I’m Outta Here!

I woke up this morning, wondering; part of me still in a dream state, part of me not. Solidly grounded as I am, as well as a dreamer, I couldn’t quite move beyond my morning musings to knowing where next to place my step; how to walk myself into this new day.

Later I realized that maybe it's just that I'm sometimes feeling lost these days, as well as found!

It’s kind of strange, especially since the Summer Solstice. My life seems so obviously abundant in, of all things -- miracles! 

I don’t quite know how to “be” in it and with it.

The old scripts I had become accustomed to, especially the one I call my “Chicken Little Syndrome/the sky is falling” script just seem to have evaporated; almost gone poof.  But, of course, you know, if you know me, I have really worked my tail feathers off to get here, wherever that may be.

Take my birthday for example.

My birthday celebration radio show was a beautiful and gratifying way to mark that day, especially the surprise that came right at the end of the show! I hope you enjoyed it, if you listened in at broadcast time or after on podcast. The experience made clear to me, once again, that the sharing of stories is a richly endowed endeavor. This time it was about how we’ve each moved from “there to here."

Those who joined me on that show, briefly, reached awe through that show. It was amazingly simple, as well as complex. Perhaps, someday, I will find it timely to tell the story of how the profound interweaving of what occurred on the air with what was, simultaneously, occurring behind the scenes, brought me, as well as some of the others, to “awe”  by our simply being together in shared participation.

Awe is such a challenging
mountain to climb.

“Awe” is that moment of unity when clarity, connection and wholeness are realized; a worthy and challenging place to be. As earth plane people, “awe” is not, however, easily sustainable. We are called, by the very nature of our human existence to move forward from such moments on to our next steps beyond this.

We climb and climb in our minds and our hearts, striving to reach this peak called awe. The air gets lighter, the vista broader, the energy vibration more subtle. You can see farther and wider, but it is only an ephemeral experience. The sustaining is every bit as demanding as the climb, if not even more so.

My Anastasia The Storyteller Radio Show is presently a lot about remembrances and reflections about my journey, as it has been to date, with my personal stories the launching pad for the shared stories of others.

Having shared this story with you, now I think I realize where for me to go from “here.” 

I get it!  I see!

This past year from last birthday to this one has been awe-filled, one day after another, especially since our Summer Solstice community-building event day.

 It stands to reason, therefore, in my book, that my next steps should be about taking a vacation, getting away into a totally different environment; a change of pace and scenery so I can get some perspective about what is happening to me and around me.  So I can be prepared for what’s happening next.

Do you SEE it too; this brave new world?

Yup! These are the next right steps for me; packing my bags and getting outta here so I can find out if it’s true; the goddess is alive and magic is afoot.

So this week I think I’m going to tie up loose ends and head for an isolated Canadian island for a vacation with my spirit sister, Sue.  

Yup! That’s it! These are my next right steps.

But I’m not gone yet. I’ll be back at least to say hi and good-by.

From Anastasia the Storyteller who lives high in the hills, everyday in abundance.

We got to awe!

Together we got to awe! Now I am on my second day of celebrating my birth-day!

An awesome
birthday!

It’s taking that long – and – longer to celebrate this one!

A new phase has begun in my life; a rite of passage granted by having done what I was supposed to do. In earth plane terms that was making it all the way through that tricky radio show, yesterday, with its many technology problems and coming through to the awe.

I thought of rites of passage as I was contemplating my morning “talk to G-d” rituals and what yesterday’s event brought me. (A tribal Jew such as I always pays attention to these.)

In that moment a passage in a book I had journeyed into, preparing for my birthday celebrations came to me.  Here is what it said that I knew, at once, was a personal message to me.

From Jamie Sams in “Sacred Path Cards,” offering Native American wisdom on “Rites of Passage” …

….. when a member is being initiated into the mysteries of new levels of awareness. These new levels of understanding and spiritual knowledge are opened only to those who have earned the right through the way they live their lives.

That be ME on this birthday!

Yesterday’s radio show was the initiation.

You had to be there to be in it! All the way through.

That’s how “awe” is; collective, determined, persistent, courage, loving.

There meant listening in to the whole of the radio show which had an amazing surprise ending.

And, being a part of the conference call-in segment that lasted over an hour.

Listen to the podcast of “Hot Pants, Motorcycles and K Street” on my Anastasia The Storyteller Radio Show for the first part.

Contact me by email at: zonesofpeacenh@aol.com for the private conference call in recording codes, given out only by special request and permission.

Awesome! We are on our way.

More to come.

