IPAfricaN
Donation to Ethiopia
Whole Life Network Release
The Whole Life Network introduced an international
program of giving in March of 2003, International Partnerships: Africa Network
(IPAfricaN), which places local sponsors in direct contact with young African
women who need assistance with secondary or vocational school fees, room and
board, uniforms and supplies. Elizabeth Roscoe, after an extended visit to
Africa in the winter of 2002-2003, set up the program and she has guided the
administration of the donated funds. (Please see "IPAfricaN Program
Update" in the August 2003 edition of Connections.) Because of the
enormous distance involved, difficulty has developed in being able to identify
and be in regular contact with young women needing assistance. All of this
changed recently when Elizabeth heard the story on National Public Radio of
Boge Gebre who is the founder of Kembatta Women's Self-Help Center in Ethiopia.
Elizabeth realized that the work of the Center matched the goals and mission
that she had set for the assistance from IPAfricaN. A true partnership has
formed between Elizabeth and Boge, IPAfricaN and KMG, as it is known in
Ethiopia, and the first transfer of funds from IPAfricaN is on the way to help
the Women's Center in Kembatta.
The following was sent in a letter to Elizabeth. "Currently,
through its various projects, the vision, concept and philosophy behind the KMG
Center have been translated into action on the ground level, among communities.
We have seen changes and transformations at every level, on many forbidden
issues that hither to have been unthinkable taboos; one of these is Female
Genital Excision (the circumcision of young women 16-18 years of age). Can you
imagine that Female Genital Excision, Bride Abduction, Rege (widow inheritance),
Jala (offering ones bride to ones best man), Hericho (sexual intercourse with
brother-in-laws), Ribena (the husband of the older sister taking the younger
sister as a wife, when the older sister dies) being stopped by community
consensus, and unanimous decision! Uncircumcised girls are getting married in
groups in the region where circumcising girls was the only way of ensuring that
the girl is marriageable and the act is called "removing the dirt".
Few years back, HIV/AIDS was considered taboo, shameful and "sinners
disease"; today people go in groups to have HIV testing and marriage
without HIV testing is not acceptable. This celebration of bodily integrity,
healthy life and freedom is the very essence why all of us struggled."
You can help those who have struggled so mightily.
Please send your tax deductible donations to WLN,
P.O. Box 85, Montrose, CO 81402. Checks or money orders should be made to:
IPAfricaN. For more information about IPAfricaN, interested parties may contact
Elizabeth Roscoe at 249-0397 or soul@elizabethroscoe.com.
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Wednesday
Night Wisdom
Whole Life Network Release
There are plenty of fascinating and informative
individuals who are willing to give their time and energy just to be heard by
our membership. Recently, maybe it's just the Summer schedules, we haven't had
good turnouts for Friday Night Forum events. Therefor, we introduce Wednesday Night Wisdom. Why not come out
and take advantage of the free wisdom that our presenters are anxious to
share. As always, the programs will be held at Wind Spirit Gifts. Kim Davis has
moved her store across Main Street to 525 East Main (next to Hartman Brothers).
So the Wednesday Night Wisdom venue is moving right along with Kim and Wind Spirit
to her new location. When you come to participate in the August and September
presentations, just remember that the new location is across the street; you
can't miss it. For the Wednesday night programs, we have scheduled a great
lineup of subjects for you to explore with our volunteer presenters, as always,
absolutely free to the public. Bring a neighbor or friend. Come early and
browse among the bamboo plants, fountains, crystals, candles and wind chimes.
Visit with your friends and fellow members of The Whole Life Network. In this
network, you won't be a stranger for long.
Do you have a subject on which you want to be heard?
We plan to schedule one of these free-to-the-public presentations every other
week all year long. To have your "Forum" reserved for you, just call
Jody at 240-0234. For a great Wednesday Night Wisdom evening out, come to the Wednesday Night Wisdom series.
At Wind Spirit Gifts - 525 E. Main
St., Montrose, Wednesday - Aug. 11th at 6pm.
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer “Insatiable
for Life"
Sometimes the small stuff gets us down. Instead of
sweating it, how do we sweeten it? Spend an evening with Colorado poet and
life-lover, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, author of “Insatiable,” “If You Listen,”
“Lunaria” and editor of “Charity: True Stories of Giving & Receiving,” as
she presents an evening of poetry performance & song, that helps us take
the mundane bits of daily life and turn them into poetry—from the telephone
ringing in the morning to the bats swirling through gray sky at dusk. For
writers, non-writers, people who think they hate poetry and those who see it
everywhere they turn
At Wind Spirit Gifts - 525 E. Main
St., Montrose, Wednesday - Aug. 25th at 6pm.
