THIS IS MY LIFE
Sunday, 12/23/2001
Copyright (c) 2001, Michael Dickerson. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or quotation is strictly prohibited without
permission.
Hi, all ~
I told you that I�d share a few fascinating Rune draws I�ve gotten in the past couple of months. Here they are. That�s all that�s in this letter, so, if you aren�t interested, feel free to stop reading now.
On 11/1 I asked about money and my work. I got:
Jera: Harvest, Fertile Season, One Year
A Rune of beneficial outcomes, Jera applies to any activity or endeavor to which you are committed. Be aware, however, that no quick results can be expected. A span of time is usually involved; hence the key words �One Year,� symbolizing a full cycle before the reaping, the harvest or deliverance. You have prepared the ground and planted the seed. Now you must cultivate with care. To those whose labor has a long season, a long coming to term, Jera offers encouragement of success. Know that the outcome is in the keeping of Providence and continue to persevere.
On 11/16 I asked about a romantic relationship. I got:
Mannaz: The Self
The starting point is the self. A correct relationship to your self is primary, for from it flow right relationships with others and with the Divine. Remain modest. Regardless of how great may be your merit, be yielding, devoted and moderate, for then you have a true direction for your life. Be in the world but not of it. Remain receptive to impulses flowing from the Divine. Strive to live the ordinary life in a nonordinary way. This is a time of major growth and rectification and, as a rule, rectification must come before progress. Now is not a time to seek credit for accomplishments or to focus on results. Instead, be content to do your task for the task�s sake. Herein lies the secret of experiencing a true present.
On 11/26 I asked again about my work and money. I got:
Raido: Journey, Communication, Union/Reunion
This Rune is concerned with communication, with the attunement of something that has two sides, two elements, and with the ultimate union that comes at the end of the journey, when what is above and what is below are united and of one mind. The journey is toward self-healing, self-change and union. You are concerned here with nothing less than unobstructed, perfect union. But the union of Heaven and Earth cannot be forced. Regulate any excesses in your life. Material advantages must not weigh heavily on this journey of the self toward the Self. Stand apart even from like-minded others; the notion of strength in numbers does not apply at such a time, for this part of the journey�the soul�s journey�cannot be shared.
Approximately 12/10 I asked about coming up with the money I need before the end of the month. I got:
Dagaz: Breakthrough, Transformation, Day
Drawing Dagaz often signals a major shift or breakthrough in the process of self-change, a complete transformation in attitude, a 180-degree turn. For some, the transition is so radical that they are no longer able to live the ordinary life in the ordinary way. Because the timing is right, the outcome is assured although not, from the present vantage point, predictable. In each life there comes at least one moment, which, if recognized and seized, transforms the course of that life forever. Rely, therefore, on radical trust, even though the moment may call for you to leap empty-handed into the void. With this Rune your Warrior Nature reveals itself. A major period of achievement and prosperity is often introduced by this Rune. The darkness is behind you; daylight has come. Nevertheless, you are reminded not to behave recklessly in your new situation. Considerable hard work can be involved in a time of transformation. Undertake to do it joyfully.
Namaste,
Michael
[If you don�t already and would like to receive my letters
directly via e-mail, send an e-mail (no message needed) to either
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@igc.topica.com.]
[If you�d like to read the archives of my letters and/or holiday
letters and travel reports I've written since 1977, visit
http://www.delphiforums.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages.]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THIS IS MY LIFE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Is My Life is my letters to my family, friends, and whoever
else may be interested about whatever is meaningful to me in
my life. I don't guarantee anything about content or frequency.
The letters will be whatever they turn out to be. If you want
the best option available for keeping up with what�s happening
with me, though, this is it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPIES AND FORWARDING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You�re welcome to freely redistribute This Is My Life (my
letters) if you think someone might be interested in reading it.
Please don�t use any of it for profit, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY COMMUNITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another excellent way to know what�s going on with me is to join
the Heart Song Community e-mail list. That�s an e-mail
community that provides opportunity for discussing a variety of
topics and sharing about our personal lives. You can get more
information and join at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongCommunity.
~~~~~~~~~
MY WORK
~~~~~~~~~
If you�re interested in my work, I invite you to take a look at
the Heart Song Schedule. That provides information about the
e-zines, classes, workshops, retreats, ministry, web sites, and
other programs offered by the various people and projects of
Heart Song Projects. HSP is an affiliation of people and
projects tied together by shared psychospiritual foundations
and purposes � to contribute to healing, growth, expansion, and
spiritual awakening and to serve Spirit in all life. You can see
the most recent schedules at either
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongSchedule/messages
or http://igc.topica.com/lists/HSSchedule/read.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sunday, December 23, 2001
THIS IS MY LIFE
Saturday, 12/22/2001
Copyright (c) 2001, Michael Dickerson. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or quotation is strictly prohibited without
permission.
Hi, guys ~
There are some things left over that didn't make the cut to get into the Year in Review letter and that I haven't written about in previous letters that I think are interesting and that I want to record for posterity. (I guess that makes you part of posterity. How do you feel about your posterity?) Anyway, this is a letter for me to complete the year (up until now, at least).
All through last spring I continued to receive guidance about moving to Santa Fe in various ways. Several of them I thought were pretty remarkable:
1. One day I was driving, feeling uncertain and a bit anxious. As I often do, I asked for clear guidance (this time about Santa Fe). Those of you who know the history can probably guess that within a few minutes a car with a New Mexico license plate pulled in front of me. This time, though, that wasn't enough for me. I wanted even more of a confirmation, so I asked that if I was really supposed to move to Santa Fe, it would turn at the same street that I was going to turn at (which was still about a mile away). I'm sure you can guess. It turned at that street.
2. On April 19, out of the blue, I experienced a profound inner shift (a change in my felt sense, for those of you familiar with Focusing) about Santa Fe. Instead of the sense I'd had of tentativeness, hopefulness, and questioning, suddenly I shifted to a sense of clarity about going. In fact, it was more a sense of being there in spirit, though I wasn't yet there in body.
3. After that the calls intensified in frequency and strength. On the evening of April 30, for example, I was watching TV, and Santa Fe was mentioned on both "Roswell" and "Family Law." In between them was a commercial for a car called the Santa Fe (is it a Hyundai?). I know that I've come here for some reason and that my coming has been directed and facilitated by Spirit. Now I just need to find out how it's going to work out now that I'm here.
For many years I've talked about how I always know almost immediately if I'm ever going to be physically attracted to a woman. Some people (mostly, if not exclusively, women, by the way) have told me that they become attracted to people as they get to know them, but that had never happened with me. Then one day I noticed that I've become physically attracted to Julia Roberts. For a long time I found her totally without appeal (physically). But, as I've gotten to know more about her, I've changed. Well, at least now I know that it's possible. Some of you are probably thinking, "Yeah, but Julia Roberts - lots of people do find her physically attractive. That isn't such a big deal." It is to me. I'm not saying that I can become physically attracted to anyone - only that I now know that it's possible to become physically attracted to someone I wasn't previously attracted to (since it's happened once in my life). It may never happen again for all I know.
And speaking of attraction, I don't recall for sure, and I'm not going to go back and look it up, but I think I've written about how attracted I was to a woman who was in the Leap of Faith last spring or winter. I refer to her as DW for a reason I won't reveal. I also think I wrote about how much I was in conflict about whether to say anything to her about it or not (because, for several reasons, I thought she was inappropriate for me for a romantic relationship). If I did write about her, I know for sure that I didn't write about how it turned out. So, here's the rest of that story:
One of the things we talk about in Leap of Faith is that "hesitation means death." On the street (or on a plane) that could be literal, if we hesitate when someone is out to harm us. In most life situations, though, it means death of our aliveness, our spontaneity, and our self-expression. It finally became abundantly clear to me that I was hesitating in that sense with DW. In fact, all my life I've hesitated with women I'm attracted to. I realized that it was important for me to take action in service to my own aliveness, even though my intention wasn't to start a romantic relationship.
So, I turned it over to Spirit. If I was supposed to say something to DW, I asked that the opportunity be given to me. Not too much later, there she was at a Warrior Spirit function with me. "Make it obvious," I said to Spirit, "if I'm supposed to talk to her." She came over and sat down next to me. I leapt. It wasn't anything big, in terms of what happened between us. What was big was that I leapt. No hesitation. Who knows? Maybe it made a difference to her somehow, too.
Around the same time that I was going through all of that, I read a book called _The Purpose of Your Life: Finding Your Place in the World Using Synchronicity_ by Carol Adrienne. In a book about synchronicity, I experienced a lot of it. In fact, there was one incident of synchronicity after another for me - including that I went to school 30 years ago with one of the people she talked about as an example. One of the most meaningful sections of her book is one in which she addresses "The obstacles and suffering that frequently block the path to enlightenment." The title of that section reminded me of DW for some reasons I won't reveal (in the interests of not revealing her identity). The message I drew from it? It was another confirmation to walk through the doorway. I'm still not clear, though, what all that synchronicity means to me.
Okay, here's an important one: Krispy Kreme opened a doughnut store in Issaquah - the first one in the Seattle area (or anywhere else I've lived). I had heard such raving reviews of Krispy Kreme doughnuts that I was eager to taste one. The first time I went, the line was so long that I would have been late wherever I was going if I had waited. The second time I went, I "only" had to wait for about 45 minutes. They must be great, huh, for people to wait for so long? I was way less than impressed. I'll never eat another Krispy Kreme doughnut. They're way too sugary for my taste. Another example for me of how my experience may not align with popular opinion.
So, speaking of that, I took something on the internet called "The Gender Test." (See http://www.thespark.com/gendertest if you'd like to try it yourself.) The results were that they said with 80% confidence that I'm a woman. I wasn't terribly surprised. All my life I've identified more with things "experts" say about women than I have with the things they say about men. Independently of each other, a couple of women have declared me an "honorary woman." This also explains in part, I think, why so many women have appreciated me as a friend and so few of them have been romantically interested in me. I won't write at length about this now. Sometime, though.
Being here in Santa Fe has some differences with Seattle that stand out to me more than others:
1. Maybe the biggest is that there are no 7-11 stores. How do people live without 7-11 stores? They have convenience stores (called Allsups), but not 7-11s. I'm still feeling lost.
2. It's very dry here. The humidity is usually below 50%. The good news about that is that the heat doesn't feel as oppressive and the cold doesn't feel as icy. I've been outside when it was in the 20s, and didn't feel all that cold. I was more uncomfortable in the Seattle area when it was in the upper 30s. The bad news about it is that my lips are always dry and that I have to drink amazing amounts to stay hydrated.
3. They have something here on the roofs of houses called swamp coolers. Does any of you know about them? They circulate water somehow to help with cooling in the summer. There are cooling vents in the ceiling similar to heat vents.
4. The significantly higher elevation (7000 feet, as opposed to close to sea level) has caused me some difficulties. I've noticed being unusually tired and having some breathing problems, both of which the guidebooks say to watch for, but neither of which I noticed when I was visiting in '97. I also recalled, through experience, that it takes a lot longer for water to boil and things to cook here.
I want to say a few words about trees. Several people have said to me something about there not being trees in Santa Fe. I keep driving by trees saying to myself, "What are those?" There are lots of trees here. There just aren't the same kinds of trees there are in the Pacific NW. I wonder where people get their ideas about what it's like here.
Similarly, a lot of people have misconceptions about the temperature here. They seem to think that it's hot a lot of the time like in Phoenix. At 7000 feet elevation, we're higher than Denver is. The low temperature for the past couple of weeks has been in the teens or 20s, and it's snowed once already. I just read that there is an average of only 8 days a year when the temperature gets over 90. What's been notable to me is that the temperature often varies 25 to 35 degrees in a day from low to high and that it warms up very quickly when the sun comes up.
I want to tell you about one last experience I had of synchronicity. Via the message board on the Living Enrichment Center website, I met a woman named Kristelle. She was starting a Living Enrichment Circle at Unity of Santa Fe, something I've also been interested in doing. We corresponded several times over a period of quite a few months before I left for Santa Fe. I went to Unity of Santa Fe on Sunday morning right after I arrived in town. It turned out that Kristelle was one of the greeters - one of the first 2 people I encountered as I walked in the door. We may end up doing an LECircle together. I knew from our e-mails that Kristelle has family in the Puget Sound area. Sunday afternoon I learned from someone else that her father is Richard Bach. That means that I had met her brother in the Seattle area. Fascinating, isn't it?
Mostly for the sake of my recalling what this fall was like for me, here's a chronology of what I've been doing between September 11 and when I arrived back in Santa Fe:
9/11 - 9/17 Heavily focused on the terrorism and on influencing people and our government not to use it as a reason to go to war.
9/17 - 9/21 Participated in The Invitation retreat.
9/22 - 9/29 Caught up on what I'd been missing and prepared to move.
9/30 - 10/5 Drove to Santa Fe (phase one of my move).
10/6 - 10/8 Found a place to live and moved in.
10/9 - 10/25 Began settling into Santa Fe.
10/26 - 10/31 Drove back to Seattle.
10/31 - 11/2 Participated in our Awakening Group retreat.
11/3 -11/8 Worked, saw friends, attended our Invitation group reunion.
11/8 - 11/11 Staffed the Leap of Faith.
11/12 - 12/4 Worked, saw friends, prepared for phase 2 of my move.
12/5 - 12/8 Drove back to Santa Fe (phase 2 of my move).
I guess I've been busy.
I've had several very fascinating and confirming Rune draws in the past couple of months. I'll put them into another letter. This one is long enough.
And then, of course, there are the last couple of weeks since I got back to Santa Fe, which are an entirely different matter. That will be another letter, too.
Namaste,
Michael
[If you don't already and would like to receive my letters
directly via e-mail, send an e-mail (no message needed) to either
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@igc.topica.com.]
[If you'd like to read the archives of my letters and/or holiday
letters and travel reports I've written since 1977, visit
http://www.delphiforums.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages.]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THIS IS MY LIFE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Is My Life is my letters to my family, friends, and whoever
else may be interested about whatever is meaningful to me in
my life. I don't guarantee anything about content or frequency.
The letters will be whatever they turn out to be. If you want
the best option available for keeping up with what's happening
with me, though, this is it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPIES AND FORWARDING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You're welcome to freely redistribute This Is My Life (my
letters) if you think someone might be interested in reading it.
Please don't use any of it for profit, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY COMMUNITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another excellent way to know what's going on with me is to join
the Heart Song Community e-mail list. That's an e-mail
community that provides opportunity for discussing a variety of
topics and sharing about our personal lives. You can get more
information and join at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongCommunity.
~~~~~~~~~
MY WORK
~~~~~~~~~
If you're interested in my work, I invite you to take a look at
the Heart Song Schedule. That provides information about the
e-zines, classes, workshops, retreats, ministry, web sites, and
other programs offered by the various people and projects of
Heart Song Projects. HSP is an affiliation of people and
projects tied together by shared psychospiritual foundations
and purposes - to contribute to healing, growth, expansion, and
spiritual awakening and to serve Spirit in all life. You can see
the most recent schedules at either
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongSchedule/messages
or http://igc.topica.com/lists/HSSchedule/read.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Saturday, 12/22/2001
Copyright (c) 2001, Michael Dickerson. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or quotation is strictly prohibited without
permission.
Hi, guys ~
There are some things left over that didn't make the cut to get into the Year in Review letter and that I haven't written about in previous letters that I think are interesting and that I want to record for posterity. (I guess that makes you part of posterity. How do you feel about your posterity?) Anyway, this is a letter for me to complete the year (up until now, at least).
All through last spring I continued to receive guidance about moving to Santa Fe in various ways. Several of them I thought were pretty remarkable:
1. One day I was driving, feeling uncertain and a bit anxious. As I often do, I asked for clear guidance (this time about Santa Fe). Those of you who know the history can probably guess that within a few minutes a car with a New Mexico license plate pulled in front of me. This time, though, that wasn't enough for me. I wanted even more of a confirmation, so I asked that if I was really supposed to move to Santa Fe, it would turn at the same street that I was going to turn at (which was still about a mile away). I'm sure you can guess. It turned at that street.
2. On April 19, out of the blue, I experienced a profound inner shift (a change in my felt sense, for those of you familiar with Focusing) about Santa Fe. Instead of the sense I'd had of tentativeness, hopefulness, and questioning, suddenly I shifted to a sense of clarity about going. In fact, it was more a sense of being there in spirit, though I wasn't yet there in body.
3. After that the calls intensified in frequency and strength. On the evening of April 30, for example, I was watching TV, and Santa Fe was mentioned on both "Roswell" and "Family Law." In between them was a commercial for a car called the Santa Fe (is it a Hyundai?). I know that I've come here for some reason and that my coming has been directed and facilitated by Spirit. Now I just need to find out how it's going to work out now that I'm here.
For many years I've talked about how I always know almost immediately if I'm ever going to be physically attracted to a woman. Some people (mostly, if not exclusively, women, by the way) have told me that they become attracted to people as they get to know them, but that had never happened with me. Then one day I noticed that I've become physically attracted to Julia Roberts. For a long time I found her totally without appeal (physically). But, as I've gotten to know more about her, I've changed. Well, at least now I know that it's possible. Some of you are probably thinking, "Yeah, but Julia Roberts - lots of people do find her physically attractive. That isn't such a big deal." It is to me. I'm not saying that I can become physically attracted to anyone - only that I now know that it's possible to become physically attracted to someone I wasn't previously attracted to (since it's happened once in my life). It may never happen again for all I know.
And speaking of attraction, I don't recall for sure, and I'm not going to go back and look it up, but I think I've written about how attracted I was to a woman who was in the Leap of Faith last spring or winter. I refer to her as DW for a reason I won't reveal. I also think I wrote about how much I was in conflict about whether to say anything to her about it or not (because, for several reasons, I thought she was inappropriate for me for a romantic relationship). If I did write about her, I know for sure that I didn't write about how it turned out. So, here's the rest of that story:
One of the things we talk about in Leap of Faith is that "hesitation means death." On the street (or on a plane) that could be literal, if we hesitate when someone is out to harm us. In most life situations, though, it means death of our aliveness, our spontaneity, and our self-expression. It finally became abundantly clear to me that I was hesitating in that sense with DW. In fact, all my life I've hesitated with women I'm attracted to. I realized that it was important for me to take action in service to my own aliveness, even though my intention wasn't to start a romantic relationship.
