"From Grief to Action"

"Live to the point of tears."
- Albert Camus

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! The science community has been warning us. Even they are surprised at how quickly climate change is accelerating.

The speakers spoke with great heart and conviction. There were many deeply touching stories of progress and possibility mixed with the overwhelming news that time was running out… We must decrease our carbon output to 350 ppm by 2020 and even then we face great challenges. As I listened to each speaker tears streamed down my face, I was overwhelmed with emotion, and my throat was constricted, like a snagged scream wanting break free. I thought my feelings of grief were more than I could bear. The challenges on the horizon seemed so huge. How can we mobilize the political, social and individual will to meet them?

"There is no grief like the grief that does not speak."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Read the entire letter from Michael here

Upcoming Events

Copenhagen’s U.N. Climate Change Conference

The Climate Conference in Copenhagen is essential for raising awareness of the issue and catalyzing a global commitment for the future of all life on our planet. It may be the most important diplomatic gathering in history. You can support the people’s voice being heard by underwriting Michael’s trip to cover this historic event. What is needed is money and contacts. Please write with your concerns and ideas. If you are able to make a financial donation click here.

The power of love lives beyond a linear time-line and exists in the NOW. Time is an illusion. If we all come together with a powerful intention in the “now”, in the present moment, imagine what we can co-create. Jimmy Hendrix said “When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace”.

On November 11th I will be in Ecuador co-leading a sacred journey into the rainforest with a group of women. We will be meeting with a Shaman that evening for a powerful ceremony. Please join us wherever you are. Please envision a world of love and truth. Love is really all there is. All else is an illusion. Lets move out of illusion into truth and love and a world that works for all life.

What to do: I invite you to go to a place inside of yourself to your heart where you feel love. You can listen to some favorite music that takes you to that deep place within. Or you can go to http://www.soaringinlight.com/Lap-of-DivineMother and follow the guided meditation I have created for going into that place of pure love. After the meditation, which is about 8 minutes long VISION a world of love, what does that FEEL like and look like for you? A world that works for everyone, for all life forms. All of us coming together as one family. Send love to the core of the Earth and give gratitude to her for all her gifts and blessings to us.

Read the entire letter from Kathleen here

CONVERSATIONS THANKSGIVING SPECIAL ON KVMR
November 26

"Gratitude: A Practice"
(note special day & time 12pm to 2pm)
2 hour special with Brother David, Lynn Twist, Roshi Joan Halifax and You!
Join Conversations Host Michael Stone for this uplifting and interactive dialogue about gratitude, gratefulness and thanks giving.

Moving Meditation Upcoming Events

Last call for
ALL SOULS DAY: MANIKO DRU DADIGAN AND djDIVINE

A VOICE FOR ALL SOULS - Oct 31-Nov 1
Saturday 10:30am-6pm, Sunday 1-6pm
Odd Fellows Hall, 212 Spring Street, Nevada City, California (out of town accommodation available)
To register contact: Michael Stone, 530-477-7757 or go to http://welloflight.com/archives/525

Please join us for a magical, shamanic journey where we move with intimacy and awareness into the innermost truth of that which never dies. As the exponential effects of our collective ways of living on earth are felt more and more acutely, growing awareness and courageous participation become essential to restore balance to life on this precious little planet. The fear of death is the mother fear of all fears (also known as survival fears), and to recognize the eternal through the timeless dimensions of love is the antidote to so much that ails us. Please join us during these hallowed (lit. means to honor as holy) days and nights.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions at maniko@templeofsong.com. Hope to see you soon!
Wishing you love and happiness, now. ~ Maniko

By way of love, by way of attunement, by way of connection with the undying spirit that lives and breathes and moves in all that is, past/present/future, this weekend is devoted to venturing further into the experience and meeting with the visible and invisible worlds - dissolving the veils that appear to separate us. Through dance invocations, tonal incantations, through song, writing and full-bodied prayer we will cross over again and again - offering our bodies and voices as vehicles to honor our dead ancestors and our awakened mystics as we journey all the way to communion with 'that which never dies'.