Cheryl Adams -"Folly, Flight
and Friendship"
Through the art of storytelling, Cheryl K. Adams, aka
Red Hawk, will tell the story of Folly, Flight and Friendship. Native Americans
would have a storyteller ride on horseback from one village to the next to
share news and tell stories that parallel life and the challenges faced. With a
mix of magic, a hardy humor, a reach of realism, a dash of drama and the power
of possibility, Cheryl will tell the story of "Earnest the Eagle" and
"Bodacious the Butterfly" as they soar and meet life's challenges.
Learn how "Bodacious" and "Earnest" transform pain into
power. Come and have an hour of entertainment and enlightenment through
laughter, the best medicine.
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Meditations:
Soapbox of the President
by Kim E. Davis
Greetings to all. The Whole Life Network had the most
wonderful opportunity to be able to co-sponsor the R. Carlos Nakai Quartet on
July 16th. I hope many of you got to go. I did and I saw some of you there. I
had not been to Palisade until that night. What a great little town. The
Vineyards were wonderful as well and the atmosphere for the concert was great!
I have been a fan of Nakai for many years and jumped at the chance for WLN to
be a co-sponsor and to have the opportunity to see him live.
Along
with his three companions, Nakai took us on a fantastic journey of "Funky
Jazz" as well as some traditional music that had been re-done to include
the other's talents and instruments. We were all encouraged to get up and dance
and to sing along as well. All of the group are multi-talented with many
instruments and had many stories to tell as well. The crowd did not want the
concert or the evening to end and insisted on an encore, which the group
joyfully obliged.
I
would like to thank Paul Chubbuck at the Western Colorado Congress for
contacting me and offering the WLN the wonderful opportunity to participate in
co-sponsoring this concert. I would also like to thank Polly Cady for not only
driving that night but for the great job of "womaning" the table that
we had set up and handing out WLN information. I had an awesome time!
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ARE YOU A
STARSEED?
Starseeds are individuals who feel excitement and
longing upon learning that they might have originated from another world. They
experience the aloneness and separateness that is the human condition, but also
have the sense of being foreigners on this planet. They find the behavior and
motives of our society puzzling and illogical. Starseeds are often most
reluctant to become involved in the institutions of society, e.g., political,
economic, health care. Even at an early age, they tend to discern the hidden
agendas of such conventions with unusual clarity. "Starseeds"
describe evolved being from another planet, star system or galaxy, whose
specific missions are to assist Planet Earth and her peoples to bring in the
Golden Age at the millennium. This is the time for Planetary Activation and for
the awakening of individuals who are starseeds. They too have incarnated with
total amnesia concerning their identity, origins and purpose. However, the
genes of starseeds are encoded with a "wake-up call" designed to
"activate" them at a predetermined moment in life. Once activated,
they can take up their missions as their connections to the Higher Self are
also strengthened. If you are interested in participating in group study:
contact Laurel Ann, Visionary Counseling 970-240-3627
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Dowsers Host
Marge Hefty
Rocky Mountain Dowsers Release
The Color of Your Name is the colorful title of the presentation
by Marge Hefty to be held on August 21st from 10 to 5 at Cimarron Golf
Community Center. Included in this analysis of ones name are the Aura, Chakras,
and Numerology as a beginning point. By using our individual birth names, we
can find the color in which we are lacking and how to balance and harmonize
with the universe. There are several ways to bring ourselves into balance by expanding
our consciousness once we become aware of our needs. Marge will show us how
pendulum dowsing can play a part in making decisions. She will have work sheets
that will aid the participant in this process. By filling in the personal
information, one can obtain a better understanding of what is going on in your
life.
Marge
Hefty was introduced to dowsing when she married a dowser. And she humbly says
that she has been an apprentice in dowsing for years. (In actuality, she is
renowned for her ability.) She says, "we used dowsing in remodeling our
home. We dowsed water for the home and, as a by-product, we dowsed and did
geometry for homes by checking our energies." Her husband, Homer, made his
transition last year and is helping Marge from the other side. Says Marge,
"He helps to dowse for wells and teach the children in this art."
Homer did most of the map dowsing and she calls upon him to help her learn that
phase of well dowsing too. Marge Hefty is a founding member of the Tucson
Chapter of ASA and past president, and is currently helping with their
newsletter. Please join us in welcoming Marge Hefty for a pot luck and
presentation on August 21st. from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. The cost is $20. The
place is Cimarron Golf Community Center at 901 65.30 Road in Montrose. Bring a
friend or neighbor. Questions or directions? Call Polly at 240-4442 or Dick at
234-1590.
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Remembering
Aztlán
A Column of Poetry, Culture & Spirit
by Art Goodtimes
WELCOME HOME … Well, the
backlit peach peak of this year’s Rainbow Gathering wasn’t Mt. Shasta but once
again the Warner Mountains. Once again California’s Modoc County … Not Lassen.
