being 13, part 5...the revolution
I remember well being 13 and telling my teacher that the prayer we did at lunch was dumb, in my own 13 year old way.
The prayer was full of words that we didn't know or didn't use in 20th century English and some words that she couldn't explain to us when we asked her.
We mumbled through it to get it over with, to appease her and get to lunch.
And I was 13 and tired of it. We had other options. The previous week, the substitute teacher asked us instead if anyone had any intentions, anything in our lives we wanted to pray for. We were shocked. And delighted.
And in saying things out loud we learned something about each person brave enough to say a few words. Oh, goodness, her mother is sick. I didn't know that. Oh, his grandparents are coming and he's excited. I'd be excited too.
We grew in affection for each other and for life. Our senses came alive, even with this new prayer cutting into our lunch an extra minute or two.
But then that substitute teacher left and there we were back in the old habit that was deadening our senses.
I definitely do not have a very good poker face. My eyes get all excited when I'm excited, and my eyes also show surprise at how foolish we as a group can be. And my 'surprise eyes' might have been mixed with a heavy dose of annoyance that morning before lunch as our regular teacher screamed at me for disrespecting the deadening prayer that she could never explain to us what it was about. "How dare you offend, God!"
I was 13. Standing there all alone. I knew God didn't care but I did worry this teacher I angered just might walk across the room and slap me. The older kids had teased us on the bus that she had done similar things before like that, that there were dents in the lockers from her throwing desks and chairs and even kids when she was mad. That's what the older kids told us. None of us wanted to find out....
Such a thing as denting a locker with a kid's head/desk of course was all acceptable back then, until a consensus of people wondering about it in a circle/conversation decided that harming children was wrong, that children are indeed human. (In the ancient world, children weren't considered human until they could be married off, at about age 13 or 14. And you'd think we as humans have matured much since the ancient world...but....)
But even as I worried that she might slap me, I could tell she also knew I was right this time.
It's not about being right, I don't think. But it is about knowing possibilities -- now we had two with the deadening-prayer and the communal-intention-prayer. And in any process that's going to work long-term, the community together would be wise to hash it out together, explore options, invent new ones, evaluate what might be best. Together.
Even at 13 we were being invited into the ways of adults, of maturity, of -- that big new word -- "leadership." Heck, in the ancient world, some of us would have been married already!
Sometimes we need to take a stand -- even when we might feel like we are standing there all alone and even naked to our ordinary protections -- when the deadening no longer serves us or most of the community.
BECOMING VITAL:
There's something wildly helpful about a circle of friends. We can share ideas, ask for support, receive support, wonder about the best courses of action, share our gifts, enjoy life together.
So many goodnesses have sprung out of the circles we've hosted in our 13 years. I've shared many of them the past few days. One I haven't yet highlighted is the gift of Richard Bollman, SJ's book that has been an invitation to a deeper life for so many. Who knew that Richard putting together a few words each morning and then a community hearing these words and appreciating them would yield this beautiful book and more fulfilling lives for us all!
Such richness invites me to wonder what is next...?
In our new space, we are excited to announce some new circles and revive some previous ones. Hope you'll join us and we can then all discover together what might be possible. We don't present solutions in our circles, we wonder about things together, figure out what's right for each one of us, in our own unique ways.
Come learn more at tomorrow's Open House...
Saturday, Sept 9
2 - 4 pm EDT
791 E McMillan St, Cincinnati, OH 45206
(parking ideas below)
To figure out what's right for us...seems like a very important thing for a 13-year-old, whether a human or an organization like ours or the inner 13-year-old within each one of us who longs for choices, possibilities, newness. Such is a healthy inner revolution.
Happy 13th!
Brian Shircliff
Parking ideas...we have a lot with three ADA spots next to our building and shared with Fireside Pizza and a number of other restaurants and organizations and Five Points Alley, and with all the festivities -- especially the Queen of the Hills Street Festival -- in Walnut Hills tomorrow, parking could be at a premium. Consider on-street parking on Copley, Wayne, Morgan, or Concord Streets on the same side as us...and a short walk then to our new space! Or arrive early and take in some of the festival and then wander over to our space for cake!!! CAKE!!!!!!!
