My sister shared these words with me in January, and I wanted to share. Although it’s a little past New Year’s, it’s still such a beautiful reminder.

Here’s to a new year full transformation and love, written by Dr. Christine Valters Painter.

Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird; keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guests, an altar for an unknown God. ~ Henri-Frederic Amiel

“Who doesn’t love the promise of new beginning the New Year offers? St. Benedict described his Rule as a rule for beginners, reminding us to always begin again. In Buddhism, an essential practice is beginner’s mind. When we think we have become an expert at things, especially the spiritual life, we are in trouble.

Living into the mystery of things helps us to release our hold on needing to know the answers. One of the things the monk and artist have in common is a love of mystery, a willingness to sit in the place of tension and paradox until it ripens forth.

New Year’s resolutions often come from a place of lack, or of thinking we know how to “fix” ourselves. Unfortunately, they are often fueled by a consumer culture that is eager to have us buy more and more things to improve ourselves. Embracing mystery, on the other hand, honors our profound giftedness and depth and acknowledges that coming to know ourselves and God is a lifetime exploration.

So my invitation to you, dear monks and artists, is to shift your thinking this year. Welcome ambiguity. Learn to love the holy darkness of mystery. Dance on the fertile edges of life. Let what you love ripen forth.

Here are ten essential practices to help support you in this journey:

1. Breathe deeply. Our breath is our most immediate and vital connection to the life force that sustains us moment by moment. Let yourself be filled with awe and wonder at the marvels of this intimate gift. Sit for three minutes savoring that you are breathed into.
2. Embrace night wisdom. One of the great gifts of dreams is that they upend our desire for logic and immerse us in a narrative that reveals the shadows we must wrestle with and the joys that call to us, whether or not they make sense to the waking world.
3. Dance freely. We live so disconnected from our bodies. Dance has been part of human culture for thousands of years as a way to experience union with ourselves, one another, and the divine. Each day put on one piece of music that you love, close the door, and dance. Pay attention to what rises up in the process. If you resist, even better—dance with your resistance!
4. Follow the thread. Each of us has a unique unfolding story and call in this world. We don’t “figure this out” but rather we allow the story to emerge in its own time, tending the symbols and synchronicities that guide us along.
5. Trust in what you love. Following the thread is essentially about cultivating a deep trust in what you love. What are the things that make your heart beat loudly, no matter how at odds they feel with your current life (and perhaps especially so)? Make some room this year to honor what brings you alive.
6. Let the rhythms of nature guide you. We live our lives in a constant state of stimulation and productivity. We are often exhausted and overwhelmed. When we turn to the natural world we find with each day, each moon cycle, and each season a rhythm of rise and fall, fullness and emptiness. Trying to live all the time in rising or fullness is exhausting. Make some time to embrace the falling and emptiness of life, which immerses us in an experience of mystery.
7. Release what is no longer necessary. We accumulate so many things in our days, perhaps you have discovered at Christmas that you have a new pile of stuff that now requires energy to maintain or worry about. Reflect on what is most essential. Then ask yourself, what are the thoughts, attitudes, or expectations about life that keep you from freedom? How do you try to control the direction of your life rather the yielding to grace?
8. Remember that you will die. St. Benedict writes in his Rule to “keep death daily before your eyes.” This is never an act of morbid obsession, but a reminder of life’s incredible gift. Any of us who have brushed near death, or had loved ones pass away, know this wisdom in profound ways. This is another paradox of the spiritual life: a vibrant relationship to our mortality is essential to a vibrant relationship to life.
9. Ask for the wisdom of your ancestors. Each of us is the inheritor of generations of stories that beat through our blood. Each of us has mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, who wrestled mightily with living a meaningful life. We can call upon this great “cloud of witnesses” to support us in our own wrestling. We can listen across the veil between worlds.
10. Open yourself to receiving a word for the year ahead. In quiet moments what are the desires you hear being whispered from your heart? Is there a word or phrase that shimmers forth, inviting you to dwell with it in the months ahead? Something you can grow into and don’t fully understand?