So, I turned it over to Spirit. If I was supposed to say something to DW, I asked that the opportunity be given to me. Not too much later, there she was at a Warrior Spirit function with me. "Make it obvious," I said to Spirit, "if I'm supposed to talk to her." She came over and sat down next to me. I leapt. It wasn't anything big, in terms of what happened between us. What was big was that I leapt. No hesitation. Who knows? Maybe it made a difference to her somehow, too.
Around the same time that I was going through all of that, I read a book called _The Purpose of Your Life: Finding Your Place in the World Using Synchronicity_ by Carol Adrienne. In a book about synchronicity, I experienced a lot of it. In fact, there was one incident of synchronicity after another for me - including that I went to school 30 years ago with one of the people she talked about as an example. One of the most meaningful sections of her book is one in which she addresses "The obstacles and suffering that frequently block the path to enlightenment." The title of that section reminded me of DW for some reasons I won't reveal (in the interests of not revealing her identity). The message I drew from it? It was another confirmation to walk through the doorway. I'm still not clear, though, what all that synchronicity means to me.
Okay, here's an important one: Krispy Kreme opened a doughnut store in Issaquah - the first one in the Seattle area (or anywhere else I've lived). I had heard such raving reviews of Krispy Kreme doughnuts that I was eager to taste one. The first time I went, the line was so long that I would have been late wherever I was going if I had waited. The second time I went, I "only" had to wait for about 45 minutes. They must be great, huh, for people to wait for so long? I was way less than impressed. I'll never eat another Krispy Kreme doughnut. They're way too sugary for my taste. Another example for me of how my experience may not align with popular opinion.
So, speaking of that, I took something on the internet called "The Gender Test." (See http://www.thespark.com/gendertest if you'd like to try it yourself.) The results were that they said with 80% confidence that I'm a woman. I wasn't terribly surprised. All my life I've identified more with things "experts" say about women than I have with the things they say about men. Independently of each other, a couple of women have declared me an "honorary woman." This also explains in part, I think, why so many women have appreciated me as a friend and so few of them have been romantically interested in me. I won't write at length about this now. Sometime, though.
Being here in Santa Fe has some differences with Seattle that stand out to me more than others:
1. Maybe the biggest is that there are no 7-11 stores. How do people live without 7-11 stores? They have convenience stores (called Allsups), but not 7-11s. I'm still feeling lost.
2. It's very dry here. The humidity is usually below 50%. The good news about that is that the heat doesn't feel as oppressive and the cold doesn't feel as icy. I've been outside when it was in the 20s, and didn't feel all that cold. I was more uncomfortable in the Seattle area when it was in the upper 30s. The bad news about it is that my lips are always dry and that I have to drink amazing amounts to stay hydrated.
3. They have something here on the roofs of houses called swamp coolers. Does any of you know about them? They circulate water somehow to help with cooling in the summer. There are cooling vents in the ceiling similar to heat vents.
4. The significantly higher elevation (7000 feet, as opposed to close to sea level) has caused me some difficulties. I've noticed being unusually tired and having some breathing problems, both of which the guidebooks say to watch for, but neither of which I noticed when I was visiting in '97. I also recalled, through experience, that it takes a lot longer for water to boil and things to cook here.
I want to say a few words about trees. Several people have said to me something about there not being trees in Santa Fe. I keep driving by trees saying to myself, "What are those?" There are lots of trees here. There just aren't the same kinds of trees there are in the Pacific NW. I wonder where people get their ideas about what it's like here.
Similarly, a lot of people have misconceptions about the temperature here. They seem to think that it's hot a lot of the time like in Phoenix. At 7000 feet elevation, we're higher than Denver is. The low temperature for the past couple of weeks has been in the teens or 20s, and it's snowed once already. I just read that there is an average of only 8 days a year when the temperature gets over 90. What's been notable to me is that the temperature often varies 25 to 35 degrees in a day from low to high and that it warms up very quickly when the sun comes up.
I want to tell you about one last experience I had of synchronicity. Via the message board on the Living Enrichment Center website, I met a woman named Kristelle. She was starting a Living Enrichment Circle at Unity of Santa Fe, something I've also been interested in doing. We corresponded several times over a period of quite a few months before I left for Santa Fe. I went to Unity of Santa Fe on Sunday morning right after I arrived in town. It turned out that Kristelle was one of the greeters - one of the first 2 people I encountered as I walked in the door. We may end up doing an LECircle together. I knew from our e-mails that Kristelle has family in the Puget Sound area. Sunday afternoon I learned from someone else that her father is Richard Bach. That means that I had met her brother in the Seattle area. Fascinating, isn't it?
Mostly for the sake of my recalling what this fall was like for me, here's a chronology of what I've been doing between September 11 and when I arrived back in Santa Fe:
9/11 - 9/17 Heavily focused on the terrorism and on influencing people and our government not to use it as a reason to go to war.
9/17 - 9/21 Participated in The Invitation retreat.
9/22 - 9/29 Caught up on what I'd been missing and prepared to move.
9/30 - 10/5 Drove to Santa Fe (phase one of my move).
10/6 - 10/8 Found a place to live and moved in.
10/9 - 10/25 Began settling into Santa Fe.
10/26 - 10/31 Drove back to Seattle.
10/31 - 11/2 Participated in our Awakening Group retreat.
11/3 -11/8 Worked, saw friends, attended our Invitation group reunion.
11/8 - 11/11 Staffed the Leap of Faith.
11/12 - 12/4 Worked, saw friends, prepared for phase 2 of my move.
12/5 - 12/8 Drove back to Santa Fe (phase 2 of my move).
I guess I've been busy.
I've had several very fascinating and confirming Rune draws in the past couple of months. I'll put them into another letter. This one is long enough.
And then, of course, there are the last couple of weeks since I got back to Santa Fe, which are an entirely different matter. That will be another letter, too.
Namaste,
Michael
[If you don't already and would like to receive my letters
directly via e-mail, send an e-mail (no message needed) to either
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@igc.topica.com.]
[If you'd like to read the archives of my letters and/or holiday
letters and travel reports I've written since 1977, visit
http://www.delphiforums.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages.]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THIS IS MY LIFE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Is My Life is my letters to my family, friends, and whoever
else may be interested about whatever is meaningful to me in
my life. I don't guarantee anything about content or frequency.
The letters will be whatever they turn out to be. If you want
the best option available for keeping up with what's happening
with me, though, this is it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPIES AND FORWARDING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You're welcome to freely redistribute This Is My Life (my
letters) if you think someone might be interested in reading it.
Please don't use any of it for profit, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY COMMUNITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another excellent way to know what's going on with me is to join
the Heart Song Community e-mail list. That's an e-mail
community that provides opportunity for discussing a variety of
topics and sharing about our personal lives. You can get more
information and join at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongCommunity.
~~~~~~~~~
MY WORK
~~~~~~~~~
If you're interested in my work, I invite you to take a look at
the Heart Song Schedule. That provides information about the
e-zines, classes, workshops, retreats, ministry, web sites, and
other programs offered by the various people and projects of
Heart Song Projects. HSP is an affiliation of people and
projects tied together by shared psychospiritual foundations
and purposes - to contribute to healing, growth, expansion, and
spiritual awakening and to serve Spirit in all life. You can see
the most recent schedules at either
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongSchedule/messages
or http://igc.topica.com/lists/HSSchedule/read.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Monday, December 17, 2001
2001, the Year in Review
Hey there, you ~
2001 has been an exceptionally eventful year (but you already knew that, didn�t you?), and, despite worldly appearances, it�s been a pretty good year for me (especially compared to last year). Here are the highlights and lowlights of my year. (I�ll warn you that I meant this to be short, but, typical of me, it turned out to be pretty long anyway. I swear I was suppressing my storytelling the whole time, or else it would have been a lot longer yet. I�ll also warn those of you who�ve been familiar with my funny holiday letters that this one isn�t particularly funny. I apologize, and I just haven�t been inspired with humor for it.)
HARRY POTTER: While my computer was being repaired during late December, 2000, and early January, 2001, I borrowed the Harry Potter books from the library and read all 4 of them in about 3 weeks. I loved them, and I became a real Harry Potter-phile. Is J.K. Rowling married? When the movie was released, I was very eager to see it, however, as of my writing this, I still haven�t made it to the movie theater.
NANCY: In January Nancy called me. �Who�s Nancy?� I hear you asking in my mind�s ear. Making a long story as short as I can and have it mean anything, I first met her in a class in college in early 1969, fell madly in love with her (but didn�t let her know about it � I was married at the time. and she was seriously involved), and then lost touch with her at the end of the school year. I found and reunited with her in 1983 (I think it was) in Portland. (I learned that she hadn�t suspected that I was in love with her all those years before. Wasn�t I good at keeping it hidden?) However, before long she left to return to Anchorage and subsequently got married. We wrote to each other a few times, and in the last letter I received from her in the late �80s, she spoke for the first time of having a young son. Figuring back his age plus 9 months, I wondered if he might not be my son. So, I wrote asking Nancy about that and didn�t hear from her again until this past January. When I got her phone message, I thought maybe her son had gotten old enough to want to know his birth father and that was why she was calling. Well, it turned out that he isn�t mine and she was calling for a totally different reason � to renew our friendship. That was both a relief and a deep disappointment for me. (You know about simultaneous experiences, don�t you?) Anyway, we�ve stayed in touch all this year and have become much better friends. She even came to Bellevue to visit and to attend Leap of Faith.
VISITS: So, speaking of visits, several people visited me from out of town, and I stopped to visit several more on a couple of my cross-country trips. First Bobbie, who I�d known for several years via e-mail and telephone but had never met in person, came from Denver to visit and to take Leap of Faith. Then Shelli, who I also had never met in person, came from somewhere near L.A. for a different workshop and spent some time visiting with me. And as I said, Nancy came from Anchorage to visit and to take Leap of Faith. Then, on my trip from Santa Fe back to Bellevue (more about that shortly), I took somewhat of a long route and stopped by to meet Niara, who I had only known via e-mail, in Durango, CO, and Rob, who I had known in my e-mail community, via telephone, and as a friend of Bobbie�s, in Denver. On my way back to Santa Fe in December via the �low snow route� through OR, CA, and southern AZ, I stopped in Eugene and saw my old friend (since 1976) Dawn, who I hadn�t seen for a couple of years (but missed her husband Tom, who was out of town for work), and in Sacramento and met another e-mail friend, Susan (and her 2 � year old son Vincent). I enjoyed all of my visits a lot.
LEAP OF FAITH: I worked on staff for all of the Leaps of Faith this year, including one I came back for from Santa Fe. Every time I serve in that way, I�m more deeply impressed by the value of the Leap of Faith. And every time I�m present, I feel honored to be in the presence of the heroes who participate. For information about the Leap, see http://www.warriorspirit.org. I highly recommend it to you. For more about what the Leap means to me, see the letter I wrote shortly after the November Leap by visiting http://forums.delphiforums.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages and then clicking on �11/12/01 � Another Leap & an invitation� in the heading �Michael�s Letters, 2001� in the left-hand column.
EARTHQUAKE: I took the Ash Wednesday 6.8 earthquake in the Puget Sound area as mostly another wake-up call. It rocked the house around me, but didn�t damage much of anything nearby. It just told me that things were being shaken up (like so many other signs have told me). We�re in a time when lots of things are being shaken up and prepared for a dramatic leap forward in evolution. Jeff Alexander calls it a time of perturbation (a term coined, I think, by the Nobel prize winning scientist Ilya Prigogine to describe how systems often change). Get ready. We�re in a time that resembles water beginning to boil before it transforms to steam.
ONLINE WORK: I�ve continued with my online work, begun a bunch of new lists (for example, Enlightening Movies for reviews and recommendations of movies with some spiritual theme and/or characters who demonstrate spiritually-admirable choices and actions), and terminated some other lists and e-zines. If you�d like to know about some or all of my online projects, a list of them is available by going to http://forums.delphiforums.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages and clicking on �My Online Projects� under the heading �Information� in the left-hand column.
BOBBIE: Bobbie was planning to move to Santa Fe about the same time I did, to be part of the Heart Song Community, and to share some work with me. We did a lot of talking and e-mailing preparing for that. But Spirit had other plans for her. In an interesting story that�s hers to tell, she reunited with Bill, who she had dated 20 years ago, moved to Florida (across from the space center), and is preparing to get married in February. I�m happy for her and simultaneously experiencing some grief that we won�t fulfill the visions we had for our work in Santa Fe.
VISTA: In late June I jumped at an opportunity and took a house and petsitting job for a couple of weeks in Vista, CA (near San Diego). The woman whose house and pets I sat paid for me to fly down and also paid me for the job. Then I got to stay in her fabulous house with a small orchard and swimming pool (that was mostly used by her Lab) and her wonderful menagerie of pets. I had sat for her before when she lived in the Seattle area. She moved to Vista to work with Jewel and Lenedra Kilcher in their Clearwater Project. While I was there, Jewel�s brother Shane stopped by and chatted with me a couple of times before I realized who he was. I took the opportunity to have dinner with several Leap grads while I was there, including Robert, whose house I lived in between jobs during the first half of 2000. His wife Marcia (Mar-SEE-uh) is also working with Jewel and Lenedra. The only down side to taking that job was that I missed the annual Warrior Spirit 4th of July bash.
THE GAME: Jeff and Laurie Alexander offered me the perfect opportunity to confront some of my ancient fear in July. They invited Leap grads to participate in what they call The Game. Describing it briefly, the men all go together, and the women all go together to a place where there�s dancing and act out meeting and connecting. Everyone gets into his or her sexiest, most flirtatious self. The rule is that everyone must dance with at least 5 other people before connecting with their real partner (if they have one). So, there it is, folks � one of the things that, for a large number of reasons that I won�t go into (in a gesture toward brevity), brings up the most fear in me that I can imagine. Suffice it to say that I�d rather face being attacked in the street. I could give you several really �good� reasons that I chose not to go, but the bottom line truth is that I chickened out. That, however, was a learning experience in itself � of course. I await my next opportunity. (Who else do you know for whom something he didn�t do would be a highlight of the year?)
WHITEWATER RAFTING: On the other hand, I did take the opportunity to go whitewater rafting on the Suiattle River with a group of Warrior Spirit people. Some of you know that I love whitewater rafting. It was quite a day. Do I have some stories I could tell! But, of course, I�m being brief, so you won�t hear about the human water cannons or the woman who showed us the tattoo on her butt at our table in the restaurant.
MARINERS: Hey, how about those Mariners? This was definitely my year in baseball. Well, up until the playoffs, that is. I won�t say what happened, because if you�re a baseball fan, you already know, and if you aren�t, you probably wouldn�t care. Does this merit mention here? I think it does, which tells you something about my interests.
RETREATS: I attended 3 retreats this year that were all significant for me. In August, I went to the annual Western Unity Regional Retreat at Crystal Mountain, WA. There I experienced don Miguel Ruiz, Heather Ash, Sheri Rosenthal (2 of his former apprentices), Sallye Taylor (Unity minister who has an alternative ministry), some wonderful musicians, a great band that I don�t recall the name of (unfortunately), and lots of great people. In September, 6 days after the terrorist attacks, I attended Jeff Alexander�s The Invitation on Vashon Island at Camp Sealth. It was another profound adventure, and because of what I experienced, I changed the course of my life. And finally, at Halloween, I participated in Mary O�Malley�s group�s retreat at Wellspring Retreat Center, just outside Mt. Rainier National Park. It was another powerful experience for me, all the much more so because I had known most of the other participants for years. For information about Mary�s work, see http://www.maryomalley.com.
9/11: 9/11 changed all of our lives in the matter of minutes, didn�t it? I spent much of the following 6 days working to promote a peaceful, spiritual, and carefully considered response and to promote treating the acts of terrorism as crimes rather than as acts of war. (Then I attended The Invitation, and it influenced me in other directions with my energy.) Now it appears to me as if we�re recycling through the �60s and the profound divisions in this country caused by the war in Viet Nam. I�ve become a peace activist again � only this time on a much more spiritual level than I was in the �60s and early �70s.
MOVED: Yes, in case you haven�t heard about it yet, I did finally move to Santa Fe (after talking about it for 4 years) in early October. When I drove into the city, I immediately felt like I had arrived at home. Within 2 days I had a mailing address and a new home, sharing with a woman I met at Unity of Santa Fe. In case you don�t have it, here�s my new contact information:
223 N. Guadalupe St. #404 (mailing address, not where I live)
Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 473-0952
ohanamd@earthlink.net (not new, but in case you don�t have it)
By the way, that�s NEW Mexico. New Mexico is one of the 50 states. Some of you would be surprised at how many people don�t know that New Mexico is a state or even part of the U.S. I had someone in the Seattle area say to me that she had heard that I was moving out of the country.
BEGAN TO GET INVOLVED: As soon as I arrived in Santa Fe, I began to get involved, including adopting Unity of Santa Fe as my church home and joining the labyrinth building team there. There will be lots more as I get settled.
RETURNED: 3 weeks after I arrived in Santa Fe, I left again to return to Seattle. No, I hadn�t decided it wasn�t for me; I�d planned to do it that way from the beginning. I called my first trip down there my �practice move.� I went to establish a home base and then returned for several activities (Awakening group retreat, Invitation group reunion, and Leap of Faith) and for phase 2 of my move. It turned out that I got some jobs in the Seattle area, so I stayed longer than I had planned.
NEW NAME: You may or may not know that I�ve been planning to change my name (not Michael, the rest of it) for a long time. I�ve just never had the sense that I had my right name yet � which I believe meant that I hadn�t yet fully realized the new consciousness that it signified. On my way driving back to Seattle I think I was given my new name. I�ll hang out with it for a bit and see how it fits and what it inspires before I announce it, though.