This watercolor was donated to VITALITY a few years back and would love a new home - consider making a donation for it at tomorrow's Open House! I believe the artist is Mel Carter and was told the value is about $400.
being 13, part 4: in the urban garden
Sometimes it's a whole synchronicity of events that inspires great things.
When we set out in 2010 to begin a holistic center, we certainly envisioned something with growing food. It just seemed difficult in our Norwood location.
Until Melissa McNeill -- one of our inspiring Yoga/Healing Touch Interns in 2013-2014 -- shared that she and some of her Walnut Hills neighbors took an empty lot and turned it into a garden...Produce for the People. One of Melissa's neighbors was Gary Dangel.
And Aprilann Pandora -- graduate of our first Yoga/Healing Touch Internship in 2011-2012 -- shared that she was leaving her job as a fitness educator to become a farmer.
And Mike Eck from VITALITY's original circle of founders was just leaving behind his tech-sales job to get more local and healthy food growing in and around Cincinnati. He and Denise hosted a series of Rooted in Food conversations to connect the growing but kind of disorganized -- at the time -- local food movement. Gleaning grew out of those conversations, not to mention a whole bunch of farmers and buyers and distributors getting connected and in more rooted relationship with one another.
And then Penny from our Inner Journey circle shared with her friend Betty Waite about VITALITY. And Betty and Gary Dangel and Jeff Brewster (our current landlord!) were working on a grant for their neighborhood around healthy eating and living.
And like a whirlwind, Interact for Health funded a grant that paid Walnut Hills and VITALITY to begin a yoga training in Walnut Hills -- in the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation headquarters where Betty worked as the CFO. The floor was plywood, clearly a space they were renovating...a space that became La Soupe's current headquarters, where so much of the gleaned produce would one day go.
And Betty joined the yoga training - you can read her amazing story about it in VITALITY's first book.
And Gary organized our Yoga/Healing Touch Interns to volunteer in the multiplying Walnut Hills gardens, sometimes before they went to their day-jobs, sometimes in the afternoons or evenings, sometimes on weekends. Some of our interns helped lay the pavers at Green Man Park where we offered many tai chi and yoga classes over the years.
And since 2015, thousands of hours of our VITALITY interns/volunteers have been offered in Walnut Hills' and nearby gardens.
And Gary and Betty introduced me to Sue Plummer who was caretaker for the Julie Hanser Pantry-Garden, where some of our Yoga/Healing Touch Interns volunteered. And a few years later, Mike Eck would get two grants to pay Sue Plummer to expand gleaning in Southwest Ohio...and now that position is a full-time position paid by the national gleaning network, the Society of St. Andrew. And Sue recently hired VITALITY yoga-grad Fran to be her assistant as they so brilliantly organize volunteers to glean local farms and donate thousands upon thousands of pounds of local produce every year to La Soupe and food pantries and soup kitchens. All that farm-fresh, healthy produce that farmers couldn't get to or use that season used to just rot in the fields, but now it feeds hungry neighbors.
And that Hanser Garden became VITALITY's Glean & Share Garden for two years during the pandemic before it would be transferred to Church of the Advent as a pantry garden again. VITALITY co-founder Mary Duennes was longtime parish nurse at Advent, and Sue Plummer now has her gleaning office there too.
And with that 2015 grant we received, Jeff Brewster opened the Dillard Center (VITALITY's current home) to Health & Wellness Wednesdays where VITALITY Yoga/Healing Touch Interns offered free/donation yoga classes and Healing Touch sessions. Our Future Life Now friends Cynthia Allen and Larry Wells moved their office into the Dillard Center about five years ago, and VITALITY moved in with them about two years ago before we all moved down a floor to our new space that we celebrate at this Saturday's Open House.
OUR VITALS:
It's a wild synchronicity of events and relationships and paths crossed, and so much goodness discovered through it all. And we did it all with less than $100,000 a year -- a couple of grants (thank you, small-and-vital family foundations!) but mostly gifts from friends like you who donate so generously at our programs and fundraisers.
People marvel that we have been able to accomplish all of this -- at the same time that most of the larger foundations refuse to fund us because we are so "small." We pride ourselves on being the small circle that does big things. Quite honestly, I question how these big foundations can pay many staff members more than our entire annual budget, and in some notable local foundations they pay their officers three or four times our total annual budget. We all need to eat -- and we all need to eat....
