale winds and other times like the soft breezes of a summer night, will inevitably clear out the debris of much of our global society that has gone bad – and much has. Sometimes systems get so rotten that they simply have to collapse because all the new policies and procedures that can be created just can’t get the rotten blood out of the blood bank, as they say. But with the cleansing comes opportunities for fresh, clean thought, for new life, for new beginnings. And that’s where we come in.

Through these past years, in our efforts to “find ourselves” and forge a sense of individuality, we lost a great deal. We are now paying a high price in particular for one very valuable life asset – a loving, supportive community. For as much as people claim to want and need their own space, the social networking sites on the internet would hardly thrive so much if being alone was all it was cracked up to be. Community, especially a community of like-minded souls, is a blessing like none other.

Gathering a crew to share a nurturing meal with is an opportunity to forge a new type of community that begins with a gathering of people around one dinner, and hopefully from that one gathering will grow networks of other dinner parties, all with the same intention – to illuminate each other’s path as best we can as we make this journey from one way of life to another. From such gatherings grow communities of soul companions who share a willingness of spirit to help other meet people and connect with fellow gifted creative beings – not only locally but hopefully around the country and perhaps even around the world.

CREATING AN ILLUMINATED GATHERING

Where Do You Begin?

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The Goal: You are gathering together to help each other break through to another level of conscious creativity in your lives. Your goal is to discover new routes into your personal and professional future, to scope out ways to incarnate ideas that have yet to be tried and to imagine as a group new ways to succeed at ideas you may be trying to bring forward. Remember at all times: Your intention is not to go backwards and replace the job or home or income that you have lost, as that chapter in your life is over. Tempting as it might be to want to return to your old life and to former positions of authority, you must focus on the here and now. Everyone is starting out “in the same boat”, as the saying goes.
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The Magic Number: Smaller crews function more effectively than largely ones. Six to eight people works best.
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The Grace of Illumination: The grace of Illumination is a core presence in the work that you do together as a group. To expand on what I said earlier, this grace expresses itself as a gift or blessing, an inner Light that illuminates the depth to which you are able to comprehend the value or purpose of another person’s ideas. This grace can also express itself as the qualities and talents you are able to perceive (not see, but perceive – meaning to “see through the eyes of your soul”) in someone else that that person discounts as insignificant. For example, a person might say, “I don’t know what to do now that I’ve lost my job. I’ve always been in sales and there simply are no sales jobs on the market.” You perceive that this person is very artistic, perhaps because she dresses with flair or perhaps because he happened to mention that he loves to visit the Art Institute. You offer the suggestion that opening up to artistic thought and imagination as a pathway to creating a new occupation is something the group should discuss as that might lead to the unlocking of: 1) a reservoir of inherent talent, 2) a stream of creative ideas and 3) a new field of potential contacts. Such ideas might also require that a person return to school for additional studies. Many new occupations that people are drawn to, such as becoming spiritual directors, require advanced education. And you must be willing to go that distance, to re-educate yourself. In the process of re-education, you might have to take any job to get by in order to pay the bills. But you must be willing to do the work and make the necessary sacrifices that go along with laying the foundation for a new life.
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The Guest List – Who should you invite? Does everyone make an appropriate potential crew member? I had to give this some serious thought and while I would like to say everyone qualifies, that may not exactly be true. The people who are best suited share these experiences, goals, and characteristics:
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They are going through a period of change and seek direction;
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They have a spiritual core – not religious, but spiritual;
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They are people willing to make a commitment to others, thus they share a generosity of spirit;
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They are not seeking financial investors or people to solve their problems for them.

In order to find the right people, my suggestion is that you share this newsletter with the people you think might resonate with the goals and see if it’s a match. Send the newsletter out to people on your web site or via email and ask if anyone is interested in setting up an evening. Give it a trial run; after all, you have nothing to lose by hosting one evening.

A note of tough wisdom: There is tough love and now here’s a dose of tough wisdom. As difficult as it is to say that some people are just not ready to be good crew members, the fact is some people are basically “passengers” and others know what it is to pull their own weight. They are the type of crew members you want to sail with as you make this rich journey into creating a new life path. Passengers want to be waited on, they want to ring the bell for room service in order to have someone come and solve their problems, and they want someone else to sail their ship. (This doesn’t mean they are not nice and good people, but we are not talking about being nice and good and wonderful and lovely and enchanting. We are talking about stamina and commitment and passengers ain’t got what it takes to crew a ship.) I am someone who looks for initiative in a person as well as a history of creativity, cleverness, the capacity to try anything, action versus passivity, optimism versus pessimism, and independence. People with those traits make good crew members. People who need life delivered to their door, need guarantees of outcomes, are afraid to leave port, and need to be told “how” to do everything are essentially passengers.

