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"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.”
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Trebbe Johnson's Newsletter
November 2007
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 Dear
Questers, Friends, and Seekers of the
Beloved,
I write this on the day after Thanksgiving,
a very cold night when the moon is almost
full. My husband and I feasted yesterday
with six dear friends (and one
nine-month-old baby) with whom we often
spend holidays. That gathering and a day of
planting trees in our small rural village
earlier in the month have prompted me to
reflect on nature, children, and falling in
love, themes that play out in different ways
in this newsletter. I would love to hear
your responses and your own stories.
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. |
TREES FOR THOMPSON
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 If
you get a good idea, watch out: it probably
won't let go of you until you've acted on
it!
Three weeks ago, volunteers in our small
village of Thompson, PA (pop. 293) planted
21 new trees, the third and final part of a
process that began in spring 2006. For years
I'd been thinking that Thompson needed some
new trees. Many of the beautiful trees that
had once lined the sidewalks had died of
disease or neglect, and several had been cut
down when we got a new sewage system.
However, the prospect of actually doing
something about the problem seemed daunting.
What did I know about applying for a grant?
I had no idea how to start. Would people in
our low-income, conservative community even
be interested in planting trees? Besides, I
was already way too busy.
But the idea kept tugging at my sleeve, so I
finally gave in. After a few stabs at trying
to figure out who gave grants for such
projects, I got a call one day from a woman
who identified herself as the administrator
of an organization called Northeast
Pennsylvania Urban and Community Forestry
Program. "I hear you'd like to plant some
trees," she said. She helped me with the
grant application and we got a $9,000 grant
that we had to match with cash and service.
Several volunteers became immediately and
regularly active in our Trees for Thompson
project. The annual town fair devoted a
percentage of its profit to purchasing
trees. A woman who walks with difficulty did
a lot of organizing by phone, recruited
volunteers, and made delicious cookies for
our meetings. Boys and girls from the 4H
showed up to plant. The mayor, who also runs
a nursery, donated bags of mulch. The
Baptist minister hosted lunches for the
volunteers on planting days. Digging the
holes for the trees with his backhoe was a
man who began the day by telling the trees
he hoped to see them grown big and tall when
he walked around the town one day with his
son's grandson.
Thompson now has 62 beautiful new shade
trees of many kinds, and I have learned some
Essential Life Lessons:
- You never know who else has been
wishing for exactly the same kind of
change you've been wishing for.
- People are eager to help improve
their community.
- Preconceived notions about who our
allies are can be laughably misleading.
- You always have time to do something
that absolutely has to be done.
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IT TAKES A
RIVER (TO RAISE A CHILD)
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 An
editorial in the August 2007 issue
of
Backpacker magazine began
with a new and timely play on an old
African saying (more recently the
title of Hillary Clinton's book):
"It takes a river to raise a child."
The point of the article was that
modern children don't spend enough
time in nature, and it cited some
programs that are trying to correct
that deficiency by taking kids out
to hike, build canoes, and survive
in the wilderness.
Truly, the earth is under assault
not only from pollution and global
climate change, but from lack of
passion as well. A study by the
Kaiser Family Foundation showed
that young people aged 8-18 devote
an average of 6 1/2 hours each day
to media, including TV, computer,
iPod, video games, etc. That's 44
1/2 hours a week that kids spend in
front of an electronic screen!
Recently I've been asking my friends
who have children or teach them in
school how much time these children
spend outside. The answer, even
among parents who love nature
themselves, is: not much.
Ecologists today have a hard enough
time convincing the public to
protect and preserve the natural
world. What's it going to be like in
fifteen or twenty years when
environmental lawyers and activists
are trying to bring their message to
an American citizenry that has
little or no personal love and
fascination for nature?
