@cdixon
Active 6 months, 1 week agoForum Replies Created
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Hi everyone,
I’m feeling kinda sad about coming to the end of this 9-month journey and no longer having a regular date with you all. I wonder if we’re all feeling that, and how we might respond to keeping our connections alive?
One thing that has occurred to me is the idea of a west coast DeepTime group, which might also periodically connect in person?
Have any of you been thinking about our web of relationship as we transition away from this space?
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I’m searching for a word that expresses the interaction of Evolution and Emergence. Covolution?Comergence? Cosmergence? I’d like to express how the engagement with the DeepTime perspective has caused evolution in my ongoing journey to “Emerge” into the fullest utilization of this life-process.I had a sense of the main project that I wanted to bring into being – the concept of “telling the story” has been with me for almost 20 years. In that time I’ve discovered and recognized my path (my eco-niche, as Bill Plotkin might describe it) to bring the new story into being. So I had begun, finally, last year to attempt this project, to “tell the story” in some way, using a combination of in-depth conversation with people I thought would be ready for this together with musical offerings that seem aligned to the story. And around that time I began this DeepTime journey.
Sarbmeet’s presentation just rang a bell for me, loud and clear. Because his journey to finding his most important contribution to bringing DeepTime into the culture followed pretty close to my own – I, too, thought that just sharing the information with people would be perfectly valid – like taking a college class and assuming a listening audience. I began to see that this method did not work terribly well, and that what I presented either was way, way too much to absorb, overwhelming to a new listener, or even frightening so some. So – I became more experimental, talking to just a few friends and finding out what their resonance would be with the subject. This has fared a little better (maybe my best friends tolerate my flights of fancy!) – But finally I came to the same acknowledgement – that the best way for me to express the Universe expressing is in the interpersonal relationships, family, that have shared this life with me. This has actually brought results – maybe not in “converting” anyone to fully grasp this point of view, but in an allowing and honoring the relationship as it is, caring for it more deeply, listening and loving – not expecting some great eureka moment in which the cosmic consciousness suddenly is born in someone else’s experience.
And in reimagining relationships – I found myself reaching out to my life companion, my husband, fellow musician with his own heart-journey to serve this muse. Finding that he was just as eager to retrieve our song-writing mission as I was. (“retrieved”, because for years we struggled – as a couple, as artists trying to make a life that works, finally finding each other again in a grace that age brings about, marveling that we’re still standing, and standing as artists!) It’s kind of silly and obvious, but here we are – both bringing a life-basket full of experience as musicians – I with notebooks bulging with ideas/lyrics/titles/little bright idealights beamed in from somewhere…- he with gobs of musical know-how and passion, plus must greater experience than me in use of the studio – software, equipment, recording. Stuff that I avoided (I hate cords! – and interfaces!) Right there – ready to go.
So we’ve begun. Committed to writing. Every week. Same time. Top priority. And every idea that has ever emerged in me is about DeepTime, in some way or another. Trees. Green. Carbon. Shared potential/growth. Prayers. Ancestors. Waking up. Mountains. This is what has always arrived for me. Not love songs (not that there’s anything wrong with that!) – nor relationship ballads or dance songs or anger (well, maybe sometimes – like I-Just-Cannot-Believe-We-Do-This-Shit). Generally – that we can do better, that we are meant for more. That we owe everything to this planet, that we owe the future our very, very best efforts. Those are my songs.
Right now there are three in progress: 1 – a new Hail Mary that is a prayer to our Earth Mother, a liturgical setting of deep reverence (Hail Gaia, Full of Grace, The Cosmic one is with thee…); 2 – “In the Name of the Future” , asking us to turn away from the dark dreams of power and dream a world of our highest shared potential; and 3 – “You Are A Beautiful Soul”, expressing the utter value of each life and our shared journey in this mystery. A reggae.
There’s lots more where these came from.
I hope (and plan) to share at least the early development phase of one of these with you.
In these songs I hope to “tell the story” in a simple way, because I do know in my heart that when we share our voices in music, we tap something that is beyond logic. We sing ideas into being.
By the way – I’m not giving up on any other way to tell the story – I’m working on a spiral candle ceremony to tell the story of the evolution of life in 12 evocative moments of development (something like the cosmic walk, starting from life here on the planet) on a table-top model, the last candle being each human’s journey in the evolutionary process. I’ll carry on with salons – but keep the material simpler – ceremony, ritual, and of course, music. All themed around this extraordinary vision of DeepTime and Evolution. Just smaller bites. Hardly any of us are ready to take it all in, let alone process it. But our seeds and small arrows of story can point to a new way for our species, and someday we will see beyond the dark mirror. We are pioneers just setting sail, with a new-found trust in the cosmic winds to guide us true into the mystic and into our destiny.
