January 2012 Dare to Blossom Newsletter
In this issue:
Guest article: William Bloom
Reflections: on William's piece, and on A New Year
Daring to Blossom Workshops: special offers
News: winner of the December draw for free coaching sessions
Inspiring links
Guest article: William Bloom
My thanks to William for permission to republish this article from his recent email newsletter. To subscribe or to find out more about his work, visit www.williambloom.com. (If you visit William's website at the moment there is a lovely cartoon on the front page!) The article is also featured in the January 2012 edition of Cygnus Review. (www.cygnus-books.co.uk)
THE PASSING OF THE YEAR, GILL EDWARDS AND ROGER WOOLGER
In the weeks before Christmas my heart was moved by the death of two friends, who may also be well known to you. You will, I am sure, want to join me in sending condolences to the families of Roger Woolger and Gill Edwards who both died, too young for my liking. May their journeys be graceful and blessed. May their families feel love and comfort.
Roger, you may remember, was the author of several books including the classic Other Lives, Other Selves about reincarnation and how our past lives affect us today. He was a full-blooded, intelligent, wry and independent thinker who helped to pioneer and clarify a therapeutic approach to past life memories and regression. His company was warm and stimulating.
Gill, of course, was the author of the pivotal Living Magically, which was and still is a crucial bestseller and gateway book, opening up thousands of people to their inherent spirituality. Like Roger she too had a background in psychology. She was also an accomplished teacher and an inspiration to so many people in the world of contemporary spirituality. Only recently she published another inspiring book Conscious Medicine.
Both of them were pioneers, synthesising the best of modern psychology with the wisdom of ancient spiritual traditions. I knew them both over thirty years and had collaborated with them in various ways, always knowing that I could contact them for advice or suggestions, and sometimes we shared students who needed special support.
Whenever I met either of them over the last three decades, our conversations were immediately intimate, good-humoured and helpful. We knew that we were part of a movement exploring new ways of expressing and teaching spiritual development. We shared an affectionate solidarity. I am sure that all of you who knew them too, whether as colleagues, students or readers, also appreciated their strength of spiritual character and presence.
And I miss them both.
They were part of my personal landscape for many years. I am sad that their physical presence is no longer here for me and I feel some grief. I imagine that you too, reading about their passing, may also feel some emotions of loss. This is a normal human response, isn’t it, a normal sadness and emotion?
*
But here is the irony. From the other side of death, looking down on us, I can imagine both of them smiling: Hey you down there, stop all that grieving. Life continues after death. We’re still here, but just in another dimension and we’ll meet again. Stop your sadness and get on with life!
Roger’s books and teachings were all about the continuity of life after death and Gill’s teachings too were filled with information about the invisible dimensions. In fact, after her death Gill’s family posted on her website a letter that she had recently written to someone who had just lost a loved one. Gill’s letter reminded this person about life after death and the continuation of consciousness and connection.
I too write and teach about these realms. I even lead a course on how to support the transfer of consciousness at death and I spend time every day in meditation, contemplating the dimensions beyond the gateway of death. I am sure that many readers of this article are also attuned to these spiritual dimensions.
But here’s the rub for us. For all the beauty of life beyond death and for all the spiritual realities, we are also warm-blooded creatures, mammals, beings of feeling and emotion. And Gill and Roger were also flesh and blood — and now they are gone.
They may be alive in another dimension, but in this one they are missed.
I write all this as a counterpoint to those spiritual folk who may deny natural, instinctive and healthy emotions, suggesting that death should have no poignancy.
For all the wisdom and knowledge we may have about life after death, would any of us dare to tell a parent not to grieve for their lost child? Or dare to advise a young child not to grieve for a lost parent? This would not be humane. It would lack heart, which is at the core of spirituality — heart, compassion, empathy, fully present to human sadness, suffering and loss, as well as to joy, celebration and genius.
Without heart, perhaps all the knowledge of the inner worlds is worth nothing.
So whilst we may know full well that Gill and Roger are smiling, enjoying their new dimensions, and whilst celebrating their lives and gifts, it is also understandable, normal and fully human to feel loss and miss them.
And this perhaps is what I value most about my friends, students, colleagues and teachers. We have a sense of community, a community of the heart. May it expand and radiate to serve all.
So my lovely friends and companions, whether you are in this world or the next, may the coming year be filled with graceful growth, cosmic enjoyment and abundant blessings.
Wishing you all love.
William
Reflections on William's piece
I found reading this very moving. Both these people have been important in my life through their books: each had a warm, intimate and sharing way of writing that both helped the reader understand their teaching and to feel a personal connection with them as individuals.