The world needs fresh produce, especially urban areas like this lithograph above that once hung in Leo Klein, SJ's Xavier office. Leo was an avid funder of VITALITY before he died. You can take home this lithograph this Saturday for a donation to VITALITY. Please do!
And please join us. It's going to be a busy day in Walnut Hills Saturday during our 2 - 4pm Open House. More on that tomorrow, and some parking tips.
We're grateful to be located in such a vital neighborhood of Cincinnati -- in fact, Cincinnati's very first neighborhood! Walnut Hills!
Brian Shircliff
being 13, part 3: journaling
We first met in my living room, about once every other week when the Norwood space was just a dream.
On a typical planning meeting in our circle you'd see Joyce & Tom Choquette, Penny Costilla, Mary Duennes, Denise & Mike Eck, Mary Hutten, Jack Lennon, Micah Richey, Sue Saylors, Rob Thaler, Carol T. Yeazell...and XU students Austin Muller and Chris Place would drop in when they weren't in class. A few more people would come and go and make their important contribution in those early days of 2010.
And we tried to conceive of something that many people told us was impossible. "A donation-based holistic center?!?"
We wanted it at first to be service as the donation...as in you do one hour of service anywhere and we give you one hour of programming. We even came up with a weekly circle where people could sit and meditate for the health of Cincinnati and the world, and they would then be eligible for a one hour yoga class or a one hour Healing Touch session. Once our Norwood space opened, Penny would lead those meditations-for-service, and so beautifully. Many XU students would come to enjoy them and be enriched by them.
At that time, Cincinnati ranked among the worst US cities for health. So while our focus was improving the health of our city, we had our eye on the gem of the world too...always with a map of the world nearby. (Maybe you're interested in this fancy gem-map donated to us, available at Saturday's Open House.)
Meditation is what held everything together, the river that enlivened everything. Even our planning meetings began with someone leading a meditation of some sort, often one of the Healing Touch self-care meditations.
MORE VITAL HISTORY:
The planning circle wanted to create a journaling offering, something with a very open and welcoming structure so that people with zero meditation or writing experience would feel welcome.
So Penny and Micah, with the encouragement of the group, came up Inner Journey...a simple process, informed by experiences at Women Writing for (a) Change...
1. gathering ideas/writing topics
2. time on one's own for meditating/contemplating/creating
3. talking about one's experience of #2, if anyone feels called to share
And back then and today some people write, and some people draw, and some people meditate the whole time, and some people watch the paint dry (one of my pastimes - ha!).
We never set out to write and publish books but as we heard what the circle inspired, often it was better and more resonant than stuff getting so much attention on the New York Times Book Review.
It was time for new voices getting a platform -- in an age when social media was just beginning to invite just that.
It was a time for some wiser voices -- not just the loudest voice in the room or in the national/world conversation.
And so we published two books -- and now there are 12!
Penny welcomed the first Inner Journey circles and then soon Tom Choquette assisted. Beginning this Tuesday, Helen Buswinka will assist with welcoming an in-person Inner Journey circle every 2nd Tuesday and Penny will continue to lead our Zoom Inner Journey circle every 4th Tuesday. Both formats will begin at 6:30pm EDT.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE:
Out of this journaling-and-contemplation-and-conversation circle sprang a whole bunch of wild and helpful ideas...gardening and gleaning being two of them, more on that tomorrow!
Could one of the ideas from our Inner Journey circles alter life -- make life easier and sweeter -- for all creatures on the planet? Who knows! We do know that our lives are sweeter when we gather for Inner Journey.
Who knows what goodnesses might spring out of the new circles emerging with our Autumn offerings for Inner Journey, for all of our programs. Hope to discover with you this Saturday at 3pm at our Open House conversation!
Brian Shircliff
being 13, part 2: yoga
George Maggini, Jim Ollier, and Hank Burwinkel and their many friends with significant expertise -- thank you Dan Bruewer Electric! -- had already worked their magic on our Norwood space...a process that required hundreds of hours of love in a 1920's storefront, about 1000 sq ft that had had no tenants for at least three years before we showed up. It was a mess, with no electricity and a pile of leaves (!) in the middle of the floor. Not exactly sure how they got there...but our master-craftsmen made it beautiful for sure for our January 2011 opening party.
