Dreaming, Connections and WOW!

At Skystone we believe strongly in supporting the community and its individuals. We've been happy to sponsor many events over the last year. At the Common Threads Project kick-off last fall, we brought in Kris Steinnes, author of Women of Wisdom:empowering the Dreams & Spirit of Women to speak about empowerment and community. It was a full night including music by the Common Threads Choir.

The Seattle based Women of Wisdom (WOW) organization serves a much wider community. Coleen Renee, a past WOW board member, presenter and contributor to the book, now lives here in Kittitas County. About once a month she runs into someone local who she met at a WOW Conference. WOW creates community connections.

Kris published her book in part to strengthen and build upon those community connections. When the reader opens the book, she/he enters a well of wisdom that comes from over a decade of Conferences and the powerful people who presented and attended. Below is an excerpt that we find particularly inspiring. Enjoy!

WOW Excerpt -- Have You Put Your Dreams on Hold? (Angeles Arrien's chapter)

Each one of us has a great dream and a great calling. Many of us have put our dreams on the back burner. We say, "Someday when I have enough time, when I have enough money; then I'll do what I really want to do, what had fire for me." At this time there is such a wonderful opening in history, in evolution, if we will just come and take our place.

What I've found among many of the indigenous peoples of the world is that they know how important it is to bring our medicine an dour dreams to this world. If we want the earth to get better we need to show up and take our place, not with our shrouds of insufficiency, but with our long tall bodies and our deep, deep roots. The warrior's way or the leaders' way is to show up. And then I can pay attention to what has heart and meaning, which is the healer's way. I can't know what has heart or meaning until I choose to show up, until I choose to be present.

Among the shamanic traditions of the world, if you go to a shaman or a medicine person, and your are dispirited, disheartened, or depressed, many of them will ask you one of four questions: "When in your life did you stop singing? When in your life did you stop dancing? When in your life did you stop being enchanted by stories, and particularly your own life story? And when in your life did you stop being comforted by the sweet territory of silence?"

Wherever we stop singing, dancing, being enchanted by stories or deeply comforted by silence, we begin to experience soul loss. There's not a culture in the world that does not have song, or dance, or story, or doesn't recognize that in the sweet territory of silence we connect to the mystery in our contemplative and reflective practices.

I know I'm not at home when I'm in appeasement, weak-heartedness, seduction, drama or exaggeration. I know I"m not at home when I am playing the martyr or the victim and wanting someone else to be responsible for my life and therefore guilt induce others. I'm not at home when I'm controlling, because the opposite of control is trust.

I am at home when I have fire; when I am deeply connected to what has heart and meaning, the heart's fire; when I'm seized by a vision that I want to manifest and bring to the sweet face of Mother Earth. I know I'm on fire when I've lost time through some creativity, and when I've experienced a moment of tender sweetness and intimacy in a relationship that has substance and depth. I know I'm on fire when I've connected to something numinous and extraordinarily beautiful that can only be found when trusting in an unshakable part of myself, in a sacred refuge that I can find in my deep interior.

Women of Wisdom by Kris Steinnes, offered a special beginning on June 23rd, 2009 at 12:01 am. For our friends, this offer is extended, but only on the 24th and 25th. We invite you to go to this page - www.wisewomanpublishing.com/womenofwisdom.html - to access the order page and after you make your purchase, go back to this page to access the bonus page. On the Exclusive Private Invite page, enter you order confirmation code. That will allow you to gain entry to the bonus gifts that are available to people for just a few more hours.