I also feel that William's points are important to us all: we all feel grief, sometimes for a big loss as in the death of of a loved one. At other times changes happen that are also a loss: growing old and feeling the effects of that; losing a job; moving away from friends or family; losing a treasured possession.
At such times the ultimate outcome may also be something to celebrate: the release of a person from pain and suffering; the wisdom of growing older; a new job; different ways of communicating and a new respect for the value of friends and family. These mixed feelings may lead to complicated emotions, guilt even.
These feelings and emotions are what they are, feelings and emotions. Many spiritual teachings indicate that the reason that we, as spiritual beings, have decided to come and live in this world as a physical human being is to experience just this. To experience the whole range of human feelings, emotions, and physical experiences that each add to our experience and learning.
So, as William says above: "For all the beauty of life beyond death and for all the spiritual realities, we are also warm-blooded creatures, mammals, beings of feeling and emotion. And Gill and Roger were also flesh and blood — and now they are gone."
The sharing of joy, and grief and learning, the connections we make when truly communicating heart to heart is what this life is all about for me. In William's words "..a community of the heart. May it expand and radiate to serve all."
Thank you to William, and to all of you in my community of the heart around the world. Namaste: I bow to you.
Reflections on A New Year
2012 will be a special year for me, and in spite of natural reticence on talking about my age, I am happy to say that I have already started my 60th year. As a rule I subscribe to the belief that 'age is just a number', but this year I feel proud that this is the stage in my life I am entering.
This stage is not necessarily signified by the number of years I have lived, the amount of grey in my hair, nor marked by any feeling that I have by now learned all the lessons (I am sure I have not!), but more by coming to a place, a feeling, that I am able to be me. And by being me, at times messy, unfinished, even unhappy, at other times wise and strong and peaceful - by truly being all of these things I can help others in their own journeys to be truly themselves.
I have been reviewing the newsletters I have sent since I began this practice in March 2007. This is the fifth January edition I have written in that time: each has the themes of reviewing the past, looking forward to the future. The suggested activities below come from the first January Newsletter in 2008, and felt very relevant to me especially in relation to the thoughts above on grief and moving on.
For you: some suggestions for your journal or meditation reflections:
Daring to Blossom Workshops: special offers
As regular readers will know, I am running a new series of workshops in 2012 on the theme of "Seeing You, Being You". I have extended the special offer for newsletter subscribers, so if you are quick you can still book a place at half price (£30 instead of £60) for the first event on Saturday 21 January. Book before 7 January for the discount, or contact me to discuss paying in installments.
The venue for the workshops is the wonderful and peaceful Pinetum Park and Pine Lodge Gardens, near St Austell. (Very close to the world-famous Eden Project - why not come for a weekend and spend a day at the amazing biomes?)
Choose to attend any one event, a combination of dates, or all four. Your experience will be just right for you whatever your choice.
Each event is interactive and experiential, this means that ’being there’ and sharing experience is what matters. You are totally free to participate and share as much or as little as you wish. Each group is special and different and each person present brings their own individual contribution and takes away some particular nuggets of meaning just for them.
Cost: £60 per workshop, with half-price offers for each workshop for early bookings.
For full details and to book visit the Daring to Blossom dedicated site.
Saturday 21 January 2012: Winter: a time for insights, planning and preparation
Saturday 21 April 2012: Spring: a time for action
Saturday 21 July 2012: Summer: a time for growth
Saturday 20 October 2012: Autumn: a time for reflection and renewal
Times: arrival from 9.30 a.m. for refreshments, start at 10.00 a.m., finish at 4.00 p.m.
Bring: a notebook, and a packed lunch. Coffee, tea etc and biscuits will be provided.
Need more information? Contact me or read feedback from people who have attended past Dare to Blossom workshops, click here.
I am working on the online course, for those of you who are unable to come to Cornwall for any reason and those spread out around the world in our Daring to Blossom community.
News: winner of the December draw for free coaching sessions
The draw has been made and the winner informed, but due to Christmas holidays I have not yet heard back from them with permission to publish their name in this newsletter. If it is you, I’ll look forward to hearing from you and working alongside you to make 2009 a very special year. If it is not you, there will be another chance to win in the next draw at the end of June, and you can take up the offer of a free consultation at any time, just email me to make an appointment.
Inspiring links
This may be rather 'sugary' for some tastes, but contains a universal truth about making a difference all the same, click here for the video link.