Not Madeline, like the website said. (Never trust the Web!) But once again
Likely … Only a different spot (twenty years later). Bearcamp Flat. A village
site on the last ridge before the desert of Nevada. A trading zone for the
Gidutikadu (a Paiute band) on the northeast edge of Hammawi country (a Pit
River people) … Traditional elders were not happy that the Rainbow scouts chose
this sacred valley. Rocks where the dead were left for the turkey vultures to
devour clambered over by the tatterdemalion outcasts of our crazy Euro-American
reigning culture clash. Outcrops of basaltic lava splotched with red ochre
& sunflower yellow lichens. Ritually engraved by natural forces. Not the
hand of humans. (Let alone their own.) Yet now sprouting hippies. Campfires.
Tents, flags & rock dancers in wind whirled robes … Sacrilege? Or does a
gathering for peace in a time of war deserve dispensation from the usual rules?
… The Forest Service didn’t think so. Their holstered guns and nightsticks rode
with them in the saddles. Strings of six. Mounted gendarmes. And this year
Jeeps driving through the encampment with more surveillance teams on the high
ridges … “Six up!” the Rainbows would call, and everyone knew they were coming.
So there were no “busts” within the encampment. Though Supervisor Stanley G.
Sylva [Latin for “woods”] issued a temp ban on nudity in the area of the
gathering. An excuse for the cops (Waldo & Patricio the amiable two I met
& chatted with) to force sisters to cover up breasts but allow brothers to
cruise bare-chested. So stupidly American … But of course at night we ran
around as naked as we cared. Or in the day, & only covered up when we heard
the warning call … And in the end there was plenty of food for all. No money
passed hands, except as gift. And alcohol remained at A-Camp … Twenty thousand
strong. Building a rainbow vision of peace amid the ancestral grounds of
Hammawi and Gidutikadu. Long ago stolen & now managed by the Feds. Not a
sacrilege. No, an honoring … Like the American flag flying upside down at the
center of the great Fourth of July peace circle. (Ovum broken by the serpent
saxophone parade of kids & their keepers from Kid Village, including us
& our own two tykes.) Made me want to investigate. Upset at first by a
political statement in the midst of kites. Dancing & drumming. And this
great psychedelic prayer for peace: The Annual Gathering of the Rainbow Family
of Living Light … Only to find a warrior Sundancer. His brown back scarred.
Kneeling in the dirt to hold a large windblown Stars & Stripes wrong ways
up. A lying emblem to him. Symbol of the initial ethnic cleansing &
manifest genocidal destiny that’s made the United States what it is. Oppressor
of tribes. Bully of the hemisphere. Now the world … And yet land that we love …
Born in revolution. Freedom loving. Dreaming of democracy. But with an
autocratic bent that Jefferson warned us we’d have to pay strict attention to
& sometimes up end.
SPENCER HOT WELLS … Magic happens. No
sooner had we driven up to our favorite stop on U.S. 50 in the Smokey Valley of
Nevada, a hot pool on a bluff overlooking the sagebrush flats of the Great
Basin, then another car pulled up as well … As my family was undressing to hop
into the stone-lined warmth with its three Boulder inhabitants of the moment, we met John Beal.
A charismatic character. Grand old man of the hot springs world. Like some
Smokey the Bear of lithium, he carried a shovel, and went to work on enlarging
one of the nearby pools where someone had diverted the water flow. A Sac and
Fox who’d spent time in the military, Beal obviously loved the hot springs
world … He explained that a lot of Nevada springs were really hot wells – the result
of drilling casings into the earth for natural gas exploration years ago …
Spencer was just that -- a series of hot wells, not true springs … Not that it
made much difference for users. To find a delightful free bath in the wilds is
always a treat … John knew every springs I named, from California to Colorado.
He was no fakir. He was the genuine thing. A one-man geyser of hot springs lore
… We all soaked. And talked. And enjoyed a warm moment on the way to the great
gathering of the washed and unwashed – Rainbow.
BERLIN … No, not the great
German metropolis, but the Nevada ghost town that’s become a state park and an
Ichthyosaur fossil site. Most Lonesome Highway travelers see the sign for it
outside Austin, but few visit it … But for us it was on a direct line south to
friends near Mono Lake we were on the way to surprise. So we took the blue
highway … Of course, in the dark, on a strange road, we got lost … Now, as many
of you know, I love getting lost. It adds an edge of excitement to travel to
not know exactly where you are, what road you’re on, and if you can ever
reconnoiter your way back to found. Of course, not everyone in the family sees
it that way. Especially at 11 p.m. at night, the kids sleepy, and no firm
lodging site in sight … After a few detours, strange twists, ghost town
workings and grumbles, we found Berlin. It looked like a great place to explore
by day. But it was night and we needed a place to sleep, and so we pushed on …
Next time, Berlin won’t be a place we don’t know, but the place of moonlight
memories. A place we will want to return to. Some zig-zag adventure for the
future.
