ITALY

I sure am looking forward to going to Italy - the international conference, the archives, Florence and the rest of Tuscany.

I look forward to healing in the mineral springs and dancing in the same square in Assisi where St. Francis danced naked and was stoned.

A deep dread filled me this morning when it really struck me that I'm traveling alone - plans to have another colleague as a travel mate thwarted by her ill health.

I can do this.

My response is to anticipate the new friends I will meet on this journey and the many places I will see, of which I've only heard tell or seen in National Geographic or on Steve Reeves show.

I will soak up the cultural environment that inspired RobertoAssagioli to give form to psychosynthesis.

I will be inspired every moment of every day. I will be alive with beauty.

PERSPECTIVE

When I was counseling in elementary school, one of my favorite stories, one which addressed the kindergarten developmental age, was a story about a boy with a little red wagon and a girl.

The boy was accustomed to pulling his little red wagon around. It was, after all a wagon.

In the course of making friends with the girl, he had to learn the hard lesson about others having minds and hearts of their own.

Once he got it that the girl was not a little red wagon, but a new kind of interactive experience, they were able to be friends.

In workiing with people from other cultures, sometimes I have to learn that lesson all over again.

New working relationships are like a flower growing. It'll just die off and miss it's bloom  if not nurtured according to what the flower needs.

DISAPPOINTMENT

Mother's Day is both over- and under- rated.

For my brother, who sells plants, it is the biggest weekend of the year.

Restaurants are booked up even weeks in advance.

For some reason, I am usually alone on Mother's Day and this includes a long standing tradition of my children  not letting me know they are thinking of me on this day.

This family tradition began in the 60's when it was popular to challenge commercialism.

Once in a while, I get remembered and I am, of course, thrilled.

This year, Dick offered to pay for my plane ticket to go see my new grand daughter who will be born soon. I have been so exctied about the birth of this baby girl, there have been moments when I am overwhelmed with joy.

I did not expect the rejection I received when communicating with my daughter-in-law regarding my coming.

And so I am reeling with disappointment to the point of tears. I am wishing I could leave this life now instead of later and come back as someone who is welcome in her own family's lives.

But, I'll get over it very soon. I always do.

All is good.

Dick and his great gandaughter, Makenna.

JOY

After a weekend of being determined to recover 200 pix I deleted, I finally was successful.

In the process, the software which finally worked, also retrieved every pic I ever took on that camera.

The retrieval process required opening each pic manually, so when I found the most recent, I'd check each and then see where I was. They were there in clusters, not all together. So, occasionally, I'd pull up a pic from another time.

 I really enjoyed the experience of this digital way of leafing through the album of memories.

The frustration of the previous two days dissipated quickly as joy prevailed, by both the memories evoked  and from being able to access the pix I had taken the previous weekend.

And so, I sit here, project complete, sipping on a cup of tea from my Joy cup.

HOME

I just returned from traveling to Vermont and back. (Vermont is a state in the northeast USA)

While there I visited Champlain College to tour the campus where we will hold a conference in June 2013. I went to Amherst MA for a one-day psychosynthesis conference where I invited folks to participate in advancing psychosynthesis today. I participated in several spiritual events and good conversation with the woman who founded the organization of which I now co-chair and was hosted royally by this pure spirit of a woman and her husband. And I spent half a day alone in the sun both walking their labyrinth and in deep meditation.

As I sit here reflecting on this week in New England,  I am surprised at what a radical separation experience leaving has been. Not only did I grow up in that kind of environment and felt very much that I came home, but also I felt at home because of the company I was keeping. I was living in the world of Spirit, with my hosts and at the conference. 

I may live in the world of spirit in my heart, yes. But, it is a rare and cherished experience for me to share this together with others.

I have been blessed by traveling to VT and back.

Photoedited by Judi White - full moon in February. I have no idea how this came out as it did.