the future of community

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John

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Sep 4, 2008, 8:36:56 AM9/4/08
to New World Network
Hi, there.

The dog days of summer are ending, and I know you've had a lot on your plate.  As we're making the turn toward fall, let me speak about the future of community.

You know my focus is on building the New World and supporting those who are doing their part.  That's the idea behind this list.  That's the idea behind PeaceOptions.

Community is a core component of that world.

Why community?  Because it is the basic building block for connecting with others, whether in families, groups of friends, or servers banding together to accomplish something bigger than themselves.

It offers an amazing flexibility, for community can look like almost anything.  But whatever the appearance, there is usually a sense of belonging, of common need or purpose, that ties its members together.

You are each serving in your own way.  You carry within you the seed for community.  Through your daily affairs it can sprout, take root and grow, allowing your love and wisdom to spill over to everyone you touch.

For community to work, it requires a certain willingness to connect with others, to support them, and to allow them to support you.  Maybe it's just talking, or being there for each other "doing" nothing at all.  We'll know when the time comes.

Perhaps the people on this list are not a community.  Perhaps we are all just individuals, who out of courtesy to one friend or another, agreed to be part of this list and have these messages interrupt our attention.

Nevertheless, whether we are or we aren't, there is always the possibility that we can become one.  Or more accurately, the precursor of a hub to tie together some of the many disparate groups to which we already belong.

Maybe we don't want to be the connecting points.  Maybe we have friends who are more interested or better suited to such a role or discussion.  But we can be the catalyst that allows community to grow into new forms of expression and service in our world.

In your heart you know this connection is essential if we are to move beyond the problems facing us today.  Perhaps it also will give you indication of the future of community in your life, how those communities might look, and how you can do your part to allow them to form.

None of us wants to see another email, especially on something that seems so unrelated to the problems we all face every day.  But someday those problems will run their course, and we'll have to answer the question, "What next?"

Perhaps that next will come more easily and simply by nurturing the seed of community in you today.  That future is in your hands.

Go with love.


john

--
John Dennison
Working for a Better World
www.PeaceOptions.com

Paige Cheong

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Sep 4, 2008, 1:13:33 PM9/4/08
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John

I read both messages from you. (peace options and this one). I am feeling an air of finality.

I want to say that I enjoy reading what you write, and while I sometimes don't respond. I do think about what you have said in your messages

We have spoken many times in the dreamtime, but not much otherwise.

The google group will grow. It will take time. It is difficult to start a community over the internet.

As for me personally, it is hard for me to write a well-thought response to your writings with  a three year old climbing on top of me.  It took me an hour to get this one out and it got deleted once. :)

Also, in case you did not know, Mercury is sliding into retrograde and communications are going to slow down.

I am looking forward to your visit in October and hope to develop a stronger connection.

If I do not get a chance to email Laura, please let her know that I wish her a most happy birthday.

Blessings
Paige
www.divineradiance-tejas.blogspot.com
www.divineradiance.net

--- On Thu, 9/4/08, John <jo...@whisperzone.org> wrote:

John

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Sep 4, 2008, 2:04:01 PM9/4/08
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Thank you, Paige.  That was very nice to hear.

I know how hard it is to write, and after I sent it out to the NWN, I figured my readers and friends should have a chance to consider some of the issues as well.

Frankly, I rarely get feedback on the impact of what I say or write other than a note here or there or a look in the eye when people start to look at their own lives.  It feels at times like I'm talking to the wall, but I know it isn't that way.  It's just that I'm planting a seed that sometimes takes times to grow, and it's not up to me when and whether it does.

My job is to challenge the stuck perspectives so people can move fluidly as called.  Rarely are they happy being challenged, but given time, if I do it right they make room for new perspectives to infiltrate their awareness so the shifts can occur.

As for my role in community, right now it is as a catalyst providing a nudge to keep going and raise our visions to encompass the possibility of a new world.  Soon it will take on a life of its own and I can talk more about how we all get along and go about our affairs.

It's been a long time since our kids were three, and I envy you the experience.  It is such a special time, but then every moment with ours is special and I trust always will be.

