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Life's Blessings
Welcome to the Fall/Winter edition of our newsletter. As both the holiday season and the new millennium approach, we at Southern Springs have been quietly working to bring interesting workshop leaders with their knowledge, wisdom, and experience to our community. We have also been working towards developing the means to bring compassionate and conscious people together. You know, good people are never hard to find.
I recently heard a story about a rabbi who cared deeply about all people. He was just as devoted to his human connections as he was to his Jewish tradition. Unfortunately, he lived in Germany during Hitler's regime and was sent to a concentration camp where he spent two horrendous years under the worst of conditions. With the war coming to an end, upon being released, he was ushered into a German commander's office.
The commander said, "So, Rabbi, how were things in the camp for you?"
The Rabbi looked right at him and sincerely replied, "You meet good people wherever you go."
Take a moment to slow down a little. Look around and notice that wherever you go in Tallahassee you're bound to meet good people, strangers and friends alike. Now is the perfect time for all of us to do our part to acknowledge this. We all care deeply about our friends and family. Now is the time to step outside of shy, timid ways and let people know how important they are to us. It makes a difference!
Life doesn't last forever, but it is truly a profound, meaningful experience. We encourage you to go out today and let someone know that their life is a blessing. Let's do everything we can to bring in the new millennium with an attitude of caring and compassion.
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Crafting the Personal Narrative
Overcoming the Barriers to Writing the Stories of Our Lives
with Marge Piercy & Ira Wood
On January 28-30, world-renowned author Marge Piercy and acclaimed author/publisher Ira Wood will visit Tallahassee. They will give readings of their poetry and fiction on Friday evening, followed by a book signing. Saturday and Sunday, in the idyllic setting of Wakulla Springs, they will conduct a writing workshop (details below).
Piercy and Wood will teach us not just the elements of telling our stories, but will illuminate some of the obstacles to doing so. "A memoir is nothing less than the archive of your inner life, your effort to find meaning, to explain the past to another generation, to keep memory alive," Wood notes. "Enhancing self expression and being able to write vividly depends on developing skills and work habits that aid creativity instead of hampering it."
This workshop offers an opportunity to study the elements of the art of writing memoirs and autobiographical fiction. It is intended for experienced writers as well as those just beginning to sculpt their lives into narrative. There will be an emphasis on craft and a concentration on beginnings, characterization, dialogue, and strategies for organizing our material accomplished through lecture, guided meditation and writing exercises.
Marge Piercy, widely acclaimed novelist, poet and chronicler of our times, has written 15 novels and 15 books of poetry. The outcry against war and poverty, the impact of freedom on women's lives, the search for a moral and spiritual way of life she writes of these and more, largely from her own experience. With striking matter-of-factness, Piercy captures the complex texture of life. "Working within the venerable tradition of socially conscious fiction, she brings to it a feminist understanding of the impact that such things as class and money have on personal interactions, without ever losing sight of the crucial role played by individuals' responses to those things." (Chicago Sun Times) Piercy supports her writing by teaching others to write.
Ira Wood has written numerous plays and works of short fiction, plus three novels, including Storm Tide which he wrote with Piercy. Acclaimed for his compassion and wit, he breaks down the barriers between men and women and writes about "love and loyalty outside the conventional categories of age, gender, and body proportions." (The Kirkus Reviews) He also has created Leapfrog Press, a quality publisher of fiction, poetry, and memoir.
Lecture & Book Signing: Friday, Jan. 28, 7:009:00 pm. United Church in Tallahassee, 1834 Mahan Drive. Cost: $10.
Weekend Workshop: January 29-30, Sat. 9:00 and Sun. 9:00 & 11:30am. Wakulla Springs. Cost: $175. (Rooms are being held until Jan. 15 for $79/double.) For more info. or to register call Tamara Weinstein, 222-2250, or Susie Howell, 877-0371, or SusieHowell333@worldnet.att.net
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We get by with a little help from our friends...
It's the holiday season and we're eligible to receive tax deductible contributions. Your donations will help us function more elegantly, whether financial or in the form of computers, or other equipment. We'd also appreciate tapestries, crystals, pretty vases and rugs anything you think will help beautify our workshop environment. Please call 878-8643 if you wish to contribute.
We're excited to have Lydia Riedell as our new Volunteer Coordinator. Call her at 668-2525 if you'd like to help out from time to time. (NOTE: As of June, 2000, Cat Keen has replaced Lydia as Volunteer Coordinator. She can be reached at 342-1440)
We wish to thank you for all your support and encouragement, and hope you have a peaceful, happy, and meaningful holiday season.
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An Invitation to the Pen
by Tamara Weinstein
Ever since memory was born in me, I've been a dreamer and a storyteller. I imagine myriad scenes in which my life takes on many forms, both possible and impossible. I love to spin a good tale among friends. I have journalled countless dilemmas and dreams out on paper to gain clarity on life.
