Namaste Beloveds,

With the new year well under way, I wish you all blessings in your new beginnings, God in your goals, listening in your lists, and volume of voice in your choices...
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.
  ~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Jeremiah and I rang in the new year in our tradtional way at music camp; a room full of people singing "Peace and love throughout the new year ..." The sound rings on inside me even in the wake of a current soul struggle I can only liken to a strong primal urge to be hybernating right now. I really think I'd be just fine if I went to sleep for a few months and woke up like the spring flowers with refreshed and renewed vision, vitality and voice. But since I am neither bear nor beaver and I am blessed with a cozy, warm house and electric light for these cold, dark, winter nights, I must be sunflower rather than spring flower ... the sunflower is always, always, turning to the light. And yet every flower has roots in darkness. Surely the truth of my being lies in both the darkness and the light.

The start of any new year offers opportunity to review and renew. Of course, we have this choice daily ~ awareness is always a choice as is listening and giving volume to voice ... ah, but what voice do we heed to? Is it the voice of head, heart, friend, foe? In her new bestselling book, Marci Shimoff outlines 7 steps for becoming "Happy for No Reason." The 3rd step says that happy people have learned not to believe everything they think. Scientists say we think 60,000 thoughts a day and about 45,000 of them are negative so hence the need to "rethink" about 80% of our thoughts! The Abraham Hicks work says monitoring your thoughts will make you crazy so monitor your feelings instead. Hicks says that our feelings are the measure but we should reach for a better feeling thought whenever possible to raise those feeling vibrations. Sometimes, what's "better" is surprising like reaching for anger rather than depression - there is a flat line energy in depression whereas anger has a passionate charge.

So, if our new year is shaped by goals and resolutions, where do they come from? What If Everything You Believe Is Wrong? by Gregg Braden is a current headline article at Mind Power News (http://www.mindpowernews.com/) and in it, Gregg, like Marci, challenges us to not only change our thoughts but also the beliefs that drive those thoughts. In another fascinating article on Mind Power News, they speak to cellular memory, citing amazing personality shifts in organ transplant recipients. These are testimonials to the fact that we are so much more than our thoughts and more than our thoughts can even comprehend! I love when science meets spirituality in tangible and undeniable mystery. So just how do we navigate through the mysteries into being happy for no reason?! I like to believe that through prayer, and attentive awareness to Source, that my vision and voice is always well aligned. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Sometimes, we have to let go of long standing beliefs when it becomes crystal clear they are no longer true. Or that they were never true at all. The most prevalent paradigm I am currently releasing is "Build it, they will come." Those 5 words sound so benevolently beautiful and yet, it seems, they are nothing more than Hollywood hype. Or is it not so simply something in my cellular or otherwise unconscious memories that say, "Don't bother to come." Which voice is victorious in shaping the coming year/life before me?

What voice drove the great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr? And his late first born daughter Yolanda? (pictured above) Dr. King's I Have A Dream speech still brings hope and inspiration to young and old. He gave voice to vision of a better way. He chose to speak out instead of remaining silent. He chose to encourage instead of condemn. Or perhaps worse, to ignor. How many things inside of us do we ignor? How many voices/thoughts/beliefs inside of us to we let judge, condemn, destroy rather than encourage and uplift? How often do we encourage and uplift each other? How often do we let silence have the last word?

New Thought Family Retreats!

There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community.
~ M Scott Peck

New Thought Family Connections!
New Thought Families continue to circle up to play & pray!
Taking time, making time to be with those you love most
in a place sure to lift your souls...

2008 Winter & Summer Family Retreats!

February Letters of Love in the Redwoods or by the River!

August Feathers of Faith in the Granite of the High Sierra Mountains!

Our winter retreat hangs in the balance for next month. We have an opportunity to gather if hearts, souls, feet, and calendars are willing. We are blessed with abundant choice, opportunity & space to gather, connect, nurture, and BE together in nature & Oneness.
We now have 2 options for our Letters Of Love Winter Retreat!
You need to vote/register THIS WEEK by 1/21/08!

February Letters of Love in the Redwoods or by the River!

"Letters Of Love" Winter Retreat currently has 2 options:
February 15-17, 2008
YMCA Camp of the Redwoods, Boulder Creek, CA
or
February 16-17, 2008
Community Center on the river, River Pines, CA

Go to our Retreats page to consider both options,
then vote & register for your choice!!
All input WELCOME; choose your option and Winter Retreat
will be finalized and announced on 1/22/08.
THANK YOU!!


August Feathers of Faith Family Retreat
in the Granite of the High Sierra Mountains!
"Feathers Of Faith" Summer Retreat: August 14-17, 2008
Stockton Camp, Silver Lake, CA

Our 2nd annual Feather's Of Faith Family Retreat is set to return to
Silver Lake in the high Sierras in August; set your calendar now!
Make sure you reserve your space & take advantage of the early bird pricing!

Rejoicing In Choicing

We shall find peace. We shall hear angels. We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds. ~Anton Chekov

OK, I admit it. This newsletter is finally going out and it's not the 2nd Sunday or even the 2nd Monday. It is actually Tuesday, January 15th. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 's birthday - a great day for rejoicing in the choicing of voicing. I do have a dream and I will not let silence have the last word! Jeremiah has been listening to me lament about trying to complete this newsletter for days now and he laughed so hard about it at 6:00 a.m. this morning, he nearly fell off his breakfast chair. So I laughed too. Hard. I laughed at all the misery my mystery has been of late and I recommitted to rejoicing. Thank you Jeremiah. Thank you Great Spirit. Thank you Dr. King. Thank you for prayers, connections, hopeful hearts and dreams that refuse to die. Thank you for voice & the choice to rejoice!