Imagine if your New Year’s wasn’t about fixing or improving, but about deepening and transforming, about embracing the holy mystery at the heart of the world.

What if the year ahead wasn’t about growing more certain about things, but about releasing the hold of your thinking mind so something deeper and more fertile could rise up?
What might bloom from such rich soil of your imagination? How might you create an altar for an unknown God and for the unknown depths of your own beautiful being waiting to be freed?”

Main avenues that we specialize in:

• Social Media: We create and implement strategic social media campaigns.
• Video Production: We film, edit and produce cohesive content maketing videos.
• Public Relations: We help businesses manage the flow of information between their business and the public.

Contact me, Molly Milroy, if you’d like to learn more, and we’ll meet for tea and talk about what strategy would work best for your company.

Until next time!

Molly

Photos property of http://thebrothersharrell.wordpress.com/

Here is a snippet from their website about who they are:

“In horse pulled wagons stocked with a bicycle powered silent cinema, an Appalachian-balkan-brass-klezmer-dixieland-string ensamble, kinetic sculpture and their signature low-tech theater appliances, the newly formed Rural Academy Theater will be staging their innovative performances in the town greens, theaters, college campuses, and pastures of Western North Carolina.

“By not relying on gasoline powered propulsion or being dependent upon electricity and the typical expensive gadgetry associated with professional theater, we will be traveling and performing at a much more human pace, one that will allow for a more thorough integration into the communities and lives we visit,” said Gabriel Harrell, the theater’s co-founder.

Central to the theater’s mission is to celebrate and call attention to the rural, in opposition to the global urbanization of our culture, economy, food, media, education and art. “While most theater and communication systems at present promote high tech, expensive and therefore exclusive models, we will present a distinctly low tech, inexpensive, inclusive model,” said Noah Harrell, Gabriel’s brother and co-founder of the company. Of the project’s socially minded agenda and community volunteer/workshop opportunities, Noah adds, “We feel such a model empowers individuals and communities to speak for themselves, facilitating the discussion of local social justice issues and connects communities through socially minded art.”

At the end of the program, they showed a silent movie called “The Cameraman’s Revenge,” by Vladislav Starevich, a Russian and French stop-motion animator who used insects and other animals as his protagonists. I have included it below.

The project was powered by a bicyclist volunteer from the audience and the film was paired with music from the Rural Academy Theater, with accordions  strings, and trumpets. I am completely enthralled by stop-motion, not only how much detail goes into it, but what a bridge it was into technology that we know today. The fact that the objects are moved in such tiny increments between individually photographed frames is pretty amazing and such a dedicated art form.

I hope you enjoy!

Photos from http://thebrothersharrell.wordpress.com/

Details from Vie Safari:

Photographic Safari, headed to Kenya in April of 2013!

We are thrilled to annouce Vie Safari’s Photographic Safari, headed to Kenya in April of 2013!

Kenya is one of the best locations in the world for wildlife photography. In Kenya, there exist national parks with animals and birds that you won’t find in the wild outside of Africa! In April, 2013, Vie Safari will be leading a 10-day photographic safari, specializing in capturing images of all the incredible wildlife that East Africa has to offer. In addition, the safari will travel to Kakamega, in Western Kenya, to visit and assist with community projects underway with our partner non-profit, Just One Person.

We believe that photographers should visit several different parks to get a full understanding of the vast amount of wildlife photography available in the country, as well as connect with the local Kenyan community to get a full understand of the culture.

This safari is open to all levels of photographers and will be led by Molly Milroy, photographer, and Vie Safari guide, John.

Below, you will find the photography itinerary for the Vie Safari Photographic Safari. Please contact molly@viesafari.com to reserve your spot!

Proposed Itinerary for Photography trip to Kenya, April 2013

Kennedy Tsosy will meet photography trip at the airport and take visitors to the 4-star PanAfric in Nairobi.