In March 2011, Jack Lennon and I hosted a meeting of anyone who wanted to explore a 200-hour yoga training that included Healing Touch. We were going to call it a "Yoga/Healing Touch Internship"...where participant-interns would receive their yoga certification and Healing Touch training in exchange for their volunteering at our programs and sharing their new knowledge.
Interns would offer Healing Touch at our weekly sessions, and teach yoga once they felt ready...one night a week at our center. Interns learned what hospitality was all about, of how to befriend whoever walked through our door for our donation-based drop-in classes and sessions.
About six people joined us for the March 2011 conversation, two of whom joined the internship that Autumn.
It was a leap, this idea. Yoga certification at this point in time averaged $2000 in Cincinnati, more in other cities. A weekend Healing Touch class cost $365 in 2010 too.
And as I mentioned in yesterday's post, our founding group wanted to find ways of welcoming people who ordinarily could not afford such trainings to make them accessible and affordable...doable.
MORE YOGA-HISTORY, VITALITY-style:
The March informational meeting ended with a massive storm. After everyone left, Jack and I stepped outside and saw a full rainbow over Norwood...a sign to us that this Yoga/Healing Touch Internship could be a beautiful thing.
Well, Jack sold some of his art (including this John Lennon drawing above, available for purchase at Saturday's Open House) and many friends pitched in with fundraisers of all sorts and people donated at our programs and we paid the rent and all bills and eeked out the funding to host our first Yoga/Healing Touch Internship.
Five incredible teachers graduated from that first internship -- and then 125 more people after them through 12 more internships VITALITY hosted, the most recent class pictured below. Check out our who's who of famous yoga grads by clicking here.
Incredible teachers and friends have offered their gifts, especially Cynthia Bedell, Tonia Smith, and Carol T. Yeazell who mentored most of the intern-teachers over the years. CJ Pierce lent much support to our more recent groups too. Over the years, Becky Morrissey and Cynthia Allen offered very different takes on what 'yoga' could be too...something that really helped our program and our teacher-graduates to grow through the years. Maybe 'yoga' is much bigger than a bunch of memorized shapes?
Many studios and yoga-circles in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky continue to be enlivened and enlightened by our VITALITY Yoga/Healing Touch graduates. Some have even taken their learnings as far as Alaska and Africa...all over the world.
We are incredibly proud of these 130 people and all the ways they share themselves to grow human-life -- health -- on our planet Earth. They teach me what 'yoga' is all about, and I am grateful.
LOOKING TO THE YOGA-FUTURE:
Yoga used to be so expensive when we began in 2011...at least $15 for a drop-in class at a studio and $2000+ for yoga certification training.
Today, you can get trained as a yoga teacher online for $99 and in most cities you can find a free yoga class every night of the week almost year-round.
Yoga has become affordable for sure -- and available in nearly every neighborhood community center and park.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, I transitioned to teaching more Bones for Life than yoga. Opportunity opened up thanks to Future Life Now's global reach and people came running by the hundreds via Zoom.
And rather strangely, last year was the first year we didn't host a yoga training since 2011. Someone would reach out every week about our yoga program but no one could get their toes to the starting line.
Maybe we are being invited to a new way of exploring 'yoga' -- maybe we're being invited to be flexible with what we consider 'yoga' to be. After all, as CJ demonstrates in the photo below as she holds the book in which she contributed so wisely, Yoga is THE ALL!
I listen to those who complete a full 3-immersion Bones for Life training or even become Bones for Life teachers and they often talk about life and movement and learning self-care in ways that the heart of the yoga-tradition invites. It has made me curious, for sure, if things like Bones for Life and Healing Touch could be our newest ways to bring forward what the ancient teachings of yoga talk about.
Who knows what goodnesses VITALITY's 13th year might invite...perhaps you'll help us to to imagine new possibilities this Saturday at 3pm at our Open House conversation!
Brian Shircliff
being 13, part 1
This Saturday, Sept 9 from 2 - 4pm we welcome you to our 13th birthday and Open House in our new space.