So even though it's important and
beneficial for young people to
engage in the kinds of activities
that Backpacker is recommending,
it's even more essential for them to
simply get outside and get absorbed
in nature. For example, parents can
take a walk with their children on
which the only mission is for each
person to find something fascinating
that they spend a few minutes with:
a cloud, a bird's song, some coyote
scat, a wildflower. Another great
exercise is for a two or more kids
to sit back-to-back or in a circle
facing outward and pay attention to
what's ahead of them for a just ten
minutes. They then turn around and
face inward and take turns sharing
what they've discovered. All
together the stories create a
narrative of Nature's constant
thriving.
I'm always so moved when I see
adults on vision quests fall
immediately and deeply into the
immense possibilities of Nature as
guide, teacher, inspiration, and
true homeland. Why wait till
adulthood to relearn what Rachel
Carson called "the sense of wonder"
we're born with?
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LOVER AND BELOVED
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 When
we fall in love, we feel as if a
secret part of us has been unearthed
at last and made to glow and sparkle
under the attentive care of the new
lover. We believe we've found in the
other something essential that's
been missing in us, and so we heap
our passion there, that the other
will either endow us directly with
what we need or manifest it so
completely him- or herself that we
are saved the trouble. For a while
it works--until, inevitably, the
beloved becomes merely human,
weakened primarily by their innate
inability to be other than who they
really are, rather than who we wish
them to be.
Then, however, the true love story
can really begin! We can continue to
fall ever more deeply in love with
the human partner as he or she grows
and changes through life, even as we
fall in love with our world and our
own participation in it by coming to
embrace the eternal, archetypal
Beloved within.
On February 8-10, my husband, Andy
Gardner, and I are delighted to
present our second annual
Lover and Beloved retreat. Held
at a beautiful Connecticut estate,
with gourmet meals provided by a
local caterer, this is a retreat for
loving couples with strong
relationships who want to explore
ever new ways to fall in love with
the Lover and with the Beloved. All
couples are welcome: young and old,
straight and gay, married or simply
committed. Join us for this special
pre-Valentine's Day retreat and
luxuriate in delicious food, winter
walks in the woods, a Talking
Council around the fireplace, and a
deepening of your own love story.
NOTE: This retreat fills quickly! It
is open to only five couples, and
two of the places are already taken.
If you're interested, let us know
right away! |
| BOOK AND WORKSHOP NEWS
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 The
Vision Arrow website has been
updated for 2008! Visit and browse
through our offering of wonderful
new and returning programs.
A new journey I'm especially excited
about is
Bali From Within, an 11-day
pilgrimage, open to only six people,
that invites you to experience the
culture, people, and natural beauty
of this enchanting island as
visitors rarely have an opportunity
to do. (For a complete itinerary,
see the website.) You can explore
the alluring energy of the
Beloved through dance (with
5Rhythms teacher Gail Edgerly and me
in Massachusetts, Feb. 22-24) or by
diving into your attractions and
discovering how they can feed you
instead of devouring you (with
Charles Tack and me in the Bay Area,
June 27-29 and Oct. 9-12). In June
Louden Kiracofe is offering a
five-day
vision quest for physicians in
southeastern Utah, a special journey
for healers who, in their
dedication, sometimes forget to heal
themselves.
Back again are the ever popular and
profoundly transformative 12th
annual Endless Mountains Vision
Quest, the 10th quest in the Utah
Canyonlands with Louden and me, our
Sahara Vision Quest and Camel
Caravan with Sabina Wyss and the
nomadic Tuareg people, and a variety
of programs around the country to
explore the archetype of the
Beloved. Andy and I have also been
invited to present our Lover and
Beloved workshop in Minnesota in
September.
I hope that one or more of these
programs will, as they say, "speak
to your condition" and that you will
join us where extraordinary places
and your own unique response to them
meet. I look forward to greeting you
for the first time or at another
crossroads on the path!
Thanks to Kurt Dean, my website
manager, who not only performs cyber
magic with apparent ease, but keeps
me sane when mysterious things go
awry. |
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Contact Information
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phone: 570/727-4272
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