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I am in the process of digesting these “determining features”. However, I love Jo Ann’s suggestion about a symbol to represent each of these. These importance of these ideas is so big, and yet a lot of hold and recall. I imagine a time in the future that the language of Cosmogenesis will become part of our every-day lexicon, or that we have incorporated symbols that carry more of the full understanding. Along with this – I have long felt that our language doesn’t yet have the words that stir the imagination sufficiently – part of our task may be the birthing of this “language” – not technological, maybe not English because so far I don’t find the deeper magic living in most English words.
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Hello Fellow Earth Lovers,
I thought I had posted this a few days ago – apparently it didn’t “take”. Anyway – I am a pianist and piano teacher living in Paso Robles, California. I first encountered the work of Thomas Berry about 20 years ago – was involved with the “Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream” symposium as a facilitator. I read “The Dream of the Earth” and was enraptured with the language and imagery of how the Earth herself experiences her relationships. It was my first real glimpse into seeing the Universe in this way, and was part of the expansion of my awareness at that time which really changed me forever. I am currently part of the DeepTime Leadership certification group, and have questioned whether I could take on this course and keep up with the other – but I couldn’t miss this opportunity to study with Elder Greene and absorb his vast insight and direct lineage to Thomas Berry. I trust that there will also be much wealth to uncover from each of us here gathered, as we are all pulled (allured) to this Great Work in some mysterious way, as we come together in shared expectation.
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Bruce, this is so relevant as I consider how to communicate with a group around The New Story/Universe Story/Evolutionary model. We are each an emergent aspect of this new framework as it takes shape. I am going to make sure that any of my leadership activity begins with recognizing that we all share very limited experience in this new model, that while I might have read more or been exposed to these ideas for a longer time period, that I’m absolutely a newborn to this work. For me – emphasis on slow, careful speech and body expression, with room for breathing. Letting anyone listening know that I’m a beginner, and that they also carry a capacity to understand more than they know today. The necessity of stillness and a sense of curiosity and awe. It’s humbling and inspiring.
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I just found out that Michael Dowd has transitioned from our mortal coil. I have followed his work for a long time, and his contribution to the understanding of our time in history, and the understanding of evolution. I have never met him personally, but his voice has been very important amongst many of us grappling with what it means to be alive in this place in history. I’m sharing this because I suspect many of you have also been influenced by his life’s work. May his memory be a blessing and an inspiration.
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Hello from Paso Robles, California
I found out about this course while searching for information about Teilhard de Chardin’s work – I’ve been reading The Human Phenomenon over the past number of months. I’ve been aware of The Universe Story for a while – first encountered it perhaps 18 years ago as part of the Awakening the Dreamer/Changing the Dream symposium, for which I trained as a facilitator. Becoming masterful in telling the story – of humanity, of our planet, of our universe, of evolution and it’s meaning for us – has become my greatest desire. I am a professional pianist and piano teacher. I am so eager to begin this work, to connect with you all, to open into this mystery together. I know I’m responding to a deeper calling, and that this work, and the relationships we form, will be transformative.
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Thank you for sharing this Lisa – as you know, I was just visiting my mom and aunt, both in late-stage dementia and in a memory care facility. I feel your ache, it’s the same I feel in my heart. My mother and I looked deeply into each others’ eyes and I know she “knows” me, loves me dearly and completely.
I did a little project with them while I was there – a little Easter decoration, a wooden box filled with moss and artificial flowers and grass. I purchased some little birds and butterflies to add to the arrangement, and told them a story about flying with the butterflies and birds up to the top of the sky and into the light – hoping somehow to communicate to their spirits with the suggestion about flying away with those airy creatures. I so hope they can be released soon. They are ready to fly, I know, and a part of me is also caged. I’m waiting to feel the joy of their release.
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Under the category, “…learning a new vocabulary for wonder..”, the paper by Sarbmeet Kanwal, “Quantum Relationality: A New Source of Wisdom” is like a roadmap of insight. I can’t really say more, yet, except that Sarbmeet is learning to distill meaning that can be grasped and quickly linked to a flow of meaning – language leading to something beyond symbols into experience and imagination. I haven’t read anything that has this density but still manages to entice – allure. He is expanding our imaginal landscape.
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