"The Practice of Gratitude"

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.
— Thornton Wilder

Driving in Bay Area morning commute traffic, I had the idiotic idea that I needed to call and check my messages. Looking down at my phone I unconsciously swerved into the next lane narrowly missing another car and almost causing a major accident. My heart was racing and my inner critic was deafening... I could have been killed and taken a lot of people with me! After settling down I began thinking about how lucky I have been. So many times in my life my inattention or someone else’s could have been fatal. My stress and self-judgment suddenly turned into a sense of overwhelming gratitude for all the gifts I have received in this life, starting with the gift of life itself. The more I counted my blessings, the more blessed I was feeling. A vibrant sense of aliveness came over me. It was as if every cell in my body was resonating to some ancient song of primordial celebration. My mind was clear and my heart was overflowing with joy!

When I started counting my blessings,
my whole life turned around.
— Willie Nelson

Read the entire letter from Michael here.

Get Informed About Climate Change

When we heal the earth, we heal ourselves.
— David Orr

In December, Conversation’s host, Michael Stone, will be heading to what has been described as “the most important diplomatic gathering in history.” The outcome of these meetings between leaders and representatives from close to 200 countries will likely determine the future of life on this planet. While current expectations for a viable consensus are low, intense public pressure being placed on world leaders and governments could be the turning point toward an aligned solution. You are encouraged to join in what Paul Hawken has called, the “largest movement in history”, by contacting your elected leaders and letting them know how you want them to represent you and the children of future generations.

Three years ago 87% of the US population believed that climate change was a problem -- Today only 57% hold this view. How can this be with approximately 95% of the scientific community agreeing that we are rapidly moving into the sixth mass extinction on earth, and this one is man-made. In what could be called, the greatest crime in history, billions of dollars has been spent on promulgating propaganda and disinformation generated by a small group of corporate self interest groups creating confusion around the issue. The mainstream corporate media, like Fox News, has perpetuated the problem. This is why it is so important to support community radio like KVMR.

To read the full article, click here.
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Upcoming Events

David Whyte, Poet, Author
April 17, 2010, 10 am to 4pm
Presented by The Well of Light
    and Insight Lecture Series
For more information, click here.

From Darkness to Light - Reverence and Renewal with Maniko - December 19th, 11:30-7:30
$130, Grass Valley, Center for Positive Living
TO REGISTER: (530) 798-4912 or maniko@templeofsong.com

What in your life no longer serves your well-being? Are you ready to let-go, with ease and compassion, any negative habits or patterns that block your happiness and self-expression? Do you long to trust that you are not only enough as you are, but are actually a gift to life and community, just by being yourself, fully and naturally?

Throughout the ages, the winter solstice is a time of reverence, remembrance and renewal. It is the actual new year, the longest night and the turning toward the coming light. It is as true in our inner world as it is in the outer world, if we are available to bring our full consciousness to the essential heart of our personhood. This daylong retreat is devoted to renewing the whole psyche, physically and spiritually. Embracing all that has been lived, letting-go of what no longer works and aligning ourselves with our true essential nature - to be lived, loved and actualized.

Darkness is the space of infinite possibilities, the womb of existence. The deep silence and stillness from which all is born into the light of being...the call to flower in our potential, each in our own way.

We will use the blessed vehicles of movement and stillness, song and silence to remember our deepest connection with ourselves and each other, renewing our strength, faith and awareness — AND to begin anew, fresh and in tune with all that we cherish. — Live a happy, fulfilling new year.

New Podcasts

Click here to view the Podcasts page

Michael Nagler: Search for a Nonviolent Future

Articles

The Time to Act is Now: A Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change

Today we live in a time of great crisis, confronted by the gravest challenge that humanity has ever faced: the ecological consequences of our own collective karma. The scientific consensus is overwhelming: human activity is triggering environmental breakdown on a planetary scale. Global warming, in particular, is happening much faster than previously predicted, most obviously at the North Pole. For hundreds of thousands of years, the Arctic Ocean has been covered by an area of sea-ice as large as Australia—but now this is melting rapidly. In 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecast that the Arctic might be free of summer sea ice by 2100. It is now apparent that this could occur within a decade or two. Greenland’s vast ice-sheet is also melting more quickly than expected. The rise in sea-level this century will be at least one meter—enough to flood many coastal cities and vital rice-growing areas such as the Mekong Delta in Vietnam.

To read the full article and show your support, click here.

Chemicals in Our Food, and Bodies

Your body is probably home to a chemical called bisphenol A, or BPA. It’s a synthetic estrogen that United States factories now use in everything from plastics to epoxies — to the tune of six pounds per American per year. That’s a lot of estrogen.

More than 92 percent of Americans have BPA in their urine, and scientists have linked it — though not conclusively — to everything from breast cancer to obesity, from attention deficit disorder to genital abnormalities in boys and girls alike.

Now it turns out it’s in our food.

To read the full article, click here.