LEE VINING … As it ended up,
we came through Hawthorne’s fearsome valley ammo dump (one of the nation’s
largest), almost stopped at El Aladdin (the town’s tawdry all-night casino),
and then drove to the Nevada/California border for a night of sandy sleeping
bags under piñon stars … In the morning we tooled into Mono Lake and its eerie
beauty – brine shrimp the size of gnats, underwater fly larvae that served as
indigenous food (tasting like “bacon bits” when dried), and caterpillar moth
trenches they dug around Jeffrey Pine. It was a different world … In Lee
Vining, a highway stop smaller than Norwood, I tracked down an old, old friend
at the local main street coffee house and found Lauren Davis in her garden,
tending one of nine varieties of heirloom wheat she was cultivating … We’d met
in San Fran back in ’76 at Peter Berg’s Listening to the Earth conference. And
both of us had found time to garden and preserve heirloom varieties of
essential foods among all our other projects … Davis a fine writer. Working on
a novel (“Circling Back”). Working for one of the local tribes. With her own
family and tradition of defending Mono Lake – now, of course, preserved, thanks
in part to her lifelong dedication. A good friend to be back in touch with.
JUNE LAKE … What a sparkling
gem of the Eastern Sierras this lovely place is! We’d heard about it for years
from our friends Michael and Valerie Cohen .. He’s a writer and professor of
some note (just returned to the University of Nevada at Reno from lecturing at
Oxford), and she’s a painter of equal renown. This was our first time to their
summer cabin. They’d spoken of the place in fond tones, but it took a visit to
grow the magic of this mini-Tahoe set amid the dazzling grandeur of the Eastern
Slope of the Sierras. Tall lodgepoles and western cedar. Granite outcrops.
Balancing rocks. Pristine waters. And flowering bouquets at every turn of the
head … As if hiking around the lake wasn’t enough, and the conversations that
flowed like good wine, they took us into Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows the next
day. To Pothole Dome where they were married in ’68. To a glittery stone beach
on the banks of the rushing Tuolumne River, where the kids skinny-dipped and
made sand castles, dancing in au natural glee. Using the “pathless way” -- not
only Michael’s philosophy of hiking but the name of his brilliant exegesis of
John Muir and the concept of wilderness in America (Univ. of Wisconsin Press,
Madison, 1984) – we learned more of the lore of the park that has been the
couple’s focus for all their lives … We saw the north rib of Whorl Mountain
that Michael made the first ascent of in the late Seventies … Lured into its
spell early in both their lives, having lived within its boundaries for a
while, they’d made a home as close to the park as they could. And constantly
drew nourishment from its richness … To live in beauty. That is a way we all
should strive to emulate. And the Cohens have been doing it with incredible
grace and persistence for years. An inspiration.
THE PATHLESS WAY… Visiting Michael
& Val prompted me to finally begin reading his great youthful tracking of
John Muir’s apotheosis from middle American bible-carrying inventor engineer to
deep ecologist icon & founder of one of the nation’s great eco-defender
organizations – The Pathless Way: John Muir
and American Wilderness … Cohen catalogues the many ways Muir
abandoned the civilized values of his youth and upbringing and how he “like a
weed of civilization [felt] a constant tendency to return to primitive
wildness.” … It was the perfect prelude to Rainbow, where wandering without
destination, or even direction, is the preferred modus operandi. Letting the magic of the moment guide one’s
steps. In tune with the ring of power Rainbow offers its devotees. Where being
in one’s heart is rewarded with hugs and gifts, not opprobrium.
MONTHLY QUOTA … Granddad
Bontempi on the subject of gay weddings in San Francisco, “I’m tickled pink
Mayor Newsome is doing something different …That’s fantastic. At least if gays
grow a child, they’ll raise one without hate in its background.” … [As to the
language Vince uses in describing Bush & the Neocon Crew, while it would be
quite colorful and perhaps appropriate here, I’ll keep that private, as I don’t
want to offend anyone, nor make his blood pressure start to skyrocket.
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ReConnections:
A Look Back
The heritage of The Whole Life
Network from the pages of Connections.
One Year Ago **”The Whole Life Network introduced an
international program in March of this year, International Partnerships:
African Network (IPAfricaN), which places local sponsors in direct contact with
young African women who need assistance with secondary or vocational school
fees, room and board, uniforms and supplies.”
**Dr. Judith Boice asks Interested in Being Healthy?, “For most people, health is a
necessary prerequisite to create what truly matters to them. Without health,
they cannot bring their visions to fruition. Not everyone is interested in
being healthy, however. Some simply want symptomatic relief.”
Five Years Ago **”I am pleased to inform The Whole
Life Network community of an upcoming event that may interest some of our
readers. August 11 15th 1999, Don Valerio, a wonderful medicine man
from Peru will be in our area to lead a Vision Quest in our mountains.”
**Linda Hoeksema comments on a new health regimen,
“Transcendancing is an expanded experience of dancing and physical fitness. It
offers new and refreshing ways of looking at the body, the mind and movement.
