REGISTER FOR WOMEN LIVING FULLY…investing in ourselves
August 22, 2010
PEEC Presents: WOMEN LIVING FULLY…INVESTING IN OURSELVES
Oct. 24 – 27 2010
Imagine yourself nestled in beautiful, inspiring surroundings, your only goal to rest and indulge in self discovery. Imagine meeting like-minded women who come prepared to explore the same questions that run through your mind constantly… “Now What?” …“Who Am I?…
“How do I make the most of the life that is ahead of me?” “…What is it to be a true friend – to have a true friend?”…“What matters the most to me at this time in my life?”… “How can I make a difference in the world?”
PEEC (Pocono Environmental Education Center, Dingman’s Ferry, PA www.peec.org) is holding this, their first annual Women’s Retreat, and have invited inspiring authors, experts in their field and other speakers who will gather to explore all of those questions and more.
We all know that our lives and daily choices are best governed by ourmost deeply held values, beliefs and priorities. Yet there is much to distract and dilute even our best of intentions. This glorious three-day women’s retreat offers you the opportunity to reconnect with that which is most important to you and find new ways to live that are reflective of who you are and what your value. This is an experience dedicated to women’s complete well being, both individuallyand collectively.
You will be inspired by award winning and internationally published authors and other experts, including: Amy Ferris: Marrying George Clooney: Confessions of a Midlife Crisis –
Kristine Van Raden & Molly Davis (www.mattersthatmatter.com) : Letters to Our Daughters
Monica Holloway Monica Holloway – Cowboy & Willis; Driving with Dead People, and others.
Gregory Anne Cox of midlifewithavengeance.com
Robyn Hatcher, Amy Litzenberger, Hollye Dexter…and more!
This one of a kind retreat will provide an insightful and inspiring program highlighting the things that are vital to women in mid-life, and encourage living life to the fullest. Topics range from living authentic and meaningful lives, financial well being, health and wellness to the need for women to move beyond competition and towards mutual support, completion and collaboration.
Believing that learning can be a collaborative and supportive experience, all offerings will be participatory and introspective, inspiring and challenging. Sessions will include a combination of teaching, discussion and thoughtfully designed writing and thinking exercises. You will write, rest, eat amazing food, drink great wine, voice your ideas and opinions, reflect, rest and renew. You may even be cast as a character in the new play Common Threads…interested? REGISTER SOON, AS SPACE IS LIMITED
You are invited to participate in an experience that will both inspire you and allow you to inspire others.
Space is limited.
Cost is $560. which includes lodging, meals and all workshops & activities.
To register: Call – 570-828-2319 and ask to register for Women Living Fully
Grace: The choice to extend goodness
April 19, 2010
Long ago, we decided that when we saw beauty in anyone or anything we would notice it and appreciate it. Every time we see a woman with lovely eyes, beautiful skin, a kind heart or gentle spirit shared with the world, we speak our appreciation to that person.
Those few words of goodness can change the course of the day for the waitress serving us breakfast, the grocery clerk packing our bags or the exhausted receptionist checking us in for our doctor’s appointment. We have come to understand that everyone is blessed with their own unique kind of beauty, and once we make the choice to not only see it, but appreciate it, we find ourselves surrounded by the miraculous in the midst of the ordinary. And, the most astounding insight has been that when we choose to extend goodness in the midst of this imperfect world, we receive that goodness back in abundance.
Where might you see beauty in the midst of your day? To whom could you extend goodness, and in the extending, receive in abundance?
The Essence of Understanding
April 14, 2010
“When we are mindful, we notice that another person suffers. The other person may be a husband, a wife, or a child. If one person suffers, that person needs to talk to someone in order to get relief. We have to offer our presence, and we have to listen deeply to the other person who is suffering. That is the practice of love–deep listening. But if we are full of anger, irritation, and prejudices, we don’t have the capacity to listen deeply to the people we love. If people we love cannot communicate with us, then they will suffer more. Learning how to listen deeply is our responsibility. We are motivated by the desire to relieve suffering. That is why we listen. We need to listen with all our heart, without intention to judge, condemn, or criticize. And if we listen in that way for one hour, we are practicing true love. We don’t have to say anything; we just need to listen. “The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability to recognize the physical, material, and psychological suffering of others, to put ourselves “inside the skin” of the other. When we are in contact with another’s suffering, a feeling of compassion is born in us. Compassion means literally “to suffer with.” –Thich Nhat Hanh
T
hank you Quma Learning & Dennis Deaton
BEE, JUST BE…It’s spring again
March 29, 2010
THE BEE.
Like trains of cars on tracks of plush
I hear the level bee:
A jar across the flowers goes,
Their velvet masonry
Withstands until the sweet assault
Their chivalry consumes,
While he, victorious, tilts away
To vanquish other blooms.
His feet are shod with gauze,
His helmet is of gold;
His breast, a single onyx
With chrysoprase, inlaid.
His labor is a chant,
His idleness a tune;
Oh, for a bee’s experience
Of clovers and of noon!
by Emily Dickenson
The Elk Ate My Ivy
March 25, 2010
It was a full moon…so much moon light that night looked like day.
We were watching some horror(ish) thing on t.v. , so my skin was crawling a bit anyway. Out of the corner of my eye, just beyond the window, I saw movement. Holy Creepers! First reaction to fear?…punch the husband. He hadn’t noticed, but agreed to take a look.
There were at least 100! The size of horses on steroids. They moved out from the shadows of the pine forest towards the house; like The Bloods moving in on The Crips. Step by step, without a sound, they surrounded the house. LITERALLY.
We turned off all the lights to get a better view…eventually daring to open a window so we could listen to the power of the masses destroying our yard, garden, hedges of ivy…the occasional slurp from the pond. Massive beasts daring to dine on the hours and hours of our gardening labor.
IT WAS MORE THAN WORTH IT…I can’t begin to tell you the power that these animals have. They stayed for several hours, munching their way through acres of new spring growth. This morning, it looks like a thousand tiny bombs went off in the yard. Not a green sprig in sight. The hub and I decided that it was like a free pruning service and that everything will probably come back bigger and stronger…thanks in addition to all that free fertilizer they left behind.
They came, they ate, they pooped!…Kind of like a family Thanksgiving.
The moral of the story? Sometimes the things we cultivate serve a completely different purpose than what we intended. Let go and look for the gift.
YOU BRING TO THE WORLD WHAT NO ONE ELSE CAN
March 18, 2010
LOOK TODAY FOR THE SMILES REFLECTED BACK AT YOU…LISTEN TODAY FOR THE MUSIC THAT DELIGHTS YOU…GIVE TODAY TO SOMEONE IN NEED…LOVE TODAY EXPECTING NOTHING IN RETURN…
PROOF THAT NO ONE LOOKS, LISTENS, GIVES OR LOVES AS YOU DO IN THE MOMENTS OF YOUR VERY UNIQUE LIFE.
Matters That Matter ® 