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Rules to Follow: Everyone brings a dish to share. This is a gathering with the intention of generating great possibilities of transformation in each other’s life. You are each other’s spiritual alchemists and even if you have known each other as longtime friends, you have never turned to each other as soul companions in such a way before. You are seeing each other through the eyes of your soul for the first time and in that, a new power is released.
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First Course: As you gather together for dinner, the first course should be devoted to a celebration of all that has been and is good and positive about your life. Whether you are familiar with everyone at the table or some are new to you, your entry into each other’s lives is on a high note. This is a time to share what life has given you and what you have given to life.
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Second Course: The creative work of navigations begins. One at a time, each person is given time to share the nature of the transition he or she is presently experiencing: job loss, financial crisis, the threat of home foreclosure. Whatever obstacles they have or are confronting should be openly discussed at this time along with how they have confronted these challenges. A person should feel encouraged to share his or her fears about the challenges he or she is facing and ideally in this atmosphere, support and encouragement should be offered. Everyone needs a witness to the journey of life and to the rigors of that journey. Crew members can become trusted witnesses to the most difficult transitions of your life. They can also help birth the best parts of you, bringing forward your hidden potential and untapped inner resources.

Any creative ideas should also be introduced during this time as well as including what the person views as his or her creative “brick walls”. The individual should describe his or her skills, talents, ambitions and dreams. Additionally, a person should speak about what he or she was good at as a child that never got developed for whatever reasons as well as any “hidden” talents that never received the proper attention in life.

Finally, the individual should state what specific type of insight he or she is looking for: 1) Can you make suggestions on how to generate a business plan? 2) Does anyone have any creative ideas for new contacts? 3) With my talents, can you help me think out of the box as to what I should consider doing? 4) Can you see how I might be sabotaging myself? 5) Does my idea (whatever idea you might present) need more work?
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Illuminated Insight: Your task is to offer insight as well as to receive insight from others. So let us be clear about the difference between “insight” and “feedback”. Feedback is giving “back” to someone comments and critical analysis on what they’ve just given you. Feedback can be harsh at times, as we all know, or supportive, but it doesn’t have the most endearing reputation. And let’s face it – most people have not had the experience of gathering around a group of people who have made a commitment to help midwife your soul into its next creative journey in this life. That, in effect, is the essence of a gathering of soul companions. The food is just for show. Illuminated insight, therefore, consists of grace-filled, thoughtful words of counsel that have each person’s very best well-being clearly held in intention.

Illuminated insight is sacred counsel which, by the way, does not mean it is always positive or feels good. What you need to trust is that illuminated insight is always wise, honest, and filled with grace. This requires that a most special bond of trust is established amongst your crew members, as you may end up sharing your most private thoughts and valued creative ideas. You have to trust that others will honor the integrity of your creative properties, for example. Keeping the image of an ancient ship in mind, no crew member could communicate with anyone off their own ship as there were no means of long distance communication. That is obviously not the case today and intellectual theft, as it is known, is very common and very difficult to track and actually prove. Thus, that quality of trust that allows you to share creative ideas fearlessly in order to have a crew help you imagine ways to bring those ideas to fruition is truly a rare find.

A word about grace: the ear-mark of grace is that it carries with it the power to transform the receiver. Grace is a “verb”, not a “noun”. The instructions that come through grace lead to action of mind, of heart, and of soul. As you listen with the eyes and ears of your soul, your hold the intention to “see what the other cannot see and hear what the other cannot hear” so that you may be a Light for that person in the Night. To request grace as a prayer, “I ask for the grace of Illumination so that I may see clearly what this person cannot see and hear clearly what this person cannot hear. May I serve as a Divine Light in the Night for this soul.”

Insight is shared one person at a time. Please note that compliments are not insight. As nice as it is to receive a compliment, telling someone that he is a nice person is not the type of practical insight that will help him get on with his next step. Insight should be grounded counsel that a person finds useful and practical, the type of counsel you would like to receive. For example, one time it was obvious to me that a person had ambitions that were far too lofty for his level of discipline. Said another way, he was lazy and yet he was so very talented. How does one counsel a person like that? In the old days, I would have envisioned myself kicking him right in the arse, so to speak – but that was then and this is now. I decided that the wisest route was that of inspiration, so I pointed out to him that few people were as gifted at carpentry as he was and that I had no doubt many people were curious as to what he could create. I built up the forces of intrigue and mystery and much to my surprise – and it was a surprise – my approach worked. I’ve learned that illuminated insight usually includes the grace of how to deliver the message.