Using breath, sound and awareness as a deepening into our core, we connect with
ourselves at the cellular, fluid level adding graceful precision to previously
unknown movement possibilities.”
Ten Years Ago **”Time, as it tends to do in the
summertime, is flying faster than you think! It’s not too early to register for
Whole Life Network’s fourth annual Symposium Exploring
the near Death Experience presented by Kenneth Ring, Ph.D.”
**Don Bailey considers population growth, “Earth
changes how about earth changes here in Montrose the Western Slope of Colorado?
All the people moving in and impacting the community with developing, building,
traffic, etc. Do people moving here bring with them what they wanted to leave
behind? Or was it already here?”
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DEA’S Kitchen:
The Recipe from a Radical
by Dea Jacobson
About ten years ago, I joined a community garden in
Grand Junction and spent two years hanging around with a group of folks
dedicated to growing, preparing and sharing food. I enjoyed a camaraderie that
brought me to a new awareness of our interconnectedness with the source of our
sustenance. We meditated by eating our meals in silence, noticing the nuances
of taste and texture. Cooking classes were held in our teacher, Rebecca's,
kitchen and our garden was in the field behind her house. I felt that what we
were doing was nothing short of revolutionary, living the ideals discussed in Diet for a Small Planet, Frances Moore
Lappe's classic first published in 1971. When Rebecca moved on, we all went our
separate ways, forever bonded through sharing the process of digging in the
dirt, savoring the harvests, and washing dishes. Fundamentally changing our
eating habits was a lot more challenging than "going on a diet", and
the support of the group was vital. But it's a challenge to sustain, now that
we are apart. I hope that this column inspires interest in people coming
together to explore the idea of how deeply our food choices impact our
communities, and I support those already doing so in carrying on this important
revolution.
As I put what I learned into practice, I rid my
kitchen of excess gadgets, aluminum and other reactive cookware, and the stale,
boxed, and processed foods that I had relied on to get meals on the table,
fast. I learned how to cook quinoa, teff and amaranth, make ghee and gomasio,
what kombu and other kinds of seaweeds are good for, and why I should use real
sea salt. I tossed the grocery coupons and shopped more in locally owned health
food stores, enjoying fewer, healthier, fresher choices. Since I had no health
insurance (which I always thought of as "sick" insurance, anyway), I
figured that the extra money I spent on food bought real health insurance
clean, healthy, organic foods. A pretty radical idea, I like to think.
Now, as my partner and I complete our new, natural
home, an earthship. North of Cedaredge, I have the chance to start from scratch
in equipping my new kitchen. I'm excited to put into practice what I learned
almost a decade ago in Rebecca's kitchen. Using feng shui directives, I will
place my stove, the modern hearth of the house, in the center of the kitchen so
"chi" can flow freely around me as I cook. The earthen and flagstone
floor will keep me grounded and balanced with the earth's energy. A greywater
planter near the South facing sink will treat dishwater as it grows herbs,
tomatoes and other water-loving plants in view of the San Juans and the
Gunnison valley below. I won't tax the solar electric system with a lot of time
saving gadgets, preferring vintage tools to add to the ambience of simplicity,
but I'll keep my small hand-held electric blender, a Christmas gift from my
daughter. Tiles from foreign lands will become part of the walls, with hand
made memorabilia gracing nooks and crannies. Staples in heavy glass jars will
line shelves and fill cupboards. As the stage is set, I imagine good times
ahead, creating nourishing soul food, and the camaraderie yet to come.
So, now a recipe for summer from The Sacred Kitchen by Robin and Jon Robertson:
Samadhi Loves You
Banana-Berry Pudding
3 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and halved (or use
all or some peaches, now in season!)
¼ cup sweetener
¼ cup silken firm tofu
1 banana quartered
½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice
pinch of salt
fresh mint sprigs for garnish
Puree strawberries or peaches, add other ingredients
and blend thoroughly. Place in dessert dishes and chill for 2 hours. Garnish
with mint sprigs. Ahhhh! Radical! Enjoy!!!!
Dea Jacobson, RYT 500, owns Blue Heron Yoga Fitness and
Wellness in Cedaredge, CO. She is a graduate of Naturally Grand Cooking School
and is available for cooking at retreats and to teach Yoga in Western Colorado.
www.blueheronyoga.com or at 970
856-4905.
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Peaceful
Contributions for the Soul
by Kathy Gates
Summer
is a time of full growth and strength. When the seeds from spring are in full
bloom and become the flower.
(Do
not drive while meditating)
Close
your eyes, take a few breaths deep into your belly. On each out breath let go.
Continue until you feel relaxed. When you feel relaxed and at peace imagine in
your minds eye a nice flowing river.
What
does your river look like? Do you have a sense of oneness with all life as you
see your river flowing?
Now
imagine that you are the river. Moving towards success, abundance and
fulfillment.
