RISHI ROLLING
Hi all,
Some time ago I posted a survey to get readers' thoughts on the topics of marriage, friendship, aging and mortality. I am now posting your answers and commentary at the No Safe Distance blog. I want to thank everyone for the excellent commentary that was added to the survey. Look for many articles and discussions to come based on your feedback at the new site!
Happy 4th, Everyone!
Just a quick note that starting next Friday, the 11th, I will be setting No Safe Distance (the blog) as my primary TypePad blog. What that means is that if you go to laurayoung.typepad.com THAT is the blog that will come up after the 11th, not this one. Don't let it shock you. Dragon Slayer's Guide to Life is NOT going away, though the posting will likely be less than the nearly daily posting I have been doing. The direct web address for this blog is http://laurayoung.typepad.com/dragonslaying. If you want to make sure you don't miss future posts, simply subscribe via the feeblitz window in the right sidebar or add me to whatever aggregator you prefer.
In the coming week I will be posting results from the survey many of you participated in a while back on the No Safe Distance blog. Lots of great commentary from all of you so make sure you check back for those posts.
I am proud to be a co-sponsor of this FORGE event
Loving Through Trauma: A Day of Connection and Healing for Lovers
Milwaukee, July 12, 2008 - 9:30am - 5:00pm
All too often, only direct survivors of child abuse, domestic violence, sexual violence, and hate crimes are offered support and services. This practice ignores what trauma-informed practitioners know: trauma deeply affects all the survivor's relationships, many times in ways that neither the victim nor significant other(s) recognize or understand. These effects can last a lifetime.
Although relationships can be negatively affected by past trauma, they also represent a very rich opportunity for healing trauma survivors and deepening their interpersonal connections. In this all day retreat, partners, lovers, and close friends will join together to gently and innovatively explore how trauma affects their relationship and how they can heal together.
In this unique, creative, and very practical workshop, trauma-informed facilitators will employ creative arts, movement, negotiated touch, partner and small-group discussions, communication exercises, and introspective techniques to give participants insights, tools, and skills they can use to promote deeper levels of understanding, compassion and healing in all of their relationships.
Although the workshop will address the ramifications of many types of trauma, it is designed for people who are past the acute phase of their recovery but whose relationships are still affected by intrusive thoughts, hypervigilance, lack of trust, and other long-term trauma consequences. Those who are in an actively abusive relationship are not appropriate for this workshop.
Download loving_through_trauma2008.pdf
More information is available at:
http://www.forge-forward.org/transviolence/lovingthroughtrauma.php
Pre-registration is required. $120/dyad (couple). Some scholarships are available. Print your registration form at: http://www.forge-forward.org/transviolence/docs/loving_through_trauma_registration2008.pdf
I know this is going to make you get all weepy, Mom. Thanks, Erin, for posting it. Ya'll should go check out Wandering Woman's blog for some great posts and gorgeous photography if you haven't been there in a while.
Hard at work today catching up after a lost month and in the process seeing who is who among my FB peeps. One of them led me to this little ditty and you know, it's just a catchy little tune and the penguins made me smile. So, hey, if you are working too hard today and just need something mindless and fun for a 5 minute break, here ya go...
For those of you not as fortunate as I am to be one of Farmer John's CSA supporters, you can still benefit from Angelic Organics resources. They have archived many of their newsletters with all kinds of recipes, have posted info on storing veggies, and, of course, you can see what is on Farmer John's mind.
For those of you in the Chicago area, yes, I highly recommend the veggies and the fruit shares are absolutely outstanding.
What is that saying? "Perfection is the enemy of the good?"
Or is it, "The best way to start is to begin?"
Well, with my life with Scott in the middle of the Curly Shuffle right now, I really lost the entire last month of working on the new site (and answering an impressive backlog of e-mails, sorry about that). I still have a list as long as my leg of things I need and want to do before I was going to unveil it, but at this rate I won't be able to have everything in place like it is in my head until Christmas. I am realizing that my life really is structured differently now and it is going to take a while to get into a flow. Here's the insider's view:
The good news is, we're a lot healthier. We even got in a 50 mile bike ride this weekend AND I was able to walk the next day. It has been 12 years since we have ridden that far. My eyes are also appreciating that I don't spend 10 hours at a time at the screen. Working in smaller chunks is a lot healthier but the transition to a more sensible DAILY balance (as opposed to an overall weekly balance) is taking some getting used to.
