Forest Bathing Sanctuary Event Re-Scheduled …

Rescheduled, again, for Saturday, October 31, a Halloween Party In The Making. 

Look for details.

,,,but, first let me tell you about how our First “Official" Forest Bathing Sanctuary Event turned out.

Saturday, August 22, original date: 

Weathered out. Heavy rains predicted.
Event rescheduled for following Saturday.

A slice of our
Forest Bathing Sanctuary

Saturday, August 29:

All was going well. Or, so we believed until…Chaos erupted when ...

...an unprepared guest arrived, who needed to pee pee, only to discover there was no available bathroom anywhere nearby. 

And she, citified and unschooled in the ways of Girl Scouts who had gone into forests before her, went into a panic.  Oh, dear! Oh, dear! What an upset.

Her accompanying friend, forewarned, had come with her own toilet paper and was quite willing to share though pee pee woman was having none of it -- and hightailed out of here.

Nonetheless, our wise and wonderful ad hoc Council of Elders is monitoring the scene and making every effort to actively extend the gifts of our exceptional community approach, including: 1. Leaning in; 2. Dialoguing, rather than debating the situation and who was right or wrong; 3. Seeking to manage this upset by "climbing our own unique mountain of awe" to find our way through the challenges.

We'll update you on this when there is more to tell.

Meanwhile ....

Next Forest Bathing Sanctuary Event: 
Halloween Eve Saturday, October 31. 
Details forthcoming.

Now about YOUR pre-arranged visit to the NH/ZOP Forest Bathing Sanctuary…

We are not quite ready for you just yet. However, if and when you do join us out here in the mountains, please remember to bring your own toilet paper!

Snake control problems. They exist for me although Board Member Sue, our onsite environmental expert and woods woman, with her M. Ed., Environmental Education, says she’s yet to see one while my position is: so what, we do have the real, meaning copperhead and eastern rattlers up here. I've seen the former myself.

And of course Black Bears think of us as welcoming neighbors.

Actually, it’s only my high-up-on-the-side-of-the -mountain neighbor who has seen one of these, as far as I know.

Oh well.  This is mountain living and we are working toward sharing a piece of it with you, as soon as we are able, knowing how very much many of you are already looking forward to a day in the mountains with us, soon.

NH/ZOP Forest Bathing Sanctuary Details

Limit: 4 guests. 
Masks must be worn and safe social-distancing practices observed. 
Of course, we are now wait-listing reservations into November.

No fees for our NH/ZOP group events, at this time.

Donations are invited and encouraged in Time, Talent and Treasures: We especially appreciate $$$$$, as we are still just getting off the ground with remodeling.

Private Forest Bathing parties can be arranged.  

Details and Reservations, contact: Anastasia at: MountainWomanRJ@aol.com
.

Announcing: NH/ZOP First “Official” Forest Bathing Event

The Board Members of the New Horizons/Small “Zones of Peace” (NH/ZOP) invite you to attend -- 

NH/ZOP's First
“Official” Forest Bathing Day

A safe day in the woods
(Donations are welcome)

Saturday, August 22, 2020

1:00 p.m. until after sundown

Interested in attending? See contact info below.

Our guest limit is 4 (four). Including NH/ZOP Board members on-site (2) for the day = 6 on ten acres. 

Not bad for a safe social-distancing arrangement!  Social distancing protocols observed. Mask wearing expected.

Schedule of Events

Pandemic Survivors Discussion and Support Group for this event, postponed until next scheduled Forest Bathing Day, tentatively set for September 19 or 26 tba.

The Thinker
NH/ZOP Board Member,
Sue deVeer
at our gaming table
in the woods

1:00 to 5:00 p.m. – 

Environmental Educator, Sue deVeer, M… will guide a series of experiential processes, leading guests into a variety of deep ecological exploring activities.

Possible activities to be included: Tree talking, cairn and labryinthe building planning, guided meditation.

5:00 to 5:30 p.m. --  Dinner – bring a bag dinner, snacks and beverages.

6:00 p.m. until ?– – Storytelling at the Fire Circle. By invitation only. 

Conference call participation is welcomed, joining onsite guests. 

