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The Well of Light Newsletter, published by Conversations host Michael Stone, includes current information and trends, articles, videos, news, interviews and inspiration in the areas of Environmental Restoration, Social Justice, Evolutionary Cosmology and Spiritual fulfillment.
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August, 2010 - On Separation and Belonging
It is the eve of my 65th birthday and my dinner date just cancelled as I was heading out the door to meet her for dinner. Feeling alone and abandoned – not an unfamiliar feeling – but, surprising, as I am so often surrounded with people and projects and thinking how I need more alone time... but 65, how the hell did I get so old? Gone is the sense of being immortal that I had in my teens and twenties. Gone is the passionate exuberance of my 30s and 40s... |
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July, 2010 - Dancing into Stillness
Sometimes I just have to stop, reflect, regenerate and find stillness in my life! My perpetual busyness leads to a sort of scattered franticness that leaves me breathless, multi-tasking, ungrateful, unfocused and exhausted. So on this summer solstice I gave myself, and everyone else, a gift of a week of silence, fasting, and meditative prayer. For the first 3 days I had a serious case of monkey mind… I walked, meditated, danced, prayed and slept around the clock... |
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June, 2010 - On Mindfulness
I am becoming more aware of the disconnection between what I know and how I behave. Returning home after a blissful weekend of yoga and dance at Harbin Hot Springs with Bella, I rushed to my computer to answer the hundred plus emails that had piled up over the weekend. Yes, I confess, I am one of those email addicts that is constantly checking to see who loves me, who hates me, and who needs me in this surreal world of cyberspace... |
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May, 2010 - People’s Movement for Mother Earth Rights
More than 35,000 people from around the world gathered at the “World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth” held in Cochabamba, Bolivia this past April. Bolivia’s indigenous President, Evo Morales, called the conference in response to the failure of world leaders to provide leadership at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 15) held last December in Copenhagen... |
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April, 2010 - Cultivating a Spring Heart
From the big budding oak behind my house two boisterous black ravens glide overhead announcing the birth of a new spring. I look up from my small garden plot and smile. In this early morning moment all seems right with the world. I have no thoughts of things to come or what has been. I am at home here on this spinning blue planet... |
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March, 2010 - The Wisdom of Acceptance
Ah, Esalen! For many years now I have had the good fortune to come here to this wondrous retreat center on the Big Sur coast to relax, refresh and deepen my spiritual practice. As I find myself more consumed with the affairs of everyday life, finding a quiet still place close to nature seems ever more important to gain perspective, balance and tap into the inner knowledge that we all carry... |
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February, 2010 - The Divine Feminine in Action
There is a strange phenomenon in life. It seems that whenever we make a commitment to take on new behavior in our lives, the universe will test us. I made a conscious commitment to embrace and practice aspects of the Divine Feminine in my daily life as a result of attending a powerful womans conference called Passion to Action here in Grass Valley... |
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January, 2010 - Celebration of Interdependence
I want to express my deep gratitude to the close to 50 volunteers, and the approximately 300 people who co-created and attended the New Year’s Eve and Day Celebrations. Several thousand dollars were raised for Conversations on KVMR. I am deeply moved by the outpouring of support, the love and the inspiring and energetic interactions that took place... |
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December 24, 2009 - Is There Climate Change After Hopenhagen?
As I headed home from Copenhagen, I wondered what had been accomplished? Was it worth the collective carbon footprint of all of us that traveled to this historic climate change conference? The agreements that have been reached will not meet the targets necessary to stop catastrophic impacts on all life. The NGOs representing the voices of the poorest nations, who have been most impacted by climate change, were shut out in the final days of negotiations... |
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December 12, 2009 - Special Copenhagen Edition
I am here at the UN Climate Change Conference and reporting back on a daily basis of what is happening from ground zero. It is exciting to be here and witness history in the making. But, it is also sobering knowing that this is the most important diplomatic gathering ever held and that the future of life as we know it is at stake. I know that there is a great deal of furor in the states about whether climate change is real... |
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December 2009 - The Practice of Gratitude
Driving in Bay Area morning commute traffic, I had the idiotic idea that I needed to call and check my messages. Looking down at my phone I unconsciously swerved into the next lane narrowly missing another car and almost causing a major accident. My heart was racing and my inner critic was deafening... I could have been killed and taken a lot of people with me! After settling down I began thinking about how lucky I have been... |
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November 2009 - From Grief to Action
The fog was lifting in Southern Marin. I had just spent the weekend at this year’s Bioneers Conference; inspiring, alarming, captivating and motivating! Everyone there seemed quite clear about what our political leaders are unwilling to see. Our planet and all her inhabitants are in great peril and business as usual is only going to accelerate the process. The future is in the hands of the people!... |
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October 2009 - On Embodiment & Evolution
Back in the 70's I went for my first Rolfing session (a deep tissue form of massage - or body torture - depending on your perspective) created by Ida Rolf. After several sessions my Rolfer said to me, "Michael, you're the only person I've ever worked on who doesn't realize he has a body."... |
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September 2009 - In Search for Stillness
Approaching 10,000 feet with 60 pounds on my spasming back, gasping for breath with each step, feeling like it might be my last on these bruised and blistered feet, I wondered, "Why am I doing this?" I kept repeating my mantra in cadence to my brutally slow cross country progress: "Al-lah, Al-lah, Bud-dha, Bud-dha"... |
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May 2009 - On Stillness
Since I last wrote you winter has faded into spring and I have returned from my travels with a new sense of hope and possibility...Everywhere new life is sprouting from old rotting systems, decaying beliefs and worn out patterns, creating compost for new ideas, opportunities and ways of relating. |
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February 2009 - On Relationships
It was a startling realization, but in the depths of despair it came to me: I am not going to single handedly save the world. All this frantic busyness has got to stop! There is enough chaos in the world without my creating more. |
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December 2008 - Life Affirming Communities
In preparation for this New Year’s Community Celebration I have been grappling with the question, "what constitutes a healthy community?" Webster defines community as "a unified body of individuals with common characteristics or interests." |
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November 2008 - Thanks Giving
I love Thanks Giving...
That is, when I remember to practice it, and am not caught up in the frantic contagion of doing-ness. The speed of life and the weight of things undone narrow my awareness, and I lose the awe and wonder that is at the heart of gratefulness. Here is a journal entry from one of those days last week... |
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October 2008 - Exploring the Shadow
For some time, I have been exploring my shadow: feelings and thoughts of abandonment, powerlessness, anger, and the sense that I am somehow fundamentally flawed. I share these things with you in the hopes that you will reflect upon the shadow in your own journey towards wholeness.
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September 2008 - Evolution of The Well of Light
Change is accelerating at levels never before experienced. The speed of social, technological, and biological advancement has become a dazzling blur of memories, adaptations and confrontations. This allows us an unprecedented opportunity to reinvent ourselves and our relationship to all life. This is a moment to seize. |
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