The New Arms Race

Hobbled by opposition from the carbon incumbents and their short-sighted allies on Capitol Hill the Obama administration acknowledged this week that it would not return from Copenhagen with any groundbreaking commitment to control green house gases. Meanwhile, Congress is backsliding on the administration's wise commitment to impose a rational price on carbon. Behind the logjam, a treacherous U.S. Chamber of Commerce, always willing to put its obsequious scraping to Big Oil and King Coal ahead of its duty to our country, has battled every effort to accelerate America's transition to a market-based de-carbonized economy.

To read the full article, click here.

Inferno on Earth: Wildfires Spreading as Temperatures Rise

Future firefighters have their work cut out for them. Perhaps nowhere does this hit home harder than in Australia, where in early 2009 a persistent drought, high winds, and record high temperatures set the stage for the worst wildfire in the country’s history. On February 9th, now known as “Black Saturday,” the mercury in Melbourne topped 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46.4 degrees Celsius) as fires burned over 1 million acres in the state of Victoria—destroying more than 2,000 homes and killing more than 170 people, tens of thousands of cattle and sheep, and 1 million native animals.

Even as more people move into fire-prone wildlands around the world, the intense droughts and higher temperatures that come with global warming are likely to make fires more frequent and severe in many areas. For southeastern Australia, home to much of the country’s population, climate change could triple the number of extreme fire risk days by 2050.

To read the full article, click here.

10 Ways to Change Your Life

1. EAT YOUR VEGETABLES
All you have to do is stop eating beef. Worldwide, beef production contributes more to climate change than the ­entire transportation sector. The carbon footprint of the average meat eater is about 1.5 tons of CO2 larger than that of a vegetarian. Cutting beef out of your diet will reduce your CO2 emissions by 2,400 pounds annually.

2. DRINK FROM THE TAP
You can save money and your environment by giving up bottled water. The production of plastic water bottles together with the privatization of our drinking water is an environmental and social catastrophe. Bottled water costs more per gallon than gasoline. The average American consumes 30 gallons of bottled water annually. Giving up one bottle of imported water means using up one less liter of fossil fuel and emitting 1.2 pounds less of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

To read the full article, click here.

A hotter planet means less on our plates

As the U.N. climate-change conference in Copenhagen approaches, we are in a race between political tipping points and natural ones. Can we cut carbon emissions fast enough to keep the melting of the Greenland ice sheet from becoming irreversible? Can we close coal-fired power plants in time to save at least the larger glaciers in the Himalayas and on the Tibetan plateau? Can we head off ever more intense crop-withering heat waves before they create chaos in world grain markets?

To read the full article, click here.

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Donate to Conversations

Dear Friends,
For the past four years I have been funding Conversations, The Well of Light and other associated projects out of my own pocket and fund raising events. In order to keep this newsletter coming and keep moving towards syndicating Conversations we need your help. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution if you enjoy receiving our monthly newsletter or listening to Conversations.

It’s easy, just click here.

Thank you so much. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Blessings,
michael

Upcoming Shows on Conversations

December 1
Linda Lantieri: Building Emotional Intelligence
Linda Lantieri is a Fulbright Scholar, keynote speaker, and internationally known expert in social and emotional learning and conflict resolution, Linda Lantieri, serves as Director of The Inner Resilience Program, co-founder of the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP) and is one of the founding board members of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). www.lindalantieri.org

December 8
Richard Miller, PhD: Integrative Restoration for Awakening
Richard Miller, PhD is a clinical psychologist and contemporary spiritual teacher in the tradition of Nondual Yoga. Richard is the founding president and CEO of the Integrative Restoration Institute, co-founder of The International Association of Yoga Therapy and founding editor of the professional Journal of IAYT. He is the author of Yoga Nidra: The Meditative Heart of Yoga. www.irest.us

December 15
Joanna Macy: Lessons from Rumi Joanna Macy: Buddhist Scholar, Systems Theorist, Ecologist, Teacher, and Activist. Joanna addresses the reasons for the grief, fear, sadness, uncertainty, and numbness that prevail in modern life and keeps bringing attention back to what is sacred and true: the wondrously interconnected and intelligent web of life. www.joannamacy.net

December 22
Jason F Mclennan and Lynn Simon: Green Architecture
Host Michael Stone will be joined by KVMR’s Jodi Selene
Jason is a national leader in the green architecture movement and is considered a thought leader in sustainability. Jason is the CEO of the Cascadia Green Building Council based in Seattle, Washington. He began Ecotone Publishing to provide information to the design community and building industry about finding a path to a sustainable future. He is the author of The Philosophy of Sustainable Design, and the Dumb Architect’s Guide to Glazing Selection as well as a co-author of the Ecological Engineer. www.cascadiagbc.org

Lynn N. Simon, FAIA, LEED AP, is President of Simon & Associates, Inc., Green Building Consultants, which she established in 1994. Lynn is a green building pioneer. As a leading authority in the industry Lynn has been at the forefront of the sustainable design movement since 1989. www.greenbuild.com

December 29
Annie Leonard: The Story of Stuff
Annie Leonard is an expert in international sustainability and environmental health issues, with more than 20 years of experience investigating factories and dumps around the world. Working for a sustainable and just world, Annie communicates worldwide about the impact of consumerism and materialism on global economies and international health. Annie’s most recent project, the Story of Stuff, explores the global materials economy and its impact on economy, environment and health. www.storyofstuff.com

Click Here for Other Shows...