See RSVP details beliw

Only a very limited number of guests who have advance reservations will be physically onsite for the event. They know who they are. No one else will be permitted.

RSVP: New Horizons/ZOP Board Member Sue deVeer at: Cell: 240.367.4403, email: suedeveer @juno.com.

Also, find out from Sue about our paid and volunteer intern positions.

Shining A Light On New Horizons Council of Elders

I dreamed a dream, visioned a vision, more than twenty years ago; New Horizons would create our very own special, unique version of a “Council of Elders.” Last night at our final Summer In The Mountains community gathering, we finally did it!

With that as a backdrop as well as the main feature, Sue deVeer, my Spirit Sistah collaborator, and I celebrated the ten year anniversary of our adventure of developing New Horizons Small “Zones of Peace” Project. And our “official” Council of Elders was anointed; Anastasia, Sue and Paul.

Read about our "debut" in 

Making Violence Obsolete Debuts Penultimate Conflict Resolution Process

Oh my, oh my. There have been so many blessings and mini miracles to bring us from there to here. Many intriguing stories to tell!

Where was “there” you might be asking?

It was the “Middle East Crisis In “Our” Backyard” that actually brought us from there to here. And, it was that life changing incident for me that also apparently made a dent in Sue’s life too, launching us on a shared journey. We can always trace back to its beginning but we do not notice any end in sight.

The beginning was a Jewish Muslim controversy in our local town, inspiring Sue and I to -- put our minds and hearts, our gifts and talents, hopes and dreams and the distress each of us was feeling about this situation --together initially, at the prompting of people we both knew.

So…. as we brought our Summer In The Mountains community gatherings to an official close last night, out in the woods at our Beloved fire circle, Paul, Sue’s husband, our official videographer of the event, captured the essence of how profound and powerful was this year’s conclusion.  

The grand finale was of Sue and I lighting our “anniversary” cake which says it all in spirit, pictures and Paul’s words –

“From a single candle into a bonfire!"

Paul should know!  He has suffered through it all with us – and – not always silently! Nonetheless, here we all are! 

I (Anastasia) was the single light that started us off. Then “we, like our tiny “struggle” to get our candles lit, struggled to birth something that only our idealistic passions could envision. Now, “we,” like the passion and burning energy of our new “Making Violence Obsolete” movement are the bonfire, shining brighter and brighter, as we take our place in our local community – and – beyond, in giving our best to “thinking global, acting local.” 

Add to that, twenty years later or so, back from my original dream/vision, New Horizons has grown into even having our very own “Council of Elders,” at last, till death do us part. (You kinda know when your fellow journeyers are lifers!)

We are so blessed and so grateful! And we have only just begun.

Indeed, magic is afoot!  More to come…

On A More Down To Earth, Practical Level Day Among the High Spirited Ones

Tales from the Sisterhood Of The Traveling Skirt

(Of course our “Traveling Skirt" has a history! Stop by for some summertime storytelling and we’ll tell you all about it with tears and laughter.)

Our lovely volunteers; all members of the "Sisterhood" except one guy, spent Sunday afternoon doing some of what we love best; building community while working on remodeling projects at New Horizons Harpers Ferry Retreat Center.

Spring is here, at last!

So we had a delightful day being together cleaning up, fixing up, getting ready to paint and rake up to so we can be as pretty and nice as we can for all our lovely community gatherings coming soon to this land we love.

Just take a look at some of what we did.

That’s “Our Kim,” community artist hand painting beautiful cabbage roses on one of our dining room cabinets. She makes her artistry look as easy as writing cursive. But none of the others of us could do anything like this but make a smear.

Then there is “Our Sue,” who could single handed build a house, up on a ladder, spring cleaning our cupboards.

Of course, Chris, our Beloved Handy Man, slipped in to do a final, we hope, round of splitting and sawing wood for our enormous wood burning stove, named “Our Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” that heats the entire house.

And, those are my toes and hands, Me, "Keeper of the Skirt."

We are getting ourselves ready for y’all to come join us in our kind of fun lovin’ community building at New Horizons Harpers' Ferry Retreat Center as sunshine and springtime brighten our days ahead.

A fine time was had by all.

We will be happy to soon share our good times with all who want to come and be with us in the good ole summer time. Hope you can/will join us.

