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June/July 2005 Volume 33Welcome to this bi-monthly edition of our newsletter! You will find these columns contained in our June/July issue:
Metaphors for Life
Carla Woody, Founder Metaphors for Life
GrowthWorks Common Threads by Carla Woody I was recently in St. Petersburg, Russia where I had the privilege of presenting workshops and sitting on a roundtable discussion at the 13th Annual Conference on Conflict Resolution whose theme was “Engaging the Other.” Cosponsors were the Harmony Institute of St. Petersburg and Common Bond Institute located in Michigan, along with a whole list of multinational endorsers. Aside from Russia and the United States, there were participants and presenters from Israel, Serbia, South Africa, Palestinian Authority and a number of other countries. The roundtable to which I contributed was entitled “The Other as Both Humankind’s Oldest, Most Resilient Foe and Our Shared Identity.” My workshop session introduced the “Re-membering Process,” the model of spiritual evolution I developed, along with experiences of working with intent. In the parallel youth conference, I focused on cleaning the energy body with the teens. My participation in this conference was a case of intuitive guidance. While I didn’t give it much thought beforehand, there was something inside me that said it was important for me to go. Once I got over the initial eleven-hour jet lag and began to immerse myself in the conference, I realized that it was impacting me in a way I couldn’t articulate and certainly hadn’t expected; something with which I had to sit and allow to come into my conscious awareness in bits and pieces. First, I recognized that fifteen or twenty years ago this conference couldn’t have happened. I was in Moscow in the mid-1980s as a tourist when things were still shaky between the United States and what was then Russia. The atmosphere at that time was uncomfortable, to say the least. At the conference, people whose nations were current enemies, or foes in the recent past, were sitting side by side for learning, dialogue and some fun along the way. This was a progressive group of people who looked well beyond the politics of their respective countries. My next realization was the contrast between my focus, alignment of the individual in order to make a difference, and the majority of other workshops, which were dealing with the traumas and ravages of war, extreme social strife and disease. I quickly noted how removed my own life is from such things. I’ve had my challenges, but nothing like what these presenters were discussing. I began to wonder if what I had to share would have value in those cultures experiencing such high degrees of discord. My workshop was scheduled on the third day. I told the group, almost solely Russians for that session, that I knew the “Re-membering Process”* to be true in my own culture. But I didn’t know if it would be valid for them and invited them to give me feedback. As I led them through the phases of spiritual evolution that I had identified, the issues that tended to arise and the path of progression, I saw a lot of heads nodding in agreement. A number of people shared their stories which coincided with my process model. But one woman’s story in particular was quite moving. She came from an area of Russia that had a long history of hostilities. She said her grandparents had been killed and her father was jailed for many years. She gave examples of her own suffering through those times. Through tears, she then stated that the “Re-membering Process” was true for nations as well as individuals. It gave her hope as she could identify her own progression and that of her country. Later when I led a guided imagery, meant to take the group into the Core Self and a sense of their intent, she experienced an energetic opening, as did others, never having done so before. The outcome of that workshop has deepened a certain meaning for me. There is indeed a common thread that runs through us all. We want the same things. Some of us find ourselves in horrific situations in which we feel helpless and hopeless. Yet there is a resident resilience in the human spirit that whispers to us that something else exists. Yes. We need to get through the traumas of war. But then what? Dialoguing alone won’t do it. To leave the times of war behind, whether the conflict is internal or external, micro or macro, we must experience the possibility of our own evolution – and connect to it. As we step into our own core essence and remain even remotely aligned to it, we positively affect not only ourselves, but others. The results can then blow like a strong wind across the lands. *Note: The “Re-membering Process” is thoroughly laid out in my book Standing Stark. To learn more about this annual conference, see Common Bond Institute. © 2005 Carla Woody. All rights reserved. Carla Woody is the author of the book Standing Stark: The Willingness to Engage and Calling Our Spirits Home: Gateways to Full Consciousness and founder of Kenosis, an organization supporting personal transformation. Carla has long been leading people toward mind/body/spirit wholeness using integrative healing methods blended with world spiritual traditions. She may be reached by e-mail at info@kenosis.net or by telephone (928) 778-1058.Special Events
Review More often than not, the books, films and music you will find here will not be new or "bestsellers," but those I consider classics. They are classics in the sense that I experienced an impact in reading them that positively flavored my own journey.
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books In May 1978, I arrived in Tehran and left six months later. It was one of the high points of my life. There I experienced a rich culture and met some of the most gracious souls I’ve ever known. I grew significantly as a result of living there, albeit a very short time, and left with much sadness, having always wondered what happened to the Iranian people who became my friends. By coming across Reading Lolita in Tehran, I was reassured that a spirit I witnessed there has certainly survived in many of its citizens. Azar Nafisi was a professor of literature who had a distinguished career at universities in Iran. She finally left her post because of oppression. In 1995, she secretly invited certain of her female students to come to a class that would be held in her home. The purpose was to study literature – some of it banned – and its relation to their own reality. In Professor Nafisi’s living room the young women had the freedom to remove their chadors and express their opinions. This is a story of growth in a circle of women in an environment where it’s dangerous to be visible and outspoken. The book also documents the turbulence that religion and politics has had on real people since the revolution. While there are many poignant passages, the following one particularly touched me as I’ve been quite aware of the difficult transition my long-ago friends had to make as the fundamentalist regime slid firmly into place. How can I create this other world outside the room?...Imagine one of the girls…leaving my house…puts on her black robe and scarf over her orange shirt and jeans, coiling her scarf to hide her huge gold earrings…directs wayward strands of hair under her scarf…She pauses a moment to put on thin lacy black gloves to hide her nail polish…You might notice her gait and her gestures have changed…bends her head toward the ground and doesn’t look at passersby…The streets of Tehran…patrolled by militia…to make sure that women wear their veils properly, do not wear make-up, do not walk in public with men who are not their fathers, brothers or husbands. If she gets on a bus…she must enter through the rear door and sit in the back seats…How much of this experience affects her? Most probably, she tries to distance her mind as much as possible from her surroundings…Is she angry that women of her mother’s generation could walk the streets freely, enjoy the company of the opposite sex, join the police force, become pilots…Does she feel humiliated by the new laws, by the fact that after the revolution, the age of marriage was lowered from eighteen to nine, that stoning became once more the punishment for adultery and prostitution? Azar Nafisi is certainly to be applauded for her courage to hold the classes she did and the message she sends – as are the women who risked their physical safety to join her. Dr. Nafisi now lives in the United States. - Carla Woody | |||||||||||||||||||||
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