Videos

A Call to Action!

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Support Conversations with your tax-deductable donation.

Newsletters

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You may choose what you want to hear about and nothing more or less. All you have to do is choose your specific area of interest from the drop-down menu in the subscription form. Your choices are:

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Note: If you sign up for "all categories" or the "quote of the day," you will receive more frequent emails with a beautiful photo and an inspiring quote when Michael is in town.

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Well of Light Seva Team

Gratitude for Seva Team

People often come up to me and say, “I don’t know how you get all that you do done.”

Well, the truth is I don’t. If it weren’t for all of you have have generously given your time and energy little would get done.

So many people have been helping to make both Conversations, the weekly moving meditation and all the other projects I am involved in work, that I wanted to mention some of them in the newsletter this month.

I know you don’t do it for acknowledgement, but I want to thank you from the depths of my heart for your commitment to love, serve and make a difference in life.

These are just some of the people who have recently volunteered: Torrie Mudd, Gene Meseck, Ronda Trujillo, Valarie Craven, Cade Marsh, Loren Gramlich, Punita Greenberg, Dawn Kruzi, Katherine Dessert, John Thompson, Prema Joy Robbins, Nan Moore, Michael Logue, Mikail Graham, Joy Waite, Julia Boorinakis Harper, Diana Pollock, Helena McDaniel, Nouna Regan...

I am touched to my core with all the support you have given me and by your co-creation of a world that is earth friendly and life affirming...

With love and thanksgiving!
michael

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
— Mohandas K. Gandhi

Seva is selfless service to a cause you believe will benefit others. It is the willingness to perform any task for a greater cause without prospect of recognition or reward.
Well of Light has many opportunities to serve our community. If you would like to participate on the Well of Light Seva Team please call Michael Stone @ 530.477.7757 or email michael@welloflight.com

"I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."
- Albert Schweitzer

Poetry Corner

Thanksgiving Song

As the Great Dynamo who powers the wheels of seasons and years
Turns autumn once more into winter,
At this season of Thanksgiving,
We give thanks for all seasons.

For winter, who strips trees to their basic design,
For stark, minimalist winter,
We give thanks.
May we let go, and grow bright as stars in a clear, frosty night,
The more we are stripped of what we thought we could not do without.

For the springtime that bursts forth,
Just when we think winter will never end,
For irrepressible springtime
We give thanks.
May we never forget the crippled, wind-beaten trees,
How they, too, bud, green and bloom,
May we, too, take courage to bloom where we are planted.

For summer, when fruit begins to ripen more and more,
For the green, swelling high tide of summer
We give thanks.
May we trust that time is not running out, but coming to fulfillment,
May we wait patiently while time ripens.

For autumn and its slow growing fruition
For that season of ultimate rise and fall
We give thanks.
May we gracefully rise to the occasion of our own falling,
Giving ourselves just enough time to go beyond time
To the great Now
At the quiet center of the turning wheels.

We give thanks for all seasons
At this season of Thanksgiving.

hieroglyphic stairway

it's 3:23 in the morning
and I'm awake
because my great great grandchildren
won't let me sleep
my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the planet was plundered?
what did you do when the earth was unraveling?

surely you did something
when the seasons started failing?

as the mammals, reptiles, birds were all dying?

did you fill the streets with protest
when democracy was stolen?

what did you do
once
you
knew?

I'm riding home on the Colma train
I've got the voice of the milky way in my dreams

I have teams of scientists
feeding me data daily
and pleading I immediately
turn it into poetry

I want just this consciousness reached
by people in range of secret frequencies
contained in my speech

I am the desirous earth
equidistant to the underworld
and the flesh of the stars

I am everything already lost

the moment the universe turns transparent
and all the light shoots through the cosmos

I use words to instigate silence

I'm a hieroglyphic stairway
in a buried Mayan city
suddenly exposed by a hurricane

a satellite circling earth
finding dinosaur bones
in the Gobi desert
I am telescopes that see back in time

I am the precession of the equinoxes,
the magnetism of the spiraling sea

I'm riding home on the Colma train
with the voice of the milky way in my dreams

I am myths where violets blossom from blood
like dying and rising gods

I'm the boundary of time
soul encountering soul
and tongues of fire

it's 3:23 in the morning
and I can't sleep
because my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the earth was unraveling?

I want just this consciousness reached
by people in range of secret frequencies
contained in my speech

— drew dellinger—©2003 1-866-POETICS
drew@soulforce.com