Thanks and thanks and thanks again to all for helping me have a majestic, off the charts of the earth plane birthday.

Anastasia

Celebrate the miracle of me, the miracle of YOU!

Anastasia’s On-Air Birthday Party, July 18, 2013

11:30 a.m.

Anastasia The Storyteller Radio Show

Show title: Hot Pants, Motorcycles and K Street:

In the time before Watergate

Birthday party details here.

Anastasia’s On-Air Birthday Party, July 18, 2013

Your invitation to Anastasia’s On-air Storytelling Birthday Event --

on the “Anastasia The Storyteller Radio Show”

Reserve Early! (Details below at *)

Date: Thursday, July 18, 2013

Time: 11:30 a.m. on-air broadcast. Radio show call number: (773) 897.6393

             12:00 pm – 1:00 p.m. conference call-in discussion

                                 Conference call-in: 712.432.0600, access code: 640883

Both portions recorded.

Program format as follows:

·         11:30 a.m. -- Anastasia begins radio show program, telling a story of how she got from “there to here.”

There = “Before Watergate: Hot Pants, Motorcycles and K Street.” (See show description)

·         Guests are invited to ask one or two questions to draw Anastasia out on this story;

·         Or, offer personal reflections or insights about the story;

·         11:45 a.m. Guests, on-air or on the conference call that follows, offer stories of their own (approximate time should be about five minutes);

·         Anastasia and other guests, next, ask one or two questions about this story from the teller and/or offer reflections on it;

·        Noon: All are invited to continue storytelling and discussions via conference call.

·         And, so it will go until we feel finished for this time;

Bring the following to share on the air, as time allows and/or on the conference call.

1.       One or two questions to draw Anastasia’s story out for the other listeners.

2.      A willingness to, spontaneously, offer your insights and/or reflections about this story;

3.     A story of your own to share of about five minutes or so.

Anastasia Cell: 240.09.5347

(for guidance and support on participation and advance storytelling sharing.)

*Reservations: 

To reserve, please send your name, phone number and email address to Anastasia at: zonesofpeacenh@aol.com in advance of program. =

This will enable Anastasia to look for your call-in number on the studio board and open up a mike for you, if you choose. This is not obligatory. Please feel free to be only a listener, if you wish.

On-air guest space is limited.

Radio show and conference call space is not. 

A Clearing In The Forest

Photos are of volunteers, Anastasia, Chris and Sue, working together, preparing for our recent Summer Solstice Community Building Event, June 22, 2013.

The title song, “A Clearing in the Forest” was written and sung by Kate Wolfe. It used to be one of the songs we would sing-a-long to, helping us celebrate our “clearing in the forest” at New Horizons’ Harpers Ferry Retreat Center;  a safe, healing space that was a special “place for you and me.” And is now rising again.

In the years before my blindness era, New Horizons’ Harpers Ferry Retreat Center overflowed with the abundance that only personal and collective transformation can generate. Each month for a good many years, New Horizons’ “Truth or Dare” Game Weekends (formerly called the Discount Derby) brought our counterculture community members together, regularly, as these seekers of truth gathered to assist one another  in climbing out of personal and relationship clutter to the higher realms of consciousness.

Anastasia "clean sweeping"
her goddess rock.

They were, trusting me to guide them on a path built on the value that “the truth will set you free.” And, more and more conscious we did grow in ways that only a committed endeavor such as this can foster, not only through these weekend events, but in between through our weekly support groups. Win-win was the essence of our “Game.”

How unique and liberating was all of this. And, how I did hunger for that ambiance in the years since 1998 when it was so out of my reach.

Win-win and the other attributes that made our “Game” what it was for the close to twenty-five years it continued -- and what we each took from it --- became a way of life. Students of mine, to this day, still hold that Game and that New Horizons community of old with reverence; a guiding light of “what not to do” and “what to do” to fill one’s life with meaning, connection and health.

Chris, our on-site handyman
and "supervisor."

Now, with the coming together, bonding and spirit of devotion already sparked by our first community building gathering “since Anastasia lost her eyesight” on June 22, I believe, that what seemed as if lost now appears to be only an arm’s length away; I did not quit before the miracle.

What has brought this about?  Vision, dedication, support and donations of time, talent and treasures – and -- of all things-- the dark side of politics, 2008 –2013. And, trust by some of us in what is not so readily seen by the blind eye.

Who would have thought it? Go figure.

Details are developing, but there is no absence of the principles that make up the practice, if you visit New Horizons’ Small “Zones of Peace” Project blog site. The practice is a way of life; a building small “zones of peace” way of life.



Sue packs a mean arm
for raking