BODY JOY RELEASE

Sunday 1:30-3:30 November 15, 2009 - $25 pre-register, $30 at the door South Yuba Club following Sweat Your Prayers.

Come join Bella Dreizler for a great experiential session that taps into the wisdom of 5Rhythms, 35 years of clinical physical therapy practice and 4,000 years of yogic knowledge. Gently lengthen and create stability through focused breath and expert use of release tools. Align with your innate wisdom for a more full surrender to your dance practice. Detailed take home manual included. Foam rollers and balls available for purchase after class.

Call (916) 267-5478 or bella@bodyjoy.net to pre-register.

TWO SUNDAY SWEAT YOUR PRAYERS (SWP) – weekly 8:30am and 10:30am

Each SWP will start with a stillness meditation 15 minutes prior to class. The first class will be a quieter, more spacious meditation (not without going through all the rhythms though) the second will be our regular full on, let it all go kind of dance and social connection. For those hearty dancers, you are welcome to do both. Also, for this 3-month period only we will offer an additional discount to those who buy 90-day dance cards. Instead of 5 dances for $60 we will offer you 6. For people who pay the door price of $15 you will be able to do the second dance for only $10 for a total of $25.

9th Annual New Year’s Eve and Day Celebration

It’s that time again. Mark your calendars and let us know if you would like to be part of the dream team that coordinates this event each year, contact michael@welloflight.com. Once again we will gather to eat, dance, share and bring in a positive year (alcohol free) for our dance tribe and friends… We will be at St. Joseph’s Cultural Center both New Year’s eve (7pm til ?) and New Year’s Day 9:30-12:30. This year’s event will be a benefit for Conversations on KVMR.

New Podcasts

The Greatest Danger

By Joanna Macy
Yes! Magazine

How do we live with the fact that we are destroying our world? What do we make of the loss of glaciers, the melting Arctic, island nations swamped by the sea, widening deserts, and drying farmlands?

Because of social taboos, despair at the state of our world and fear for our future are rarely acknowledged. The suppression of despair, like that of any deep recurring response, contributes to the numbing of the psyche. Expressions of anguish or outrage are muted, deadened as if a nerve had been cut. This refusal to feel impoverishes our emotional and sensory life. Flowers are dimmer and less fragrant, our loves less ecstatic. We create diversions for ourselves as individuals and as nations, in the fights we pick, the aims we pursue, and the stuff we buy.

Of all the dangers we face, from climate chaos to permanent war, none is so great as this deadening of our response. For psychic numbing impedes our capacity to process and respond to information. The energy expended in pushing down despair is diverted from more crucial uses, depleting the resilience and imagination needed for fresh visions and strategies.

Zen poet Thich Nhat Hanh was asked, “what do we most need to do to save our world?” His answer was this: “What we most need to do is to hear within us the sounds of the Earth crying.”

Read the full article here

Toxic Waters

By Charles Duhigg
The New York Times

Jennifer Hall-Massey knows not to drink the tap water in her home near Charleston, W.Va.

In fact, her entire family tries to avoid any contact with the water. Her youngest son has scabs on his arms, legs and chest where the bathwater — polluted with lead, nickel and other heavy metals — caused painful rashes. Many of his brother’s teeth were capped to replace enamel that was eaten away.

Neighbors apply special lotions after showering because their skin burns. Tests show that their tap water contains arsenic, barium, lead, manganese and other chemicals at concentrations federal regulators say could contribute to cancer and damage the kidneys and nervous system.

“How can we get digital cable and Internet in our homes, but not clean water?” said Mrs. Hall-Massey, a senior accountant at one of the state’s largest banks.

She and her husband, Charles, do not live in some remote corner of Appalachia. Charleston, the state capital, is less than 17 miles from her home.

“How is this still happening today?” she asked.

When Mrs. Hall-Massey and 264 neighbors sued nine nearby coal companies, accusing them of putting dangerous waste into local water supplies, their lawyer did not have to look far for evidence. As required by state law, some of the companies had disclosed in reports to regulators that they were pumping into the ground illegal concentrations of chemicals — the same pollutants that flowed from residents’ taps.

But state regulators never fined or punished those companies for breaking those pollution laws.

Read the full article here

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