FOLLOWED SPIRIT: Through my entire year (and my life in general for the past 5 years at least) I followed Spirit without hesitation as much as I was aware of the promptings. It�s been a pretty insecure (from the point of view of the world) path, and I�ve consistently been amazed at how things work out for the best, sometimes in quite unexpected ways. It�s a path I choose to continue, no matter how many people think I should do more that the world traditionally expects.
KEY RING STICK CLASS: One of the things I�ve said many times since 9/11 is that if a terrorist were ever to try to take a plane that I�m on, I know that I could use the self-defense skills that I�ve learned to stop at least one or two of them. I took Jeff Alexander�s Key Ring Stick class in November largely to have an experience of it so that I could promote it in Santa Fe, Denver, and Sedona. It turned out that it significantly added to my self-defense skills and physical self-confidence. If any of you is interested, it�s being offered again in the Seattle area on Tuesday, January 15, 2002. See http://www.warriorspirit.org/Keyring.html.
MOVE #2: I finally headed back home on December 5 with another jam-packed car full of my stuff (mostly books, videotapes, and clothing this time). I pushed it at the end of the trip to get home earlier, and recalled why I don�t drive that way (like I did when I was younger) much any more. I don�t mean fast. I mean with little sleep. I�m still trying to find a place to put all of my boxes full of my treasures. And I still have one or two more carloads to move.
WORK RENEWAL: I�m putting a lot of work into preparing to get busy with my work in New Mexico � including getting back to some of the work that I�ve done in the past but had taken a vacation from. If you�d like to see my plan for my work here, go to http://forums.delphiforums.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages and click on �Planned Projects in Santa Fe� under the heading �Information� in the left-hand column.
FRIENDS: I want to acknowledge the friends who have been especially important to me this year: Ginny (who I�ve known since 1978 and who is like part of my family); Barbara (who I�ve known since 1957 and who is like another part of my family); Parker (who shared lunch with me nearly every Thursday and who offered his home for me to stay when I needed a place); Tammi (my 29 year old friend who feels to me like a contemporary and who has one of the gentlest ways of kicking butt that I�ve ever experienced); Conie (who referred me lots of my housesitting and petsitting jobs and who went above and beyond the call of duty in being helpful to me in a variety of ways); Nancy (who I wrote about above), Bobbie (who was a frequent part of my life until she reconnected with Bill); the members of Mary�s awakening (meditation) group (with whom, on most Thursday mornings and at our Halloween retreat, I shared a lot of meaningful experiences); Leap grads and, most of all, staff (who are another of my families); and the members of my Invitation group (who shared a profound 5 days with me). A special acknowledgement to my new friend and housemate in Santa Fe, Katherine (who helped make my transition easy). I�m deeply grateful to all of these people for being such an important part of my life this year. Leaving most of them behind when I moved was a source of grieving.
MY INVITATION TO YOU: If you have any interest in visiting Santa Fe and me, I invite you to come. We have an extra room where I live if you want a free alternative to a B&B or a motel, and I�ll be a great resource and guide if you wish. Please just give me as much advance notice as you can and understand that I�ll be working or out of town sometimes. If you�d like to see my recommendations for a great visit to Santa Fe, I�m writing them, and they�ll be posted at the Delphi Forums web site sooner or later.
So much for (most of) 2001. On we go into 2002. It will be a year of more dramatic events, I predict. I wish you love, peace, health, happiness, and abundant awakening and growth.
I�d love to hear from you.
Love and peace,
Michael
Hey there, you ~
2001 has been an exceptionally eventful year (but you already knew that, didn�t you?), and, despite worldly appearances, it�s been a pretty good year for me (especially compared to last year). Here are the highlights and lowlights of my year. (I�ll warn you that I meant this to be short, but, typical of me, it turned out to be pretty long anyway. I swear I was suppressing my storytelling the whole time, or else it would have been a lot longer yet. I�ll also warn those of you who�ve been familiar with my funny holiday letters that this one isn�t particularly funny. I apologize, and I just haven�t been inspired with humor for it.)
HARRY POTTER: While my computer was being repaired during late December, 2000, and early January, 2001, I borrowed the Harry Potter books from the library and read all 4 of them in about 3 weeks. I loved them, and I became a real Harry Potter-phile. Is J.K. Rowling married? When the movie was released, I was very eager to see it, however, as of my writing this, I still haven�t made it to the movie theater.
NANCY: In January Nancy called me. �Who�s Nancy?� I hear you asking in my mind�s ear. Making a long story as short as I can and have it mean anything, I first met her in a class in college in early 1969, fell madly in love with her (but didn�t let her know about it � I was married at the time. and she was seriously involved), and then lost touch with her at the end of the school year. I found and reunited with her in 1983 (I think it was) in Portland. (I learned that she hadn�t suspected that I was in love with her all those years before. Wasn�t I good at keeping it hidden?) However, before long she left to return to Anchorage and subsequently got married. We wrote to each other a few times, and in the last letter I received from her in the late �80s, she spoke for the first time of having a young son. Figuring back his age plus 9 months, I wondered if he might not be my son. So, I wrote asking Nancy about that and didn�t hear from her again until this past January. When I got her phone message, I thought maybe her son had gotten old enough to want to know his birth father and that was why she was calling. Well, it turned out that he isn�t mine and she was calling for a totally different reason � to renew our friendship. That was both a relief and a deep disappointment for me. (You know about simultaneous experiences, don�t you?) Anyway, we�ve stayed in touch all this year and have become much better friends. She even came to Bellevue to visit and to attend Leap of Faith.
VISITS: So, speaking of visits, several people visited me from out of town, and I stopped to visit several more on a couple of my cross-country trips. First Bobbie, who I�d known for several years via e-mail and telephone but had never met in person, came from Denver to visit and to take Leap of Faith. Then Shelli, who I also had never met in person, came from somewhere near L.A. for a different workshop and spent some time visiting with me. And as I said, Nancy came from Anchorage to visit and to take Leap of Faith. Then, on my trip from Santa Fe back to Bellevue (more about that shortly), I took somewhat of a long route and stopped by to meet Niara, who I had only known via e-mail, in Durango, CO, and Rob, who I had known in my e-mail community, via telephone, and as a friend of Bobbie�s, in Denver. On my way back to Santa Fe in December via the �low snow route� through OR, CA, and southern AZ, I stopped in Eugene and saw my old friend (since 1976) Dawn, who I hadn�t seen for a couple of years (but missed her husband Tom, who was out of town for work), and in Sacramento and met another e-mail friend, Susan (and her 2 � year old son Vincent). I enjoyed all of my visits a lot.
LEAP OF FAITH: I worked on staff for all of the Leaps of Faith this year, including one I came back for from Santa Fe. Every time I serve in that way, I�m more deeply impressed by the value of the Leap of Faith. And every time I�m present, I feel honored to be in the presence of the heroes who participate. For information about the Leap, see http://www.warriorspirit.org. I highly recommend it to you. For more about what the Leap means to me, see the letter I wrote shortly after the November Leap by visiting http://forums.delphiforums.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages and then clicking on �11/12/01 � Another Leap & an invitation� in the heading �Michael�s Letters, 2001� in the left-hand column.
EARTHQUAKE: I took the Ash Wednesday 6.8 earthquake in the Puget Sound area as mostly another wake-up call. It rocked the house around me, but didn�t damage much of anything nearby. It just told me that things were being shaken up (like so many other signs have told me). We�re in a time when lots of things are being shaken up and prepared for a dramatic leap forward in evolution. Jeff Alexander calls it a time of perturbation (a term coined, I think, by the Nobel prize winning scientist Ilya Prigogine to describe how systems often change). Get ready. We�re in a time that resembles water beginning to boil before it transforms to steam.
ONLINE WORK: I�ve continued with my online work, begun a bunch of new lists (for example, Enlightening Movies for reviews and recommendations of movies with some spiritual theme and/or characters who demonstrate spiritually-admirable choices and actions), and terminated some other lists and e-zines. If you�d like to know about some or all of my online projects, a list of them is available by going to http://forums.delphiforums.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages and clicking on �My Online Projects� under the heading �Information� in the left-hand column.
BOBBIE: Bobbie was planning to move to Santa Fe about the same time I did, to be part of the Heart Song Community, and to share some work with me. We did a lot of talking and e-mailing preparing for that. But Spirit had other plans for her. In an interesting story that�s hers to tell, she reunited with Bill, who she had dated 20 years ago, moved to Florida (across from the space center), and is preparing to get married in February. I�m happy for her and simultaneously experiencing some grief that we won�t fulfill the visions we had for our work in Santa Fe.
VISTA: In late June I jumped at an opportunity and took a house and petsitting job for a couple of weeks in Vista, CA (near San Diego). The woman whose house and pets I sat paid for me to fly down and also paid me for the job. Then I got to stay in her fabulous house with a small orchard and swimming pool (that was mostly used by her Lab) and her wonderful menagerie of pets. I had sat for her before when she lived in the Seattle area. She moved to Vista to work with Jewel and Lenedra Kilcher in their Clearwater Project. While I was there, Jewel�s brother Shane stopped by and chatted with me a couple of times before I realized who he was. I took the opportunity to have dinner with several Leap grads while I was there, including Robert, whose house I lived in between jobs during the first half of 2000. His wife Marcia (Mar-SEE-uh) is also working with Jewel and Lenedra. The only down side to taking that job was that I missed the annual Warrior Spirit 4th of July bash.
THE GAME: Jeff and Laurie Alexander offered me the perfect opportunity to confront some of my ancient fear in July. They invited Leap grads to participate in what they call The Game. Describing it briefly, the men all go together, and the women all go together to a place where there�s dancing and act out meeting and connecting. Everyone gets into his or her sexiest, most flirtatious self. The rule is that everyone must dance with at least 5 other people before connecting with their real partner (if they have one). So, there it is, folks � one of the things that, for a large number of reasons that I won�t go into (in a gesture toward brevity), brings up the most fear in me that I can imagine. Suffice it to say that I�d rather face being attacked in the street. I could give you several really �good� reasons that I chose not to go, but the bottom line truth is that I chickened out. That, however, was a learning experience in itself � of course. I await my next opportunity. (Who else do you know for whom something he didn�t do would be a highlight of the year?)
WHITEWATER RAFTING: On the other hand, I did take the opportunity to go whitewater rafting on the Suiattle River with a group of Warrior Spirit people. Some of you know that I love whitewater rafting. It was quite a day. Do I have some stories I could tell! But, of course, I�m being brief, so you won�t hear about the human water cannons or the woman who showed us the tattoo on her butt at our table in the restaurant.
MARINERS: Hey, how about those Mariners? This was definitely my year in baseball. Well, up until the playoffs, that is. I won�t say what happened, because if you�re a baseball fan, you already know, and if you aren�t, you probably wouldn�t care. Does this merit mention here? I think it does, which tells you something about my interests.
RETREATS: I attended 3 retreats this year that were all significant for me. In August, I went to the annual Western Unity Regional Retreat at Crystal Mountain, WA. There I experienced don Miguel Ruiz, Heather Ash, Sheri Rosenthal (2 of his former apprentices), Sallye Taylor (Unity minister who has an alternative ministry), some wonderful musicians, a great band that I don�t recall the name of (unfortunately), and lots of great people. In September, 6 days after the terrorist attacks, I attended Jeff Alexander�s The Invitation on Vashon Island at Camp Sealth. It was another profound adventure, and because of what I experienced, I changed the course of my life. And finally, at Halloween, I participated in Mary O�Malley�s group�s retreat at Wellspring Retreat Center, just outside Mt. Rainier National Park. It was another powerful experience for me, all the much more so because I had known most of the other participants for years. For information about Mary�s work, see http://www.maryomalley.com.
9/11: 9/11 changed all of our lives in the matter of minutes, didn�t it? I spent much of the following 6 days working to promote a peaceful, spiritual, and carefully considered response and to promote treating the acts of terrorism as crimes rather than as acts of war. (Then I attended The Invitation, and it influenced me in other directions with my energy.) Now it appears to me as if we�re recycling through the �60s and the profound divisions in this country caused by the war in Viet Nam. I�ve become a peace activist again � only this time on a much more spiritual level than I was in the �60s and early �70s.
MOVED: Yes, in case you haven�t heard about it yet, I did finally move to Santa Fe (after talking about it for 4 years) in early October. When I drove into the city, I immediately felt like I had arrived at home. Within 2 days I had a mailing address and a new home, sharing with a woman I met at Unity of Santa Fe. In case you don�t have it, here�s my new contact information:
223 N. Guadalupe St. #404 (mailing address, not where I live)
Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 473-0952
ohanamd@earthlink.net (not new, but in case you don�t have it)
By the way, that�s NEW Mexico. New Mexico is one of the 50 states. Some of you would be surprised at how many people don�t know that New Mexico is a state or even part of the U.S. I had someone in the Seattle area say to me that she had heard that I was moving out of the country.
BEGAN TO GET INVOLVED: As soon as I arrived in Santa Fe, I began to get involved, including adopting Unity of Santa Fe as my church home and joining the labyrinth building team there. There will be lots more as I get settled.
RETURNED: 3 weeks after I arrived in Santa Fe, I left again to return to Seattle. No, I hadn�t decided it wasn�t for me; I�d planned to do it that way from the beginning. I called my first trip down there my �practice move.� I went to establish a home base and then returned for several activities (Awakening group retreat, Invitation group reunion, and Leap of Faith) and for phase 2 of my move. It turned out that I got some jobs in the Seattle area, so I stayed longer than I had planned.
NEW NAME: You may or may not know that I�ve been planning to change my name (not Michael, the rest of it) for a long time. I�ve just never had the sense that I had my right name yet � which I believe meant that I hadn�t yet fully realized the new consciousness that it signified. On my way driving back to Seattle I think I was given my new name. I�ll hang out with it for a bit and see how it fits and what it inspires before I announce it, though.
FOLLOWED SPIRIT: Through my entire year (and my life in general for the past 5 years at least) I followed Spirit without hesitation as much as I was aware of the promptings. It�s been a pretty insecure (from the point of view of the world) path, and I�ve consistently been amazed at how things work out for the best, sometimes in quite unexpected ways. It�s a path I choose to continue, no matter how many people think I should do more that the world traditionally expects.
KEY RING STICK CLASS: One of the things I�ve said many times since 9/11 is that if a terrorist were ever to try to take a plane that I�m on, I know that I could use the self-defense skills that I�ve learned to stop at least one or two of them. I took Jeff Alexander�s Key Ring Stick class in November largely to have an experience of it so that I could promote it in Santa Fe, Denver, and Sedona. It turned out that it significantly added to my self-defense skills and physical self-confidence. If any of you is interested, it�s being offered again in the Seattle area on Tuesday, January 15, 2002. See http://www.warriorspirit.org/Keyring.html.
MOVE #2: I finally headed back home on December 5 with another jam-packed car full of my stuff (mostly books, videotapes, and clothing this time). I pushed it at the end of the trip to get home earlier, and recalled why I don�t drive that way (like I did when I was younger) much any more. I don�t mean fast. I mean with little sleep. I�m still trying to find a place to put all of my boxes full of my treasures. And I still have one or two more carloads to move.
WORK RENEWAL: I�m putting a lot of work into preparing to get busy with my work in New Mexico � including getting back to some of the work that I�ve done in the past but had taken a vacation from. If you�d like to see my plan for my work here, go to http://forums.delphiforums.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages and click on �Planned Projects in Santa Fe� under the heading �Information� in the left-hand column.
FRIENDS: I want to acknowledge the friends who have been especially important to me this year: Ginny (who I�ve known since 1978 and who is like part of my family); Barbara (who I�ve known since 1957 and who is like another part of my family); Parker (who shared lunch with me nearly every Thursday and who offered his home for me to stay when I needed a place); Tammi (my 29 year old friend who feels to me like a contemporary and who has one of the gentlest ways of kicking butt that I�ve ever experienced); Conie (who referred me lots of my housesitting and petsitting jobs and who went above and beyond the call of duty in being helpful to me in a variety of ways); Nancy (who I wrote about above), Bobbie (who was a frequent part of my life until she reconnected with Bill); the members of Mary�s awakening (meditation) group (with whom, on most Thursday mornings and at our Halloween retreat, I shared a lot of meaningful experiences); Leap grads and, most of all, staff (who are another of my families); and the members of my Invitation group (who shared a profound 5 days with me). A special acknowledgement to my new friend and housemate in Santa Fe, Katherine (who helped make my transition easy). I�m deeply grateful to all of these people for being such an important part of my life this year. Leaving most of them behind when I moved was a source of grieving.
MY INVITATION TO YOU: If you have any interest in visiting Santa Fe and me, I invite you to come. We have an extra room where I live if you want a free alternative to a B&B or a motel, and I�ll be a great resource and guide if you wish. Please just give me as much advance notice as you can and understand that I�ll be working or out of town sometimes. If you�d like to see my recommendations for a great visit to Santa Fe, I�m writing them, and they�ll be posted at the Delphi Forums web site sooner or later.
So much for (most of) 2001. On we go into 2002. It will be a year of more dramatic events, I predict. I wish you love, peace, health, happiness, and abundant awakening and growth.
I�d love to hear from you.
Love and peace,
Michael
Monday, November 12, 2001
THIS IS MY LIFE
Monday, 11/12/2001
Copyright (c) 2001, Michael Dickerson. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or quotation is strictly prohibited without
permission.
Hi, all ~
Yesterday I completed staffing another Leap of Faith. Once again, as it always does, the program allowed people to transform loads of fear into power, to demonstrate their natural ability to be heroes, and to connect with other people in ways they may never have connected before.
Amazing things are happening with the Leap. About 25 of the 92 participants in this Leap were airline industry employees, coming in part in response to the fear that 9/11 generated in them. There�s a possibility that we�ll be doing an in-house Leap with employees of one of the airlines.
You may have heard me say that what I learned in the Leap (not only tools, but what I learned about myself) means that, if I were faced with terrorists, I could (and would) take one or 2 of them down by myself. That knowing is echoed by a flight attendant in this Leap who said, �I know now that a terrorist on my flight will never take my airplane down.�
But there�s a lot more to the Leap than being able to take down terrorists. It�s more about having a profound experience of having faith in spirit within to direct our lives in accord with our highest calling, awakening our courage to take whatever action needs to be taken in our lives, and knowing without a doubt how to connect heart to heart with every human being we meet.