Day 1: See sights in Nairobi. Visit the Karen Blixen House, The Giraffe Center, Kazuri Beads as well as a general tour of Nairobi. Evening accommodations- PanAfric

Day 2: Drive to Lake Naivasha just in time for lunch at the famous Elsamere Conservation Centre (www.elsatrust.org) on the shores of Lake Naivasha on the Great Rift Valley.

About Elsamere Conservation Centre: Elsamere, the home of the late Joy and George Adamson, who devoted their lives to wildlife conservation, is situated on the southern shore of Lake Naivasha in Kenya’s Rift Valley. It was here that Joy nurtured some of her orphaned big cats. The area is still a haven for wildlife, with its own small troop of black and white colobus monkeys living and playing in the Acacia trees. Fish Eagles call from the lakeshore and hippos, eland and zebra graze on the lawns at night. In addition the Centre is a bird lovers paradise with more than 260 species of bird, including rare species such as the Verreaux’s Giant Eagle Owl. Many of Joy’s famous paintings adorn the walls of the main house and the small museum displays a range of interesting memorabilia.

Upon arriving at the center, we will watch the film Elsa and relax in the beautiful gardens at Elsamere. All your meals will be taken at Elsamere where you will reside for the two nights. The food is divine (vegetarian friendly, as well) and the accommodations are very comfortable.

Day 3: Spend much of the day Elsamere Conservation Centre and then visit Hells Gate National Park close by. Photograph morning and evening. Evening accommodations at Elsamere.

About Hell’s Gate National Park: Hell’s Gate National Park lies to the south of Lake Naivasha in Kenya, North West of Nairobi. The park, which is mainly comprised of savannah ecosystem, harbors a wide variety of wildlife. Some of the frequently observed animal species include lions, leopards, and cheetahs. There are over 100 species of birds in the park, including vultures, Verreaux’s Eagles, augur buzzard, and swifts. African buffalo, zebra, eland, hartebeest, Thomson’s gazelle, and baboons are also common. The park is also home to klipspringer antelope and Chanler’s mountain reedbuck.

Day 4: Travel to Nakuru National Park where you arrive in time for lunch at Lake Nakuru Lodge, followed by a late afternoon game drive. Evening accommodations: The beautiful Lake Nakuru Lodge.

About Lake Nakuru National Park: The Park lies in Central Kenya, 140km northwest of Nairobi, in Nakuru district of the Rift Valley Province. The ecosystem comprises of the lake, surrounded by mainly wooded and bushy grasslands. This is one of the best places in Kenya to see leopards, and white rhinos are commonly seen at the lake’s southern end, but the park’s most famous attraction is the flamingos that ring the lake in thousands.

Day 5: Travel to Kakamega. Meet the Just One Person staff and participants, and visit a girls’ village to meet her parents.

Day 6: Visit the Just One Person sustainable tree nursery and mushroom farm projects

Day 7: Visit other Non Profit projects operating in Kakamega such as Heifer International, Solar Cookers and the University Spirulina Farm.

Day 8: Meet with community health workers and women’s groups in Kakamega to learn how mothers, widows and sisters cope with HIV/AIDS, domestic violence and other social issues in their villages.

Day 9: TBD

Day 10: Travel back to Nairobi – you have the option of flying back, see note below.

Indicative Safari Price: The approximate cost per person is USD $ 1,900-$2,000
Costs covered include:
• Park entrance fees
• Transport and guide services to the places to be visited per the proposed itinerary
• Full Board accommodation (including all meals)
• Airport transfers
• All road transfers
• Private use of safari vehicle with qualified guide
Note: If you opt to fly back to Nairobi instead of driving, the additional cost is $150 per person.

Not included:
• All drinks
• Personal gifts / items from shops
• Tips / gratuities for camp / lodge staff and for your driver / guide
• Laundry
• Internet usage at lodges
• Visa fees
• International flights
• Personal medical, travel & equipment insurance