 |
|
"Just
finished the Escort to the Beloved chapter. I have
cried for the first time since December 8, 2000—the
night of the car accident that nearly took my life.
I didn't cry then. I think I became an observer of
my life. I can't begin to thank you for writing this
book.” |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trebbe Johnson's Newsletter
June 2007
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
 Dear
Questers, Friends, and Seekers of the
Beloved,
Thank you for your continuing interest
in this newsletter and greetings to
those who have recently signed up to
receive it. Here you'll find news of
upcoming Vision Arrow events,
reflections, profiles of extraordinary
people, news about my book and other
work, and stories of transformation that
occur when we accept, in small, bold,
startling ways the alluring invitations
that the world is always sending us.
PS. This IS the June newsletter. I mean,
I wrote it in June. I'm just a little
overwhelmed with projects right now, so
the sending got delayed. The July
newsletter will reach you in about three
weeks.
Pass it on! |
|
PLAYING
BY HEART
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Have
you heard the extraordinary guitar
rendition of Pachelbel's Canon that has
now had 23 million hits on YouTube?
The amateur video opens (and fixedly
stays) on a young man, who looks Asian,
holding an electric guitar and sitting
at his desk in his tiny bedroom. He
wears a blue t-shirt and a tan baseball
cap. Behind him is his hastily-made bed.
Sulight streams in the window, casting
the scene in a radiant, somewhat hazy
glow.
The instant he begins to play this
eighteenth century canon, known for its
increasingly complex chord progressions,
you are captivated. Before long you want
to shout with joy. By the end of the
five-minute, twenty-second video, you
are moved to tears. At least I am, no
matter how often I watch it.
The performance of this young man, who
calls himself "Funtwo,"
is virtuosic, yet his presence remains
humble. He never even shows his face,
for his head is always bowed intently
over his guitar. His fingers dance and
slide over the guitar with dazzling
speed, yet the personality theatrics of
most rock musicians (and this classical
piece definitely rocks) are utterly
lacking.
For about eight months no one knew who
the mysterious guitarist was, although,
as the hits mounted, several claimed to
be him. It was New York Times writer
Virginia Heffernan who tracked him down
and wrote an article about him in the
August 27, 2006 edition of the Sunday
Arts and Leisure section of the paper.
He is Jeong-Hyun Lim, a 24-year-old
South Korean living in Seoul, who taught
himself guitar over the course of six
years. The version of the canon he plays
was created by another young man, Jerry
Chaing, of Taiwan.
When Heffernan interviewed the elusive
Lim by email, he turned out to be as
modest as he appears on the amateur
video he made. He had a lot to learn, he
responded. He put the video on YouTube
so others could make suggestions about
his playing. When asked why he didn't
show his face, he answered, "I think
play is more significant than
appearance. Therefore I want the others
to focus on my fingering and sound."
I love this video. When I'm feeling
uncreative in my writing or discouraged
about filling my programs, I play it and
it inspires me to keep going. It tells
me that long stretches of work without
tangible results are often necessary-and
that time we spend on what we love is
always fruitful and meaningful-like
meditation, like practicing an
instrument you long to know intimately.
Funtwo also reminds me that we never
know how or by whom we're going to be
touched and transformed in the course of
the day, or in what ways, large and
small, we're going to touch and
transform others. |
|
THE UNION
OF JOY AND HUNGER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Our
calling in life, says theologian
Frederick Buechner, is found at
the place "where your deep
gladness and the world's deep
hunger meet."
Hunger and gladness: this is a
beguiling pair of allies-not
hunger and eating, or hunger and
satiation, not gladness and
sorrow. Buechner suggests that a
hunger, however and wherever it
arises, is best fed not by those
with certain credentials,
certain provisions, but by those
with the most ardent desire to
respond. To respond as we are
deeply and personally urged to
do is to answer not just the one
in need, but the beckoning of
our own deep self. It is this
inner dynamic, calling us forth
to be our wild, bold, passionate
selves wherever we can, that I
call "the Beloved."
The Beloved calls us in small
ways and large. If we are
willing to listen with the
heart, we may realized it's time
to leave our secure, well-paying
job and pursue a path that
fascinates (and perhaps
terrifies!) us. Or, the Beloved
may urge us to slow down when
we're rushing through an airport
and help a harried parent who is
struggling to get a baby in a
stroller, a crying toddler, and
a couple of suitcases up an
escalator. The Beloved calls us
forth into unknown territory.
