midlifejourney.com

Recently, I’ve been hearing a lot of stories about personal failure. Not mine… though I have certainly failed at one thing or another. But stories of friends who have worked hard to achieve their dream, and it just hasn’t worked out quite the way they expected. Not easy getting up, regrouping, getting new ducks in a row and trying again.

This afternoon I received a link to a short inspirational message that speaks to the point. Without failures, life would not be what it is. Lessons would not be learned, and new ideas would die before they blossomed. Take a minute and watch this video clip from wimp.com.

http://wimp.com/bigfailures

It’s worth your time.

The following is a message that has been circulating around the net for a while. Sent to me by a good friend, I thought it worth passing on here. Cudos to the unknown author.

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. Continue Reading »

Reflections submitted by Christine Phoenix-Green

Good morning!….it is crisp this morning with bright cool light slanting through the trees and into the windows…the best! The crickets are still out there, but softer and very close to the ground. Last evening before I went to the meditation group I drove onto the grounds of Our Lady of Peace retreat house…a castle in the woods by the sea, now empty and abandoned, and parked my car up the road past the parking lot so I could see the pond…and to my surprise right there on the grass next to a road was a strong and slender young buck, with a rack of antlers, big ears forward in alert watching me about 6 feet from my car. I rolled down my windows and shut off the engine and we just studied each other intensely for about 20 minutes.

Off to my left near the road was one of the huge ancient beech trees, and a family of squirrels high up on a branch were shaking it vigorously and tossing nuts onto the ground to collect later. Suddenly there was a “squirrel alert” (the rapid clicking and chatter of alarm) and about a yard from my car a red fox loped by chasing a squirrel that JUST made it to the tree and kvetched and swore profusely at the fox once it got up to the safety of a branch. It is not usual to be so close to this gift of the wildness of nature and these awesome grounds of Our Lady of Peace Retreat house are like being in a Robin Hood forest of merry old medieval England. Like a dream. Had I been moving fast and in a hurry, and not in a state of ” silence, stillness, solitude and simplicity” (!) I most likely would have missed this little cameo.

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The A Time Apart-Finding the Stillpoint in a Worldwind Life Retreat

(part of my upcoming Everyday Mystic Series) is a weekend quiet retreat, Oct 31-Nov 2 to be held at the Christian Brothers LaSalle Education and Retreat Center in Narragansett, Rhode Island. Cost is $275 which covers meals, lodging and 5 conferences on the practices of Silence, Stillness, Solitude, and Simplicity and a preparation on Dreams for Saturday nights deep sleep. Registration is very limited.

Please call Christine at (401) 364-9523 for more information, or a descriptive brochure.

Upcoming retreats:

• Parting the Mists: Dreams and Inner Healing in February 2009, and
• Veriditas: A Green Spirituality in May 2009 at the LaSalle Center. Dates: tba. (Bio)

Christine Phoenix-Green
cphoenixrising@earthlink.net

It’s been a too busy month! Here in the USofA we are only just in the middle of the Republican Convention and I can barely keep myself contained… Yes, I will definitely watch Palin tonite… and possibly McCain’s speech tomorrow… but all the talking heads and the “babble on” is giving me a headache. Life is already tough enough… sometimes I just need to take time out….

My good friend Christine Phoenix Green is offering an escape… want to just get away, take time for yourself and just “be”?… The retreat she is offering this fall, just might be what you are looking for. Check out details on the SPIRIT page of this website. Her contact info is included. I have attended several of her workshops and can highly recommend her work.

Got this email from a good friend who suggested I watch this short inspirational movie…The Dash

… it might take a minute or two to download, but it’s worth the time. Go sort your mail, and then come back.

If you have seen this before, it will always be worth seeing again.
In July 2006, a short 3-minute movie was launched on the Internet called The Dash. Since then, over 40 million people from around the world have watched it; and over 20,000 a day continue to watch it as a result of people passing it along.

The movie has been more successful than could have ever imagined.
More importantly, however, it has inspired many, many people to reflect on their lives and ask that all important question, ‘Are my priorities where they should be?’

I hope you enjoy this movie. www.dashpoemmovie.com

Pass it on if you like.