Come to the Edge Life said
They said: We are afraid.
Come to the edge Life said.
They came. It pushed them...
And they flew.
(Guillaume Apollinaire, 1871)

2010

I've been rather struggling in trying to write the new introductory newsletter for my website and although every word I wrote is sincere and truthful it still sounds a bit ponderous. (click here if you'd like to read the ponderous version!)

And I don't feel at all ponderous as we go into 2010, in fact I feel optimistic and quite joyful. The only thing that's really bothering me right now is getting my tax done and to my accountant before the January 31st deadline. This yearly headache is something I tend to delay until the last minute. I regress to about ten years old when attempting any form of arithmetic!

So back to the newsletter. I chose two quotes that really mean something to me, the Apollinaire one above and the Krishnamurti one at the end. I have had so much fun in my life by taking risks and constantly moving on into new experiences. I seem to have slowed down a bit on this as I've got older but I do keep asking myself if I'm still flying into life, what am I avoiding, am I holding on to the familiar the known or am I ready to step out into the next adventure. I think I am. I'm not sure what it will be but I'm ready for it and I know that if I'm open for it life will bring it. And as Apollinaire points out if I do hesitate life will definitely push me. And I'll fly!

The second quote, from Krishnamurti, seems to me to represent sanity. It very simply acknowledges the inherent violence and separation which comes with identifying with a country, an ideology, a religion - the separation and distance that these create between oneself and ones fellow human beings. Didn't Shakespeare put it well when Shylock said:

"Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?"

Hath not a Jew, a Moslem, a Catholic, American, Japanese, a Tory, a Communist - and so on and on across this beautiful planet.

No separation - we are all the same.......

Have a very happy, joyous and alive new year.

With enormous love,

Clare...

2010

SATORI, August 15. - 21.

I invite you to be with me for six transformative days, to allow yourselves to be touched in your innermost core, and to take this opportunity to step forward fearlessly, with joy and gratitude, into the wonderful celebration of this blessed gift -Your Life.

The group this year is at an old home, Finki, in Northern German.

RELATIONSHIP RETREATS in France as well as the ongoing work in London will continue. Mostly though I'm just enjoying being available for whatever comes in this new year. And I look forward to connecting with many of you who I have worked with and who have touched my heart - and many more of you I will meet and connect with in the year to come.

WITH THANKS: I want to thank Paul Lowe, Kira Kay and Veronika Kloucek for their generosity and support in sending this letter to their mailing lists as my own is presently unavailable to me.

If you would like to be included on the new mailing list please let me know by clicking here.

Paul Lowe - www.paullowe.org
Kira Kay - www.kirakay.com
Veronika Kloucek - sharing.lucid-living.org

And finally, a quote from Krishnamurti:

When you call yourself an Indian or a
Muslim or a Christian or a European, or
anything else, you are being violent.

Do you see why it is violent? It is
because you are separating yourself
from the rest of mankind. When you
separate yourself by belief, by
nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence.

So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong
to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system;
he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.

J. Krishnamurti