We always had them at the office after work, when sick, or out of school.  There is no separation between our work and family, and though the income suffers, the relationships are expanded far beyond my wildest dreams.

It is the incubator in which I get to study community and see the things that cause friction or bring joy.  Through it, I have learned I can just be dad and allow them to be who they are, beings far greater than me in most every way.  It has been my honor to prepare them to take their place within the world, and show them how to see it another way.

So just enjoy the moment.  While you do all the rest of this will sink in.  You'll know what to do with it when the time comes.

I, too, look forward to meeting you in person in "real life."  You can tell me all about our dream encounters then (or by email if you wish to start earlier).

Take care.


john


Carmen Sanabria

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Sep 4, 2008, 6:30:18 PM9/4/08
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Hi John, you shouldn't feel as though your talking to the wall..for we do listen and digest all you write and like you said we all grow at our own pace and at our own time. I do believe we are training our young ones to be assertive in the new world that will come sooner than we think. I just had a heart cath this tuesday 9/2/08 but i did truely enjoy my birthdate 8/30/08 at my niece's wedding it was beautiful and i did dance the night away before my procedure and am sore but healing well. So you see everything at its time and place!!! Please keep sending out those emails cause you have no idea who's life you may touch or shed some light in a confusing part of someone's life!!! Much light and healing to you my friend!!!
 
 
Love
Sunny


 
 
 
the Puerto Rico Store
 
The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials. Chinese Proverb



Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2008 14:04:01 -0400
From: jo...@whisperzone.org
To: new-worl...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [New World Network] Re: the future of community

mich...@igc.org

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Sep 4, 2008, 10:34:41 PM9/4/08
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John, Paige and Sunny and Netplayers,

Sunny, I'd like to start by saying that I sent you loving, healing prayerful energy for a swift recovery and the full resumption of wind sprinting by this time next week! Few of us realize the healing power of prayer, however we conceive of the Divine, and know that I sent you cosmic love from the sunny, coastal Bay Area. Here it is, catch it!;-)

Since I know you, Paige, I can attest that your best teacher (as mine) is two years and some months old and as befits parenting, the score still remains: kids 10, parents nothing! Your presence on this listserve is palpable and I deeply appreciate your conscious presence whether overtly visible or not. Please keep it up. Motherhood ends with this lifetime.

I arrived home round midnight from Sonoma, CA, just over an hour north, where I am a shirttale member of the Sonoma Ashram. Some six years ago, I met Baba Hariji while attending a Mystery School, and, as a consequence, I still savor having received myriad spiritual gifts. I venture north, from time to time, to meet visiting friends and to taste the cosmic energies that manifest at this magical place.

In addition to eating home grown organic vegetarian food, I assisted in laying flagstone before a beautiful meditation room. I aided a gentle seeker, Teotlani, by name, who shares my depth of passion for rocks! (Try encountering that at a 7-11 convenience markt!) I also met healers, retired food distributors, and many others who practiced savah (sp?), selfless service.

Following dinner, we retreated to the temple where a visiting guest pulled out his marvellous steel guitar, dusted off his voice and we sang Kirtan for over an hour! Somewhere along the line my eyes began shedding tears, my nose started dripping like a fawcet, and what little of me remained just joyfully fused with the universe. Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh how much Soul Ray Michael loves to chant the myriad names of Divine God!

Still later in the evening, I settled into yet another conversation with a seeker who lives at the ashram. After wandering all over the spiritual map, we ended up exchanging lovingly sweet energies, hand to hand and then cross body through each of our respective heart chakras. The sustained pulse of Divine energies had a sweet, viscose quality; perhaps that of gem-perfect amber? As I subsequently reported to John, I did not drive as much as flew home! Grounding, please. . .

How much I long to be part of a spiritual community. And spiritual community is what Paige, I and many others are being God-guided to assemble here in Pacifica, a working class town of some 40,000 along the Pacific Coast. I observe there are several concentric circles of individuals being re-enacted as we speak (we've known one another for countless lifetimes). Without going into the particulars, I observed that I (Paige, too?!) am being guided to honor and gather those belonging to a deeper level of Divine communion with one another, the earth, and with Divine Creator energies.