I welcome any comments or feedback - if you feel inspired!
all best wishes
Mary
In this issue:
Guest article: William Bloom
Reflections: on William's piece, and on A New Year
Daring to Blossom Workshops: special offers
News: winner of the December draw for free coaching sessions
Inspiring links
Guest article: William Bloom
My thanks to William for permission to republish this article from his recent email newsletter. To subscribe or to find out more about his work, visit www.williambloom.com. (If you visit William's website at the moment there is a lovely cartoon on the front page!) The article is also featured in the January 2012 edition of Cygnus Review. (www.cygnus-books.co.uk)
THE PASSING OF THE YEAR, GILL EDWARDS AND ROGER WOOLGER
In the weeks before Christmas my heart was moved by the death of two friends, who may also be well known to you. You will, I am sure, want to join me in sending condolences to the families of Roger Woolger and Gill Edwards who both died, too young for my liking. May their journeys be graceful and blessed. May their families feel love and comfort.
Roger, you may remember, was the author of several books including the classic Other Lives, Other Selves about reincarnation and how our past lives affect us today. He was a full-blooded, intelligent, wry and independent thinker who helped to pioneer and clarify a therapeutic approach to past life memories and regression. His company was warm and stimulating.
Gill, of course, was the author of the pivotal Living Magically, which was and still is a crucial bestseller and gateway book, opening up thousands of people to their inherent spirituality. Like Roger she too had a background in psychology. She was also an accomplished teacher and an inspiration to so many people in the world of contemporary spirituality. Only recently she published another inspiring book Conscious Medicine.
Both of them were pioneers, synthesising the best of modern psychology with the wisdom of ancient spiritual traditions. I knew them both over thirty years and had collaborated with them in various ways, always knowing that I could contact them for advice or suggestions, and sometimes we shared students who needed special support.
Whenever I met either of them over the last three decades, our conversations were immediately intimate, good-humoured and helpful. We knew that we were part of a movement exploring new ways of expressing and teaching spiritual development. We shared an affectionate solidarity. I am sure that all of you who knew them too, whether as colleagues, students or readers, also appreciated their strength of spiritual character and presence.
And I miss them both.
They were part of my personal landscape for many years. I am sad that their physical presence is no longer here for me and I feel some grief. I imagine that you too, reading about their passing, may also feel some emotions of loss. This is a normal human response, isn’t it, a normal sadness and emotion?
*
But here is the irony. From the other side of death, looking down on us, I can imagine both of them smiling: Hey you down there, stop all that grieving. Life continues after death. We’re still here, but just in another dimension and we’ll meet again. Stop your sadness and get on with life!
Roger’s books and teachings were all about the continuity of life after death and Gill’s teachings too were filled with information about the invisible dimensions. In fact, after her death Gill’s family posted on her website a letter that she had recently written to someone who had just lost a loved one. Gill’s letter reminded this person about life after death and the continuation of consciousness and connection.
I too write and teach about these realms. I even lead a course on how to support the transfer of consciousness at death and I spend time every day in meditation, contemplating the dimensions beyond the gateway of death. I am sure that many readers of this article are also attuned to these spiritual dimensions.
But here’s the rub for us. For all the beauty of life beyond death and for all the spiritual realities, we are also warm-blooded creatures, mammals, beings of feeling and emotion. And Gill and Roger were also flesh and blood — and now they are gone.
They may be alive in another dimension, but in this one they are missed.
I write all this as a counterpoint to those spiritual folk who may deny natural, instinctive and healthy emotions, suggesting that death should have no poignancy.
For all the wisdom and knowledge we may have about life after death, would any of us dare to tell a parent not to grieve for their lost child? Or dare to advise a young child not to grieve for a lost parent? This would not be humane. It would lack heart, which is at the core of spirituality — heart, compassion, empathy, fully present to human sadness, suffering and loss, as well as to joy, celebration and genius.
Without heart, perhaps all the knowledge of the inner worlds is worth nothing.
So whilst we may know full well that Gill and Roger are smiling, enjoying their new dimensions, and whilst celebrating their lives and gifts, it is also understandable, normal and fully human to feel loss and miss them.
And this perhaps is what I value most about my friends, students, colleagues and teachers. We have a sense of community, a community of the heart. May it expand and radiate to serve all.
So my lovely friends and companions, whether you are in this world or the next, may the coming year be filled with graceful growth, cosmic enjoyment and abundant blessings.
Wishing you all love.
William
Reflections on William's piece
I found reading this very moving. Both these people have been important in my life through their books: each had a warm, intimate and sharing way of writing that both helped the reader understand their teaching and to feel a personal connection with them as individuals.
I also feel that William's points are important to us all: we all feel grief, sometimes for a big loss as in the death of of a loved one. At other times changes happen that are also a loss: growing old and feeling the effects of that; losing a job; moving away from friends or family; losing a treasured possession.
