In the Image

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he isn’t. A sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is. ~ Frances Bacon

Namaste Beloveds,

Is it still June? Is it my imagination or is time really zipping along? More likely, it is my overstuffed calendar at the root of this almost missed June newsletter. So, with apologies, here's our belated June greetings: Happy Flag Day! Happy Father's Day! Graduation Salutations and Congratulations! Happy Summer Solstice! Happy mid-year Christmas ... the mid-point of the year in the high solstice sun is a great time for reflection. This month, I am balancing chronic over-commitment and overwhelm with the enJOYment of spending time and energy with what and who I love most. I've had a great new look at the flag (next section), took my father to our church on Father's Day (miracles do happen!), saw my godson graduate high school, finished another book with Jeremiah's class, went buggy on the Laurie Story website, had the One Day Retreat, am planning for the Sierra Retreat (also all below) and am producing 2 new CDs all with shining purpose and plenty of low level doubt and questioning. And I am calling on my old, old friend imagination to help me sort through, prioritize and calendarize it all ~
Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun. ~George Scialabba
And what do I see? What do I hold? What matters most? What stories told?
It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. ~Henry David Thoreau
So .... in the midst of all this busyness, I have been meditating on imagination and vision and finding a very distinct difference or perhaps no difference at all depending on how you view the essence of vision. I facilitated a children's visioning group at the Spiritual Life Center in Sacramento this month which showed me over again how the open child's heart embraces Love and FUN as teacher. For children, is there any distinction between vision and the playground of imagination? For the moment, I am viewing vision more and more as direct God input while imagination is a more tempered mix of God and human co-creation. In the wake of this distinction, I think back on imagination ... growing up on the ranch, I talked to flowers a lot and they talked to me. For this and countless other little "oddities", I was told, "It's just your imagination." Always a poet, writer, songwriter, etc., I didn't think imagination at all a bad thing but as I got older, I heard the words "It's just your imagination" with an increasingly discounting tone. Thankfully, I found a freeing flow of understanding and redemption in a little book entitled, "The Man Who Talked To Flowers". This story of the incredible George Washington Carver gave me inspiration and self acceptance that I hadn't experienced before. For as rich as my relationship with Spirit, my human side so longed for connection, understanding, reassurance. I have returned to George Washington Carver of late; read a biography of him with Jeremiah. As with any great person, there are many ways to tell the story, many facets of man and myth. In wading through a bit of it, I am still in awe of this man of God. Born a slave, died a celebrated scientist, Carver found hundreds of uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soy beans by listening to them and to God. He would arise at 4:00 a.m. and walk through the woods, then return to his labortory known to him as "God's Little Workshop." While his imagination was wide open, his connection to co-creation ran much deeper: Never since have I been without this consciousness of the Creator speaking to me through flowers, rocks, animals, plants, and all other aspects of His creation... I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in. ~George Washington Carver
Carver was famously criticized in a Nov. 20, 1924 New York Times article "Men of Science Never Talk That Way" but for him, faith only increased his knowledge, it never competed against it. Carver saw faith as an agent to change. I see this man in ultimate partnership with God, true co-creation. His awareness and willingness brought it full circle. His hands were magic and did so much which he always credited to God. He was an excellent artist and is said by some to have been called to be that arist, painting flowers. He chose instead to help "the farthest man down" helping to bring poor southern farmers from cotton to other cash crops. Every step of the way, he was open to guidance, vision, and co-creation. Imagination? Yes but so much more! There is sooooooo much I want to say about this man! I am breathing patience as I am deepening the study of imagination, vision, and co-creation. In the visioning with the children this month, more curriculum came through "God's Little Workshop" for further processing and probable integration into the web site and beyooooond .........!! Imagination! Imagine! Image.
Image. To be in the image and likeness ... put the in into image and you have imagine. To be in the likeness of Co-Creation, be in the image. Imagine the possibilities ...
Exercise your imagination ... it will take you further, longer, than any of your other body parts. ~ Inez Perez from Laurie's Stories 

Imagine The Difference
I am so blessed to have a friend who believes in me. One who believes in all this New Thought music ... he has said some of the most beautiful and encouraging words to me lately that have lifted me up countless times in the darkness of doubt that continues to creep in even in the midst of blessed co-creation. Truly, we all have the opportunity to lift each other up ... to imagine the heights for each other, to acknowledge the existing beauty and bounty a friend or stranger may be blind to. Dare to imagine the difference that just a few encouraging words can make! Imagine how good it feels just to know that you do make a difference and to give that gift to others on a small or large scale. The amazing Mary & Craig Reynolds have another inspirational movie outlining the "blue ribbon" make a difference project. See and feel it here. And if you're so inspired, imagine the difference you can make just by letting others know that they make a difference. Imagine a world full of grateful, expressive heart connections!

