Sunday, June 5th, 2022
A friend sent us an article this week called “Tragedy to Transformation” by Beverly Hutchinson McNeff and it reminds us of the concept of “spiritual alchemy”, the process of transforming life’s tragedies and challenges into life-enhancing changes and wisdom, ripe for peace and possibility. We’ll share some of her message this Sunday on Zoom, as well as other practices that can help transform our lingering hurt and suffering, fear and anger to a place of love, peace, safety, and healing. We hope you can join us – here’s the link:
Time: Jun 5, 2022 10:30 AM Mountain Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89095040599?pwd=Z0lWbCthSXkwbldwcmF4NVFUU2hnUT09
Meeting ID: 890 9504 0599
Passcode: 098942
Peace and Love,
Colleen and Mark
Quotes to ponder
“Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live.”
~ Robert F. Kennedy
“It is time for us to embrace these situations and gain wisdom from them, so they do not need to continue to happen over and over again. What happened to our “family” in New York and Texas should be taken personally, and we need to ask within what this is personally for us and how we can be truly helpful in this world to bring a miracle of healing to this moment. Let us not get lost in our fear, anger, or feelings of impotence. There is something each and every one of us can do; no act is insignificant.”
~ Beverly Hutchinson McNeff
“The secrets of alchemy exist to transform mortals from a state of suffering and ignorance to a state of enlightenment and bliss.”
~ Deepak Chopra
Our sufferings do not magically end; instead we are able to wisely alchemically recycle them. They become the abundant waste that we use to make new growth possible.”
~ bell hooks
Looking Ahead/Notes of Interest
Paths of Heart Schedule (Sundays, 10:30 a.m., starting May 22nd)
Mask Policy Update:
Though Covid cases sure seem to be ramping up again, illnesses are generally mild in most cases and we are leaving it up to attendees whether they want to mask or not.
June 5th – ZOOM gathering
June 12th – No Paths of Heart. We will plan on taking this Sunday off to conserve Paths of Heart’s financial resources.
June 19th – in person
June 26th – No Paths of Heart. We will plan on taking this Sunday off to conserve Paths of Heart’s financial resources.
The above schedule is subject to change as we collectively craft the path of our gatherings going forward. 🙂
Speaking of which, our Paths of Heart Survey on “Survey Monkey” will be arriving in your inboxes soon!. We’d be grateful for your timely responses so we can make some collective decisions about the future of Paths of Heart. Thanks so much in advance!
Fort Collins Premier Showing of “Voice of the Wisdomkeepers” Documentary – Our friend, Alexandra Loves from Portland will be bringing this film to our town on June 14th, along with the filmmaker, Quincy Davis, and we think it is a timely gift to take in this wisdom! You can see details of the event here: https://fb.me/e/4rida8eBy
Sending prayers and affirmations ~ If anyone would like to receive our collective positive thoughts and prayers on a Sunday morning, please ask! We can be as specific or as anonymous as you’d like. Let us know if we can surround you and your loved ones in love and light!
Giving Opportunities – Paths of Heart continues (into its 9th year now!) almost entirely through your generous donations. What a beautiful thing! If you find value in what we do here each week, please consider donating to keep our non-profit running smoothly, with grace and ease. The past 2 years saw a severe drop in donations and we’d love to regrow our account balance to a more healthy and sustainable level now that we are meeting regularly again. During the pandemic, online donations became increasingly important to our organization, and are always gratefully accepted on our website, https://www.pathsofheart.org/donate/. You can even sign up for monthly giving, which we deeply appreciate. Thanks so much for supporting the continuation of Paths of Heart! We are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, so your donations are tax deductible!
Two ways you can further support Paths of Heart are detailed below:
King Soopers Community Rewards Program – if you shop at KS and have a rewards card, you can “link” it to Paths of Heart and King Soopers will donate a portion of your dollars spent (around 5%) to our non-profit. Go to https://www.kingsoopers.com/i/community/community-rewards to sign up and link your card. Our organization name is Paths of Heart and organization number is RG782. Let us know if you want help signing up!
Amazon Smile – We do love shopping locally and very often do, but Amazon sometimes fits the bill. If you are an Amazon shopper, you can make a difference by shopping at smile.amazon.com/ch/81-4175487 to generate donations for Paths of Heart!
“Paths of Heart” Labyrinth and Zen Meditation Garden – This was intentioned to be a community space, so know that you are always welcome to drop by and walk or sit – you do not need to let us know in advance. Do note that we have experienced the outer “halo” of glass blocks in the labyrinth to be slippery when wet, so it’s best to walk it on a dry day (not usually a problem in Colorado!). We also welcome volunteers to help keep our labyrinth looking beautiful and free of debris and weeds. Thank you in advance.
Gratitudes
We are grateful for an upcoming visit from Myles Sloniker while he has a few tour dates in CO. Any opportunity to hold our loved ones close feels especially meaningful these days.
What are you grateful for today?
“Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend…”
~ Sarah Ban Breathnach
“Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy — because we will always want to have something else or something more.”
~ Brother David Steindl-Rast
“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”
~ G.K. Chesterton
About Paths of Heart…
Paths of Heart is a high spirited, heart-centered community where we gather together (in new and creative ways!) for music, poetry, commentary, and dialogue to create and nurture joy, compassion, gratitude, and love – in our own lives and throughout the world. Paths of Heart is a 501(c)(3) Human Services/Educational non-profit organization that uses the arts, especially, to encourage and propel seekers of a better, more peaceful world to find ways to serve, while becoming more kind and compassionate human beings.
We welcome you as we collectively and individually explore the sweet mysteries of life – this is an invitation into co-creation!
Visit us on the web at https://www.pathsofheart.org
We hope our physical paths may cross soon!