A letter from Sendai; Skype call with Gold Lake Institute

1.  A letter from Sendai, Japan

Alan Zulch whose beautiful photos of Kyoto you can enjoy as a slide show on the left column has a wonderful blog called “The Satoyama Spirit” http://satoyamaspirit.org. 

A few days ago he posted this log:  “A letter from Sendai”

“At this time of nearly unspeakable calamity in Japan, words emanating from within the country are precious. Today, a colleague alerted me to the following, A letter from Sendai, published today in Ode Magazine. It is written by a woman I don’t know, Anne Thomas – a gaijin living in Japan – and it eloquently and movingly captures a profound moment – a confluence of local and global, resilience and acceptance, sharing and generosity, healing and hope – when personal concerns are transcended and our intrinsic oneness is recognized and appreciated, even cherished and celebrated, through a recovery of the simplicity on the other side of complexity. I hope you are as inspired by this letter as I was.”

Read Alan’s log here:  http://satoyamaspirit.org/2011/03/15/a-letter-from-sendai

Read the original Ode article here:  http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/readers_blog/24755/a_letter_from_sendai

Btw, Ode Magazine is “the online community for Intelligent Optimists”.  That speaks to me, I think I’d like to check them out!  Thanks to Alan and his colleague.

Sorry I cannot help quoting some thoughts here:

“It's utterly amazingly that where I am there has been no looting, no pushing in lines. People leave their front door open, as it is safer when an earthquake strikes. People keep saying, "Oh, this is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped one another."”

“I love this peeling away of non-essentials. Living fully on the level of instinct, of intuition, of caring, of what is needed for survival, not just of me, but of the entire group.”

“Other unexpected touches of beauty are first, the silence at night. No cars. No one out on the streets. And the heavens at night are scattered with stars. I usually can see about two, but now the whole sky is filled. The mountains are Sendai are solid and with the crisp air we can see them silhouetted against the sky magnificently.”

“And the Japanese themselves are so wonderful. I come back to my shack to check on it each day, now to send this e-mail since the electricity is on, and I find food and water left in my entranceway. I have no idea from whom, but it is there. Old men in green hats go from door to door checking to see if everyone is OK. People talk to complete strangers asking if they need help.”

~~~

I just find out that Anne posted another log on 110316:

Signs of hope in Sendai

http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/readers_blog/24784/signs_of_hope_in_sendai

I am providing several quotes:

“In evacuation centers there are puppet shows for children. “It’s to ease their minds,” my friend explained to me. “That is very important.” And for the Japanese one’s state of mind often carries more weight than facts. That is because we have some semblance of control over our mind, no matter what the outer circumstances may be.”

“In another shelter junior high school students got paper and paints and made a large bright, energetic sign that said, “To have life is profound joy.” It was hung high overhead so everyone could see it and be encouraged by the words.”

~~~

Please help and donate a little money.  Forego that one dinner and fast instead, refrain from going to the movies, don’t buy that book and get it from the library, and donate the money saved:

Yahoo just put this list of organizations together to which to donate:

“Japan earthquake and tsunami: How to help”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsroom/20110311/wl_yblog_newsroom/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-how-to-help

I found Amazon the quickest way to donate:

“American Red Cross: Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami”

http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=tsm_1_fb_s_atst_lhwuei?&node=2673660011  

This Google resource page is excellent:

http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

This link contains message boards and people finder websites:

http://www.sf.us.emb-japan.go.jp/archives/PR_e/2011/pr_11_0311.htm

And as if we/they didn’t have enough:  This National Geographic article is not for the faint-hearted”:

“Japan Earthquake Not the "Big One"?”  Megaquake long predicted—but in totally different region

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110315-japan-earthquake-tsunami-big-one-science/

2.  Skype call with Gold Lake Institute

Yesterday I had a wonderful Skype conference or group call with David Brand from the Gold Lake Institute or GLI http://goldlakeinstitute.org to whom I dedicated a log on 110304.  He and his two Gold Lake colleagues Anne-Marie Marron and Sandra Visser as well as my dear Boulder friend Sylvia Rognstad (an extraordinary costume designer http://d-e-designs.com/portfolio btw) and I had a wonderful first round of getting to know each other’s visions.

Our ventures are complementary and what I particularly like is that neither initiative requires any products or services (i.e. miracle gismos or wonder potions) to be purchased and applied in a “How-to-Reach-Enlightenment-Overnight” kind of scheme. Instead, we draw from the universal gifts accessible everywhere, by everyone, and at all times through our own minds and hearts.  Hence our approaches demonstrate self-sufficiency, self-reliance, independence, and freedom.  A circle of enrichment.  Both our ventures involve group meetings, draw from the community’s resources, and contribute back to the community.   Both endeavors also display a model which can be duplicated or applied any- and everywhere in society.  We have a blue print which can serve many societal levels and geographies.

The GLI offers Wisdom Labs and I think that wisdom and enjoyment go hand in hand.  Can they be considered two sides of one coin? 

Does the truly wise not carry a joyful heart ~

And is the truly happy not solidly grounded in wisdom?

David was asking in what kind of cooperation we may be able to engage.  I was thinking that we could approach a Boulder business known to conduct a research program free of charge.  Sandra’s idea to combine a CultivatingEnjoyment through Appreciation session with a Wisdom Lab is superb.  Sandra remembered from a workshop with Nancy Kline http://www.timetothink.com that Nancy included appreciation as an aspect in her group discussions when she took one of her courses.  I read on Nancy’s website:  “A Thinking Environment® is a powerful framework for thinking.  It is the set of ten behaviours, now known as The Ten Components of a Thinking Environment.  In the presence of these ten behaviours people think for themselves with rigour, imagination, courage and grace.”  One of these ten components is appreciation.  I want to write to Nancy to see what she would suggest in terms of setting up our groups in society.

Coming back to a possible cooperation between both our groups I thought that we could offer a Boulder firm or nonprofit organization a 12 month program with featuring one meeting per month.  Since a business has the leeway of offering such a group session in the morning I could certainly facilitate the CultivatingEnjoyment through Appreciation part via Skype.  We would then use the positive feedback which we would invariably receive for developing a bona fide program plan that we could then offer to businesses for a charge.

During our sessions our roles would be those of facilitators.  We would set the stage for kindling the joy and the wisdom inherent in everyone working for a for-profit business, in public service, or for a non-profit organization.  An environment would be created for the employees to open up and connect to their inner core wisdom and joy.  One of my Masters used to say:  “Do less and accomplish more.”  And yet we are taught “to work hard” and “no pain, no gain”, etc., and these old paradigms still seem to be deeply rooted in us.

I believe, for instance, that sick people call the healing powers to them through their strengthened desire to be well again.  Dependent on the facilitator/s in which they believe (the medication, the operation, the healer, etc.), the belief in that facilitator will cause the sick persons to release their resistance and to open up to nature’s immense ability to heal their own bodies, or rather to restore the wellness that they are meant to live.

I think what we need in this world is a greater reliance on our own capabilities, our own potential.  We need to learn to open up to our Inner Being, to our world or core within.  Through that connection we can increasingly draw and more from the unbounded reservoir of the universe, from nature’s omniscience and omnipotence.  Let’s become more self-sufficient and self-supporting.  It is also called authentic, genuine, and true.

I am certainly looking forward to be forging a closer relationship with the Gold Lake Institute.  They are way ahead of us:  They have established a 501©3, been conducting Wisdom Labs for almost one year, set up a structure for offering these labs, are comprised of about a dozen people, and are starting to get to know in the Boulder area.

~~~

Write to me:  CultivatingEnjoyment_at_gmail_dot_com

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