Sometimes what draws us together are mutual friends and congealing networks of awakening servers. Othertimes it is conversation whenin I actually concluded that others are as nutty as I AM! What comes through are lessons from dreams, waking visions, stones show up bearing messages, power allies like raven, hawk and hummingbird arrive bearing unseen gifts. Sometimes, as Paige points out, John or I visit her on the astral, or vice versa. We are all being asked to work in ever deeper ways, as from my vantage point, there are times that soul incubation is appropriate and other times when we are being asked to become greater than a mosaic's individual parts.

I may have already written the NWN that the redwood trees are guiding me into new patterns of leadership. These ancient remnants of Lemuria (the continent, like Atlantis, that once lay off the Pacific coast from us) are urging me to stand in union among others, to support, lead and co-create with each other while sharing our Divine gifts.

I don't know how many of you have had an opportunity to shamonically "journey" with others, but if you are open to going there, it is well worth considering. In visiting--say--Ganesha's temple, through the orchard and past the grand temple gates, one member who is visual sees and describes it all while another who is kinesthetic and empathic (like me) reveals the feelings and the profound knowings that attach. Since each one of us is a Divine snowflake, everyone has their uique gifts to share, one to the next. And when all is said and done, the proverbial elephant (outrageous pun?, tusk, tusk) becomes much more easily identifiable when a group bearing myriad gifts navigates a sacred journey.

It's not that flying solo is wrong; it is not. However I do believe that the rewoods are urging me/ us to step into one another's Divine shadows and learn one from the next, how to create a mutually beneficial world (at warp speed).

What I observe around me is awakening servers who have myriad capacities, interests, needs, and abilities, many of whom long to be part of something greater. Nesting Divine hierarchies (as opposed to dominator hierarchies that are much more familiar to our broken, autarchic political world) that reflect the Individualization of Divine God-Source with sacred biological families, culturally created families, temples, schools, other subgroups, communities, cities and regions remains the spritual and eco-geographical task for our time.

Each of us must be willing to step up, however, as Beings capable of trusting in each of our respective Divinities. We must become capable of expressing and celebrating, in whatever language that best suits us, affirmations that affirm our respective mighty I AM! presences. Therafter, whatever we we feel compelled actually do requires recognizing our gifts. The bounty is being able to link to others who can learn from, laugh with, occationally emotionally trigger (thereby releasing us from what no longer serves) those who have reincarnated over countless lifetimes together.

I sometimes long to return to the Ashram. Perhaps I'll bring aspects of that community to bear here in Pacifica where my son and I live. How do we navigate with one foot squarely in the Sacred and the other within the formerly Profane? The task for enlightened human beings is to create heaven on earth. Let's go there, together.

Blessings, Love and Divine Light,

Michael


-----Original Message-----
>From: Paige Cheong <cheo...@yahoo.com>
>Sent: Sep 4, 2008 1:13 PM
>To: new-worl...@googlegroups.com
>Subject: [New World Network] Re: the future of community
>

John

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Sep 5, 2008, 10:30:44 AM9/5/08
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Sunny:

Blessings and light for your quick recovery.  I truly hope the heart cath didn't reveal any problems, or at least patched those that were found.  Glad the problem wasn't so severe that you couldn't dance the night away beforehand.

Let us know how else we can help besides our prayers.  We're sending those already.

As for "talking to the wall," I wasn't specifically referring to those on this list.  I talk to people in all situations and all walks of life, all over the country.  Inevitably I end up pointing out things they don't see or aren't willing to consider.  Sometimes it's to help with their awakening.  At others it's to stop the fighting or ease the problem they're addressing.

It's gratifying when someone says, "Yeah, I see what you're talking about," and even more so when I know they go deep inside to think about it.  Rarely do they ever completely adopt my view, at least in front of me.