For me personally, one of the most significant benefits has been dramatically enhancing my knowing that I will never be stopped by fear from doing anything that�s mine to do and that I will be told which those things are. Doors are flying open in my life. I�m in the process of stepping through into what I�m truly here on earth to do. I give part of the credit for that to what I�ve gained through my involvement with Warrior Spirit and Leap of Faith. I�m following Spirit without hesitation, and Spirit is taking me to my destiny.
I want to invite you again to consider participating in the next Leap of Faith (February 28 � March 3). I�m encouraging you now because that class is already half full and may be closed long before many people begin to think about registering.
This is a gift I�m giving you. I�m encouraging you to set aside all of your considerations and to just go for it. As Keith Halperin, my healer in Bellevue, keeps reminding me, now is the time. Now is the time for us to transform fear. Now is the time for us to step into knowing and acting like who we really are. Now is the time for us to transform our world. Now is the time.
By the way, Leap of Faith only costs $20 to register. You�ll be invited to contribute more at the end of the weekend, but that�s totally a free will offering. And here�s my personal guarantee: if you take the Leap, complete it, and think you haven�t gotten significantly more than your $20 of value from it, I�ll give you your $20 back.
For those of you who would have to come from out of town, we�ll do our best to find you someone to stay with if you don�t want the expense of a hotel or motel.
If you need more information, see http://www.warriorspirit.org and/or call (425) 557-8557.
More about the rest of my life in the next couple of days.
Namaste,
Michael
[If you don�t already and would like to receive my letters
directly via e-mail, send an e-mail (no message needed) to either
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@igc.topica.com.]
[If you�d like to read the archives of my letters and/or holiday letters and travel reports I've written since 1977, visit http://www.delphi.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages.]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THIS IS MY LIFE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Is My Life is my letters to my family, friends, and whoever
else may be interested about whatever is meaningful to me in
my life. I don't guarantee anything about content or frequency.
The letters will be whatever they turn out to be. If you want
the best option available for keeping up with what�s happening
with me, though, this is it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPIES AND FORWARDING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You�re welcome to freely redistribute This Is My Life (my
letters) if you think someone might be interested in reading it.
Please don�t use any of it for profit, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY COMMUNITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another excellent way to know what�s going on with me is to join
the Heart Song Community e-mail list. That�s an e-mail
community that provides opportunity for discussing a variety of
topics and sharing about our personal lives. You can get more
information and join at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongCommunity.
~~~~~~~~~
MY WORK
~~~~~~~~~
If you�re interested in my work, I invite you to take a look at
the Heart Song Schedule. That provides information about the
e-zines, classes, workshops, retreats, ministry, web sites, and
other programs offered by the various people and projects of
Heart Song Projects. HSP is an affiliation of people and
projects tied together by shared psychospiritual foundations
and purposes � to contribute to healing, growth, expansion, and
spiritual awakening and to serve Spirit in all life. You can see
the most recent schedules at either
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongSchedule/messages
or http://igc.topica.com/lists/HSSchedule/read.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Monday, 11/12/2001
Copyright (c) 2001, Michael Dickerson. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or quotation is strictly prohibited without
permission.
Hi, all ~
Yesterday I completed staffing another Leap of Faith. Once again, as it always does, the program allowed people to transform loads of fear into power, to demonstrate their natural ability to be heroes, and to connect with other people in ways they may never have connected before.
Amazing things are happening with the Leap. About 25 of the 92 participants in this Leap were airline industry employees, coming in part in response to the fear that 9/11 generated in them. There�s a possibility that we�ll be doing an in-house Leap with employees of one of the airlines.
You may have heard me say that what I learned in the Leap (not only tools, but what I learned about myself) means that, if I were faced with terrorists, I could (and would) take one or 2 of them down by myself. That knowing is echoed by a flight attendant in this Leap who said, �I know now that a terrorist on my flight will never take my airplane down.�
But there�s a lot more to the Leap than being able to take down terrorists. It�s more about having a profound experience of having faith in spirit within to direct our lives in accord with our highest calling, awakening our courage to take whatever action needs to be taken in our lives, and knowing without a doubt how to connect heart to heart with every human being we meet.
For me personally, one of the most significant benefits has been dramatically enhancing my knowing that I will never be stopped by fear from doing anything that�s mine to do and that I will be told which those things are. Doors are flying open in my life. I�m in the process of stepping through into what I�m truly here on earth to do. I give part of the credit for that to what I�ve gained through my involvement with Warrior Spirit and Leap of Faith. I�m following Spirit without hesitation, and Spirit is taking me to my destiny.
I want to invite you again to consider participating in the next Leap of Faith (February 28 � March 3). I�m encouraging you now because that class is already half full and may be closed long before many people begin to think about registering.
This is a gift I�m giving you. I�m encouraging you to set aside all of your considerations and to just go for it. As Keith Halperin, my healer in Bellevue, keeps reminding me, now is the time. Now is the time for us to transform fear. Now is the time for us to step into knowing and acting like who we really are. Now is the time for us to transform our world. Now is the time.
By the way, Leap of Faith only costs $20 to register. You�ll be invited to contribute more at the end of the weekend, but that�s totally a free will offering. And here�s my personal guarantee: if you take the Leap, complete it, and think you haven�t gotten significantly more than your $20 of value from it, I�ll give you your $20 back.
For those of you who would have to come from out of town, we�ll do our best to find you someone to stay with if you don�t want the expense of a hotel or motel.
If you need more information, see http://www.warriorspirit.org and/or call (425) 557-8557.
More about the rest of my life in the next couple of days.
Namaste,
Michael
[If you don�t already and would like to receive my letters
directly via e-mail, send an e-mail (no message needed) to either
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@igc.topica.com.]
[If you�d like to read the archives of my letters and/or holiday letters and travel reports I've written since 1977, visit http://www.delphi.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages.]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THIS IS MY LIFE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Is My Life is my letters to my family, friends, and whoever
else may be interested about whatever is meaningful to me in
my life. I don't guarantee anything about content or frequency.
The letters will be whatever they turn out to be. If you want
the best option available for keeping up with what�s happening
with me, though, this is it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPIES AND FORWARDING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You�re welcome to freely redistribute This Is My Life (my
letters) if you think someone might be interested in reading it.
Please don�t use any of it for profit, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY COMMUNITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another excellent way to know what�s going on with me is to join
the Heart Song Community e-mail list. That�s an e-mail
community that provides opportunity for discussing a variety of
topics and sharing about our personal lives. You can get more
information and join at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongCommunity.
~~~~~~~~~
MY WORK
~~~~~~~~~
If you�re interested in my work, I invite you to take a look at
the Heart Song Schedule. That provides information about the
e-zines, classes, workshops, retreats, ministry, web sites, and
other programs offered by the various people and projects of
Heart Song Projects. HSP is an affiliation of people and
projects tied together by shared psychospiritual foundations
and purposes � to contribute to healing, growth, expansion, and
spiritual awakening and to serve Spirit in all life. You can see
the most recent schedules at either
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongSchedule/messages
or http://igc.topica.com/lists/HSSchedule/read.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sunday, October 14, 2001
THIS IS MY LIFE
Sunday, 10/14/2001
Copyright (c) 2001, Michael Dickerson. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or quotation is strictly prohibited without
permission.
Hi, y�all ~
I love living in Santa Fe! Just thought I�d let you know that.
First of all, the most important thing: Will you all please pray for, treat for, hold positive thoughts for, send Reiki to, or whatever you do for Doug Atherton�s health and healing? He lives in Seabeck, WA, and is the new husband of my friend Barbara. You could do some of that for Barbara Gentlemoon�s peace of mind, too. Thank you all.
As I�m writing this, I�m listening to Leslie Temple-Thurston on a Santa Fe radio station. For any of you not familiar with her, she�s a spiritual teacher, author of The Marriage of the Spirit, and a resident of Santa Fe. She�s been to Bellevue Unity a number of times, and I experienced her work there. I really resonate with her.
This is going to be long. I have a lot to say, and I haven�t had time to write much on this all week until now.
I received my first mail in my new mailbox! (I don�t mean e-mail; I�m talking about surface mail.) Unfortunately, it was from Qwest about my telephone service. I�m still waiting for my first noncommercial mail in case any of you wants to be first. And the race is on.
I also got my first voicemail via my computer from Nancy in Anchorage. It was just like listening to it over the phone, but I was listening to my computer. It really works, folks. Feel free to use it. If area code 206 is a toll-free call for you, it�s free for both of us. (206-350-5131)
I�ve been chuckling to myself lately about all the people who�ve made comments about how hot they think it is here. I�d like them to visit right now and see how comfortable they are in their shorts and short-sleeved shirts. During the day it�s usually been in the 60s or low 70s, but when clouds come up and hide the sun, or when the wind blows (as it does sometimes), it can get downright chilly. I was very comfortable yesterday wearing a sweater all day. And when the sun begins to go down, a sweater or a jacket is definitely in order. I may have already told you this, but the temperature often varies 30-40 degrees in a day. There�s new snow on some of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east.
My life has been filled with truly amazing serendipity and synchronicity this week. I�ll write about my meeting with Stephen Furrer below when I talk about visiting churches. Here are some other examples:
I got an e-mail from Brendalyn on Thursday morning that they were having a meeting about the labyrinth at Unity of Santa Fe in 55 minutes. I hustled and made it. It was fantastic. I met some great people, including Len Meserve, who has helped build 70 labyrinths and who will be presenting at the upcoming Labyrinth Convention about his own design for a labyrinth (more in a moment). Our primary task for the meeting was to consider the different possible designs of labyrinths and to choose one for Unity of Santa Fe. We decided to build 2 instead of one (which was my idea, by the way). Right next to the church building, we�re going to build a traditional Chartres design labyrinth. Then, over beyond the parking lot, behind some Pi�on trees (I�m learning about the foliage here), we decided to build a Relationship Labyrinth (Len�s original design). It�s sort of a gourd shaped labyrinth with 2 parallel paths, one representing the male (either physically or the male aspect of each person) and the other representing the female. I really felt like a contributing part of the team.
After the meeting, Brendalyn told me that the staff had talked about me the day before (I like being talked about this way), and she wondered if I�d be willing to be the person who �championed� Leslie Temple-Thurston�s workshop at the church on November 18. It turned out that I won�t be able to do it because of my trip back to Bellevue, but I liked being asked. Brendalyn said there will be plenty more chances to do something, and I�m sure there will be.
Thursday evening I went to choir practice, thinking mostly that I might meet some people who would be valuable as members of God Only Knows What. I had a great time. It�s really loose in comparison to the choirs I�ve been in before, and consequently, it was more fun. But we got a lot done, too. Once again, I felt like I contributed with some suggestions for arrangements.
On Saturday (yesterday), the labyrinth team had plans to begin to clear the space for the Relationships Labyrinth. When we got there, there was a meeting going on in the church entry/bookstore/meeting room (sort of a multipurpose room, I guess) and Brendalyn suggested that we come in while we were waiting for more people to see the video. It was a meeting about Energetic Balancing, which I had never heard of before. What serendipity. It looks very interesting. It�s being touted by Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith (R.S. minister), Wayne Dyer, Linda Gray (the actress), Brendalyn, and others that many of us have heard of. I�m going to learn more about it. If you�d like to look into it, there�s at least one practitioner in Washington. The website is http://www.energeticmatrix.com.
Eventually, we headed out to work on clearing the space for the labyrinth. After carrying some fallen trees from one place to another, we noticed a dog barking at us from one of the cars in the parking lot. One of the women mentioned that she has a petsitting business (called The Pet Nanny, which is the same name that Conie uses). I jumped on it, and we started talking. It turns out that she may have some jobs for me. Later she said that she and her partner want to sell the business and move to Reno. They�ve been in business for 13 years, have a large repeat clientele, and make quite a bit of money from it. Is this something that Spirit is giving me to give me a financial foundation to do my real work? We shall see.
Yet, despite all the serendipity and synchronicity that I�m experiencing, I�m still bouncing back and forth between faith and fear. And what is one of my traditional stimuli for fear? Those of you who know me well may know the answer to that: money. (And you may know several other answers to the question, too.) Despite everything that�s been showing me that I can trust Spirit and the process of life, I keep slipping into fear � sometimes almost panic � about money. And, at those times when I�m less conscious than at other times, I just want to avoid it, to go even more unconscious. Can I see a show of hands of other people who also sometimes do that about something � maybe not money, but something that�s a trigger for you? And then, somehow, I remember, and I breathe deeply, center, open, pay compassionate attention, turn it over to Spirit, and listen for my guidance. Asleep, awake, asleep, awake, asleep, awake � the process of living in this human form.
So I�ve been preparing to promote my work. I�m organizing my informal (mini) resume (only 2 pages, instead of the 5 pages that my full, formal resume is) and my statement of projects to do in Santa Fe. Then I�ll begin talking with ministers, counselors, and organizations that sponsor classes and workshops. It�s time to start doing my real work. I keep getting spiritual directions that the time has come and that I need not to tarry.
Even more frequently than comments about how hot it is in Santa Fe, I�ve heard them about how expensive it is to live here. I checked it with the Money Magazine price comparison on their website and learned that Santa Fe, on the whole, is 10% less expensive to live in than is Bellevue. It may be more expensive than a lot of places in the country, but not in comparison to what I�m familiar with. So, the rest of you for whom this won�t seem like a big deal can now skip to the next paragraph. The rent on the houseshare that I got is only $340/month. I saw a few for even less (as low as $250/month). Some studio apartments down the street that look really nice from the outside are only $430/month � and they have immediate openings. I�ve seen 3 bedroom houses for as little as $900/month (and for as much as $4000/month with a guest house included). I�ve only noticed a couple of other comparisons so far. Roasted whole chickens are $1-2 more at Wild Oats and Whole Foods than at QFC. And Melissa said that her live-in petsitting fees start at $45/day, which is $10/day higher than in Belleveu. (But, of course, that�s income to me.)
On Wednesday I visited a couple more area churches to get on mailing lists, to find out what activities I might want to participate in, and to get a sense of how I might fit in as a professional: Religious Science of Santa Fe and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation. I also tried to visit Rocco Errico�s Noohra Foundation, but it was gone. I�m guessing that the report I heard from someone that he was moving to somewhere in the Southeast is correct.
While I was at the UU Church, the minister, Stephen Furrer, walked in, and we ended up talking for a while. It turns out that he attended Pacific School of Religion, which is just down the street from Starr King School for the Ministry (where I went). He took some classes at Starr King, and I took some at PSR. (They�re both part of the Graduate Theological Union, so that isn�t unusual. I took classes at most of the schools in the GTU.) Then we started talking about whom I knew at SKSM, and he knows some of the same people that I do. I even forgot to mention some people that he probably knows.
Here are some of the places I�ve visited this week that I really like: Sam�s Club (similar to Costco, but I like this store even better; I joined), the Plaza (it looks really different this time of year than in late summer when I was here last � much less busy), The Burrito Co. (New Mexican fast food � one of my favorite places from �97), Whole Foods (I finally found it. I like it even more than Wild Oats. It�s like a cross between PCC and Larry�s Markets, for those of you in the Puget Sound who know what that means.), and the Chamber of Commerce (which had all kinds of great information).
A tip for anyone who comes to Santa Fe, especially to live: get your hands on (and read) 3 publications: the Annual Manual (published by the Santa Fe Reporter), Welcome Home; A Guide for Santa Fe Newcomers and Residents (published by The Santa Fe New Mexican), and the latest edition of a book called Insiders� Guide to Santa Fe (by Anne Hillerman and Tamar Stieber). The first 2 are available at the Chamber of Commerce (and other places). The latest edition of Welcome Home came as an insert in today�s Santa Fe New Mexican (more serendipity). I�m finding all 3 immensely helpful for the kinds of things I�m interested in (and need to know).
One of the games I�ve played with visitors to the Puget Sound area is �How do you imagine ___ is pronounced?� (places like Puyallup, Issaquah, Sequim, and Dosewallips). Well, I�m experiencing something very similar here in NM. I�m finding that some of the place names are pronounced differently than I�ve been saying them in my head. For example, one I learned when I was here 4 years ago is that Chimayo (a town north and a bit east of here, on the High Road to Taos), which to my Spanish-educated mind looked like Chee-MY-o, is actually pronounced Chee-muh-YO. I think it�s an Indian word, not Spanish. And I learned a couple of days ago that Tesuque (a town just a few miles north of here) isn�t TESS-uh-kay (yes, I know that isn�t a Spanish pronunciation, but that�s how I was reading it anyway). It�s Tuh-SOO-kay. That�s a Pueblo word and also the name of one of the Pueblos. I can hardly wait to find out how the Jicarilla Apaches� name is pronounced. I keep pronouncing it, too, as if it were Spanish.
Okay, so what�s up with the Mariners? They certainly haven�t been looking like the team they were during the season. I really expected them to beat Cleveland in no more than 4 games. So much for expectations. At least they pulled it out today and get to go home (I wrote �come� and then changed it) for the deciding game.
And now as I�m writing, I�m watching the Seahawks game at Husky Stadium and seeing a view out across Lake Washington. I�m feeling some nostalgia. I don�t want to move back there, and I do miss a lot of things about the Puget Sound. How about those Seahawks, though?
I told you it would be long. Blessings to you until next time (and even beyond that).
Namaste,
Michael
[If you don�t already and would like to receive my letters
directly via e-mail, send an e-mail (no message needed) to either
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@igc.topica.com.]
[If you�d like to read the archives of my letters and/or holiday letters and travel reports I've written since 1977, visit http://www.delphi.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages.]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THIS IS MY LIFE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Is My Life is my letters to my family, friends, and whoever
else may be interested about whatever is meaningful to me in
my life. I don't guarantee anything about content or frequency.
The letters will be whatever they turn out to be. If you want
the best option available for keeping up with what�s happening
with me, though, this is it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPIES AND FORWARDING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You�re welcome to freely redistribute This Is My Life (my
letters) if you think someone might be interested in reading it.
