|
Trebbe Johnson's Newsletter
August 2009
Gains and Losses
|
|
Dear Questers, Friends, and Seekers of the Beloved,
A recent report by the U.S. National Snow and Ice Center estimates that the ice in the Arctic is melting three times faster than was anticipated only a few years ago and that there may be no ice at all in the polar sea by 2013. Near the opposite end of the world, however, in the jungles of Brazil, a new species of mammal, the tiny (weight about half a pound) Amazon tamarin monkey, has just been discovered. Losses. Gains. This summer my husband and I have become good friends with a couple with whom we share a wealth of political, scientific, artistic, and other interests. Yet they spend only a few weeks of the year on the Pennsylvania lake where they have a cabin, and then they return to London, their home for thirty years. Gains. Losses. This newsletter features three stories that explore loss and gain of the financial, ecological, and social kinds.
To those who are receiving this newsletter for the first time... welcome! Here you'll find news of upcoming Vision Arrow events, reflections, profiles of extraordinary people, and stories of transformation that occur when we accept, in small, bold, startling ways the invitations that the world is always sending us.
|
|
THE HOLE IN THE SKY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 At dusk a few days ago I stood in the small meadow on the eastern edge of our land and stared into the sky for almost an hour. I was looking for bats. In previous years, all my husband and I had to do to see bats was go out at twilight, have a conversation, watch the stars come out ... and before long the eastern Little Brown Bats would come fluttering past looking for insects. But over the past two or three years the bats have developed a fungus, white nose syndrome, and they are dying at alarming rates. On this particular evening I did not see a single bat. Finally, I gave up and returned to the house. Just as I was about to enter, I saw one, just one, making its wobbly, searching flight over the lilac bush and toward the frog pond. My joy and relief were immense... but only momentary.
I have always liked bats. They look wizened and prehistoric, and in fact a bat can live up to forty years. They navigate skillfully through the dark, yet their flight is is a bit wobbly, which makes them seem quirky and fallible. With their propensity for dark hunts and days in caves, their webbed wings and small, tight, serious faces, they are the perfect mythic symbol for the wise being who dwells in a strange Other World and enters the world of humans only to conduct their mysterious errands. In Navajo myth, Bat Woman is a benevolent guide who helps the Warrior Twins find their father, the Sun, so that they can slay the monsters that are troubling the earth. The Little Brown Bat that once thrived here slays a more common monster. It eats approximately 1,000 mosquitoes in one hour.
And now the bats are dying, and the skies at night are empty. After my glimpse of that one bat, I sat on the back steps and once again turned my face to the sky, hoping to see more. But no more bats appeared, and I wondered if that one was the last one I would ever see. I imagined going out every night in every summer for the rest of my life, staring into the sky and never seeing another bat. Do undertake such a task deliberately seemed at first a fool's mission... and perhaps an unbearably sad way to spend a summer night.
But then, as I thought about it, I started to feel that it wouldn't be such a bad idea after all, this nightly vigil for bats. Forgetting that there were once abundant bats in the sky is far more depressing than gazing longingly up at the places where they used to be. Waiting for bats, even if the bats didn't come, would be like evoking them with attention, sorrow, and regret. Attending to their absence would conjure up their presence, albeit only a presence of the heart and the imagination.
There are many practices and tools that we humans are going to be called upon to create and mindfully observe, not just in the years to come, but now as well, as we struggle to cope with the devastation of our changing earth. Vigils for what is missing and what we grieve for may be one of them.
|
| |
|
FINDING FUN IN A SHAKY ECONOMY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following is an article by a reader. Carol Lunan, of Francestown, NH, who first went on a vision quest with Bill Plotkin and me in 1996, writes here about how she turned a troubling financial situation around in an inspiring way.
If you have a story about how you've said yes to an unexpected invitation, please send me your story (about 200-500 words) and I will consider posting it in a future issue of the newsletter.
 As I moved into the year 2009, it became obvious that my non-profit workplace was heading for lean times. My hours were cut back, my personal/vacation time disappeared, my staff development hours vanished.... all of this in an effort to keep the organization afloat. Despite my attempts to focus positively on the shifts, many around me were losing jobs and it was a challenge. That was when I received Trebbe's newsletter containing news of the Upside of the Downturn program.
A few days later, a friend from Montana called and mentioned the program. We got very excited about having a group of long-time friends take the program together. By February we began our first conference call with participants from California, Montana, New York, and me from New Hampshire.
In the conference call "round table" we explored our beliefs about money, what we learned in our families when growing up, and the changes we would like to introduce into our lives. Trebbe challenged me to a monthly exploration of new possibilities outside of my box. AND she suggested that I have fun with it.
I already had scheduled a University of New Hampshire workshop on creating a children's book. That was just the beginning. Some of my fun, monthly explorations have involved new ideas that have arisen along the way and some are ideas that I have been thinking about for a long time and that I finally took the time and effort to follow through with. Shortly after the Upside of the Downturn program ended, I was asked (and paid) to take a drug prevention training and shortly afterward offered a 5-week workshop for twelve parents of 9- to 14-year-olds. More recently I created and offered an environmental program for teachers who work with young children. (This summer I will complete the NH credentialing to expand my opportunities in this area.) We had loads of fun! I have checked out UNH's program for those who would like to teach at the college level. And, this summer I will host a soulcraft workshop with a local friend... this is something I have been thinking about for a long, long time. My summer/fall project will be to develop a workshop or workshop series title Sacred Parenting.