Sometimes the territory is
geological and sometimes it's
psychological. It is always
spiritual, because it demands
the expression of our true
nature.
To discover how the alluring
call of your own soul, your
inner Beloved speaks to you and
how that voice has all the clues
you need to identify the deep
hungers of the world that you
and only you can feed with your
joy, join me for my workshop
DESIRE AND THE QUEST FOR THE
BELOVED at
Omega Institute in
Rhinebeck, New York, July
29-August 3.
If each of us radiates our own
inner fire more intensely, then
others cannot help but be
warmed. |
|
WHERE
IS THE NORTHERN WOOD THRUSH?
(Part 2)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 In
my last newsletter I wrote of my
sorrow that I had not heard the
northern wood thrush this
spring, singing in its usual
spot in a wetlands area in the
nature preserve near my home.
This sense of loss inspired a
new and regular practice. I
would get up before sunrise a
couple of times a week and go to
that place of the Thrush
Expected. There I sat and
listened to the silence that I
wished the bird to fill. In the
void, I reflected on loss,
absence, and possible responses
to global climate change and
other ecological crises. It was
a sad process, but also a
beautiful vigil.
During this time I began
communicating again with Daniel
Dancer, whom I have never met
personally, but whose work has
inspired me for several years
and with whom I've crossed paths
in some ways of breathtaking
synchronicity. Daniel, who lives
in Oregon, is an artist and an
ecologist who puts his passion
for nature to work. He is the
author of a book,
Shards and Circles, in which
he describes his journeys to
environmentally challenged areas
around the world and the art he
makes in and of these places (a
medicine wheel out of the trash
on a littered beach in Mexico,
for example, a hexagram from the
I Ching burned into a swath of
prairie plowed into grassland).
Lately Daniel has been working
on a new project,
Art for the Sky. He visits
schools all over the U.S. (and
has recently been invited to
Australia) and at each site
works with local people to use
their bodies to make a gigantic
image of some valued and
endangered animal that is
important to that region. He
then photographs the image from
a height. This is holistic,
communal, magical art at its
best. It involves people in
thinking about what they love
and acting on their belief; it
is natural history; it and it is
an act of ceremony, evoking what
is absent with a collective
re-envisioning.
I am currently hoping to find
the support to invite Daniel to
my area for a Sky Art project.
After reading my newsletter, he
suggested we make a northern
wood thrush, but to me the being
most in need of being invited
back home right now is the
honeybee, which is disappearing
all over the world. According to
our local beekeeper, the problem
is poisons in genetically
modified corn. No one knows for
sure.
Here's a PS on the northern wood
thrush. One day after my vigil
in the preserve, I decided to
leave the area where I had been
sitting and penetrate deeper
into the woods. There I heard
the northern wood thrush,
singing its unforgettable song,
not missing at all.
Again I ask: how am I to
confront ecological change? With
patience. Creativity. A
willingness to accept what I
cannot change. And, as always, a
sense of humor, because if I'm
looking in the wrong place, I'll
never find what I seek!
Stay tuned for Part 3. |
|
BOOK
AND WORKSHOP NEWS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 A
review in the current issue of
PARABOLA says of my book: "THE
WORLD IS A WAITING LOVER can be
read as a grand adventure, a
love story, an anthropological
inquiry into the psyche, or a
guide book on attaining union
with the divine. Whatever you
call it, the book offers an
unabashedly delicious and juicy
experience."
I will be leading workshops on
the search for the Beloved and
the transformation of desire
into action at
Omega Institute, July
29-Aug. 3 and
Diana's Grove, September
21-23 at Salem, MO. Click here
to read an
interview that Shaun Perkins
of Diana's Grove did with me.
The book is available at
bookstores everywhere and at
Amazon.com.
I'm now in the initial stages of
planning my calendar for 2008.
If you're interested in working
with me to offer a workshop on
Desire and the Quest for the
Beloved in your area, contact
me. Some of the best and most
successful workshops I've ever
held have been organized not by
professionals, but by women and
men who simply wanted to
experience the work and share it
with others.
|
|
|
Contact Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
phone: 570/727-4272
|
|
| Sign up for the Newsletter |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