Filling
you with a sense of joy. Spirit is gently moving along this river with you, do
you feel the presence of Spirit as you flow to your place of success, abundance
and fulfillment?
With
Love you open your heart to the radiance of this life force. Let this river of
Love & Spirit guide you, ask for the strength you need to manifest your
dreams. Connect with your higher self and the love in your heart. When you open
to that creative force within, you open up to abundance. Flow with it and draw
upon it's glow, it's beauty and wisdom. Be grateful for all that God's Spirit
shares with you. From the very breath you take each day, to the sunset that
falls at night. That's a way of saying thanks for all that you are, and all
that you are becoming as each day passes to the next. Welcome the abundance
into your life, accept any gifts that flow to you from Spirit's Love.
See
as you flow along your river of Life the beauty that surrounds you. Trust in
the Universe to provide you with exactly what you need. Each experience in your
river of Life is a teacher. Understand the unlimited opportunities there are to
learn from. Have gratitude and thankfulness for all that you have learned and
look forward to the lessons to come. Then everything will flow through you like
a river. And you will notice you flow around the rocks in your life with ease.
Put Love into what ever shows up in your experience and serve the people who
come to you with Love.
Great
Spirit is watching over your personal river of Life, let it flow with joy, and
you will grow from just a tiny seed, to a beautiful flower and reflect to all
the beauty of your true Divine nature for all to see.
When
you are ready come back gently. Flow through this new day this new opportunity
with a heart flowing with Love and Gratitude for what it can bring.
Peace
and Blessings Kathy Gates (Women's Spirit Retreat) 970-234-2454.
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Natural Skin Care
© Anne Calzada Herbalist
The skin is the largest detoxifying organ of our body.
It is one of the first noticeable attributes that we see of a person. It is
composed of blood vessels, nerves, muscles, sebaceous glands, cells, pores and
hair follicles. It contains collagen,
which contributes to the integrity of our skin.
Healthy collagen contributes to the texture of the
skin. Skin protects our being from the inside and out. It retains heat to warm
us and releases sweat when we are hot. It clears toxins from our system via
sweating, blemishes and carbon dioxide. Skin becomes aged looking when the
collagen becomes tougher and unable to retain the moisture. Collagen reduces,
paving the way for wrinkles to set. The dead cells are loughed off and remain
as the top layer of your skin until they are removed. If they are not removed,
they accumulate and clog pores, reduce elimination and cause blemishes.
Toxins, free radicals, lack of essential fatty acids,
water and the Sun depletes our natural reserves. A healthy balanced diet and
avoiding some of the man made food substances can greatly enhance the beauty of
your skin. Don't forget to dry skin brush or use salt scrubs to exfoliate.
Water is essential. When they said to drink eight glasses a day, this holds
true as very good advice. Not only does it help to eliminate toxins and enhance
the function of every cell in the body, it greatly plumps up the skin and
moisturizes from the inside out. I believe that essential fatty acids such as
hemp seed, flax seed, evening primrose and fish oils are another key to healthy
skin. They have numerous benefits in the body. Speaking of the skin, they
moisturize and provide balanced healthy fats that the skin desperately need.
Vitamin A, B Complex, C and E are needed for healthy skin. Silica, sulphur and
zinc are indicated for the skin, which help to rebuild collagen. MSM stimulates
collagen production. It is organic sulphur.
There are many herbs for the skin. Horsetail, nettles
and alfalfa all provide minerals easily absorbed. Burdock, dandelion and red
clover alkinalize the blood, draw and chelate metals and toxins out of the
body, making them helpful for acne, boils, blemishes and oily skin. Foods such
as nutritional yeast, nuts, seeds, seaweeds, fruit and vegetables feed and
cleanse the skin.
Essential oils are great for the skin because they
absorb directly through the many layers of the skin, increasing cellular
regeneration and healing. Lavender, rose, chamomile, carrot, geranium and
sandalwood are just a few common essential oils that are used in blends. Be
sure to cleanse, tone and moisturize daily. Masks and steams are rejuvenating.
Look for brands that are chemical free and botanically based. There are great
companies making mineral powder based make up as well. Ask for it at your local
health food stores! Taking conscious care of your skin will provide satisfying
results for years to come. Remember you are as pretty as you feel, beauty is
truly on the inside. Let your beauty emanate, there is only one beautiful you
in this world!
Here are a few classic recipes.
*Honey Mask
Apply to dry or wet skin and leave on as desired. Exfoliates and moisturizes at
the same time for all skin types.
*Almond/Oat Scrub
Powdered oats and almonds can be an exfoliating and nourishing scrub or even a
mask if used as one. Grind equal parts in a coffee grinder until fine. Add
rosewater, yogurt, or liquid of your choice to moisten.
Anne Calzada is a
Certified Herbalist and founder of Healing Heart Herbs. Her products can be
found at Food For Thought in Ridgway and at other fine natural health outlets.
For consultations or classes she may be reached at 626-5663 or by email
annecalzada@aol.com).