Sometimes you may need to tell a person that he or she is on a dead end street – or you may need to hear that. One person I know has had an idea for a project for years, a project that I know in my gut will never work. I have not yet been able to say that to him but if he were to be a guest at one of these dinner parties, I would gracefully – meaning to say something in way that is filled with grace – share with him that his project is part of his old life and needs to be released now.
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Third Course: After all the sharing sessions, you conclude by each person stating the course of action he or she intends to take between now and the next get-together. Action is the key word. We have gotten accustomed to believing that “thinking” alone can actually resolve all our problems. That has made us lazy and ineffectual. You need to create a plan of action that includes every person, not only yourself. This is a group effort and not just about you. You must do something for each person at your dinner table that furthers their goals and they must do something to support yours.
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The 48-Hour Rule: Whatever you offer to do for someone you must do within 48 hours. If for some reason you cannot fulfill your commitment, you have to contact your crew member and alert him or her as to the reasons for the delay. If you think of someone who would be an excellent contact person for a crew member, do not offer to make that connection unless you know for certain you can arrange it. Instead, first call your contact person and confirm that he or she will take a call from your crew member and then alert your crew member. Do not create a situation of false hope. This also avoids creating a situation of making an offer that you feel awkward actually fulfilling.
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Last Course: Setting up the next get together: My recommendation is that you meet once a month and stay in close touch in between. At the next dinner, you follow the procedures, only the theme is First Course: Celebrating what has been achieved during your month apart; Second Course: Accomplishments and Obstacles, during which you share what you are learning and ask for what you need. And finally, you close with the Third Course, Illuminated Feedback.
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Dessert: Close with the sharing of a prayer or a selection of inspirational poetry.

How To Avoid A Shipwreck

As with all great ideas, potential problems lay hidden even in the best of intentions. These are pitfalls that must be avoided in order to ensure the success of a gathering or dinner:

1) No “woundology” allowed. As tempting as it is to turn a gathering into a therapy session, that is simply not allowed. This is not a gathering to process wounds or a support group for bad times. Once that Pandora’s Box is opened, you can never get the lid back on and the group cannot get back on track. Every person must understand from the get-go that the purpose of the gathering is NOT therapeutic. (As you can well imagine, if that started at my dinner table, I cut it off with a, “Ah, what year are we in? Get back here and right now. No one leaves 2009.”)

2) No one is allowed to ask another person for investment capital or financial support or for financial connections. Money is not a part of what we have to offer each other. Once money is brought into a relationship, nothing but trouble comes of it. That needs to be understood.

3) I said this before but I need to say it again. These gatherings are not to solve a person’s problems so that he or she can then go home. You are forming a team to help each other move forward with your new lives. In that regard, finding people who feel like “equals” – that is, “we’re all in this together” – make the perfect companions. You can sense who is a fit and who isn’t. You have to have people who know how to give and not just take.

What’s Your Final Destination on this Journey of Transformation?

This historic moment of the Great Axial Change, as I think of it, has set us all on a sojourn to chart new courses. Much familiar ground is getting swept away right in front of our eyes, including the power of our nation. We must build anew. We must imagine again the possibilities that lay on the horizon of the world that is emerging all around us, a world that is pulsating the language of “oneness”, ecology, environmentalism, eco-survival, solar power, energy technology, organic food, and global interaction on every level. New creative enterprises are waiting to be incarnated to fill in the spaces of the old systems that are rapidly disintegrating. We are headed, all of us, into the global age, an age of the psyche and soul. This is the age of mystics out of monasteries, where the inner life will emerge as equal in authority to the physical.

So where are we traveling? We are traveling as much toward our interior landscape as we are seeking to transform our communities and rebuild our nation and planet with our new visions. For this, we must have a crew and our crew must connect with others on this ocean of spiritual life.

As we navigate our ships together, let us remember that a rising tide of hope lifts all humanity. That is our ultimate journey.

Lighting the First Candle

If you would love to get together with people to find a crew of your own but don’t know how to contact anyone, please go to the forum section on myss.com - http://www.myss.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi or go to Caroline Myss Face Book page.You can also send this letter out via your email to your local contacts. Get the word out, everyone, because people are longing to connect with each other and to find soul companions along the way. And let us know if a ship has sailed with a full crew, so to speak. We so welcome your feedback and it is valued more than words can express among the extended CMED family. I know together we can help illuminate each other’s lives.

With love,
Caroline

The more you act, the better you get...

Watch Kenneth Branagh do his "Wallender" series on PBS Mystery! He's just gotten better. He's tired and cranky and craggy and doesn't care what you think of him and is taking his time...it makes him real. PBS keeps interrupting the episode to raise money. It should never have to come to this. What happened to the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts?)

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