Just rewards

I do my best to not minimize how inordinately difficult has been my recovery from a term of extended blindness; five years legally blind plus three more years recovering from the PTSD that, of course, accompanied the ordeal.

Additionally, I do not  minimize how blessed I was to have my/our Beloved community development mentor, Murat Yagan, also, as my spiritual guide through this time of great challenge.

Would I have/could I have, on my own, summoned enough faith to carry me through?

How can I know? Fortunately, that was not the way things turned out.

With Murat and the Kebzeh community that has grown up around him, primarily in British Columbia, I did make it through that time of trial and tribulation. With these resources, as vision, strength and love to draw upon, even in the darkest of my times, I was able to envision, in my mind’s eye, that certain of those things in which I believed, before my vision loss, might still exist somewhere off in the future, even a time to come in which I could actively participate.

Now that day seems to have arrived. Or, at least I think it has.

Though I tend to still be a bit shaky and unnerved these days (Wouldn’t you be, if you were me?), my life has changed, immensely. First and foremost, with my eyesight restored and, now, able to, once again, write and actively work with the non-profit organization, New Horizons, I founded and head, I am, at last, able to do my part to help that which, for a time, was alive only in my dreams.

But it is not only my life that has changed. I believe, the tenor of the American people has changed.  I think, as a nation, we are growing up some.

Here are a few examples from my experience.

When I was blind I would, occasionally, contemplate a quote by Margaret Mead –

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed that is the only thing that ever has.”

On a personal level, I held onto these words with hopes for a sighted life when I would see the truth of these words actualized in every corner of the U.S.A. Particularly, as I heard and felt the aftermath of “911.”

However, on more of a societal level, I have been noticing of late that even the internet, now that I can see it and better adjust to it,  is fostering the kind of dialogue that can empower both large and small groups of "thoughtful, committed citizens" bring about the changes for which we all yearn; peace, cooperation and unity.

Another quote I hoped to help manifest was that of Mahatma Gandhi –

"We do best to begin by carving out territories or zones of peace in our personal relations where violence and deceit won't be used."

In this area, too, I am noticing what seems to be a maturing society.

Everywhere, or so it seems, small groups are, also, emerging, bringing dedicated individuals together, face-to-face, to support personal and collective transformation. Our own New Horizons community building days are an example of this.

With me, once again, as an active part of mainstream life, New Horizons, now, has its Small “Zones of Peace” Project, as one of its two main initiatives. With this initiative, lots of dedication and hard labor work from volunteers, especially my devoted collaborator, Sue deVeer, last Saturday New Horizons opened its doors to the public, holding the second of an intended monthly community building event.

Wow! I could barely believe the beauty of it;  the possible had come.

Still, HUGE as it was for Sue and I, it was a small beginning for those who have not known much of New Horizons to date.

But, guess what came of that for me? I was uplifted by our day’s events; complications and all.  Oh, my! Oh, my!

With the beautiful words and teachings of Murat’s new book, as a text, to help elucidate my dearest hopes and dreams and to help, through his words, to be a guide, conveying the genuine possibilities, within reach, of personal and community collaboration, I could SEE “awe” already in motion.

The small “zone of peace” I was dreaming of was coming to be. And, small, though elegant, that we were, we were, metaphorically, planting seeds of change, being a part of that Possible Society In Motion, right in my own backyard.

Just rewards for hopes and dreams, dedication and hard, grunt labor work!       

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

We came together

An extended version of this commentary is posted on New Horizons' Small "Zones of Peace" Project blog.

We came together last Saturday to celebrate the Summer Solstice and enumerable triumphs, both personal and collective, that New Horizons has attained. We were intent on giving, from this bounty, all that we can that is the very best of ourselves, individually and together. And, I do believe we accomplished this mission.

Today and for a few days forward from now, I want to take time to discover for myself and integrate what this what this celebration and day long community building event meant for me, personally, and for those to whom it was offered. This is the pathway that will, I believe, best serve those who were present, over the long haul, as well as those who may be able to benefit in the future from the fruits of this labor.

For now my words are still within, unspoken as far as coherent communication is possible.