Just a few details now: potluck, conversation at 3pm, 791 E McMillan St, Cincinnati, OH 45206! Cake! Hummus..."our mortar!" Hot/cold nonalcohol drinks!
And we have sooo many paintings for sale, all donated to us over the years...please buy one for yourself or a friend and we can more easily pay our rent! First one is shown below.
Each day this week I'll recapture a little history of VITALITY, and offer some possibilities for our future, and entice you with art, today's by Eugene B. Avergon from his Gore Bay Series, valued at over $250 and gorgeous! Reply to this email to purchase/make an offer!
HISTORY:
As you probably know, VITALITY began as a seed when Micah Richey, Sue Saylors, and I met and shared a vision for affordable holistic opportunities at our Healing Touch Level 4 en route to getting certified as Healing Touch Certified Practitioners.
Healing Touch instructor Mary Duennes soon joined the conversation, as did about 20 people all very enthused to explore a donation-based center for Healing Touch, yoga, meditation, and journaling.
We offered Healing Touch for the first time on a weekly basis at Bellarmine Chapel/Xavier University. Many of us had ties to Bellarmine/XU, and I was taking a class to keep my religious secondary education certification going. Through that class, I met Austin Muller and then through Austin met Chris Place -- two key people who not only drew crowds to the free/donation-based Healing Touch sessions but also helped renovate VITALITY's first space in Norwood, about a ten minute walk from the heart of XU's campus.
Mary Duennes soon led the first Healing Touch class in our new space in Spring 2011 -- a powerful group of people that included two people who were volunteering as greeters at the Bellarmine/XU sessions and discovered that ANYONE can learn Healing Touch. Xavier students through grandparents were in that first class.
Eventually, we expanded our Healing Touch offerings with two food pantries: CAIN in Northside and Bond Hill Food Pantry. Just like the XU sessions, these Healing Touch sessions were all staffed by volunteers.
Thanks to the Peter Buswinka Healing Touch Work-Scholarship Fund, hundreds of people have taken a Healing Touch Level 1 class through VITALITY...including two people who have been certified through all five levels: Peg Conway and Stephanie Beck Borden.
As you may know, Mary Duennes passed the instructor-baton to Stephanie last Spring!
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE:
Could Healing Touch grow to be offered on every hospital and hospice wing?
Could Healing Touch be included in the curriculum in all nursing schools? in all medical schools?
Could there be a Healing Touch-trained 'healer' in every home, as Healing Touch-founder Janet Mention once hoped when she created Healing Touch, first, for nurses?
Could more people get a taste of Healing Touch at a short and sweet 2.5 hour 'course' and then share it with friends and family?
Let's find out!
Our next Healing Touch public sessions offered by people who have completed 16 hours+ of training are Tuesday, Sept 19 at 6 & 7pm EDT in our beautiful new space.
To a wonderful first-teen year!
Brian Shircliff
the things you find on the floor
I stopped into the new space Sunday to put the cover on the new gathering-table/storage and found some ceiling tiles on the floor. Looks like there had been a leak from the roof. Our landlord had just paid to have the roof repaired last week, but seems that the repair simply rerouted the water. And then we had that big rain and the water rolled in a new direction to expose another weak spot.
Darn!
I had a full list of classes and sessions booked for yesterday and the tiles that hadn't yet fallen started to smell kind of funky. Good news, I could move my classes and sessions to the old upstairs space for the day.
It was a bit of a hassle -- I had just moved everything downstairs just recently. But -- oh well.
And as I moved chairs and mats upstairs again and hollowed out some space for class amidst the last boxes getting ready to be packed up, I found one of my colleague's angel cards face down on the ground. I giggled to myself, this is going to be interesting.
I reached down Bones for Life-style and flipped the card over.
FLEXIBILITY.
I had to laugh, especially as I was being invited to be flexible with today's space, especially as I was getting ready for the Bones for Life class which invites both stability and flexibility.
Of course, a healthy life blends both flexibility and stability. Walking is precisely that...the ability to stand tall and stably and confidently on one leg as we flexibly swing the other leg through for the next step.
Perhaps a healthy life is just that...knowing when to be strong and rooted and when to be flexible and flowing...and how to blend the two intelligently, from the inside out, all based on one's sensations.