We're eating better, too (thanks in part to Farmer John's vegetables). In fact, dealing with a very tasty and wonderful but FULL 3/4 bushel of veggies every week is also a time commitment. You thought I was kidding about the Curly Shuffle? You should see me with the salad spinner lately.
All that considered, and knowing that I do have SOMETHING to show you patient people (especially since NoSafeDistance is a co-sponsor for FORGE's Loving Through Trauma retreat!) I thought I'd just...begin. I'll give you a heads up when a major leap or new launch (like the fabled book of photography) happens, but you can now zip over to the new site whenever you want and see how it is coming along.
And, every bit as exciting, and VERY meaty, I have the new blog up! (You'll be able to see the running feed in the left sidebar whenever you are here.) Today's post is long and in depth so be sure to grab a cup of tea before you head over. I am really very excited about this. And, no, this blog is not being abandoned. The intro post at NSD says more about that.
Okay, I could write more about it here, or actually work on it there...how about I see you over there?
A treat from one of my old personal journals for you:
Reading Thomas Merton's The Inner Experience calls to mind my recent frustrations of finding terms to describe myself...coach...whatever. I've been yearning to be nameless, undefined, free to travel into whatever territory calls me.
So now I think about "I" and who that is, exactly. Is there actually a real person behind the pronoun when people use it? I would suggest that of course there is, but perhaps not a complete one, or perhaps the "I" represents an aspect or part of the larger whole.
Perhaps a useful exercise is to stop, internally, on occassion when we hear ourselves utter the pronoun "I" even in our thoughts and ask ourselves "Which I?" When I say, "I want to have sushi" when you ask what I want for dinner is this actually what I want or is it a response to my internal thought, "I think you want sushi so I'll say I want sushi, too." Is the I that says "I want sushi" the "I" that wishes to please, or wishes to avoid conflict, or is fearful of stating an unpopular opinion, or that seeks to love or to be loved or to be generous? It may be very far removed from the "I" that is hungry or the "I" who loves sushi or the "I" who is comfortable asking for what I want.
(Uh huh, you know you love me when I get like this...it's a good exercise though, yeah?)
This was a comment from Erin on an old post in a long abandoned blog of mine. Given my recent posts on alone time, recent changes in my life and her experience serving the pilgrims along the Camino de Santiago, I just had to salvage it. Turns out the comment is timeless. Priceless.
Erin and I have both found that whenever we set our minds to something, or voice something we intend to do or might like, or you know, have a fantasy about running away to be contemplatives and leave the rat race behind, we get immediate tests on our convictions from the Universal Bus Driver we affectionately refer to as Ralphie. (Ralph Kramden).
Hee hee hee. OK, now I´m laughing MY butt off, but just a little. I do like knowing these "Oh yeh, did you think you really meant that?" gauntlets are evenly distributed.
BTW, I wouldn't spend too much time on the monastery fantasy. Reading a cool book I picked up on my monastery vaca - a juicy history of the Carthusians in Spain, and it's got it all - power struggles, pithy marketing copy to get to be prior, jostling to get out of lonely bell duty and promoted to the library, a murder or two, children with the milkmaid....I'm thinking there's no escape.
Practice is practice wherever you put yourself...
Although singing daily would be nice.
Just to muddy the waters a bit, here is another perspective on career change.
Women executives who leave the corporate world when they hit a glass ceiling, want to raise a family full-time or decide to focus on other interests, encounter frustrating roadblocks in their attempts to re-enter the workforce, according to Wharton research. To overcome the obstacles, women should confront the difficulties they face and prepare for their return to the labor force the moment they leave, says Monica McGrath, adjunct professor of management at Wharton, executive coach and co-author of the study entitled, "Back in the Game: Returning to Business after a Hiatus - Experiences and Recommendations for Women, Employers, and Universities." Read more.
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