These are exciting times for me and as I look back to January, I realize I am in a totally different space. Those phone conversations set me off in a different direction with many surprises and deep satisfaction along the way.
A new series (the fourth) of Upside of the Downturn round table discussions will begin in the fall: Sept. 22 & 29 and Oct. 6 & 13, from 7:00-8:00 eastern time. Program is limited to six participants. Join with friends you already have or discover a new group of insightful, supportive people seeking a new relationship with money.
|
|
RADICAL JOY FOR HARD TIMES NEWS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 In my newsletter last month and on my blog for July 18, I described the Radical Joy for Hard Times retreat I led at the World Healing Institute at Cobb Island Station, Virginia on June 19-21. We spent one day considering the invasive common reed, phragmites, from different perspectives, the most startling and personal of which were the ones that emerged after each of us spent an hour sitting alone with the plant without any expectations or judgments about its place in the biosphere. As a result of what we gleaned from that exercise, we created a meandering path through the tall grasses as a way of interacting in a more personal way with their rampant, stubborn beauty.
A few days ago I had an email from Annie Hess, the WHI administrator. She wrote that they had held a program for children a couple of weeks after the Radical Joy for Hard Times event. In one project the children made magic fairy wands out of the dried phragmites stalks. They called them phragic wands!
This is how we can remake the world we live in: by having the willingness to enter into relationship with it, listen to what it has to tell us, and respond with the creative acts that come from the heart. And we can invite our children and grandchildren to explore with us, and perhaps teach us a whole new way of perceiving beauty in what we have formerly considered waste.
|
WHO'S SORRY? REFLECTIONS ON APOLOGIES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In February 2008 the prime minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, issued a public apology to the aboriginal people, especially to the tens of thousands of children, members of the "Stolen Generations," who were separated from their parents, sometimes forcibly, as part of the country's policy of assimilation. This harsh program, which aimed to eradicate indigenous culture and religion, lasted from the nineteenth century up to the 1960s. After hearing the apology, some aboriginal people said they were overjoyed that the country had acknowledged its mistake at last; others felt the reparation ought to include financial compensation as well.
Often, however, an apology itself, simply an admission of guilt, matters more to the victim of a crime than any attempt to atone for it with money. Fred Goldman, the father of Ron Goldman, the young man who, along with Nicole Simpson, was murdered, presumably by O.J. Simpson, has said that the millions of dollars he was awarded after his civil suit against Simpson, meant nothing to him. He would give it all away if Simpson would simply acknowledge his guilt, he insisted. Similarly, many of the victims in the truth and reconciliation trials in Rwanda and South Africa have said that they were eager to face the perpetrators of heinous acts and wanted more than anything to have those criminals acknowledge that they were (1) responsible and (2) sorry.
I myself find Rudd's public apology to the Aborigines to have a quality of authenticity, particularly since he related stories of real people who had suffered hardship and injustice as a result of the assimilation policy. Through these stories, he did not shy away from eliciting difficult emotions, either on the part of the perpetrators or the victims, as a more general speech would have done. Stories personalize facts. We choose sides when we hear a story. We feel compassion for the "good" person and anger at the "bad" person. Knowing that listeners to his public apology would emotionally empathize with the Aborigines, not the government, Rudd chose a path that was more difficult for him but more heartfelt.
In Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve-step programs, the Ninth Step asks recovering alcoholics to make amends to all those whom he/she has harmed. In this case, making reparation is an act of salvation for the perpetrator. Being weighed down with regret, remorse, and guilt is a burden, and you can't live a healthy life bearing such a heavy inner weight. Acknowledging a past wrong to the one who's been hurt may comfort the victim, but the guilty person finds relief as well.
|
BOOK AND WORKSHOP NEWS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Order my book, The World Is a Waiting Lover, with a beautiful foreword by Thomas Moore, from Amazon.com or from your favorite bookstore.
Watch for the new PARABOLA MAGAZINE. The theme this quarter is THE PATH and my article on the Tuareg's inner and outer paths is the lead article.
UPCOMING PROGRAMS
September 11-18
What Now? You've Changed, The World Has Changed, Has Your Vision Changed
With Eugene Hughes and Trebbe Johnson
Nantahala Forest and Joyce Kilmer old-growth Forest, NC
$950
Whether you've been on a vision quest and received a vision of who you are and what you need to do in your life to feed your own joy and the world's hunger, or whether you have been gripped by another kind vision of how you long to serve your world...
There comes a time when even the clearest and most scintillating of visions needs to be re-examined. Maybe the vision you once had feels too big for you. Maybe it doesn't feel big enough. Maybe you feel it belongs to a former You who has now changed. And yet... the vision remains so intimate and alive. What to do?
What Now? Offers an opportunity for visionaries to gain clarity on who you are and how you can refine your vision so it responds to your needs and the needs of our changing planet. Plus, you will meet others with the same concerns and so develop a network of mutual support.
January 2-23, 2010: Sahara Camel Caravan and Vision Quest
Southern Algeria and northern Niger
If you're interested in the Sahara camel caravan and vision quest, it would be a good idea to sign up now. We take a maximum of 12 people, and we already have eight paid registrations (two more since last month). For a registration form, contact me.
For a complete list of 2009 programs offered by Vision Arrow, see our website.
Call 570 727 4272 or email Trebbe if you have questions or would like to talk about any of these programs.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