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Wanderings (Being musings and mental meanderings)
Part One of a Series.
By Earl Sires
WHAT IS A GLOBAL NOMAD?
The word nomad conjures up images of a wanderer, one
who has neither a fixed nor a permanent home. In recent times, with the aid of
high speed transportation and the coming of multinational organizations, a
class of people who travel for both business and pleasure and even maintain
homes in two or more countries has emerged and are referred to as global
nomads. An English acquaintance of mine, Peter Russell, lives mostly in San
Francisco but has a cottage in the woods in England and an office apartment in
London. He refers to himself as one of the global nomads.
I refer to myself as a Global Nomad for another, and I
think, more profound reason, or reasons that have to do with what I understand
myself to be about these days. I mentioned in the last issue of this newsletter
that my current roaming is not a lark, an escapist search for pleasure, though
I get much enjoyment from what I do. I also promised to write about what now
drives me and how I am trying to carve out a little piece of the action for
myself.
In the early seventies several things happened to me.
I read a book, for one thing, a tiny paperback loaded with mind exploding
images. It was Loren Eiseleyâ’s talks turned into essays, entitled The Immense Journey. It was about the
fifteen billion year Cosmic Voyage of the ever expanding Universe, including
the grand processional of life’s becoming and the long emergence of humanity
through multi-layered transformations. I read this book in the amazing
atmosphere generated by space travel and men walking on the moon men who sent
back wonderful images of Earth itself from the surface of another heavenly
body. I was enthralled and still reverberate to these immensity's which form
the context of my living and yours.
Simultaneously, I was going through a three year
intensive Gestalt Training program that turned out to be a journey into my own
inner realms and the discovery of another universe to match the vast expanses
without.
Then there was the journey down the Rio Grand on an
Outward Bound adventure that gave me a physical experience of spaciousness as
we floated through a landscape of broad mesas and wide spreading desert with a
vast and open sky above by day and a view of the forever reaching galactic
filled heavens by night.
These three events opened a vastness both within me
and around me, an ever expanding vastness that I have been exploring ever
since. Eventually my expeditions in these realms have led me to an
understanding that we live in and are part of an epic event that has been and
is ongoing, an event we call the Universe, a Universe we now know to have its
own history, a history that extends over thirteen point seven billion years
(give or take a few hundred million) and covers awesome moments of evolution in
which something new has emerged out of something prior, such as the emergence
of galaxies out of clouds of gas, solar systems out of galaxies, life out of a
planet and human beings out of the great flow of life. Moreover I discover that
this utterly mind boggling ability of The Universe to create ever new versions
of life, is still going on, and that the whole astonishing process is weblike
and organic rather than clocklike and mechanical, that, as the old Southern
Baptist preacher used to put it, “We are all tied together in the bundle of
life”. Moreover, it comes to my attention that we all participate in this grand
processional of becoming, that human beings have not remained static over the
long centuries of our existence, but that our species too has changed over
time, and in dramatic ways, and that, believe it or not, we now have, as no
other generation before us has had, the ability to participate actively and
consciously in our own evolution and in that of the world around us.
And so, I know myself to be a Nomad, but a nomad not
without a home, nor one with several homes, but a nomad whose home is anywhere
in this Universe I happen to be. I used to say that we are strangers in every
promised land, and there is a sense in which we are, for the Universe has
created all things with a built in urge to transcend every version of
ourselves, equipped us with a restlessness that pushes us ever on beyond any place
of arrival. Nevertheless, truth is, we are always there, always in the
Universe, always at home wherever we are.
(Editor's Note:
Former Board Member of The Whole Life Network, Earl Sires has removed himself
from our valley as a permanent resident, but he continues his influence in our
community with frequent visits. Please refer to the March 2004 issue of
Connections and the article, Earl Sires Marks His 75th, for more detail on his
life and travels.)
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Getting What We Give
by Dr. Jerry Overton
It would be an understatement to say that the world is
becoming a place of violence. It’s rampant, and many are scared to death. So,
what do we do about it?
We could affirm the politicians' agenda and identify
the “terrorists”, attack their countries, and put to use more weapons of mass
destruction. We could build stronger fortifications. We could wrap our houses
in plastic and duct tape. We could enforce stricter penalties, like, perhaps,
caning on the public square. We could use the death penalty to get rid of all violent
offenders. We could try to escape by moving to the mountains (oh, I forgot,
we’ve already done that!).
Or we could do something really radical. We could
begin to forgive.
I'm convinced that meanness comes from woundedness.
And all of us are wounded. It's the very nature of the human condition.
Our woundedness starts practically from the moment of
conception. As we grow and develop in the womb, we are aware of the
circumstances outside. We know the moods of those stirring around out there.
Already we are getting a sense of the relative vulnerability of our
environment. Each time we perceive that it is unsafe or unfriendly, then fear
is aroused and a wound occurs and is recorded.