Even in this not-so-settled space, class was great with these wonderful people who find their way into our VITALITY circles. Life with a circle of curious friends of all ages is always rich.
And I was reminded of the writing I've been exploring the past few years...the ancient prophetic invitation to be a wanderer led by curiosity -- the wind! -- to be a bordercrosser -- like the wind! The very word "Hebrew" in the Hebrew-language means "Bordercrosser."
It's a gift to be able to flow with the day and wherever the wind takes me; and it's a gift to have stability, a place to call home.
The ceiling tiles have been repaired, the smell is gone, and even the parking lot was lined yesterday to include three -- THREE -- accessible parking spots. Progress!
We look forward to announcing a new line-up of Autumn possibilities when you join us for our Open House on Sat, Sept 9 from 2 - 4pm. Our new space is beautiful and friendly -- and now clean and dry! -- and ready to welcome you into the circle. All are welcome!
What will you discover in the circle that might ripple through your life, that might help you to discover a more confident stance and the flexibility to flow in life?
Brian Shircliff
the rest of your life
Last week I shared about how sometimes we try things too late in life to make a big difference.
The truth of the matter, of course, is that it's never too late...but in our heart of hearts we know we could've gotten way better outcomes if we'd begun earlier.
Your life could get a major upgrade with this next series of in-person Bones for Life classes I'm offering.
While the focus will be on improving sore knees and backs and necks, most people looking for some clarity and calming stress relief in a novel way will probably find what they're looking for. Quite honestly, sore knees and backs and necks and stress are all very related...in how one uses oneself in life.
The journey begins this Tuesday...
Bones for Life © 6-week series
Tuesdays from 10:30am - 11:45am EDT
Aug 22, 29 + Sept 5, 12, 19, 26
cost: $125 for the whole series
791 E McMillan St, Cincinnati 45206
And I'll encourage you to use your phone to make a short video at the end of class to remind you of the things we learned so you can play with those pain-relieving ideas at home.
Class is limited to the first 8 people who register! Register by paying $125 here: https://www.paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/2094839
You might've tried lots of things for your pain that did not work. Maybe it's time to stop trying and, as our window -- in progress -- reminds, DO!
In Bones for Life we teach you easy things you can do to take great care of yourself, no matter your age.
Click here to get a little taste of this Movement Intelligence / Bones for Life / Solutions...and please pardon my burly beard! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5pQKwIgpJg
Bones for Life could be the answer to helping the rest of your life be amazing!
* * * * *
My great neighbor Ivan built a new table for our tea and chips and hummus -- our VITALITY 'mortar' that holds us all together, as Helen Buswinka reminded us at the Spring Retreat. Underneath the table will store bunches of our things so we can maximize the beautiful open space.
Looking forward to celebrating the new space with you all on Sat, Sept 9 from 2 - 4pm!
Brian Shircliff
the differences
Sometimes we try things too late to make a big difference.
That sore knee or back or neck comes and goes and we do little for it for years...until it really begins to hurt and a medical professional wants surgery for it.
But the truth of the matter is that intervening early could have gotten us out of pain and might have prevented the need for surgery. There are things we can do -- easy and gentle things -- that welcome new and easier ways of moving that make that sore knee or back or neck not have to bear the load.
Sore knees and backs and necks are often sore because they are having to do all the work...because one's feet or hips or whatever within us have gone on vacation without notifying one's knees or back or neck.
Wouldn't it be nice to spread the work out more evenly through your whole self? Even upgrade your whole way of being?
You probably won't know the difference until you know the difference....
Hope you'll consider joining me for a free Bones for Life class this Tuesday, Aug 15 from 10:30 - 11:45am EDT to give you a taste of what this is all about...in person at our new center, 791 E McMillan St. Registration required and limited to the first 8 people who sign up, everyone age 18+ welcome, even if you've experienced Bones for Life before.
I'll give you gentle things to help you find ways out of pain and even prevent pain and invite you to the next 6-week Bones for Life in-person series the following six Tuesdays where we'll work with sore knees and backs and necks in ways that have saved a lot of people a lot of grief.
Surprise yourself with how easily pain can disappear...discover the differences!
Brian Shircliff
welcome & happy new year!
Well, friends, we've found our way into our new home. It feels good.