Blue Ribbon Make A Difference Movie

Ranger Bob Faith
Just Imagine

June 14 is Flag Day in the U.S. This June, our friend "Ranger" Bob Keller wrote a song about the flag based on Franklin K. Lane's speech called "The Flag Makers" or "Mr. Flag Maker" given on June 14, 1914. Bob's song uses the basic idea reflected in that speech as well as an idea or two borrowed from the Boy Scouts of America Handbook from 1955. Bob has graciously shared his song with us: Listen here. You can find Lane's speech at: http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/Plaza/7750/FlagMake.html

What speaks to me in the speech and the song is that the flag reflects the face of every American, and is indeed made by every one of us ~ it is what we make it. Within the framework of imagination, the speech and song invoke powerful imagery and the invitation to use our imagination. I wonder what the forefathers and Betsy Ross would say ... just imagine. I also appreciate looking at the flag through the individual tapestry of the citizens rather than a politically charged symbol. Jeremiah and I sang with Ranger Bob and many others this last weekend at the San Francisco Free Folk Festival where we once again shepparded the Family Stage. We stayed at Club Matriarch Faith Petric's house and took some video footage of her performing. At age 92 and 3/4, she gives us all something to imagine! We'll get the video footage posted on our Festival page so you can see her and hear her for yourself. She would probably say, "I am what you make me."

Hear Ranger Bob's song, "I Am What You Make Me."

New CDs: In Our Hands

Personally, I would sooner have written Alice in Wonderland than the whole Encyclopedia Britannica. ~Stephen Leacock

Piccolo Pastures!

Our One Family Day Retreat
on June 7th at Piccolo Pastures was truly blessed and beautiful.
All ages gathered from 2 on up and we sang, drummed, prayed, played ...
Some highlights include Beverly's puppet show, planting our own maple trees to take home, going in silence to Grandmother Willow Tree where we found many treasures waiting. We shared the treasures as well as more singing, playing & praying. While Karene led the kids away from Grandmother Willow on a skunk hunt, the adults deepened their Oneness with this powerful tree; Jerry playing gorgeous Native American Flute ... Laurie leading a meditation... the wind & the Grandmother adding their own voices & energies ~ truly a sacred celebration! In our closing circle back in the Ecumenical Garden, we wove a web of love and then had ice cream and fresh from the field strawberries. Yum, yum, yum! This coming together to open hearts and be the open hearts we are, revitalized the vision for the Feathers Of Faith Camp coming in Ag. and inspired the date for our next Day Retreat at Piccolo Pastures:
Gratitude Stone Soup Day Retreat
Celebrating The Bounty of Spirit in All:
in Self, Each Other, in Family, in Community
November 22, 2008 10:00 a.m. ~ 4:00 p.m.
Find out more here!

THANK YOU Piccolo Pastures for providing the sacred ground!!
Meet Karene Piccolo and Piccolo Pastures on site:
http://www.newthoughtfamilies.com/People/Karene.html

Finding treasure at Grandmother Willow Tree & weaving the web of One Love .

I doubt that the imagination can be suppressed.  If you truly eradicated it in a child, he would grow up to be an eggplant. 
~Ursula K. Le Guin, The Language of the Night

Imagination Celebration : Web Site Updates

As mentioned, song samples and lyrics from our new CDs will be going on site over the coming weeks. We will also be adding more pages on imagination and vision.

We have added a book we did with Jeremiah's class at school .... Who Am I? It celebrates some of the wonders found in Mother Nature chosen individually by these second graders. Jeremiah does some great narration! Some of our other books like Joy Boy seem perpetually on hold but trusting that with imagination, vision, and lots of faith, they will come to be in good God time.

We have put Jeremiah's class books Who am I? and If I Were Love into (UTube) videos and the video format still proves an imaginative playground. The daily Sacred Moments videos in April were a blast and we did a few Sunday Celebration videos in May all of which can still be accessed on site. We continue to imagine the future possibilities of this cybervision ...

We want to thank Bill Poletti for his fun, imaginative bug photography, check out our imagination page: http://www.newthoughtfamilies.com/Imagination.html

On this page, we have some fun photos and we pause to think what a vast and vivid imagination God has in the diverse creations all over this planet! Bugs are the biggest and most diverse species on the planet and if you stop and get small, what an amazing plethora awaits! We also give some special attention to bugs because on the Laurie Story website, we've gone buggy for the national summer reading program. You can have fun with the Laurie Story Book Bugs Summer Reading Program here: http://www.lauriesstories.com/SummerReading08/BookBugs.html

In looking at imagination and vision this month in the midst of all our other committments, it has become clear that we will need to dive further into vision in July so stay fine tuned ...!!!

www.newthoughtfamilies.com is an inspirational SPIRIT place to play and pray and celebrate life's goodness with childlike passion, fun, wonder, and reverence.
 

Everything you can imagine is real. ~Picasso

So, even though June is almost gone, I am sending the June newsletter on purpose. For real or imagined purpose, here it is with willingness to be on purpose!

I recently read that the most important reason you should marry is not for love but for shared life's purpose. I suppose that's why I've never married? Is that why Mother Theresa chose to "marry" Jesus and George Washington Carver "married" his plants ... and why the divorce rate is so high?! I don't know any of it, only that I still imagine him and I even as the years slip by. In reading the courtship letters between the Barrett/Brownings, their communication with each other is as thorough as Carver's was with the peanut:
How you overcome me as always you do-and where is the answer to anything except too deep down in the heart for even the pearl-divers? ~Elizabeth Barrett

So at this busy mid-point in the year, may you imagine, envision, and behold your shining purpose, the golden dreams that are the true you. And may you have heart connections with loved and trusted people and angels in your life to remind you what a wonderful difference you make to them and to the world.

In the name of all that is possible, I imagine and envision with you, for you, of you ...
Namaste, Love, namaste.