My Cup Runneth Over!

I got to thinking this morning, after posting an announcement for tomorrow evening’s Coffee House Conversation by Conference Call, that all of a sudden coffee/tea cups had become a symbol of something to me; something warm and cozy, relaxed and happy.

But what was that something?  I had not an inkling.

The notion started to form yesterday but I didn’t, actually, realize a significance to it until just a short while ago.

Then I wondered about this growing awareness. 

What was this something that coffee/tea cups were starting to mean to me?

As I often do I thought to tell my best friend, spirit sister, peace buddy/collaborator, Sue, about it.  She had a few spare moments so was willing to ponder the point at hand with me.

Always eager to explore meanings and symbols in the abstract, it didn’t take but a minute for her to be in the “game” with me.

A coffee/tea cup?

Now what could that mean to me, Anastasia? Did the damp and the dreariness of the day have a thing or two about it as a connection?

Not much I decided.

But, aha, there it was!

New Horizons’ sponsored forthcoming Coffee House Conversation by Conference Call, scheduled for tomorrow evening, Thursday, held the magnetism that was drawing my attention to the idea of a cup!

I had been in the process of posting an announcement for that event when my first awareness of a generic cup surfaced. The generic cup became something to me before it became a cup, specifically the one pictured above. 

I was developing a feeling, an emotion about cups. I had never had such before! But still what did the coffee/tea cup mean for me in that context?

I mused on the image.

Then there it was!

Coffee/tea cups had come to symbolize friendships, gatherings, community, relaxation, hanging out with folks, informality, sharing, inspiration, fun, expanded consciousness, camaraderie, new ideas, inspiration, collective ideals, “a possible society in motion.”

Got it! My cup runneth over! Then I saw it full.  Awesome!

There it is – the meaning of a cup for me had come to meaning human sustenance of the finest quality, in every imaginable color, shape and size -- cups, symbols of the people and what I share with them.

Over the past year coffee/tea cups (I don’t drink coffee, actually) have grown to represent the personal and interactive richness New Horizons’ Coffee House Conversations has brought into my life through the many friends, new and old, it has drawn together to share an intention to better ourselves in the company of like-minded others.

Now Jack Slattery, my Possible Society In Motion Radio Show co-host, and myself are striving to bring that same ambiance to our expanded format of Coffee House Conversations by Conference Call.  Yumm.

My heart is already warming to the occasion, my mind yearning for the inspiration that will come of the camaraderie.

Umm! Coffee and tea cups plus a bit of a Coffee House  Conversation right from our living rooms (or wherever)!

I am yearning for the good times. I hope you will be too. And that you will join us for the ambiance, if nothing else.

Here are the details.

On The Experience of Awe: The Grand and The Tiny

There is a wonderful definition of “awe” on the New Horizons Small “Zones of Peace” blog site. Also on that site are a handful of articles related to the general theme of “awe” as New Horizons regards it. Most significantly for me and the whole of what New Horizons stands for, at its core, are references to books written by our Beloved, now deceased community development mentor, Murat Yagan; many having “Awe” as a part of his sub-titles.

This should give you a hint that the experience of “awe” is right up there in terms of importance to all New Horizons is and does.

“Awe,” however, is not an easily described, much less readily attained experience. When it comes, rare as it is, it is truly a blessing of the highest acclaim.

I was having a text message conversation this morning with my dear friend, Chief Kim Dine, Chief of the Capitol Police (Washington, D.C. Police), about his experience last week of being totally on the front lines providing security for the Pope.

The bottom line here seems to be that as the Chief’s task was security, awesomeness took a bit of a back seat. Still my friend, the Chief, did report feeling honored, especially in shaking hands with this most revered of spiritual leaders. But more than anything else he was  glad the visit ended with security going off so very well. 

Intuitively, however, it seems that Chief Dine, along with the millions of others fortunate enough to share a relatively close space with the Pope, experienced a touch of awe at those happenings. 

Suffice it to say – love and laughter, joy and light helped to make up the vibration we might call “awe” that surrounded the Pope.

Today I am rejoicing a bit that New Horizons Coffee House Conversations Volunteer Team, also, had a tiny taste of awe at our planning meeting yesterday.  Working with our local City Police at that coming together we began to experience the “awe” of a developing trust and unity as a functioning team. That was uplifting and inspiring enough to be awe for me. 