Because of the complexity of integrating what occured from our diverse experiences and, then, sharing some of that, on-air, the next live broadcast of our Possible Society In Motion Show has been rescheduled.

That show, titled "Never doubt that a small group..", will be broadcast on Thursday evening, June 27 at 6:30 p.m.

Please feel welcomed to join us for our broadcast discussion for this show. And for the extended conference call-in discussion that follows. Here is the link for that program.

In the meantime the photograph posted here that was taken by me last night, just before sundown, will, likely, speak words without words for those of you who were gathered here with me on Saturday.

Thank you so much. to those who were most involved in preparing for this celebration, Sue deVeer and Leslie Pickett -- and -- to those who attended, from start to finish.

With gratitude and affection.

Anastasia

The goddess is alive and magic is afoot

Today I feel the Wise Woman of Elk Mountain part of me in nearly every cell of my body though I am still not as vibrantly in touch as I’d like to be.

Yesterday I guided a New Horizons’ community building event at our Harpers Ferry Retreat Center in celebration of the Summer Solstice; the first one since I lost my eyesight in 1998 (maybe even longer,1995???). Imagine that!!! 

Me, last weekend, clean sweeping my
goddess altar for the Solstice.

This morning, after the event, my sense of spaciousness and light, luminescence and purity is so vast that it is as if everything in me and surrounding me is crystalline, bathed in a gentle warmth (oi veh, bordering on humid). The stillness feels holy, the air fresh and green.

After a while of simply relaxing into this ambiance, it was time for me, along with a fresh cup of tea, to go outside and check on my “plant babies.” Some of them had just been planted yesterday to honor the Solstice. Time for me to watch the hummingbirds fly into their feeder on my deck, overlooking the front of our retreat center while the sacred mountain rises behind; the deck that, yesterday, was filled with laughter and talk, storytelling, delicious food and volunteers painting an outside wall.

Before I even got outside, a pair of birds had flown into my living room where the screen is out. Quickly, happily for me and them, they flew out again. Soon after I sat down outside, drawing in the beauty and wonder of it all. A bit later, Sue and I began, by phone, to explore how it was that the practical, the skillful and the mystical came together here, yesterday, with such perfection. Whatever it was, we've worked, diligently, for seven long, challenging years to create it so.

How did this come to be?

I will do my best to keep you posted on what we find out. And, please know I regret my not having been here since last week with you all.

Anastasia, a.k.a. the Wise Woman of Elk Mountain

Making peace with the snakes

I am still a bit challenged by my encounter yesterday with the copperhead. Initially, I was able to bypass my incredulity at almost stumbling on it, doing what I imagine Dore of “Finding Nemo” to have advised; “just keep swimming.”

New Horizons perspectives
on relationships with snakes.

Well, I wasn’t swimming, anyway. I was walking so “Just keep walking, Anastasia” filled the bill. Besides I was also rubbing a huge and painful blister on my foot at the same time. I had that to consider, also, at the time.

I was pretty determined, however,  to complete my walk destination too; hot, humid day ahead, heart health, exercise commitments etc. etc. So I did just keep walking.

Then there was the notion that maybe it was a dead snake anyway. That brought some relief to my way of thinking though it didn’t take in much consideration for the snake.

Later, I told my friend, Gloria, about my encounter. She was all about getting me to see the meeting from the snake’s point of view which I was, totally, not into at the time. My next move being more in line with possible spiritual messages intended here. At the time I was still, calmly, in the mode that my meeting with the snake was not much of a deal.

Of course, there were a whole lot of other things going on in my life yesterday too. The snake being only one little piece, or so I thought.

But then this morning I felt somewhat compelled to check in with Sue on my snake meeting experience. I knew she would have a perspective; my dear spirit sister and collaborator, her full identification actually being that of “Quaker Sue,” veteran ninth grade school teacher, environmental educator, Quaker camp director, now living on her own mountain acreage etc.

“Sue,” said I. “You know I almost stepped on a copperhead yesterday. And I’m not quite sure what to make of that. (She had, by then, already read my blog story from yesterday.) Have you any idea how I should best “hold” that experience?”

(From my limited experience, Quakers are all about “holding”things, you see. And, Sue, both educator and mystic as she is, can always be counted on to help me “see” the bigger picture of things.)