Eventually the birthing process begins. I can only
imagine how scary that trip must be! You pass through this long dark tunnel.
Your body is squeezed out straight in one contortion and contraction after
another. There's lots of shouting and heavy breathing going on outside.
Suddenly, in come the forceps to clamp your head (do they still do that?) and
pull you out. Finally there is this bright-lighted, cold room with strange,
masked people yanking you up by your feet. They cut your life support (and tie
it off, I might add), and smack you on the bottom. You gasp for air and you cry
out, not because you're glad to be here, but rather because you're scared to
death!
And another bunch of wounds is put into memory!
And this is just the beginning!! Then comes a lifetime
of negotiation to get your basic needs met, with increasing degrees of
resistance. When you're successful, things are fine. When you're not, then more
woundedness is put into memory. And this is all in the context of a fairly
normal, loving household, with no intentional abuse.
Let your imagination run free to consider the
woundedness resulting when there is some sort of intentional abuse. Consider
the emotional wounding resulting from sexual, verbal, or physical abuse. Or
from abandonment, or distrust, or neglect. Or even from never hearing the words
"I love you."
Such woundedness affects our behavior. It produces
varying degrees of rage. It makes us want to cause others to hurt the way we
have been hurt, even those we may not know. Simply put, when the wounding is
great enough, it can result in crime and violence. And it can also result in
injustice.
So, back to our question. What do we do about the
violence in our world?
More often than not, due perhaps to our own
woundedness and our conscious or unconscious need to hurt others like we have
been hurt, what we do is to attempt to fight violence with violence. And we're
losing the fight, because all we do is to further wound the wounded. More
woundedness just makes for more violence, in a never ending cycle of abuse.
There are those who are shouting as they read this that
the real problem is that we haven't been brutal enough. We need, they say, to
be tougher on criminals. But can you really out-wound the wounded, and then
expect they'll act nice? I think not. You simply contribute to the violence.
So here's where forgiveness comes in. What if, instead
of further abusing the abused, we began to recognize the real cause of their abusive behavior. Then,
what if we then began to address that—perhaps a lifetime of abuse and neglect.
Perhaps then we could start to love and forgive them, and trust that same love
and forgiveness to do its work.
It wouldn't be easy, of course. It's never easy to
love those who act unlovable. And it wouldn't be done quickly either. For they,
and we, didn't get this way over-night. But then again, it might serve as means
of healing us all, those of us who use or mis-use the justice system to vent
our violence, as well as those who do it outside the law.
My Dad used to say that we get what we give. Perhaps
if we gave more love and forgiveness, especially to those who need it the most,
then we’d get more of that too, and our world would be far safer. And it could
start as each of us befriends a friendless child (no matter their age), and
stops the cycle. It's worth a try!
Copyright 2004 Dr. Jerry D. Overton
Jerry is a counselor, life coach, and Director of The Center for
Personal and Spiritual Growth. He can be reached at 252-9311.
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Whole Life Network Business
Member Profile
Dr. Judith Boice, ND, Lac
Dr. Judith Boice is such a mainstay in our spiritual
community it is difficult to believe that she is a relative newcomer. Author,
international teacher, naturopathic physician and acupuncturist, she has a
special passion for working with wellness and women's health. Her clinic, Seven
Winds Institute, 1008 West Oak Grove Road in Montrose, is conveniently located.
Our Dr. Boice conducts seminars throughout North America teaching people how to
apply the secrets in "But My Doctor
Never Told Me That!": Secrets for Creating Lifelong Health to
achieve their personal life and health goals.
Dr. Boice has also created "The High Level Wellness Program©" to support
individuals in achieving their personal life and health goals. She designed the
High Level Wellness Program© for
patients who wanted to improve their health but were unsure of where or how to
begin.
"The major reason people don't successfully make
lifestyle changes," explains Dr. Boice, "is that they can't envision
themselves making those changes for the rest of their lives." The first
step to health is to create a vision of yourself as fully healthy and vibrantly
alive.
"Most people start a new health program with lots
of energy," notes Dr. Boice, "but without the appropriate structure,
motivation soon wanes. The would-be marathon runner often quits jogging after a
week or two. When he is tired of being overweight, he swings the opposite way
and joins the gym or tries another diet. This cycle usually repeats itself over
and over again."
Dr. Boice has successfully worked with many
patients to help them envision and then fulfill their dreams of health.
"Even chronically or terminally ill patients have a better chance of
achieving health than those who are simply trying to avoid symptoms."
Other creative passions include photography, music,
and gardening. Her photographs have appeared in several magazines and
newspapers, Trees for Life calendars, and Sierra Club Books publications. She
is tentatively scheduled to appear on the radio show, Connections, on KVNF, Thursday August 26th
at 12;00 noon. Be sure to tune in to hear more about this remarkable healer or
contact her at 252-0985 or drjudith@drjudithboice.com.
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