But more often than not, it sets off a conflict when I encounter the energetic resistance they put up to resist even the suggestion there's another way to see things than the one they've got.  Then I've got to shift gears and find a way to get enough through the barrier so that at a later time, when the energies are diffused, they might see it another way.

Without the engagement or feedback of some kind, though, I am unable to know whether my approach has any effect.  So I may come at it again a later time in a slightly different way they might allow through.  At least until I give up trying, whether out of fatigue, frustration, or whatever.

Perhaps my "speaking to the wall" comment reflects an inner condition I have not cleared yet.  Or perhaps it is just a subconscious way of stirring things up to instigate movement of one kind or another. 

Either way, your kind words are appreciated.  There is an ego in here that still likes to know that its efforts aren't going to waste.

I love you all.


john



John

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Sep 5, 2008, 10:49:30 AM9/5/08
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Michael:

Sometimes I'm all talked (or emailed) out.  This is one of them.

I'm just going to sit back and listen to the conversation.  Thanks for understanding.


john

mich...@igc.org

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Sep 5, 2008, 11:46:08 AM9/5/08
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John,

Got it. I understand. Will see what, if anything, transpires.

Will be back in touch with your earlier questions of me.

Love and Divine Light,

Michael

-----Original Message-----
>From: John <jo...@whisperzone.org>
>Sent: Sep 5, 2008 7:49 AM
>To: new-worl...@googlegroups.com
>Subject: [New World Network] Re: the future of community
>

Paige Cheong

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Sep 5, 2008, 11:58:42 AM9/5/08
to new-worl...@googlegroups.com
Well John

You certainly know how to get a conversation going!

Let me start by saying I did not receive Sunny's email.

I hope you are better, Sunny and am sending love and light.

Michael, your emails are brilliantly written, sometimes it takes a few reads to get through everything that you have to say. Vastly different from my friend who just returned to me after many years. He can write two words and I will be reading volumes!

Thanks all for understanding why sometimes I cannot write. (she is watching sesame street right now, so I am trying to get some quick time in)

Olivia, my daughter, IS my love and light. It is very challenging being an older mother and we are very busy teaching each other. I would not have it any other way. If it had not been for her, I would still be working the night shift in the printing industry. I am now on my way to my true path with her by my side.

Yes, John she is with us all the time. I rearranged my work schedule so she wouldn't have to go to day care, we do bed share (still, and she is three. We just got a new king size bed, and I still only get two inches :) ), and spend all of our time loving and nurturing her. All of the tools I am learning to use, healing, community, and otherwise will be passed on to her, so that she can use them with her own gifts. It is the children that will lead us past 2012. They need to be healthy, community oriented, strong in every aspect and be able to use the tools that their gifts require of them to help to bring us through.

Ok, off my soapbox now.

Blessings
Paige
www.divineradiance-tejas.blogspot.com
www.divineradiance.net


--- On Fri, 9/5/08, John <jo...@whisperzone.org> wrote:
From: John <jo...@whisperzone.org>
Subject: [New World Network] Re: the future of community

Carmen Sanabria

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Sep 6, 2008, 11:57:57 AM9/6/08
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Good Afternoon all!!! I do thank all of you for your prayers and know that they were felt as am feeling my old happy self again!!! They didn't find anything in the cath so all in all that's good..getting a bit stronger again though that sedative that they gave me was so strong that i still pass out sleeping for several hours LOL makes you rest whether you want to or not!! And yes Paige i do feel that we have to teach our young ones growing up cause they will be our future and teach them all we can about healing and using their gifts to the max!!! John i too sometimes feel like am talking to the wall but percistence is the key and maybe we will live long enough to see that our talking and teachings have not been in vain. I see it all the time when someone tells me that if not for some advice that i had given them or taught them that they would have choose to go a different path so you see it might seem like its a wall but its a living wall for it learns and it bends when it wants too. Keep teaching and someday you will see it start to take shape and open up to a wonderous time for all on this earth!!!
 
Love to all
Sunny
 
 
 
 
the Puerto Rico Store
 
The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials. Chinese Proverb



Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2008 08:58:42 -0700
From: cheo...@yahoo.com
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