From the Oneness Project

Who am I?

How you answer that question says a lot, not just about how you see yourself, but also about how you see others and how you relate to the world. And it’s an important question at this time in history when the challenges of our global community are drawing us out of limited identities based on “me” and “mine” into identities based on the “we” of the whole planet.

Identities help us find our way in the world, navigate challenges and make choices. They can be founded on anything from the color of our skin or religious orientation, to goals we have achieved or dreams we hold. Often during times of stress those boundaries can contract and tighten—we protect what is ours more rigorously and separate ourselves from the needs of others.

But times of struggle can also be motivation to expand our boundaries. Instead of contracting around our own needs, we can open to the needs of others, share resources, and choose to cooperate. As we do so, our identities shift and the separation between “me” and “you” or “us” and “them” seems less compelling and defining. But how can this happen? Where do we start?

To read the complete article, click here.

This is an 8 week on-line course available from DailyOM and Catherine Ann Jones. We will email you when your new lesson is available and you will be able to login and read each lesson on-line or print as they become available and click to listen to the guided audio meditations. Your first lesson will be available immediately after you enroll. If you have any other questions, please contact us.

Our lives may be determined less by past events than by the way we remember them. You are invited to come aboard this inner adventure that offers a step by step journey of discovery and re-visioning through focused journaling. Throughout the eight sessions, you will be engaged in exercises designed to facilitate healing and transformation. Telling stories about our past through focused journaling can help change our perspectives to enable healing and empowerment. In this way, we are able to make meaning out of memory and put the past where it belongs – behind us. Healing and transformation are only possible through changing one’s perspective from within. In this way, global healing takes place one individual, one tribe, at a time. What story are you living? How do you choose to remember your story?

There is a Native American parable about a grandfather who says, I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is the vengeful, angry one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one.” When asked which wolf will win the fight in his heart, the old man replies, “The one I feed.”

ABOUT CATHERINE ANN JONE
Catherine Ann Jones holds a graduate degree in Depth Psychology and Myth from Pacifica Graduate Institute where she has also taught. Earlier she has played major roles in over fifty productions on and off-Broadway, as well as film and television. Disappointed by the lack of good roles for women, she wrote a play about Virginia Woolf (On the Edge) which won a National Endowment for the Arts Award. Ten of her plays, including Calamity Jane (both play and musical) and The Women of Cedar Creek, have won several awards and are produced both in and out of New York. Her films include The Christmas Wife (Jason Robards & Julie Harris), Unlikely Angel (Dolly Parton), Angel Passing (Hume Cronyn & Teresa Wright) which played at Sundance and went on to garner fifteen awards here and abroad, and the popular TV series, Touched by an Angel. A Fulbright Scholar to India studying shamanism, she has also taught at The New School University, University of Southern California, and the Esalen and the Omega Institute. Ms. Jones lives in Ojai, California, leads The Way of Story and Healing Yourself with Writing workshops throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Her recent book, The Way of Story: the craft & soul of writing, is used by many schools, including NYU writing programs.www.wayofstory.com

As the population ages, we are in deep need of mentors and sages whose wisdom can help guide us through the transition from youth through maturity and old age. Perhaps no couple has done a better job of exploring the aging process and its many dimensions than Alice and Richard Matzkin in their new book, “The Art of Aging: Celebrating the Authentic Aging Self”. In this touching video, the authors and artists expore their relationship and some of the ideas they explore in their book.

A couple, both artists, take a penetrating look at aging through a series of projects that confront their fear and curiosity about growing old. They explore physical changes, sensuality and relationships, aging parents, spirituality and death. Drawing on their personal experiences and the wisdom of older mentors, they conclude that their elder years can be a time of ripening and harvest rather than stagnation and despair. The profusely illustrated book contains a wealth of inspiration, especially for those about to enter old age.

NOW Available on Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/pn9tm4

Authors/Artists BIO:
Alice Matzkin has two paintings in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Her portrait of Chelsea Clinton hung in the White House during the Clinton Administration. Her work has appeared in National Magazines, She has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Richard Matzkin has had numerous one man shows and his pieces are in collections throughout the United States. He is a talented sculptor, writer, musician and therapist.

For more information about the Matzkins, see their web site: http://MatzkinStudio.com

Video produced & edited by Jeff Foster: http://PixelPainter.com

From Daily Good

The following story is a great example of ending separation and could only happen if we see others as extensions of ourselves which, of course, they truly are.

A hidden connection is stronger than an obvious one. –Heraclitus

Inspiration of the Day:
They met on Boston Common — two men with little in common. One a well-heeled, high-powered attorney, the other a street-schooled, often ignored homeless person. But every morning they would cross paths here in the park and over the course of several months, actually became good friends. How did that happen? You’d think after the weather and box scores they’d run out of things to talk about. And indeed, they did run out. “So I gave Robert a copy of a book I really loved called ‘Water for Elephants’ and we would talk about that,” Peter said. Discussing the book became their way of connecting, and it didn’t stop there. “It occurred to us that there was an interest out here that could draw people together,” Peter said. About a year ago, Peter and Ron started the Homeless Book Club. (more)