Spirituality, Therapy, and the Good Life

Here’s a link to a list of job boards that focus on social and or environmentally responsible jobs.

http://www.youtube.com/v/ouWdjYDWl0Y&hl=en&fs=1

In this six minute video Van Jones talks about how the break down of our economy and the peril to our planet can lead to a break through offering tremendous opportunity. While watching the video, I found myself repeatedly thinking about how wonderful it would be to bring “the green for all” movement here to Lewiston/Auburn.

The folks at Green For All would like those of us in cities and towns across the country to know and then act on the following: ” Between now and June, your Mayor and local officials must come up with a plan to secure and implement President Obama’s Economic Recovery funds. Does your Mayor have a plan yet? Do you know what that plan is? This may be the most important opportunity you’ll ever have to bring green-collar jobs to your community.” You can read more here

What are Mayors’ Jenkins and Gilberts plans?

The L/A time bank is a wonderful gift to the Lewiston/Auburn community. How does it work? “Time Dollars are a type of community currency that anyone can earn by using their time, energy, skills, and talents to help others. One hour of service provided to another human being or to the community earns one Time Dollar. You can spend your Time Dollars on any number of services.” To join or to learn more about the program, call 207-782-5783, ext. 1607.

You can also pay a visit to The Hour Exchange in Portland to learn more about Time Dollar programs in general

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month and the Child Welfare Information Gateway has a number of resources to offer parents and other caregivers at their website. A good resources for residents of Maine is The Maine children’s Trust and a resource that offers information regarding activities and happenings in Maine of interest to parents is Raising Maine

What comes to mind as you read the following questions: ” “How bad is it?” “How bad will it hurt?” “How worried should I be?” “How much worse will it get?” “How much time do we have?” “How did this happen?” Do these seem by any chance like questions that someone who has just discovered that he or she is ill might ask? And does it seem to you that these kind of questions are getting asked a whole lot these days? It does to me. One definition of disease is ‘a lack of ease,’ and the escalating threats of a dying planet and seriously ailing economy are most definitely making many of us more than a little uneasy (and leaving some of us quaking. )

In “The Discovery of the Unconscious,” historian Henri Ellenberger described a process whereby illness in addition to being painful, debilitating, and frightening can also be evolutionary and transformative. He called this phenomenon, ‘creative illness.’ Serious Illness and dis-ease often lead us to confront issues that we haven’t truly faced before, and to ask the kind of questions that seldom (if ever) have easy answers. Today, many of us are earnestly asking questions that we’ve long avoided such as, “what will we need to do differently, more efficiently, sustainably and now as we face global warming?” and, “how must we behave, think, and live differently in order to survive the harsh new economic realities?” Ready or not, we have been launched on a quest -a quest that threatens, challenges, and frightens us.

Quests by definition are initiated by questions, some of which have the potential to distract and overwhelm us, particularly those that are all too often accompanied by complicated and even contradictory answers. Poet Rainer Maria Rilke advised us to love questions, while another poet, Mary Oliver, suggests that there is ultimately only one question that we need to ask ourselves and that is, “how to love this world?”

It’s my belief that the outcome of our collective quest will have a great deal to do with the quality of the questions that we ask ourselves along the way, and I am dearly hoping that through the questions we ask and the courage and integrity required in not only seeking, but then living the answers, we will in the end be stronger, deeper, wiser, and more creative, and that through our questing we will be both transformed and redeemed.

The US Deptartment of Health and Human Services recently created a guide that can be viewed and downloaded online to assist folks in getting through tough economic times. The guide provides information regarding the effects struggles with finances can have on both physical and mental health and provides advice on the following:

Possible health risks
Warning signs
Managing stress
Getting help
Suicide warning signs
Other steps you can take

You can read the full guide here

Just read two articles written by Leo Babauta at Zen Habits that I thought might be a good idea to share. They are:

Steps Toward a More Sustainable Life of Less and The Cure for What Ails You: How to Beat the Misery of Discontentment

Less truly can be more, really, trust me….

The poem “Meditatation on Ruin” by Jay Hoppler featured on The Writer’s Almanac today would be a particularly good poem to process in our “quake to quest” group. We each encounter on a regular basis those “unremarkable” frustrations, losses, and wounds to our egos, to our hearts, and to our souls. And yes, over the years they certainly can, and do, contribute to our unraveling. Still, what about those other seemingly inconsequential and uncelebrated moments that are contained within our days – the magical dance of sunlight through a prism, a kind word from a stranger, a rainbow, a starry sky, the sweet embrace of a small child, a warm and delicious meal… What do all of these small gifts amount to, where do they ultimately lead?

I think I’ll suggest to the “Quake to Quest” group this evening that we spend some time processing the “Meditation on Ruin” and then engage in an earnest ‘Mediation on Blessing.’

This morning I was reminded of a wonderful piece of wisdom offered by Parker Palmer. He suggests that “before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen to what it intends to do with you…” Hmmm….