Please don�t use any of it for profit, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY COMMUNITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another excellent way to know what�s going on with me is to join
the Heart Song Community e-mail list. That�s an e-mail
community that provides opportunity for discussing a variety of
topics and sharing about our personal lives. You can get more
information and join at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongCommunity.
~~~~~~~~~
MY WORK
~~~~~~~~~
If you�re interested in my work, I invite you to take a look at
the Heart Song Schedule. That provides information about the
e-zines, classes, workshops, retreats, ministry, web sites, and
other programs offered by the various people and projects of
Heart Song Projects. HSP is an affiliation of people and
projects tied together by shared psychospiritual foundations
and purposes � to contribute to healing, growth, expansion, and
spiritual awakening and to serve Spirit in all life. You can see
the most recent schedules at either
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongSchedule/messages
or http://igc.topica.com/lists/HSSchedule/read.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sunday, 10/14/2001
Copyright (c) 2001, Michael Dickerson. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or quotation is strictly prohibited without
permission.
Hi, y�all ~
I love living in Santa Fe! Just thought I�d let you know that.
First of all, the most important thing: Will you all please pray for, treat for, hold positive thoughts for, send Reiki to, or whatever you do for Doug Atherton�s health and healing? He lives in Seabeck, WA, and is the new husband of my friend Barbara. You could do some of that for Barbara Gentlemoon�s peace of mind, too. Thank you all.
As I�m writing this, I�m listening to Leslie Temple-Thurston on a Santa Fe radio station. For any of you not familiar with her, she�s a spiritual teacher, author of The Marriage of the Spirit, and a resident of Santa Fe. She�s been to Bellevue Unity a number of times, and I experienced her work there. I really resonate with her.
This is going to be long. I have a lot to say, and I haven�t had time to write much on this all week until now.
I received my first mail in my new mailbox! (I don�t mean e-mail; I�m talking about surface mail.) Unfortunately, it was from Qwest about my telephone service. I�m still waiting for my first noncommercial mail in case any of you wants to be first. And the race is on.
I also got my first voicemail via my computer from Nancy in Anchorage. It was just like listening to it over the phone, but I was listening to my computer. It really works, folks. Feel free to use it. If area code 206 is a toll-free call for you, it�s free for both of us. (206-350-5131)
I�ve been chuckling to myself lately about all the people who�ve made comments about how hot they think it is here. I�d like them to visit right now and see how comfortable they are in their shorts and short-sleeved shirts. During the day it�s usually been in the 60s or low 70s, but when clouds come up and hide the sun, or when the wind blows (as it does sometimes), it can get downright chilly. I was very comfortable yesterday wearing a sweater all day. And when the sun begins to go down, a sweater or a jacket is definitely in order. I may have already told you this, but the temperature often varies 30-40 degrees in a day. There�s new snow on some of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east.
My life has been filled with truly amazing serendipity and synchronicity this week. I�ll write about my meeting with Stephen Furrer below when I talk about visiting churches. Here are some other examples:
I got an e-mail from Brendalyn on Thursday morning that they were having a meeting about the labyrinth at Unity of Santa Fe in 55 minutes. I hustled and made it. It was fantastic. I met some great people, including Len Meserve, who has helped build 70 labyrinths and who will be presenting at the upcoming Labyrinth Convention about his own design for a labyrinth (more in a moment). Our primary task for the meeting was to consider the different possible designs of labyrinths and to choose one for Unity of Santa Fe. We decided to build 2 instead of one (which was my idea, by the way). Right next to the church building, we�re going to build a traditional Chartres design labyrinth. Then, over beyond the parking lot, behind some Pi�on trees (I�m learning about the foliage here), we decided to build a Relationship Labyrinth (Len�s original design). It�s sort of a gourd shaped labyrinth with 2 parallel paths, one representing the male (either physically or the male aspect of each person) and the other representing the female. I really felt like a contributing part of the team.
After the meeting, Brendalyn told me that the staff had talked about me the day before (I like being talked about this way), and she wondered if I�d be willing to be the person who �championed� Leslie Temple-Thurston�s workshop at the church on November 18. It turned out that I won�t be able to do it because of my trip back to Bellevue, but I liked being asked. Brendalyn said there will be plenty more chances to do something, and I�m sure there will be.
Thursday evening I went to choir practice, thinking mostly that I might meet some people who would be valuable as members of God Only Knows What. I had a great time. It�s really loose in comparison to the choirs I�ve been in before, and consequently, it was more fun. But we got a lot done, too. Once again, I felt like I contributed with some suggestions for arrangements.
On Saturday (yesterday), the labyrinth team had plans to begin to clear the space for the Relationships Labyrinth. When we got there, there was a meeting going on in the church entry/bookstore/meeting room (sort of a multipurpose room, I guess) and Brendalyn suggested that we come in while we were waiting for more people to see the video. It was a meeting about Energetic Balancing, which I had never heard of before. What serendipity. It looks very interesting. It�s being touted by Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith (R.S. minister), Wayne Dyer, Linda Gray (the actress), Brendalyn, and others that many of us have heard of. I�m going to learn more about it. If you�d like to look into it, there�s at least one practitioner in Washington. The website is http://www.energeticmatrix.com.
Eventually, we headed out to work on clearing the space for the labyrinth. After carrying some fallen trees from one place to another, we noticed a dog barking at us from one of the cars in the parking lot. One of the women mentioned that she has a petsitting business (called The Pet Nanny, which is the same name that Conie uses). I jumped on it, and we started talking. It turns out that she may have some jobs for me. Later she said that she and her partner want to sell the business and move to Reno. They�ve been in business for 13 years, have a large repeat clientele, and make quite a bit of money from it. Is this something that Spirit is giving me to give me a financial foundation to do my real work? We shall see.
Yet, despite all the serendipity and synchronicity that I�m experiencing, I�m still bouncing back and forth between faith and fear. And what is one of my traditional stimuli for fear? Those of you who know me well may know the answer to that: money. (And you may know several other answers to the question, too.) Despite everything that�s been showing me that I can trust Spirit and the process of life, I keep slipping into fear � sometimes almost panic � about money. And, at those times when I�m less conscious than at other times, I just want to avoid it, to go even more unconscious. Can I see a show of hands of other people who also sometimes do that about something � maybe not money, but something that�s a trigger for you? And then, somehow, I remember, and I breathe deeply, center, open, pay compassionate attention, turn it over to Spirit, and listen for my guidance. Asleep, awake, asleep, awake, asleep, awake � the process of living in this human form.
So I�ve been preparing to promote my work. I�m organizing my informal (mini) resume (only 2 pages, instead of the 5 pages that my full, formal resume is) and my statement of projects to do in Santa Fe. Then I�ll begin talking with ministers, counselors, and organizations that sponsor classes and workshops. It�s time to start doing my real work. I keep getting spiritual directions that the time has come and that I need not to tarry.
Even more frequently than comments about how hot it is in Santa Fe, I�ve heard them about how expensive it is to live here. I checked it with the Money Magazine price comparison on their website and learned that Santa Fe, on the whole, is 10% less expensive to live in than is Bellevue. It may be more expensive than a lot of places in the country, but not in comparison to what I�m familiar with. So, the rest of you for whom this won�t seem like a big deal can now skip to the next paragraph. The rent on the houseshare that I got is only $340/month. I saw a few for even less (as low as $250/month). Some studio apartments down the street that look really nice from the outside are only $430/month � and they have immediate openings. I�ve seen 3 bedroom houses for as little as $900/month (and for as much as $4000/month with a guest house included). I�ve only noticed a couple of other comparisons so far. Roasted whole chickens are $1-2 more at Wild Oats and Whole Foods than at QFC. And Melissa said that her live-in petsitting fees start at $45/day, which is $10/day higher than in Belleveu. (But, of course, that�s income to me.)
On Wednesday I visited a couple more area churches to get on mailing lists, to find out what activities I might want to participate in, and to get a sense of how I might fit in as a professional: Religious Science of Santa Fe and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation. I also tried to visit Rocco Errico�s Noohra Foundation, but it was gone. I�m guessing that the report I heard from someone that he was moving to somewhere in the Southeast is correct.
While I was at the UU Church, the minister, Stephen Furrer, walked in, and we ended up talking for a while. It turns out that he attended Pacific School of Religion, which is just down the street from Starr King School for the Ministry (where I went). He took some classes at Starr King, and I took some at PSR. (They�re both part of the Graduate Theological Union, so that isn�t unusual. I took classes at most of the schools in the GTU.) Then we started talking about whom I knew at SKSM, and he knows some of the same people that I do. I even forgot to mention some people that he probably knows.
Here are some of the places I�ve visited this week that I really like: Sam�s Club (similar to Costco, but I like this store even better; I joined), the Plaza (it looks really different this time of year than in late summer when I was here last � much less busy), The Burrito Co. (New Mexican fast food � one of my favorite places from �97), Whole Foods (I finally found it. I like it even more than Wild Oats. It�s like a cross between PCC and Larry�s Markets, for those of you in the Puget Sound who know what that means.), and the Chamber of Commerce (which had all kinds of great information).
A tip for anyone who comes to Santa Fe, especially to live: get your hands on (and read) 3 publications: the Annual Manual (published by the Santa Fe Reporter), Welcome Home; A Guide for Santa Fe Newcomers and Residents (published by The Santa Fe New Mexican), and the latest edition of a book called Insiders� Guide to Santa Fe (by Anne Hillerman and Tamar Stieber). The first 2 are available at the Chamber of Commerce (and other places). The latest edition of Welcome Home came as an insert in today�s Santa Fe New Mexican (more serendipity). I�m finding all 3 immensely helpful for the kinds of things I�m interested in (and need to know).
One of the games I�ve played with visitors to the Puget Sound area is �How do you imagine ___ is pronounced?� (places like Puyallup, Issaquah, Sequim, and Dosewallips). Well, I�m experiencing something very similar here in NM. I�m finding that some of the place names are pronounced differently than I�ve been saying them in my head. For example, one I learned when I was here 4 years ago is that Chimayo (a town north and a bit east of here, on the High Road to Taos), which to my Spanish-educated mind looked like Chee-MY-o, is actually pronounced Chee-muh-YO. I think it�s an Indian word, not Spanish. And I learned a couple of days ago that Tesuque (a town just a few miles north of here) isn�t TESS-uh-kay (yes, I know that isn�t a Spanish pronunciation, but that�s how I was reading it anyway). It�s Tuh-SOO-kay. That�s a Pueblo word and also the name of one of the Pueblos. I can hardly wait to find out how the Jicarilla Apaches� name is pronounced. I keep pronouncing it, too, as if it were Spanish.
Okay, so what�s up with the Mariners? They certainly haven�t been looking like the team they were during the season. I really expected them to beat Cleveland in no more than 4 games. So much for expectations. At least they pulled it out today and get to go home (I wrote �come� and then changed it) for the deciding game.
And now as I�m writing, I�m watching the Seahawks game at Husky Stadium and seeing a view out across Lake Washington. I�m feeling some nostalgia. I don�t want to move back there, and I do miss a lot of things about the Puget Sound. How about those Seahawks, though?
I told you it would be long. Blessings to you until next time (and even beyond that).
Namaste,
Michael
[If you don�t already and would like to receive my letters
directly via e-mail, send an e-mail (no message needed) to either
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@igc.topica.com.]
[If you�d like to read the archives of my letters and/or holiday letters and travel reports I've written since 1977, visit http://www.delphi.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages.]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THIS IS MY LIFE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Is My Life is my letters to my family, friends, and whoever
else may be interested about whatever is meaningful to me in
my life. I don't guarantee anything about content or frequency.
The letters will be whatever they turn out to be. If you want
the best option available for keeping up with what�s happening
with me, though, this is it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPIES AND FORWARDING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You�re welcome to freely redistribute This Is My Life (my
letters) if you think someone might be interested in reading it.
Please don�t use any of it for profit, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY COMMUNITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another excellent way to know what�s going on with me is to join
the Heart Song Community e-mail list. That�s an e-mail
community that provides opportunity for discussing a variety of
topics and sharing about our personal lives. You can get more
information and join at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongCommunity.
~~~~~~~~~
MY WORK
~~~~~~~~~
If you�re interested in my work, I invite you to take a look at
the Heart Song Schedule. That provides information about the
e-zines, classes, workshops, retreats, ministry, web sites, and
other programs offered by the various people and projects of
Heart Song Projects. HSP is an affiliation of people and
projects tied together by shared psychospiritual foundations
and purposes � to contribute to healing, growth, expansion, and
spiritual awakening and to serve Spirit in all life. You can see
the most recent schedules at either
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongSchedule/messages
or http://igc.topica.com/lists/HSSchedule/read.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Monday, October 08, 2001
THIS IS MY LIFE
Monday, 10/8/2001
Copyright (c) 2001, Michael Dickerson. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or quotation is strictly prohibited without
permission.
Hi, wonderful beings ~
Then, of course, I could have remembered that today is Columbus Day holiday and realized that the banks would be closed. But I didn't. Anyway, I drove around to several of them to get a feel for them and their locations. I'm still not sure which one I'll use. I think I may actually have to go inside several of them and feel the energy there to know which one fits for me. So, there's something for you to wonder about until the next episode.
There you sit, unable to do anything else, wondering what bank I'll choose. I can see it.
Okay, I've done it. I unloaded my car and moved in. Well, it's inside, anyway. I'm certainly not settled. I am getting clear what I need, though - like a dresser, a couple of sets of book shelves, a TV, a comfortable chair (recliner preferred), and some kind of desk. I'll have to wait until I have some income. In other words, I probably won't be settled for quite awhile.
Or, I could win the lottery, sell a book, or get a major contract to do some work. Maybe I'll be discovered by a director and hired to play the lead in his next hit movie.
I called about a phone. They won't be able to come out until a week from today. Until then my internet connecting will be occasional. And we are making progress. Here's the number: (505) 473-0952. Write it down, but don't use it until after next Monday unless you like to listen to messages telling you that you've reached a number that is disconnected or no longer in service.
I still don't know what I'm going to do for voicemail for work purposes. More investigating to do.
I think I've settled on a favorite radio station, but I'm not sure yet. The hesitancy is that it's an Albuquerque station, and I'd really rather listen to one based in Santa Fe. I like the music, and I'm not real interested in the Albuquerque traffic reports and that sort of thing.
Oh my God! I just realized what I'm listening to. I'm listening to Delilah. It seemed so usual because I listened to Delilah in Bellevue. And then, just now, I realized that this isn't K-Warm in the Seattle area that's on. And Delilah isn't living nearby any longer. She just said, "You're listening to Delilah on 99.5 Magic FM." That isn't right. Oh, yes, I guess it is. Well, nice to hear an old friend. Maybe I'll call in one of these days and dedicate a song to all my Puget Sound friends. I'll let you know a day or 2 in advance if I do so that you can listen for it.
Story time, kiddies. For all of you who don't know it, here's the story about the king and the jester:
There was once a court jester who was the most consistently positive person anyone had ever known. No matter what happened, he was so enthusiastic about it. It was always, "This is wonderful!" or "What fortune!" or "Something great will come from this!"
And, to tell the truth, the king got a little tired of it. He thought the jester was a little over the top with his positive thinking.
One day the king and the jester went hunting together. Off they rode into the woods. And everything that they saw was another fabulous experience for the jester. "Look at that tree! What a beautiful tree!" "Isn't that the most incredible view you've ever seen?" "What a great horse I'm riding!"
The king was getting irritated.
Then they came across a fallen tree across the path. The jester was excited. "Look at this! This tree is rotting and will feed the earth! And we get to challenge ourselves and ride up the side of the hill to get around it! What an opportunity!"
The king decided to speak his mind. "Look, jester, I'm getting really annoyed with all the enthusiasm about everyday things. Could you tone it down a bit, please?"
The jester replied in character. "Oh, thank you for saying that! You're such a great king that you'd tell me what you're thinking and ask for what you want! I will try to tone it down some! Thank you for caring so much!"
Finally they made camp for the night. The jester thought it was the best camp in his life. He was so happy to be there alone with the king. He thought the king had done a great job putting up his tent.
By the morning, the king was beyond irritated. He went to chop some wood, and in his anger at the jester, he didn't pay close enough attention and chopped off one of his own toes.
Suppressing screams of pain, the king sat down and began to bandage his foot. The jester saw only good. "Oh, this is going to be so amazing! I don't know hwat's going to come of this, but it's got to be fabulous!
The king, in his pain, finally snapped. He ran over, grabbed the jester, dragged him over to an abandoned well, and threw him in. Then he rode off alone to hunt.
A couple of hours later, the king found himself surrounded by a tribe of natives and was captured. They took him up to the top of the local volcano to throw him in as a sacrifice. But when they got there, the shaman took one look at him and said, "We can't sacrifice this man. He's missing a toe. You know we can only sacrifice someone who's whole."
And they let him go.
The king suddenly had a wave of shame and regret sweep over him. The jester had been right. He got on his horse and rode as fast as he could back to the old well. He ran over to the side and looked down. There was the jester, singing and cleaning up.
The king threw down a rope and pulled the jester out. He told the jester his story and profusely apologized. "I'm so sorry. I was wrong. How can I make this up to you."
But the jester would have none of the apology. "What a wonderful story! I'm so glad it turned out that way! And thank you for throwing me into the well!"
The king didn't understand. "But I did something awful to you. Don't you understand? I threw you down in that well. I should never have done that."
But the jester replied, "No, it's you who doesn't understand. If I had been with you, they would have sacrificed me."
There's always an advantage in every disadvantage.
Notice the advantage that appeared just as I was focusing on the disadvantages of my radio station.
May we always be open to see the advantages.
Namaste,
Michael
[If you don't already and would like to receive my letters
directly via e-mail, send an e-mail (no message needed) to either
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@igc.topica.com.]
[If you'd like to read the archives of my letters and/or holiday letters and travel reports I've written since 1977, visit http://www.delphi.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages.]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THIS IS MY LIFE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Is My Life is my letters to my family, friends, and whoever
else may be interested about whatever is meaningful to me in
my life. I don't guarantee anything about content or frequency.