I love to share with generous listeners these writings, along with plots yet to be set on the page. Many people ask, "Are you a writer?" to which I answer sadly, "No." For I have fleshed out nothing fully enough to share with the masses.
How many of us are out there - closet performers of the page - secretly manufacturing the gems of our existences? What will become of our stories in the end? And so, with this question I invite you to seek form and outlet for your penned dreams, histories and wisdoms.
One of my favorite writers, Madeleine L'Engle, likened our lives to a sonneta strict rhythm with a set and perfect form into which one could pour one's own life. I like this freedom to play out our stories in a structure that contains and yet offers order to our world.
I write this to you in light of the upcoming workshop with Marge Piercy and Ira Wood (see above page). I anticipate a weekend where I will learn a form in which to embody my creations. I invite all of you - the storytellers, the dreamers and the secret scribblers, along with those well on the road in their writing lives, to join me in sharing this experience. Come, let us be a family of writers for at least a weekend!
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Ballentine Takes Us Back to the Future of Health
by Kathleen Power, P.T.
The seats in the lecture hall no longer made an orderly pattern of parallel lines. Instead, an amorphous array of chairs and cushions filled every available space. The assortment of shoes lining the foyer outside spanned a spectrum of socioeconomic strata and professions, crossing genders and age groups. Birkenstocks, Easy Spirits, wing tips, sandals, clogs, loafers, Naturalizers, stiletto heels, those orthopaedic specialties, wow! The variety of footwear before me was a market survey in demographics. (I wondered if Madison Ave. ever used this image?) Nonetheless, this was a typical panorama that preceded the entrance on evenings when Dr. Rudolph Ballentine lectured.
Who were these shoeless patrons that came out to a lecture on any night of the week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday? It didn't matter which night it was or what the weather was like, Ballentine always drew a packed house! The people that filled those seats in the early 80s are mirrors of you and me, seekers of a shift in paradigm from an "entropic perspective of illness and disease," to one of "health in balance" as a result of conscious and informed choice.
As Ballentine stood before the curious listeners, he would scan the faces, body types, patterns of breath and multitudes of postures not unlike a conductor who stands before his orchestra quietly waiting for each member to poise him/herself into their space. He would begin speaking at that precise moment of silence, as if to acknowledge the point in time when the collective mind was ready for the next step.
He spoke in velvety tones, giving his place of origin as, "not native to the northeast," but that of someplace where the lilt lingers and pauses punctuate those poignant phrases. The warmth of his southern accent held a special magnetism as he spoke of the full spectrum of diet, movement and life patterns as a key to self-diagnosis. He would weave the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda into contemporary western arenas, speaking gently from years of personal experience with meditation and Eastern philosophy and thought, and its profound contribution to self-knowledge and healing. He made it sound so plausible, so sensible!
A psychiatrist and homeopath with a unique insight to the human psyche and its energy systems, for the past 30 years he has persistently paved the way for patients and peers, teaching and transforming, metamorphosing the medical model for the new millennium. Author of seven books, including the recently published Radical Healing (March 1999), he is able to address a universal approach, encompassing and integrating a wealth of wisdom toward health and human potential, reclaiming our natural inheritance.
Millions are spent annually on herbs, vitamins, alternative and complimentary medicine this is an opportunity for your questions about which of these works and how to make informed choices. Are you ready for the next step?
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Cancer: Just a Word, Not a Sentence
A Weekend for Women with Cancer
With Joy Hopkins-Hausman
For the past six years, Joy Hopkins-Hausman has led a popular retreat at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, New York. The first five years, she focused on women with breast cancer. This year she has widened the circle to include women with cancer of any type, at whatever stage, from diagnosis to long-term remission. Southern Springs is pleased to announce that Joy will be in Tallahassee to lead a similar retreat at Wakulla Springs Lodge on the weekend of March 17 - 19.
This extraordinary weekend promises to be full of inspiration, good humor, compassion, and the light of the sweet and simple birth of each new moment. As we get and give support and guidance on this difficult path, we are awakened to tremendous opportunities for change and growth. We find opportunity to share our beauty, anger, knowledge, fear, uncertainty, faith, questions, wisdom, and spirit as we examine our mortality and learn to feel free enough to simply live.
During this retreat women will learn and practice meditation, guided visualizations, and various forms of gentle exercise and movement. We will tell our stories and truly listen to one another in order to help develop the optimal plan of healing for each person. We'll use shared silence, as well as laughter and tears, to offer encouragement and support to one another. We will be inspired by the collective wisdom of the group, as each woman's story adds to our own vision for healing.
Hopkins-Hausman is a certified social worker, and co-founder of the Woodstock Therapy Center. Her life as therapist, sculptor, and artist is the subject of an award-winning film entitled "Cancer: Just a Word, Not a Sentence," which documents her experiences living with breast cancer. She runs cancer support groups and consults with hospitals, hospices and schools.
The workshop begins on Friday at 7:00 pm, at Wakulla Springs Lodge. The cost is $175. Food and overnight accommodations are available for an additional charge, please call for reservations. For more information see the calendar.
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