“Additionally, said I, “I’m a bit uncomfortable about taking my next mountain road walk, not certain about what I should do the next time I meet a poisonous snake.”

“Do!! said Sue, sounding as though I had bitten her instead of a snake being the issue here.

“When I go out and about where snakes might be, I, first, open my heart and talk to the snakes. I tell them what I want, which is for us to lovingly and respectfully share our common space. And, then, I ask them to work with me on that. So I haven’t ever encountered a snake problem.”

Sue, as you can see, is always about consensus, even with a snake.

But, apparently, I still have a good bit to learn about this practice, especially getting things together between the earth plane and Great Spirit, or whoever, or whatever, is in charge of this organization.  It was, actually, all about the earth and spirit connection message, as you can see, after all.

So back to the drawing board go I, humbled, by my meeting with that snake, reflecting upon the notion that I had been talking about making peace with snakes a good while back. Maybe it is time for me to review my earlier thoughts on the subject, further.

Especially as the concept of “leaning in” versus adversarialism is about to take center stage, beginning tonight on our Possible Society In Motion show.

More to come.

A snake crossed my path, again, today

I saw a snake last week, also; a benign black snake. But this was a copperhead, no less. And big it was too! 

In fact I almost tripped over it through no fault of its own.


New Horizons'
snake bite protection
plan.

One immediate lesson came right away; I better be more careful, now, on my daily (or intended “daily”) mountain road walks. How had I managed to minimize this necessity, I wondered?

Lucky me, I have truly been being protected; on earth and in the heavens these past many years. I walked this mountain road for the eight years of my being blind and recovering without a single snake incident though I could barely distinguish, then, between the earth sides of the road and the blacktop of the road itself, except by using my foot to tell me where I was putting it.

Ouch! I could have mis-stepped just like today.

More than twenty years, total, I’ve been walking this road without almost ever (ever???) seeing a live, deadly snake. Obviously, I’ve been a bit over-confident and lucky, I’d say. 

I had no escape plan in place for this eventuality; snakes lurking by the side of the road (or right in the middle), now become real. Oh dear!

Quickly leaping past my reptilian friend/foe I was out of its path in a heartbeat, telling myself, hopefully, that it was a dead snake -- or I well might have been.

At least for my sake I hoped that it was.

But no, when I passed its way again, it was long gone. Of course, that meant snake alive!

Relieved and pondering my good fortune at having been spared (I mean I actually almost stepped right down on it.), my next endeavor was an immediate consideration of how to safely proceed on future walks.

Rewind, fast forward, whose house could I run to if a snake was to decide to come after me rather than continue on its slithery way? Run faster than the snake and hope to hitch a ride back home?

One thing, for sure, I best learn, immediately, to watch where I’m walking, survey the broader landscape, use my eyes, now that I have them, to take heed of the ground as well as the trees and the sky.

Returning home, safely, my mind was next called to consider the spiritual meaning of my encounter, this day, with that snake.  Of course, google is the obvious source for all things wise, mysterious or otherwise of interest. So search I did.

However, here I found nothing definitive of the snake as a messenger other than “Watch where you’re going, Anastasia!”

Apparently the snake as symbol has a smorgasbord of so many interpretations from the Garden of Eden forward to now that I can almost take my pick of any of these and make a teachable story for myself in any direction I like. Not as simple as a deer crossing one’s path as a symbol of gentleness.

I will continue pondering that piece of my life in the mountains; the animal symbol of things, as another adventure in living today.

I didn’t quit before the miracle

OMG!! I think it is here!

Springtime looks to have truly come for me and New Horizons’ Harpers Ferry Retreat Center.

I listen carefully to the birds chirping back and forth outside my open bedroom windows, gaze at the trees, now bushy and freshly green with new growth.

I am all of these. They are me.

My lilies and I,both,
made it through the
"endless winter."

The earth is very alive and so am I!

The standstill--ness of what seemed to be chilly days without end, where I saw little evidence of my life being in motion, beyond mere survival, appear to be passing away.

Accepting my powerlessness to do anything more than submit, surrender, even sacrifice every long held dream I ever had, obstacles seemingly blocking each hard won step I took, try as I might to surmount them.