Yet it was only a baby step, albeit in the right direction, of where we want to take ourselves; from an ordinary community of lofty ideals to an exceptional community living out those ideals, day-by-day, for real. I am gratified to see us in this kind of motion.

Another OMG Day!

If you’ve been a regular reader of my blogs you’ve already come to see that I am a person of regular, incredible highs and offsetting declines, now and then. Born under the sign of Cancer I am, by nature, this way, along with a sensitive, extremely home-oriented inclination which you might have also noticed.

Why else, do you think I would have to almost fight with myself to leave this gorgeous mountainside abode I share with New Horizons?  I am, without a doubt, an earth-bound mountain woman, traveling constantly between heaven and earth – and – here is my playing field and launching pad.

I believe I travel more miles in a given day, without using a single frequent flyer mile, than most others would even care to consider.  The spiritually inclined would call this the life of “Shaman” which I readily acknowledge myself to be.

But how do those of other persuasions make sense of such proclamations, without writing off individuals such as I, as simply being navel gazers; a term I abhor and find most insulting? Suffice it to say, at least on my part, that my being blind has played a far from insignificant part in this way of being for me.

Statue of Helen Keller

Just as I was going blind, Labor Day weekend, 1998, the words below of Helen Keller jumped, dramatically, right across my path. (This is an amazing story that, today, seventeen years later to the day, I am incredulous at its happening. But I will save the details for another time.)

Helen Keller said and I came to believe that …

The spiritual world offers no difficulty to one who is (deaf and) blind. Nearly everything in the natural world is as vague, as remote from my senses, as spiritual things seem to the minds of most people.

I think my journey into blindness and out, after seven eye surgeries, would have been something much different had I not found those words that very day I lost my eyesight! If nothing else these words helped me never lose my VISION though I could not physically see with my eyes.

Nonetheless, being blind was an incredibly challenging and horrific ordeal that the words of Helen Keller and the guidance of my Beloved Spiritual/Community Development mentor, Murat Yagan, and the Kebzeh community surrounding him, helped me through and to keep finding the Light in my Darkness.

These are the elements, along with the gorgeous land I live on, that brought me a jolt, this morning, of seeing a definitive landscape in my mind’s eye, along with my very own detailed triptik, for a short term, mid-term and long-range plan, for my life’s journey from here forth.

Could it be? I am almost pinching myself to be sure!

Will it work out the way I am seeing it today? I cannot possibly know the outcome, only thge path to follow. But now I know to keep following the instructions I receive, make adjustments as needed and “just keep swimming,” as Dore, the fish suggested.

I have been following this blueprint since the day I lost my eyesight. The one I had previously conjured up fell by the wayside, limited, extensively, by my over-exaggerated belief that I was the ONE in charge.

Now, I am working off a blueprint in my mind’s eye with a “light at my feet and a voice behind me” telling me how and where to travel. My most important task for the adventure is to stay healthy which I do my best to accomplish, day-by-day, – and – be willing to take instructions. 

At the time this new plan came to me on the day I lost my eyesight, I could see nothing ahead and had only "blind" faith to guide me – and – endless prayers that I could survive.  Thus you might well imagine how joyful and free I feel today that I awoke this morning and could see, clearly, in my mind’s eye, a blueprint laid out for me – with enough details to allow me a bit of security and confidence.

So, today, as yesterday and tomorrow – and – almost every single day since I regained my eyesight I am celebrating and thanking my Divine Guide for another OMG day that I did survive my blindness ordeal and that I can SEE, physically and spiritually!

Nonetheless for those who are fully earth plane dwellers, I thought you might like to see what the practical side of this blueprint looks like.  Our readers, followers of like-minded people and supporters sometimes have a bit of trouble being able to put the moving pieces together of what New Horizons and myself are up to. Please do feel free to comment and ask us to clarify further, if you are inclined. We want to travel with you!

The organizational chart below for New Horizons Support Network, Inc. priorities is offered below to help us clarify the path of our shared journey a bit for your edification.

Read what we are presenting here.  Then take a leap to just imagine all our moving pieces falling into alignment from the highest ideals to the most practical applications, united with all the other beautiful projects going on each and every day, worldwide, to help make this planet we live on safe and secure for as many people as humanly possible!

Such are our prayers on this Labor Day weekend, 2015.

OMG! How grateful am I for a day like today!

New Horizons Support Network, Inc.:

Organizational Structure and Priority Areas

September 1, 2015