There are a few small things to move in but it's feeling more and more like home. As you might notice from the photos here, we've brought along a number of things from our past homes.
It will feel better once we all begin gathering in the space and creating together again.
And what is it we create?
Possibilities.
Whether those possibilities are for improved health, being able to walk again with ease, putting on the page one's heart's desires and musings, moving playfully and in ways that relieve stress, (re)discovering one's Wholeness within the big Whole of the planet, the universe.
Or way more than that.
Maybe our gathering together in this new space will invite us to all to dream up even more and larger possibilities.
Well, we continue that journey tomorrow, Tuesday, Aug 1 with our Healing Touch sessions at 6pm and 7pm. You get 45-minutes on a massage table where you'll remain clothed and, with your permission, trained volunteers will use their hands in a heart-centered way to welcome calm...all of it going back to the wisdom of the nurses who created Healing Touch for pain-relief and anxiety-relief. Your $20 donation for the session helps us to pay the rent and share Healing Touch all around our region.
We have two appointments remaining at 7pm -- reply to this email to claim yours!
Can't make it but want to support us and our new beginning? Consider purchasing a book from our growing library of VITALITY buzz, bliss + books! Your purchase pays authors and artists a fair wage for their creativity and contributes to growing VITALITY. Click here to discover those books, those possibilities.
There's a lot we can discover together in our circle. Come, find your place.
And as I used to remind my fellow high school teachers and students in August every year, happy new year!
Happy Newness of Life!
Brian Shircliff
PS Save the date for our Grand Opening Party in our new space...Saturday, Sept 9 from 2 - 4pm!
we're holding the door open for you
We're moving! A whole floor!
Into a much more open space by the front door!
We've all loved this Dillard Center building and community since we began offering yoga classes here in 2015 with Health & Wellness Wednesdays, funded by a neighborhood grant from Interact for Health.
The past few years when I walked past this office space, I had an inkling we'd move in sometime -- so much natural light, open floor plan, neighbors on the sidewalk looking in and becoming curious about us and what we're offering...like VITALITY 1.0 in Norwood.
We made so many friends ten years there in Norwood, and then transitioned to VITALITY 2.0 on Zoom and in parks during the early years of the pandemic, and then moved into the Dillard Center to share space with Future Life Now...VITALITY 3.0...where we got a sense for what post(?)pandemic meet-ups could be like. Future Life Now and VITALITY have been friends for years, and their move to more global, online offerings helped us to grow so much through the pandemic.
Into this 4.0 adventure, Future Life Now is coming along with us too to share the new space...while our VITALITY offerings are a little bit of Zoom and normally a lot of in-person, Future Life Now has become a lot of Zoom with a little bit of in-person with their worldwide outreach.
It's a good match!
And the wise are figuring out we need both in-person and Zoom to thrive, to become all we can.
In person we get all the benefits of a circle with those brief though vital one-on-one conversations while we chat over tea during a break, when putting our shoes on, in the parking lot, with a helpful cue from the class-leader that might not have been able to viewed on Zoom...those little things that make the biggest differences in life, right?
And on Zoom we can connect with the larger world in real time -- I love that -- but maybe even more importantly we can plant those holistic self-care learnings in our own homes, on our own floor or bed or at our kitchen table. Those lovely experiences we used to just have in studios like ours in Norwood can now blossom in our own homes...and make it more likely that we'll try it again the next day in our home, either on one's own or through a recording.
Both...and. Maybe that's what the pandemic gifted us?
Well, our first offering in the new space will be Tuesday, Aug 1 with a special round of 45-minute Healing Touch sessions at 6 or 7 pm, $20 requested and RSVP required. Sign ups are likely to go fast, so get yours by replying to this email.
And through this Wednesday, you can always join me and Future Life Now friends with the recordings of the Bones for Life Zoom Livecast we held the past two weeks...plant an idea in your home! And consider joining us for Immersion 1 beginning the week of Aug 13...sign-ups for these Zoom offerings are open and fill quickly:
click here to get access to those recordings and info on these Bones for Life Immersions via Zoom
Both...and. Yes, our world is a big place to discover, ever-growing for all who have eyes and ears and hearts and intelligent nervous systems with which to sense and play. May we choose well, according to our bliss, the one only you can discover and know.
Brian Shircliff