New Year's Wishes - Jan. 2010

Beautiful music by Libana is featured in this lovely video. Thanks, Marie, for sharing it with us! Enjoy!

Hello Everybody, Happy New Year!

Hard newsletter to write this time around. New Year's eve, traditionally New Year's resolution time. Out with the old, in with the new...when it doesn't feel quite like the previous year is done with its hold on us, not by a long shot yet.

Some people we see on Facebook have been planning rituals to literally throw the old year away -- smashing rituals, throwing away rituals. Perhaps good ideas in the sense of setting an intention that the painful realities we've all been going through as a nation be over and done with. But perhaps a more hopeful agenda might be set if we were to recognize that these harsh realities were a painful yet important waking up, shaking us out of compliance with a painful yet frequently unquestioned status quo. The problems aren't going away if we decide to just watch as powerful interests manipulate the public for private gain, not here, not in Iraq or Afghanistan, not anywhere in the world today.

As I'm writing this I am well aware that most people on our list, including ourselves, have been hit terribly by the economic consequences of our world's previous choices and that, if there's anything we all want to see happen in 2010, it's for the global economic crisis to be set right again. The guidance I continually receive on this is that it will not come to pass until we take our Law of Attraction / manifestation skills up a notch in terms of conscious awareness of how connected we are as individuals to the care of the planet as a whole. The Me Generation's legacy of "me first, mine, who cares about yours" has got to end. If we don't understand that what we do affects the world as a whole soon the whole thing comes crashing down. It already has for more than a few of us already.

One thing you learn when you live way out in the desert is how important the belief is that we're all in this together. Not a day goes by, it seems, when locally at least we don't hear about some effort to help another local family or individual in need. That caring even extends to Paul and me as we walk the dirt roads in the country surrounding our house. People aren't used to seeing people going for a walk this far out in the wilderness -- there's nothing, they think, to walk to! So they always stop to make sure we're okay and don't need help in any way. It's nice. We like that but it pointed out something to us. That never happened to us anyplace else we have ever chosen to live.

We also had the recent experience of having a pipe on the outside of the household water tank freeze so we were without running water for a day or two. This felt traumatic for Paul and me, not used to country living off the grid without public utilities. But we all came through it okay and when free-flowing water was once again restored we celebrated! We were grateful for something we had simply taken for granted days before. Not anymore. Now we know what more than half the planet lives with as a painful reality of their daily existence -- the importance of a roof over one's head with clean, good to drink running water, food to eat, electricity (even if we have to make it ourselves) and the basic necessities of life. We're fortunate to have that no matter how much we may be suffering the loss of other finer stuffs. As this year comes to a close and a new one begins I want to encourage everyone on our list to take a few minutes to be thankful for what we do have and to manifest gratefulness for the necessities of the lessons we've been receiving of late. It helps keep our perspective and the priorities that should be accessible to everyone on the planet clear.

What are we doing what we do for? What priorities do we want to set for the coming year as a planet? We need to allow that to settle into our consciousnesses and then decide what we all want to be doing personally for ourselves and the world as a whole.

--Sheryl Karas

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BOOKS HAND-AUTOGRAPHED BY THE AUTHOR (Sheryl Karas)

THE SOLSTICE EVERGREEN: THE HISTORY, FOLKLORE AND ORIGINS OF THE CHRISTMAS TREE --
The evergreen has been a potent pagan symbol in almost every culture, from prehistoric Japan to Northern Africa, from Native America to Medieval Germany. The Solstice Evergreen explores the rich spiritual heritage of this ancient symbol in depth and includes a great many myths, legends,and folk tales from across the globe as well as dozens of black and white illustrations. Gathered together in this book for the first time, this rich collection of mythology presents a unique perspective spanning many cultures and centuries.

THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY OF FAMILY CAREGIVING --
For five years, ending in 2005, I worked as a Family Caregiving Consultant at the Alzheimer's Association and Del Mar Caregiver Resource Center helping families taking care of loved ones with incurable progressive memory loss and dementia. Trying to find services needed to provide basic care is what brought people in to see me first, but as the caregivers became more ensconced in their caregiving roles inevitably emotional and spiritual issues would become their primary concerns. My role shifted to providing a combination of practical and spiritual care. During this period I wrote a caregiver newsletter every month and this book is the result.

Unsigned copies of "The Spiritual Journey" and a nice variety of journals featuring our photography are also available online at http://stores.lulu.com/healingcommunicationpress .

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WHERE TO FIND OUR ART

Beautiful Photographic Prints by Paul Hood... http://PaulHood.imagekind.com/
Art and Photography by Sheryl Karas... http://SherylKaras.imagekind.com/
Art notecards, T-shirts, mugs and other gifts featuring our images... http://www.zazzle.com/paulnsheryl*
Brand New Shop (Pendants featuring our art and photography, more items to come)... http://www.etsy.com/shop/paulnsherylart

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WHERE TO FIND OUR VIDEOS

http://www.youtube.com/user/healerteam

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