At such times the ultimate outcome may also be something to celebrate: the release of a person from pain and suffering; the wisdom of growing older; a new job; different ways of communicating and a new respect for the value of friends and family. These mixed feelings may lead to complicated emotions, guilt even.
These feelings and emotions are what they are, feelings and emotions. Many spiritual teachings indicate that the reason that we, as spiritual beings, have decided to come and live in this world as a physical human being is to experience just this. To experience the whole range of human feelings, emotions, and physical experiences that each add to our experience and learning.
So, as William says above: "For all the beauty of life beyond death and for all the spiritual realities, we are also warm-blooded creatures, mammals, beings of feeling and emotion. And Gill and Roger were also flesh and blood — and now they are gone."
The sharing of joy, and grief and learning, the connections we make when truly communicating heart to heart is what this life is all about for me. In William's words "..a community of the heart. May it expand and radiate to serve all."
Thank you to William, and to all of you in my community of the heart around the world. Namaste: I bow to you.
Reflections on A New Year
2012 will be a special year for me, and in spite of natural reticence on talking about my age, I am happy to say that I have already started my 60th year. As a rule I subscribe to the belief that 'age is just a number', but this year I feel proud that this is the stage in my life I am entering.
This stage is not necessarily signified by the number of years I have lived, the amount of grey in my hair, nor marked by any feeling that I have by now learned all the lessons (I am sure I have not!), but more by coming to a place, a feeling, that I am able to be me. And by being me, at times messy, unfinished, even unhappy, at other times wise and strong and peaceful - by truly being all of these things I can help others in their own journeys to be truly themselves.
I have been reviewing the newsletters I have sent since I began this practice in March 2007. This is the fifth January edition I have written in that time: each has the themes of reviewing the past, looking forward to the future. The suggested activities below come from the first January Newsletter in 2008, and felt very relevant to me especially in relation to the thoughts above on grief and moving on.
For you: some suggestions for your journal or meditation reflections:
- What has ended over the last year?
- Have I recognised and marked these endings? (There may
be a celebration, or a memorial ceremony that would feel appropriate to mark
them.) Are they happy or sad? Is there anything that should have ended but is
dragging on? Should it be ‘laid to rest’?
- What began afresh this year?
- Where have/are these new beginnings taking me? Are they
continuing into 2012? Do I want them to continue?
- What new beginnings to you want to make happen for yourself? What actions can you take to achieve this?
Daring to Blossom Workshops: special offers
As regular readers will know, I am running a new series of workshops in 2012 on the theme of "Seeing You, Being You". I have extended the special offer for newsletter subscribers, so if you are quick you can still book a place at half price (£30 instead of £60) for the first event on Saturday 21 January. Book before 7 January for the discount, or contact me to discuss paying in installments.
The venue for the workshops is the wonderful and peaceful Pinetum Park and Pine Lodge Gardens, near St Austell. (Very close to the world-famous Eden Project - why not come for a weekend and spend a day at the amazing biomes?)
Choose to attend any one event, a combination of dates, or all four. Your experience will be just right for you whatever your choice.
Each event is interactive and experiential, this means that ’being there’ and sharing experience is what matters. You are totally free to participate and share as much or as little as you wish. Each group is special and different and each person present brings their own individual contribution and takes away some particular nuggets of meaning just for them.
Cost: £60 per workshop, with half-price offers for each workshop for early bookings.
For full details and to book visit the Daring to Blossom dedicated site.
Saturday 21 January 2012: Winter: a time for insights, planning and preparation
Saturday 21 April 2012: Spring: a time for action
Saturday 21 July 2012: Summer: a time for growth
Saturday 20 October 2012: Autumn: a time for reflection and renewal
Times: arrival from 9.30 a.m. for refreshments, start at 10.00 a.m., finish at 4.00 p.m.
Bring: a notebook, and a packed lunch. Coffee, tea etc and biscuits will be provided.
Need more information? Contact me or read feedback from people who have attended past Dare to Blossom workshops, click here.
I am working on the online course, for those of you who are unable to come to Cornwall for any reason and those spread out around the world in our Daring to Blossom community.
News: winner of the December draw for free coaching sessions
The draw has been made and the winner informed, but due to Christmas holidays I have not yet heard back from them with permission to publish their name in this newsletter. If it is you, I’ll look forward to hearing from you and working alongside you to make 2009 a very special year. If it is not you, there will be another chance to win in the next draw at the end of June, and you can take up the offer of a free consultation at any time, just email me to make an appointment.
Inspiring links
This may be rather 'sugary' for some tastes, but contains a universal truth about making a difference all the same, click here for the video link.
I welcome any comments or feedback - if you feel inspired!
all best wishes
Mary