The letters will be whatever they turn out to be. If you want
the best option available for keeping up with what's happening
with me, though, this is it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPIES AND FORWARDING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You're welcome to freely redistribute This Is My Life (my
letters) if you think someone might be interested in reading it.
Please don't use any of it for profit, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY COMMUNITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another excellent way to know what's going on with me is to join
the Heart Song Community e-mail list. That's an e-mail
community that provides opportunity for discussing a variety of
topics and sharing about our personal lives. You can get more
information and join at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongCommunity.
~~~~~~~~~
MY WORK
~~~~~~~~~
If you're interested in my work, I invite you to take a look at
the Heart Song Schedule. That provides information about the
e-zines, classes, workshops, retreats, ministry, web sites, and
other programs offered by the various people and projects of
Heart Song Projects. HSP is an affiliation of people and
projects tied together by shared psychospiritual foundations
and purposes - to contribute to healing, growth, expansion, and
spiritual awakening and to serve Spirit in all life. You can see
the most recent schedules at either
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongSchedule/messages
or http://igc.topica.com/lists/HSSchedule/read.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Monday, 10/8/2001
Copyright (c) 2001, Michael Dickerson. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or quotation is strictly prohibited without
permission.
Hi, wonderful beings ~
Then, of course, I could have remembered that today is Columbus Day holiday and realized that the banks would be closed. But I didn't. Anyway, I drove around to several of them to get a feel for them and their locations. I'm still not sure which one I'll use. I think I may actually have to go inside several of them and feel the energy there to know which one fits for me. So, there's something for you to wonder about until the next episode.
There you sit, unable to do anything else, wondering what bank I'll choose. I can see it.
Okay, I've done it. I unloaded my car and moved in. Well, it's inside, anyway. I'm certainly not settled. I am getting clear what I need, though - like a dresser, a couple of sets of book shelves, a TV, a comfortable chair (recliner preferred), and some kind of desk. I'll have to wait until I have some income. In other words, I probably won't be settled for quite awhile.
Or, I could win the lottery, sell a book, or get a major contract to do some work. Maybe I'll be discovered by a director and hired to play the lead in his next hit movie.
I called about a phone. They won't be able to come out until a week from today. Until then my internet connecting will be occasional. And we are making progress. Here's the number: (505) 473-0952. Write it down, but don't use it until after next Monday unless you like to listen to messages telling you that you've reached a number that is disconnected or no longer in service.
I still don't know what I'm going to do for voicemail for work purposes. More investigating to do.
I think I've settled on a favorite radio station, but I'm not sure yet. The hesitancy is that it's an Albuquerque station, and I'd really rather listen to one based in Santa Fe. I like the music, and I'm not real interested in the Albuquerque traffic reports and that sort of thing.
Oh my God! I just realized what I'm listening to. I'm listening to Delilah. It seemed so usual because I listened to Delilah in Bellevue. And then, just now, I realized that this isn't K-Warm in the Seattle area that's on. And Delilah isn't living nearby any longer. She just said, "You're listening to Delilah on 99.5 Magic FM." That isn't right. Oh, yes, I guess it is. Well, nice to hear an old friend. Maybe I'll call in one of these days and dedicate a song to all my Puget Sound friends. I'll let you know a day or 2 in advance if I do so that you can listen for it.
Story time, kiddies. For all of you who don't know it, here's the story about the king and the jester:
There was once a court jester who was the most consistently positive person anyone had ever known. No matter what happened, he was so enthusiastic about it. It was always, "This is wonderful!" or "What fortune!" or "Something great will come from this!"
And, to tell the truth, the king got a little tired of it. He thought the jester was a little over the top with his positive thinking.
One day the king and the jester went hunting together. Off they rode into the woods. And everything that they saw was another fabulous experience for the jester. "Look at that tree! What a beautiful tree!" "Isn't that the most incredible view you've ever seen?" "What a great horse I'm riding!"
The king was getting irritated.
Then they came across a fallen tree across the path. The jester was excited. "Look at this! This tree is rotting and will feed the earth! And we get to challenge ourselves and ride up the side of the hill to get around it! What an opportunity!"
The king decided to speak his mind. "Look, jester, I'm getting really annoyed with all the enthusiasm about everyday things. Could you tone it down a bit, please?"
The jester replied in character. "Oh, thank you for saying that! You're such a great king that you'd tell me what you're thinking and ask for what you want! I will try to tone it down some! Thank you for caring so much!"
Finally they made camp for the night. The jester thought it was the best camp in his life. He was so happy to be there alone with the king. He thought the king had done a great job putting up his tent.
By the morning, the king was beyond irritated. He went to chop some wood, and in his anger at the jester, he didn't pay close enough attention and chopped off one of his own toes.
Suppressing screams of pain, the king sat down and began to bandage his foot. The jester saw only good. "Oh, this is going to be so amazing! I don't know hwat's going to come of this, but it's got to be fabulous!
The king, in his pain, finally snapped. He ran over, grabbed the jester, dragged him over to an abandoned well, and threw him in. Then he rode off alone to hunt.
A couple of hours later, the king found himself surrounded by a tribe of natives and was captured. They took him up to the top of the local volcano to throw him in as a sacrifice. But when they got there, the shaman took one look at him and said, "We can't sacrifice this man. He's missing a toe. You know we can only sacrifice someone who's whole."
And they let him go.
The king suddenly had a wave of shame and regret sweep over him. The jester had been right. He got on his horse and rode as fast as he could back to the old well. He ran over to the side and looked down. There was the jester, singing and cleaning up.
The king threw down a rope and pulled the jester out. He told the jester his story and profusely apologized. "I'm so sorry. I was wrong. How can I make this up to you."
But the jester would have none of the apology. "What a wonderful story! I'm so glad it turned out that way! And thank you for throwing me into the well!"
The king didn't understand. "But I did something awful to you. Don't you understand? I threw you down in that well. I should never have done that."
But the jester replied, "No, it's you who doesn't understand. If I had been with you, they would have sacrificed me."
There's always an advantage in every disadvantage.
Notice the advantage that appeared just as I was focusing on the disadvantages of my radio station.
May we always be open to see the advantages.
Namaste,
Michael
[If you don't already and would like to receive my letters
directly via e-mail, send an e-mail (no message needed) to either
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@igc.topica.com.]
[If you'd like to read the archives of my letters and/or holiday letters and travel reports I've written since 1977, visit http://www.delphi.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages.]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THIS IS MY LIFE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Is My Life is my letters to my family, friends, and whoever
else may be interested about whatever is meaningful to me in
my life. I don't guarantee anything about content or frequency.
The letters will be whatever they turn out to be. If you want
the best option available for keeping up with what's happening
with me, though, this is it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPIES AND FORWARDING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You're welcome to freely redistribute This Is My Life (my
letters) if you think someone might be interested in reading it.
Please don't use any of it for profit, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY COMMUNITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another excellent way to know what's going on with me is to join
the Heart Song Community e-mail list. That's an e-mail
community that provides opportunity for discussing a variety of
topics and sharing about our personal lives. You can get more
information and join at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongCommunity.
~~~~~~~~~
MY WORK
~~~~~~~~~
If you're interested in my work, I invite you to take a look at
the Heart Song Schedule. That provides information about the
e-zines, classes, workshops, retreats, ministry, web sites, and
other programs offered by the various people and projects of
Heart Song Projects. HSP is an affiliation of people and
projects tied together by shared psychospiritual foundations
and purposes - to contribute to healing, growth, expansion, and
spiritual awakening and to serve Spirit in all life. You can see
the most recent schedules at either
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongSchedule/messages
or http://igc.topica.com/lists/HSSchedule/read.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
THIS IS MY LIFE
Monday, 10/8/2001
Copyright (c) 2001, Michael Dickerson. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or quotation is strictly prohibited without
permission.
Hi, friends, Romans, and countrypeople ~
No need to send any ears. (If you don�t get the reference, you may need to brush up on Shakespeare quotations.)
I�ve been in Santa Fe now 2 full days and counting. So far it�s a blast.
Saturday morning I told you about going back to a restaurant I had liked a lot 4 years ago � Tortilla Flats. I had no idea that it has the reputation it does. I�ve learned that it�s been recommended by lots of publications that do that with restaurants (including Money, Travel, Conde Nast � or however it�s spelled, and Travel and Leisure). I guess I have good taste.
After my flurry of getting things done on Friday afternoon, much of Saturday was down time for me. I just didn�t want to make more effort. So I �watched� U.W. and Mariner games on my computer and discovered near the end of the Huskies� game that I could also listen to the broadcast live � the same broadcast I would have been listening to in Bellevue if I were still there. (And that inspired more love for computer and internet technology.) Unfortunately, they charge now to listen to the Mariners� game broadcasts. On the other hand, Yahoo does pitch by pitch (every 45 seconds) reports on the games. I�m looking forward to the rest of the games being on national TV.
Finally, after the Huskies� game was over, I decided that I needed to put some time into trying to find a place to live. After all, I couldn�t keep paying for motel rooms. And one of the voices in my head said that I was being lazy and passive and cutting my own throat. On the other hand, there was another part of me that said I didn�t need to do that, that Spirit was at work, that all would be well, and that I should keep faith. But, for that time, the anxious/get busy voice won out, and I began making telephone calls. The good news was that there were quite a few ads in the SF New Mexican and the Santa Fe Reporter (sort of equivalent to The Weekly).
The result? Nothing interesting. Most of the people weren�t available, and it didn�t seem right with the ones who were. My anxious voice (Voice Dialogue people call it the Pusher) was chattering, and I chose to let it go for the evening. Trust the process, as Mary O�Malley would remind me. There was one ad that I decided to call the following morning, though, because I liked his voicemail message. �Leap and the net will appear,� he said. Yes, one of my favorite quotations.
You get that leaping without seeing any step or net, only an abyss, is what much of my life has been about for the past several years, don�t you? This is one of my favorite poems:
When you come to the edge of all the light you know,
And you are about to step off
Into the darkness of the unknown,
Faith is knowing that one of two things will happen �
There will be something solid to stand on,
Or you�ll be taught how to fly.
I�ve been getting intensive flying lessons.
Yesterday (Sunday) morning I woke up and was a bit rushed to get ready and get to Unity on time � especially since I really didn�t know where I was going. Besides, the faithful voice told me I didn�t need to make that phone call to the man with the room for rent. I kept faith. I didn�t make the call, and I took off for Unity.
My time at Unity of Santa Fe was magical. I stepped into my out-going/making contacts subpersonality and headed in. One of the first people I saw � one of the greeters � was Kristelle Bach MacQueen. She and I �met� via the LEC web board and have corresponded about doing LEC Circles in Santa Fe. She has one planned for Unity (and actually did one for a few weeks before). She�s also one of the new chaplain team and one of the ministerial assistants. She sort of took me under her wing and sat with me during the service. While we were talking, we ended up deciding to do the LEC Circle at Unity together. Much later in the day, I learned that Kristelle is Richard Bach�s (Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Illusions, etc.) daughter, which means that I�ve met her brother. Very interesting synchronicity. But that�s only a small part of it.
I immediately went to the message board at Unity. And, sure enough, there was an ad for a roommate wanted. So, I went to Kristelle and asked if she knows Katherine Shippard, the woman looking for the roommate. Yes, she did. In fact, Katherine is another of the chaplain team. So, I asked her to point Katherine out to me. Making a long story a bit shorter, I connected with Katherine and went over to her house later in the day. We decided that it would work. I have a home! I�ll be moving in this afternoon (Monday).
Trust the process. Keep faith in Spirit. Leap. All is well.
Another of the first people I met at Unity was Joseph. Something just drew me to him, so I went over and introduced myself. Later, in the service, Joseph Rich was introduced as the new assistant minister. I talked more with him after the service, and we�ll be getting together soon.
There are more of these stories.
During the service Brendalyn introduced Paula Hunter, who is heading a team to build a labyrinth outside the church building. I leaned over to Kristelle and mentioned that I had been part of the team that built a labyrinth at Bellevue Unity. She was appropriately impacted by the synchronicity. Then, later, I connected with Paula and got her phone number to talk more about it. She was also struck by the synchronicity. The last thing I did before I left was to participate in the blessing of the ground on which the labyrinth will be built. Reminded me of the blessing we did for the land in Bellevue a few years ago.
Eventually I also reconnected with Brendalyn. I really like her. We�ll be getting together sometime soon, too. She suggested that I talk with Nancy Gray, the music director.
So, I sought her out and told her about God Only Knows What and she told me about the choir. I may go to some rehearsals and see if it�s for me � at least to introduce God Only Knows What to them. Nancy was already talking about GOKW performing at their Wednesday evening services. It turns out that Katherine is also in the choir.
If you can�t tell, I�m using people�s names to help me remember them. You probably don�t care about their names. I do.
I also introduced myself to John Martinez, who was the ministerial assistant yesterday (wonderful guy), to . . . (see, if I don�t use names I forget them) the woman who was in the bookstore, and to several other people. As those of you who were around for my trip in �97 may remember, I�m not one of those people who needs others to make me feel welcome at a new church. I take the initiative.
I may have forgotten some things. A lot happened in a few hours. I felt really good there.
At the end of the labyrinth ground blessing ceremony, Brendalyn announced that the U.S. had begun bombing Afghanistan. I�ve noticed that everyone I�ve met so far has also been dismayed by the attacks and in favor of peaceful solutions. Joseph even led a peace rally or march a couple of weeks ago. That�s all I want to say about it.
So, I had a few hours between church and going to meet with Katherine. How do I get to know a new place? How do I begin to feel like I belong? Well, spiritual groups are one way, obviously. What I did during the afternoon is also telling. First I went to Wild Oats and just wandered around seeing what they have, then ate lunch. For those of you in the Seattle area, Wild Oats is a lot like the newer PCCs (the Issaquah and Wedgewood stores come to mind). For those of you in Eugene, Wild Oats is a lot like Wild Oats. I felt at home there (and thus more so in SF).
Then I went to The Ark � SF�s metaphysical bookstore. In the Seattle area, imagine combining East West Books with Stargazer (both combining the size and combining the merchandise), and you have a good picture of The Ark. I like it. Besides, there was a woman working there who I found breathtakingly attractive (though, as usual, probably too young for me).
Between Wild Oats and The Ark, I picked up many newspapers, brochures, and flyers for the kinds of things I�m interested in.
And I went to Sam�s Club, which is very similar to Costco. I like it even more than Costco, though � at least this store. What a great variety of discount merchandise they have. And it�s just down the street from where I�ll be living.
There you have it � what I do to feel at home in a new place. I haven�t checked out the movie theaters, stage theaters, or a variety of other things that are important to me, but I�m beginning to feel like I live here.
Then, last night was down time again. I am accomplishing a lot, though.
Somebody asked to hear the story about the king and the jester, so I will tell it, but next time since this one is already so long.
And now, let�s roll. Time to get out and get a bank account.
Namaste,
Michael
[If you don�t already and would like to receive my letters
directly via e-mail, send an e-mail (no message needed) to either
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@igc.topica.com.]
[If you�d like to read the archives of my letters and/or holiday letters and travel reports I've written since 1977, visit http://www.delphi.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages.]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THIS IS MY LIFE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Is My Life is my letters to my family, friends, and whoever
else may be interested about whatever is meaningful to me in
my life. I don't guarantee anything about content or frequency.
The letters will be whatever they turn out to be. If you want
the best option available for keeping up with what�s happening
with me, though, this is it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPIES AND FORWARDING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You�re welcome to freely redistribute This Is My Life (my
letters) if you think someone might be interested in reading it.
Please don�t use any of it for profit, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY COMMUNITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another excellent way to know what�s going on with me is to join
the Heart Song Community e-mail list. That�s an e-mail
community that provides opportunity for discussing a variety of
topics and sharing about our personal lives. You can get more
information and join at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongCommunity.
~~~~~~~~~
MY WORK
~~~~~~~~~
If you�re interested in my work, I invite you to take a look at
the Heart Song Schedule. That provides information about the
e-zines, classes, workshops, retreats, ministry, web sites, and
other programs offered by the various people and projects of
Heart Song Projects. HSP is an affiliation of people and
projects tied together by shared psychospiritual foundations
and purposes � to contribute to healing, growth, expansion, and
spiritual awakening and to serve Spirit in all life. You can see
the most recent schedules at either
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongSchedule/messages
or http://igc.topica.com/lists/HSSchedule/read.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Monday, 10/8/2001
Copyright (c) 2001, Michael Dickerson. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or quotation is strictly prohibited without
permission.
Hi, friends, Romans, and countrypeople ~
No need to send any ears. (If you don�t get the reference, you may need to brush up on Shakespeare quotations.)
I�ve been in Santa Fe now 2 full days and counting. So far it�s a blast.
Saturday morning I told you about going back to a restaurant I had liked a lot 4 years ago � Tortilla Flats. I had no idea that it has the reputation it does. I�ve learned that it�s been recommended by lots of publications that do that with restaurants (including Money, Travel, Conde Nast � or however it�s spelled, and Travel and Leisure). I guess I have good taste.
After my flurry of getting things done on Friday afternoon, much of Saturday was down time for me. I just didn�t want to make more effort. So I �watched� U.W. and Mariner games on my computer and discovered near the end of the Huskies� game that I could also listen to the broadcast live � the same broadcast I would have been listening to in Bellevue if I were still there. (And that inspired more love for computer and internet technology.) Unfortunately, they charge now to listen to the Mariners� game broadcasts. On the other hand, Yahoo does pitch by pitch (every 45 seconds) reports on the games. I�m looking forward to the rest of the games being on national TV.
Finally, after the Huskies� game was over, I decided that I needed to put some time into trying to find a place to live. After all, I couldn�t keep paying for motel rooms. And one of the voices in my head said that I was being lazy and passive and cutting my own throat. On the other hand, there was another part of me that said I didn�t need to do that, that Spirit was at work, that all would be well, and that I should keep faith. But, for that time, the anxious/get busy voice won out, and I began making telephone calls. The good news was that there were quite a few ads in the SF New Mexican and the Santa Fe Reporter (sort of equivalent to The Weekly).