Faith seemed to be all I had, a belief in visions, held firm in my mind, praying determinedly they would not melt into the Disney-like adventures that once filled my adolescent days.  Rather that I, like the words suggested in the“Rose,” could be the seed that lying “far beneath winter’s snow would, in the springtime, become the rose.”

Now, I SEE evidence all around me that truly my springtime has come,.

People, especially my loyal, hardworking volunteer sisterhood of Leslie and Sue; so much the providers of the substantiation, the builders of concrete proof of the resurrection of me, fully alive, once more, on this land. Painters of cheerful new walls, cheery with color, landscaping outdoors, guiders of our unfolding progress toward the realizing of dreams. New Horizons Retreat Center, active again.

Can this all be true, unfolding before my eyes?

Yum. Makes my heart sing, my eyes pop with wonder at the sight!

Yesterday as Chris, our handyman, and I paused for a break, working together to re-energize this land, a five or six foot black snake showed up, displaying its sleek, shiny self. I thought it a symbol of my need to shed and release the old skin – fear -- that has encased me these many past winters. And, to remember that beyond my ordinary sight I have, all these many years of stillness, been protected by unseen entities; some on ground level, others quite beyond. A black snake, thus, need not be scary. It has its job as I have mine.

Time to let go of the old and let in the springtime. OMG!

Turbulent Times

New Horizons, the non-profit organization I head is definitely moving forward, now, toward fulfilling the dreams for which we came into being; first as a counseling center in 1980. Then as a therapeutic community in 1985, more specifically, in 1995, as a non-profit organization intent on teaching and implementing the treatment model we had developed. By that point, our successes with guiding both personal and communal transformation had established a worthy reputation for us, allowing us to open our doors, at that time, as a training center and healing sanctuary up here in the mountains, just above Harpers Ferry.

Summer Solstice week-end, 2013, we are intent on, officially, opening these doors, once more, to do that which we came to do on this beautiful land of our’s. It has probably been fifteen long years since we had such a celebration.

The dream house hasn’t yet materialized here. Will it or won’t it? Who knows? Rather I have learned to let go of dreams. Yet not let go of them at all. Maybe the shift is that we are doing better at letting go of the notion that I, Anastasia, have some kind of inordinate capacity to control the master plan of anything and can, thus, assist others in doing the same. I, certainly, have come, personally, to accept this as reality, expanding in the process my sensibilities on how to sidestep others imposing that grandiose role upon me.

There have been wonderful times, here, for New Horizons in the past. And, there have been those that were inordinately trying. The latter, primarily, arising out of my term of blindness and recovery from the ordeal (1998 – 2006).

But it wasn’t until recently, however, that it became apparent that whatever the ups and downs facing us, the reengagement we were seeking with mainstream life, when I/we began to take our place in what had become of our country after “911,” was that there was so much for us to do, far and beyond the boundaries of our signature programs; all interconnected with therapeutic community projects.

Today there is no book publication launching planned, as was in the offing when I lost my eyesight in 1998. The furniture is worn and shabby; the landscaping very much in need of tending. And, me the Executive Director, while ever grateful and joyful beyond words to have been granted my eyesight, once again,  am sometimes weary of how steep and how hard has been the ascent out my darkness and into the light.

Destiny seems to call us now; New Horizons and myself, to move beyond the limits of therapeutic community work into an engagement with our greater society. “thinking globally, acting locally.” This is no time to pull back now.

No longer is New Horizons to limit itself to the treating of relationship and personality addictions, especially as it becomes increasingly clear that the peoples of most of our planet earth are driven by excessive survival imperatives; the essence of the non-ingested chemical addictions we had been treating formerly, anyway.

Today the name of our game is “Lean in to the light and learn the art of transcending separation; from self, from others, from all that is embodied in the Great Creation.

These are turbulent times.  And who is to know whether or not a warrior woman, such as I, is genuinely too world weary to continue the climb upward to the high steppes of human existence, or simply just complaining, like far too many others are wont to do these days, rather than seeing this precious time as a challenging but magnificent opportunity; evolutionary motion now in high gear, in these –

Turbulent times.