The result? Nothing interesting. Most of the people weren�t available, and it didn�t seem right with the ones who were. My anxious voice (Voice Dialogue people call it the Pusher) was chattering, and I chose to let it go for the evening. Trust the process, as Mary O�Malley would remind me. There was one ad that I decided to call the following morning, though, because I liked his voicemail message. �Leap and the net will appear,� he said. Yes, one of my favorite quotations.
You get that leaping without seeing any step or net, only an abyss, is what much of my life has been about for the past several years, don�t you? This is one of my favorite poems:
When you come to the edge of all the light you know,
And you are about to step off
Into the darkness of the unknown,
Faith is knowing that one of two things will happen �
There will be something solid to stand on,
Or you�ll be taught how to fly.
I�ve been getting intensive flying lessons.
Yesterday (Sunday) morning I woke up and was a bit rushed to get ready and get to Unity on time � especially since I really didn�t know where I was going. Besides, the faithful voice told me I didn�t need to make that phone call to the man with the room for rent. I kept faith. I didn�t make the call, and I took off for Unity.
My time at Unity of Santa Fe was magical. I stepped into my out-going/making contacts subpersonality and headed in. One of the first people I saw � one of the greeters � was Kristelle Bach MacQueen. She and I �met� via the LEC web board and have corresponded about doing LEC Circles in Santa Fe. She has one planned for Unity (and actually did one for a few weeks before). She�s also one of the new chaplain team and one of the ministerial assistants. She sort of took me under her wing and sat with me during the service. While we were talking, we ended up deciding to do the LEC Circle at Unity together. Much later in the day, I learned that Kristelle is Richard Bach�s (Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Illusions, etc.) daughter, which means that I�ve met her brother. Very interesting synchronicity. But that�s only a small part of it.
I immediately went to the message board at Unity. And, sure enough, there was an ad for a roommate wanted. So, I went to Kristelle and asked if she knows Katherine Shippard, the woman looking for the roommate. Yes, she did. In fact, Katherine is another of the chaplain team. So, I asked her to point Katherine out to me. Making a long story a bit shorter, I connected with Katherine and went over to her house later in the day. We decided that it would work. I have a home! I�ll be moving in this afternoon (Monday).
Trust the process. Keep faith in Spirit. Leap. All is well.
Another of the first people I met at Unity was Joseph. Something just drew me to him, so I went over and introduced myself. Later, in the service, Joseph Rich was introduced as the new assistant minister. I talked more with him after the service, and we�ll be getting together soon.
There are more of these stories.
During the service Brendalyn introduced Paula Hunter, who is heading a team to build a labyrinth outside the church building. I leaned over to Kristelle and mentioned that I had been part of the team that built a labyrinth at Bellevue Unity. She was appropriately impacted by the synchronicity. Then, later, I connected with Paula and got her phone number to talk more about it. She was also struck by the synchronicity. The last thing I did before I left was to participate in the blessing of the ground on which the labyrinth will be built. Reminded me of the blessing we did for the land in Bellevue a few years ago.
Eventually I also reconnected with Brendalyn. I really like her. We�ll be getting together sometime soon, too. She suggested that I talk with Nancy Gray, the music director.
So, I sought her out and told her about God Only Knows What and she told me about the choir. I may go to some rehearsals and see if it�s for me � at least to introduce God Only Knows What to them. Nancy was already talking about GOKW performing at their Wednesday evening services. It turns out that Katherine is also in the choir.
If you can�t tell, I�m using people�s names to help me remember them. You probably don�t care about their names. I do.
I also introduced myself to John Martinez, who was the ministerial assistant yesterday (wonderful guy), to . . . (see, if I don�t use names I forget them) the woman who was in the bookstore, and to several other people. As those of you who were around for my trip in �97 may remember, I�m not one of those people who needs others to make me feel welcome at a new church. I take the initiative.
I may have forgotten some things. A lot happened in a few hours. I felt really good there.
At the end of the labyrinth ground blessing ceremony, Brendalyn announced that the U.S. had begun bombing Afghanistan. I�ve noticed that everyone I�ve met so far has also been dismayed by the attacks and in favor of peaceful solutions. Joseph even led a peace rally or march a couple of weeks ago. That�s all I want to say about it.
So, I had a few hours between church and going to meet with Katherine. How do I get to know a new place? How do I begin to feel like I belong? Well, spiritual groups are one way, obviously. What I did during the afternoon is also telling. First I went to Wild Oats and just wandered around seeing what they have, then ate lunch. For those of you in the Seattle area, Wild Oats is a lot like the newer PCCs (the Issaquah and Wedgewood stores come to mind). For those of you in Eugene, Wild Oats is a lot like Wild Oats. I felt at home there (and thus more so in SF).
Then I went to The Ark � SF�s metaphysical bookstore. In the Seattle area, imagine combining East West Books with Stargazer (both combining the size and combining the merchandise), and you have a good picture of The Ark. I like it. Besides, there was a woman working there who I found breathtakingly attractive (though, as usual, probably too young for me).
Between Wild Oats and The Ark, I picked up many newspapers, brochures, and flyers for the kinds of things I�m interested in.
And I went to Sam�s Club, which is very similar to Costco. I like it even more than Costco, though � at least this store. What a great variety of discount merchandise they have. And it�s just down the street from where I�ll be living.
There you have it � what I do to feel at home in a new place. I haven�t checked out the movie theaters, stage theaters, or a variety of other things that are important to me, but I�m beginning to feel like I live here.
Then, last night was down time again. I am accomplishing a lot, though.
Somebody asked to hear the story about the king and the jester, so I will tell it, but next time since this one is already so long.
And now, let�s roll. Time to get out and get a bank account.
Namaste,
Michael
[If you don�t already and would like to receive my letters
directly via e-mail, send an e-mail (no message needed) to either
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@igc.topica.com.]
[If you�d like to read the archives of my letters and/or holiday letters and travel reports I've written since 1977, visit http://www.delphi.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages.]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THIS IS MY LIFE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Is My Life is my letters to my family, friends, and whoever
else may be interested about whatever is meaningful to me in
my life. I don't guarantee anything about content or frequency.
The letters will be whatever they turn out to be. If you want
the best option available for keeping up with what�s happening
with me, though, this is it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPIES AND FORWARDING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You�re welcome to freely redistribute This Is My Life (my
letters) if you think someone might be interested in reading it.
Please don�t use any of it for profit, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY COMMUNITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another excellent way to know what�s going on with me is to join
the Heart Song Community e-mail list. That�s an e-mail
community that provides opportunity for discussing a variety of
topics and sharing about our personal lives. You can get more
information and join at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongCommunity.
~~~~~~~~~
MY WORK
~~~~~~~~~
If you�re interested in my work, I invite you to take a look at
the Heart Song Schedule. That provides information about the
e-zines, classes, workshops, retreats, ministry, web sites, and
other programs offered by the various people and projects of
Heart Song Projects. HSP is an affiliation of people and
projects tied together by shared psychospiritual foundations
and purposes � to contribute to healing, growth, expansion, and
spiritual awakening and to serve Spirit in all life. You can see
the most recent schedules at either
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongSchedule/messages
or http://igc.topica.com/lists/HSSchedule/read.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Saturday, October 06, 2001
THIS IS MY LIFE
Saturday morning, 10/6/2001
Copyright (c) 2001, Michael Dickerson. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or quotation is strictly prohibited without
permission.
Hi, everyone ~
I�m in Santa Fe. Now that the suspense is over, I�ll start with Friday morning.
I began having waves of feeling again as I left Farmington, headed for SF. Sadness and fear were following one after the other. I just kept honoring them, but also sticking with my mantra: so what? And I kept driving.
Part of the time I was driving through Northern NM, I didn�t recall having been on that particular highway before. Then suddenly I came to a spot that was familiar, and I knew that I had been there. It�s interesting to me how much of the road and scenery I had forgotten. It�s even more interesting how a spot that wasn�t all that remarkable brought back memories. Does anyone have an explanation for that?
I drove past Ghost Ranch (those of you who were around then may remember that I spent a night there in 1997) and through Abiquiu (also passed through there in �97). Those are 2 meaningful places to me. I�ll return. I didn�t see Georgia O�Keeffe�s home in Abiquiu and want to do that next time.
Then, again for the record, I entered Santa Fe at 2:48 pm MST. There was no celestial music, no tremendous body experiences, no voices from God validating me. It almost felt anti-climactic.
I moved right into action and got a mailing address at Mailboxes, Etc. I chose the less convenient one because I like the address better. A bank account and place to live are high priority for my next steps, though I did already look up my U.S. Senators and Congressperson and put them in my address book, which probably doesn�t sound all that important to most people.
I learned (remembered) something very quickly about high altitude weather. (Do you all know that Santa Fe is 7000 feet elevation?) During the day yesterday I was very comfortable wearing a T-shirt. Then I took a nap before dinner, and it turned dark. When I stepped outside, it was cold. I put on both a sweater and a jacket and was fine that way. The range in temperatures here is often as much as 40 degrees in a day.
I went to one of my favorite restaurants from 4 years ago for dinner. It�s called Tortilla Flats, in case any of you knows it, and it serves Southwestern food. In the menu is a statement something like �We aren�t responsible if the chiles are too hot for you.� I had forgotten that about SF, too: hot chiles. (Do you know that chili is a misspelling?) I ate the salsa anyway and ended up with my mouth burning.
On my way to the restaurant, I was thinking about how noticing and being interested in women had been such an important part of my trip in �97 and how I�d hardly noticed them this time. I wondered what that was all about. Well, I walked into the restaurant, and there were 3 women there who I was very attracted to, ranging from probably mid-20s to probably late-40s. I guess I just wasn�t paying attention.
Another interesting bit of synchronicity: 4 years ago I went to Tortilla Flats I think 4 or 5 times because I liked my waitress so much (and was attracted to her, but she was too young for me). I was really disappointed the last time I was there that she had left to go back to college. This time, same thing, different waitress. I was attracted to her, she�s probably too young for me, and I like her a lot. I appreciate waitresses that are so friendly and kind that I want to go back to the restaurant just to have them wait on me again. It reminds me of a friend of mine quite a few years ago who called her waitressing her ministry. Her job, she said, was to touch the hearts of the people she waited on, and while she was doing that she also took their orders and brought them food.
Just want to acknowledge October 5 and 7 as important birthdays. Spirit is making that stand out for me to mention. 10/7 is my niece Catherine�s birthday and also Wendy�s � she�s one of the women I�ve loved most (wildly, passionately, ecstatically � even though it was only a few-day relationship and never sexual; I still feel that way about her when I remember her). 10/5 is Catherine�s daughter Caitlin�s birthday. I have lots of family birthdays in October, come to think of it. Another niece (Ann) has hers the 12th, and one of Julie�s (she�s my 3rd niece) daughters (Emily) has hers the 17th. There could be more. I�ve lost track of all of my niece�s kids� birthdates. (Could I have them all again, Carol? That�s my sister, for those of you who don�t know.)
Got to get out looking for a place to live. Hold the intention with me, will you? My prayer is, as always, that God�s will be done in my life, whatever that may be. I have faith that however it turns out is wonderful and for the highest.
Do you know the story about the king who went hunting with his eternally optimistic court jester? Jeff tells that one on the tape I�ve been listening to as an illustration of how there�s always an advantage within every disadvantage. If I hear from anyone wanting to know the story, I�ll tell it.
Onward!
Namaste,
Michael
[If you don�t already and would like to receive my letters
directly via e-mail, send an e-mail (no message needed) to either
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@igc.topica.com.]
[If you�d like to read the archives of my letters and/or holiday letters and travel reports I've written since 1977, visit http://www.delphi.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages.]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THIS IS MY LIFE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Is My Life is my letters to my family, friends, and whoever
else may be interested about whatever is meaningful to me in
my life. I don't guarantee anything about content or frequency.
The letters will be whatever they turn out to be. If you want
the best option available for keeping up with what�s happening
with me, though, this is it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPIES AND FORWARDING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You�re welcome to freely redistribute This Is My Life (my
letters) if you think someone might be interested in reading it.
Please don�t use any of it for profit, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY COMMUNITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another excellent way to know what�s going on with me is to join
the Heart Song Community e-mail list. That�s an e-mail
community that provides opportunity for discussing a variety of
topics and sharing about our personal lives. You can get more
information and join at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongCommunity.
~~~~~~~~~
MY WORK
~~~~~~~~~
If you�re interested in my work, I invite you to take a look at
the Heart Song Schedule. That provides information about the
e-zines, classes, workshops, retreats, ministry, web sites, and
other programs offered by the various people and projects of
Heart Song Projects. HSP is an affiliation of people and
projects tied together by shared psychospiritual foundations
and purposes � to contribute to healing, growth, expansion, and
spiritual awakening and to serve Spirit in all life. You can see
the most recent schedules at either
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongSchedule/messages
or http://igc.topica.com/lists/HSSchedule/read.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Saturday morning, 10/6/2001
Copyright (c) 2001, Michael Dickerson. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or quotation is strictly prohibited without
permission.
Hi, everyone ~
I�m in Santa Fe. Now that the suspense is over, I�ll start with Friday morning.
I began having waves of feeling again as I left Farmington, headed for SF. Sadness and fear were following one after the other. I just kept honoring them, but also sticking with my mantra: so what? And I kept driving.
Part of the time I was driving through Northern NM, I didn�t recall having been on that particular highway before. Then suddenly I came to a spot that was familiar, and I knew that I had been there. It�s interesting to me how much of the road and scenery I had forgotten. It�s even more interesting how a spot that wasn�t all that remarkable brought back memories. Does anyone have an explanation for that?
I drove past Ghost Ranch (those of you who were around then may remember that I spent a night there in 1997) and through Abiquiu (also passed through there in �97). Those are 2 meaningful places to me. I�ll return. I didn�t see Georgia O�Keeffe�s home in Abiquiu and want to do that next time.
Then, again for the record, I entered Santa Fe at 2:48 pm MST. There was no celestial music, no tremendous body experiences, no voices from God validating me. It almost felt anti-climactic.
I moved right into action and got a mailing address at Mailboxes, Etc. I chose the less convenient one because I like the address better. A bank account and place to live are high priority for my next steps, though I did already look up my U.S. Senators and Congressperson and put them in my address book, which probably doesn�t sound all that important to most people.
I learned (remembered) something very quickly about high altitude weather. (Do you all know that Santa Fe is 7000 feet elevation?) During the day yesterday I was very comfortable wearing a T-shirt. Then I took a nap before dinner, and it turned dark. When I stepped outside, it was cold. I put on both a sweater and a jacket and was fine that way. The range in temperatures here is often as much as 40 degrees in a day.
I went to one of my favorite restaurants from 4 years ago for dinner. It�s called Tortilla Flats, in case any of you knows it, and it serves Southwestern food. In the menu is a statement something like �We aren�t responsible if the chiles are too hot for you.� I had forgotten that about SF, too: hot chiles. (Do you know that chili is a misspelling?) I ate the salsa anyway and ended up with my mouth burning.
On my way to the restaurant, I was thinking about how noticing and being interested in women had been such an important part of my trip in �97 and how I�d hardly noticed them this time. I wondered what that was all about. Well, I walked into the restaurant, and there were 3 women there who I was very attracted to, ranging from probably mid-20s to probably late-40s. I guess I just wasn�t paying attention.
Another interesting bit of synchronicity: 4 years ago I went to Tortilla Flats I think 4 or 5 times because I liked my waitress so much (and was attracted to her, but she was too young for me). I was really disappointed the last time I was there that she had left to go back to college. This time, same thing, different waitress. I was attracted to her, she�s probably too young for me, and I like her a lot. I appreciate waitresses that are so friendly and kind that I want to go back to the restaurant just to have them wait on me again. It reminds me of a friend of mine quite a few years ago who called her waitressing her ministry. Her job, she said, was to touch the hearts of the people she waited on, and while she was doing that she also took their orders and brought them food.
Just want to acknowledge October 5 and 7 as important birthdays. Spirit is making that stand out for me to mention. 10/7 is my niece Catherine�s birthday and also Wendy�s � she�s one of the women I�ve loved most (wildly, passionately, ecstatically � even though it was only a few-day relationship and never sexual; I still feel that way about her when I remember her). 10/5 is Catherine�s daughter Caitlin�s birthday. I have lots of family birthdays in October, come to think of it. Another niece (Ann) has hers the 12th, and one of Julie�s (she�s my 3rd niece) daughters (Emily) has hers the 17th. There could be more. I�ve lost track of all of my niece�s kids� birthdates. (Could I have them all again, Carol? That�s my sister, for those of you who don�t know.)
Got to get out looking for a place to live. Hold the intention with me, will you? My prayer is, as always, that God�s will be done in my life, whatever that may be. I have faith that however it turns out is wonderful and for the highest.
Do you know the story about the king who went hunting with his eternally optimistic court jester? Jeff tells that one on the tape I�ve been listening to as an illustration of how there�s always an advantage within every disadvantage. If I hear from anyone wanting to know the story, I�ll tell it.
Onward!
Namaste,
Michael
[If you don�t already and would like to receive my letters
directly via e-mail, send an e-mail (no message needed) to either
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@igc.topica.com.]
[If you�d like to read the archives of my letters and/or holiday letters and travel reports I've written since 1977, visit http://www.delphi.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages.]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THIS IS MY LIFE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Is My Life is my letters to my family, friends, and whoever
else may be interested about whatever is meaningful to me in
my life. I don't guarantee anything about content or frequency.
The letters will be whatever they turn out to be. If you want
the best option available for keeping up with what�s happening
with me, though, this is it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPIES AND FORWARDING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You�re welcome to freely redistribute This Is My Life (my
letters) if you think someone might be interested in reading it.
Please don�t use any of it for profit, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY COMMUNITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another excellent way to know what�s going on with me is to join
the Heart Song Community e-mail list. That�s an e-mail
community that provides opportunity for discussing a variety of
topics and sharing about our personal lives. You can get more
information and join at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongCommunity.
~~~~~~~~~
MY WORK
~~~~~~~~~
If you�re interested in my work, I invite you to take a look at
the Heart Song Schedule. That provides information about the
e-zines, classes, workshops, retreats, ministry, web sites, and
other programs offered by the various people and projects of
Heart Song Projects. HSP is an affiliation of people and
projects tied together by shared psychospiritual foundations
and purposes � to contribute to healing, growth, expansion, and
spiritual awakening and to serve Spirit in all life. You can see
the most recent schedules at either
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongSchedule/messages
or http://igc.topica.com/lists/HSSchedule/read.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Friday, October 05, 2001
THIS IS MY LIFE
Thursday, 10/4/2001
Copyright (c) 2001, Michael Dickerson. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or quotation is strictly prohibited without
permission.
Farmington, NM (in the NW corner of the state)
Hi, all of you ~
For the record, I crossed into New Mexico at 6:42 pm MST north of Shiprock, on the Navajo Reservation. The sky was totally clear. It was in the upper 70s. The sun was 7 minutes shy of setting behind a mountain. New Mexico did not seem to notice that I had arrived.
I had thought that I�d go to Durango, CO, and visit an e-mail friend on the way and not get to NM until tomorrow. But she decided to go down to Ojo Caliente for a few days. So, I shifted directions. I�ll visit Durango some other time. It isn�t that far from Santa Fe.
By the way, for those of you who caught my mistake yesterday, I will report that I realized that BYU is in Provo, not in Ogden. I knew that. I just read the Motel 6 book incorrectly and went temporarily unconscious.
It�s fascinating to me noticing how I adapt to changes. For example, when I was leaving Issaquah on Tuesday, driving 60 mph seemed fast enough to me. By Wednesday afternoon, I was cruising along the freeway at between 75 and 80 mph and occasionally finding myself slipping up to 85 when I wasn�t paying attention. The important thing is that by then, 80 mph didn�t seem any faster to me than 60 mph had seemed just the day before. Another metaphor for living. When I step up to what�s mine to do, it quickly comes to feel normal to me, even though it�s way beyond what I had been doing only a short time before. Thank God for adaptation.
While I�ve been driving I�ve been alternating between silence (or, more accurately, the natural sounds of driving), whatever radio station I can find that plays music I like, and listening to some of the tapes I brought with me. I mentioned before that I�ve been listening to Jeff Alexander and Sunday of the last Leap of Faith. I�ve also been listening to Stephen and Ondrea Levine�s tape series on Loving and Being Loved. That�s another reflection of my trip 4 years ago. I listened to that same series of tapes then. I won�t speculate about what that might signify. (I can hear someone saying, �Oh, why not now? You do it most of the time.�)
This morning, shortly after I left Ogden, just before I got to Salt Lake City, I found tears welling up in my eyes again. The thought that arose with them was that I was on my way home. For those of you who�ve had the experience of going into a church and feeling like you�ve come home (a common experience for people who attend Unity and Religious Science churches for the first time), it�s a lot like that. Santa Fe feels like home to me. That�s something above and beyond liking it. It feels like natural knowing.
Then, as I turned off I-70 and headed south toward Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, I felt it again. I had arrived in my territory. I felt alive and centered. I felt my natural, authentic power. I had wondered if it would happen this time. That was the same place I felt it 4 years ago. I especially felt a rush as I passed the entrance to Arches N.P. That is, for some reason, an important place for me. I will return to explore that meaning one day when I can do so at more length.
I�ve heard 2 songs on the radio that have been meaningful to me and that I�d like to put on my list for using in God Only Knows What. Unfortunately, I don�t know the title or artist of either of them. Can anyone help? Both are country songs. One is something about listening for instructions and then putting one foot in front of the other. (You can�t imagine why I�d have liked that one, can you?) That�s just a very vague memory of it. I didn�t write anything down. The other may be called �Angels in Waiting.� That was a line that repeated frequently, anyway. Men sang both of them. What are those songs and artists?
On the tape of Jeff, he said something that meant a lot to me. He told people to look at the stars and remember the people they�d shared the Leap with. I�m extending that. I look at the stars, and I remember all the people who mean so much to me: my Invitation mates, all Leap grads, my Awakening group mates, my Unity family, and all the other friends back in the Seattle area or wherever they may be. I look at the stars, and I remember you. I look at the stars, and I feel supported. I look at the stars, and I feel drawn back to center, back to my natural power. I look at the stars, and I know I�m not alone.
And the good news is that there are 300 days of sunshine in Santa Fe. That means there will be lots of nights with stars visible.
I hope that all of you who have been part of my life have felt half as blessed by knowing me as I have by knowing you.
Namaste,
Michael
[If you don�t already and would like to receive my letters
directly via e-mail, send an e-mail (no message needed) to either
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@igc.topica.com.]
[If you�d like to read the archives of my letters and/or holiday letters and travel reports I've written since 1977, visit http://www.delphi.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages.]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THIS IS MY LIFE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Is My Life is my letters to my family, friends, and whoever
else may be interested about whatever is meaningful to me in
my life. I don't guarantee anything about content or frequency.
The letters will be whatever they turn out to be. If you want
the best option available for keeping up with what�s happening
with me, though, this is it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPIES AND FORWARDING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You�re welcome to freely redistribute This Is My Life (my
letters) if you think someone might be interested in reading it.
Please don�t use any of it for profit, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY COMMUNITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another excellent way to know what�s going on with me is to join
the Heart Song Community e-mail list. That�s an e-mail
community that provides opportunity for discussing a variety of
topics and sharing about our personal lives. You can get more
information and join at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongCommunity.
~~~~~~~~~
MY WORK
~~~~~~~~~
If you�re interested in my work, I invite you to take a look at
the Heart Song Schedule. That provides information about the
e-zines, classes, workshops, retreats, ministry, web sites, and
other programs offered by the various people and projects of
Heart Song Projects. HSP is an affiliation of people and
projects tied together by shared psychospiritual foundations
and purposes � to contribute to healing, growth, expansion, and
spiritual awakening and to serve Spirit in all life. You can see
the most recent schedules at either
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongSchedule/messages
or http://igc.topica.com/lists/HSSchedule/read.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Thursday, 10/4/2001
Copyright (c) 2001, Michael Dickerson. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or quotation is strictly prohibited without
permission.
Farmington, NM (in the NW corner of the state)
Hi, all of you ~
For the record, I crossed into New Mexico at 6:42 pm MST north of Shiprock, on the Navajo Reservation. The sky was totally clear. It was in the upper 70s. The sun was 7 minutes shy of setting behind a mountain. New Mexico did not seem to notice that I had arrived.
I had thought that I�d go to Durango, CO, and visit an e-mail friend on the way and not get to NM until tomorrow. But she decided to go down to Ojo Caliente for a few days. So, I shifted directions. I�ll visit Durango some other time. It isn�t that far from Santa Fe.
By the way, for those of you who caught my mistake yesterday, I will report that I realized that BYU is in Provo, not in Ogden. I knew that. I just read the Motel 6 book incorrectly and went temporarily unconscious.
It�s fascinating to me noticing how I adapt to changes. For example, when I was leaving Issaquah on Tuesday, driving 60 mph seemed fast enough to me. By Wednesday afternoon, I was cruising along the freeway at between 75 and 80 mph and occasionally finding myself slipping up to 85 when I wasn�t paying attention. The important thing is that by then, 80 mph didn�t seem any faster to me than 60 mph had seemed just the day before. Another metaphor for living. When I step up to what�s mine to do, it quickly comes to feel normal to me, even though it�s way beyond what I had been doing only a short time before. Thank God for adaptation.
While I�ve been driving I�ve been alternating between silence (or, more accurately, the natural sounds of driving), whatever radio station I can find that plays music I like, and listening to some of the tapes I brought with me. I mentioned before that I�ve been listening to Jeff Alexander and Sunday of the last Leap of Faith. I�ve also been listening to Stephen and Ondrea Levine�s tape series on Loving and Being Loved. That�s another reflection of my trip 4 years ago. I listened to that same series of tapes then. I won�t speculate about what that might signify. (I can hear someone saying, �Oh, why not now? You do it most of the time.�)
This morning, shortly after I left Ogden, just before I got to Salt Lake City, I found tears welling up in my eyes again. The thought that arose with them was that I was on my way home. For those of you who�ve had the experience of going into a church and feeling like you�ve come home (a common experience for people who attend Unity and Religious Science churches for the first time), it�s a lot like that. Santa Fe feels like home to me. That�s something above and beyond liking it. It feels like natural knowing.
Then, as I turned off I-70 and headed south toward Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, I felt it again. I had arrived in my territory. I felt alive and centered. I felt my natural, authentic power. I had wondered if it would happen this time. That was the same place I felt it 4 years ago. I especially felt a rush as I passed the entrance to Arches N.P. That is, for some reason, an important place for me. I will return to explore that meaning one day when I can do so at more length.
I�ve heard 2 songs on the radio that have been meaningful to me and that I�d like to put on my list for using in God Only Knows What. Unfortunately, I don�t know the title or artist of either of them. Can anyone help? Both are country songs. One is something about listening for instructions and then putting one foot in front of the other. (You can�t imagine why I�d have liked that one, can you?) That�s just a very vague memory of it. I didn�t write anything down. The other may be called �Angels in Waiting.� That was a line that repeated frequently, anyway. Men sang both of them. What are those songs and artists?
On the tape of Jeff, he said something that meant a lot to me. He told people to look at the stars and remember the people they�d shared the Leap with. I�m extending that. I look at the stars, and I remember all the people who mean so much to me: my Invitation mates, all Leap grads, my Awakening group mates, my Unity family, and all the other friends back in the Seattle area or wherever they may be. I look at the stars, and I remember you. I look at the stars, and I feel supported. I look at the stars, and I feel drawn back to center, back to my natural power. I look at the stars, and I know I�m not alone.
And the good news is that there are 300 days of sunshine in Santa Fe. That means there will be lots of nights with stars visible.
I hope that all of you who have been part of my life have felt half as blessed by knowing me as I have by knowing you.
Namaste,
Michael
[If you don�t already and would like to receive my letters
directly via e-mail, send an e-mail (no message needed) to either
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@igc.topica.com.]
[If you�d like to read the archives of my letters and/or holiday letters and travel reports I've written since 1977, visit http://www.delphi.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages.]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THIS IS MY LIFE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Is My Life is my letters to my family, friends, and whoever
else may be interested about whatever is meaningful to me in
my life. I don't guarantee anything about content or frequency.
The letters will be whatever they turn out to be. If you want
the best option available for keeping up with what�s happening
with me, though, this is it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPIES AND FORWARDING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You�re welcome to freely redistribute This Is My Life (my
letters) if you think someone might be interested in reading it.
Please don�t use any of it for profit, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY COMMUNITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another excellent way to know what�s going on with me is to join
the Heart Song Community e-mail list. That�s an e-mail
community that provides opportunity for discussing a variety of
topics and sharing about our personal lives. You can get more
information and join at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongCommunity.
~~~~~~~~~
MY WORK
~~~~~~~~~
If you�re interested in my work, I invite you to take a look at
the Heart Song Schedule. That provides information about the
e-zines, classes, workshops, retreats, ministry, web sites, and
other programs offered by the various people and projects of
Heart Song Projects. HSP is an affiliation of people and
projects tied together by shared psychospiritual foundations
and purposes � to contribute to healing, growth, expansion, and
spiritual awakening and to serve Spirit in all life. You can see
the most recent schedules at either
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongSchedule/messages
or http://igc.topica.com/lists/HSSchedule/read.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Thursday, October 04, 2001
THIS IS MY LIFE
Wednesday, 10/3/2001
Copyright (c) 2001, Michael Dickerson. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or quotation is strictly prohibited without
permission.
Ogden, UT (Home of Weber State University, so the sign says. What about BYU?)
Hi, all ~
I woke up this morning with an idea planted in my mind for another project to do in Northern New Mexico. It didn�t feel like �my idea� at all. If there isn�t such a thing (and I�m imagining there isn�t, or else I wouldn�t have been given the idea), I�m going to start an e-mail prayer team with participants from all the New Thought and other compatible spiritual groups between Albuquerque and Taos. It seems like something I can easily do to be of service and also like something I�ve been preparing to do for several years.
Another idea came later in the day. This one could even be an online project. I�m thinking of doing Conscientious Objector consulting for young men whose spiritual beliefs are incompatible with participation in the military. I have lots of personal experience with it from my own youth, and my own spiritual beliefs support conscientious objection. I know that having a relationship with a spiritual consultant is one of the things they (at least) used to look for in determining a young man�s seriousness.
It�s starting. As I�ve made my steps toward Santa Fe, Spirit has replied with instructions about my mission there.
Ideas for church lessons flowed through me today. I ended up with a list of them. Now I just need to get the opportunities to deliver them.
I had a few small waves of grieving and self-doubt, but mostly I was just on my way to my destiny today.
I�ve heard a rumor (that I haven�t checked out) that a black list of songs about peace has gone out to DJs with a �suggestion� that they not be played. Journalists are being fired (confirmed) for dissenting opinions (on both sides of the President�s position). Bill Maher is getting tremendous flack for an opinion that I agree with. This all concerns me deeply. Where is America�s famed freedom of speech?
What an interesting time we�re living in.
Namaste,
Michael
[If you don�t already and would like to receive my letters
directly via e-mail, send an e-mail (no message needed) to either
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@igc.topica.com.]
[If you�d like to read the archives of my letters and/or holiday letters and travel reports I've written since 1977, visit http://www.delphi.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages.]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THIS IS MY LIFE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Is My Life is my letters to my family, friends, and whoever
else may be interested about whatever is meaningful to me in
my life. I don't guarantee anything about content or frequency.
The letters will be whatever they turn out to be. If you want
the best option available for keeping up with what�s happening
with me, though, this is it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPIES AND FORWARDING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You�re welcome to freely redistribute This Is My Life (my
letters) if you think someone might be interested in reading it.
Please don�t use any of it for profit, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY COMMUNITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another excellent way to know what�s going on with me is to join
the Heart Song Community e-mail list. That�s an e-mail
community that provides opportunity for discussing a variety of
topics and sharing about our personal lives. You can get more
information and join at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongCommunity.
~~~~~~~~~
MY WORK
~~~~~~~~~
If you�re interested in my work, I invite you to take a look at
the Heart Song Schedule. That provides information about the
e-zines, classes, workshops, retreats, ministry, web sites, and
other programs offered by the various people and projects of
Heart Song Projects. HSP is an affiliation of people and
projects tied together by shared psychospiritual foundations
and purposes � to contribute to healing, growth, expansion, and
spiritual awakening and to serve Spirit in all life. You can see
the most recent schedules at either
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongSchedule/messages
or http://igc.topica.com/lists/HSSchedule/read.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Wednesday, 10/3/2001
Copyright (c) 2001, Michael Dickerson. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or quotation is strictly prohibited without
permission.
Ogden, UT (Home of Weber State University, so the sign says. What about BYU?)
Hi, all ~
I woke up this morning with an idea planted in my mind for another project to do in Northern New Mexico. It didn�t feel like �my idea� at all. If there isn�t such a thing (and I�m imagining there isn�t, or else I wouldn�t have been given the idea), I�m going to start an e-mail prayer team with participants from all the New Thought and other compatible spiritual groups between Albuquerque and Taos. It seems like something I can easily do to be of service and also like something I�ve been preparing to do for several years.
Another idea came later in the day. This one could even be an online project. I�m thinking of doing Conscientious Objector consulting for young men whose spiritual beliefs are incompatible with participation in the military. I have lots of personal experience with it from my own youth, and my own spiritual beliefs support conscientious objection. I know that having a relationship with a spiritual consultant is one of the things they (at least) used to look for in determining a young man�s seriousness.
It�s starting. As I�ve made my steps toward Santa Fe, Spirit has replied with instructions about my mission there.
Ideas for church lessons flowed through me today. I ended up with a list of them. Now I just need to get the opportunities to deliver them.
I had a few small waves of grieving and self-doubt, but mostly I was just on my way to my destiny today.
I�ve heard a rumor (that I haven�t checked out) that a black list of songs about peace has gone out to DJs with a �suggestion� that they not be played. Journalists are being fired (confirmed) for dissenting opinions (on both sides of the President�s position). Bill Maher is getting tremendous flack for an opinion that I agree with. This all concerns me deeply. Where is America�s famed freedom of speech?
What an interesting time we�re living in.
Namaste,
Michael
[If you don�t already and would like to receive my letters
directly via e-mail, send an e-mail (no message needed) to either
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or
ThisIsMyLife-subscribe@igc.topica.com.]
[If you�d like to read the archives of my letters and/or holiday letters and travel reports I've written since 1977, visit http://www.delphi.com/ThisIsMyLife/messages.]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THIS IS MY LIFE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Is My Life is my letters to my family, friends, and whoever
else may be interested about whatever is meaningful to me in
my life. I don't guarantee anything about content or frequency.
The letters will be whatever they turn out to be. If you want
the best option available for keeping up with what�s happening
with me, though, this is it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPIES AND FORWARDING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You�re welcome to freely redistribute This Is My Life (my
letters) if you think someone might be interested in reading it.
Please don�t use any of it for profit, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY COMMUNITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another excellent way to know what�s going on with me is to join
the Heart Song Community e-mail list. That�s an e-mail
community that provides opportunity for discussing a variety of
topics and sharing about our personal lives. You can get more
information and join at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongCommunity.
~~~~~~~~~
MY WORK
~~~~~~~~~
If you�re interested in my work, I invite you to take a look at
the Heart Song Schedule. That provides information about the
e-zines, classes, workshops, retreats, ministry, web sites, and
other programs offered by the various people and projects of
Heart Song Projects. HSP is an affiliation of people and
projects tied together by shared psychospiritual foundations
and purposes � to contribute to healing, growth, expansion, and
spiritual awakening and to serve Spirit in all life. You can see
the most recent schedules at either
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartSongSchedule/messages
or http://igc.topica.com/lists/HSSchedule/read.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
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