Long ago, people in the northern hemisphere celebrated the winter solstice, when the days grew short and the sun was at its lowest point in the sky.   Many people had good reason to dread the cold, dark days of winter.   So when the sun seemed to change its course and grow in strength again, they rejoiced.

In some places, people performed rituals and ceremonies to mark this special time.  The Druids in Britain decorated oak trees with apples and candles to encourage the return of the sun.   The Celts brought evergreens inside to protect their homes.   Everyone lit candles or bonfires to chase away the darkness.   In pagan Scandinavia, the winter festival was the yule.  Great yule logs were burned, and people drank mead around the bonfires listening to minstrel-poets singing ancient legends.  It was believed that the yule log had the magical effect of helping the sun to shine more brightly.

Today, candles, evergreens, and family feasts continue to symbolize this time of year.  The opportunities for merriment are many: Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanza are just a few of the holidays celebrated around the world.  Through rituals, we celebrate our passage out of the darkness.  Symbolic rituals can mark a transition to the new by clearing the mind and allowing us to move forward into the new.

Earlier traditions focused on the battle between the dark and the light, but both are needed to embrace our full wisdom.  This is the season when animals hibernate and nature sleeps, and we can turn inward too.  Perhaps some of the depression people feel during the holidays comes from not providing a space for allowing the feelings of sadness that can also be associated with this season.  You may want to set aside time before the New Year for sitting in the dark and quiet, taking time for silence and reflection.

This is a natural time for letting go and saying farewell.  What sadness, resentments, and regrets linger in your heart or in your mind?  When we deny the parts of ourselves that feel and hold onto those things that we may call “negative,” we limit our access to that which lies on the opposite end of the spectrum: joy, peace, bliss…  Is there anything you have been in resistance to?  Bring it close, bless it, and release it into the darkness, knowing it will be transformed.  By integrating shadow, you are freed from delusions of right or wrong, good and evil.  Shadow provides an opportunity for you to bring in all of your expanded essence.

As we head toward the New Year, what is it that you are bringing to completion at this time?  As you expand into the new, what old patterns that no longer support your growth are asking to be shed?  How can you step into the mastery and wisdom you are being called to embody?  For to live in balance, we must not only spend time with our shadow, but also embrace our light.

As you celebrate the holidays, you may find yourself lighting candles and perhaps also fires in the fireplace.  Do so with the intention of also bringing your light into the world.  What are the ways in which you can help make the world lighter?  How do you bring light into the lives of those around you?  Make a conscious effort to increase the amount of light you create.  Radiate your light in all your thoughts and actions.   Shine forth the clarity of your true essence.

As you magnify your full presence, you will be assisted in more ways than you can imagine.  As you move toward your core of light, you will find an awareness that is innately innocent.  In this place, the mind is restored to it’s original state of receptivity.  Clarity and freedom become expressions of being, and bliss becomes the body.

Happy Solstice.  Merry, merry.  Dreidel, dreidel.  May you and yours have a wonderful season of celebration.

To be a member of this quiet REVOLUTION you will have participated in a few of the following practices:  You may have… sought out organic foods; chosen to purchase local over Wal-Mart; decided to take a walk in nature over watching TV; planted a garden and eaten the fruits and veggies of your labor; planted a garden or plant just because it adds beauty to the world; given a gift to someone you don’t know; been compassionate to yourself; seen the good in others when in the past you may not; felt really fantastic and grateful for your body and for being IN your body; felt Joy for no apparent reason; felt a shift on the planet, humanity, or both; created art just for the purpose of creation itself; slowed down even if it felt against the grain of everyone around you; gazed at the night’s sky in wonder; felt connected to…well…everyone and everything.

There are certainly more initiation rites than the ones listed above.  It is merely a rudimentary primer, a sense of the revolution.  What makes this revolution so remarkable is that there is no centralized leader or leaders.  In fact, membership is for leaders only.  That’s right, if you are a member of this revolution you have agreed to be a leader.  This is one of the few primary requirements.  For better or for worse in our current media proposed world, leadership has become a dirty word.  So many who have taken positions of leadership, whether in politics, religion, schools, corporations, sports, and the list goes on, have proven to be less than what the world needs.  Corruption, subterfuge, and incompetence have been the main ingredients of publicized leadership today.  The word ‘publicized’ being key to the last statement.  Remember…the quiet whispers of a REVOLUTION are upon us.  The leaders of tomorrow are here today.  You just don’t read about them in the newspaper or see them on the news.  And who do they lead?  Themselves.  And by their actions, others are inspired to lead themselves as well.  These leaders attract each other and one of their strengths of leadership is knowing that they are not here to solve the world’s problems alone, but instead to collaborate with each other to focus on the creation of a new.  New what?  New whatever needs to replace the old which no longer serves, is no longer relevant, no longer works.

When I use the word “revolution”, I mean it not in the – mutiny, uprising, rebellion way, I mean it in the – metamorphosis, transformation, reorganization way.  Thus the “quiet” REVOLUTION.  I believe the revolution underway is a ‘waking-up’ to the undeniable reality that we are all connected.  You cannot make a change in one person, one anything and not have it affect humanity and our planet and beyond for that matter.  A bold statement I know, and more importantly an incredible responsibility to those willing to play the game at this new level.  By the way, this is also part of the quiet REVOLUTION – the realization that it is a game.  A new game very much worth playing.  Not the kind with winners and losers.  Although if one continues to play the predominant game of the past millennium, one will find a playing field more than ever polarized into a playing field with very few ‘winners’ and a large number of disgruntled, angry, frustrated ‘losers’ (better watch your back ‘winners’ of THAT old, tired, game).

How do YOU join the quiet REVOLUTION?  It is quite simple.

Take action.  Create.  Make conscious choices.  Deliver as promised. Acknowledge and deliver.  Make connections with people, not for commerce sake, but for connection sake.  You create cooperation.  You speak up.  You live your abundant nature and use only what you need.  You give freely and receive freely.  You practice grace.  You share your gratitude with others.  You commit to being IN your body.  You know what distracts you from YOU and do your best to stay present.  You acknowledge that you are a Leader and simply lead by example.  You tell your own story with your emergence.  The Hero of your life looks for the good in others and tells them.  Focus your energy on creating solutions, not wasting energy recycling problems.  EnJOY life.  Smile and laugh for no reason whatsoever.  Your presence lets our children know they are safe to grow.  Commit to a practice that lets ALL parts of you know that YOU are safe to grow.  He/She who follows the Boy Scout creed leaves whatever you touch better than you found it – people, places, and things.

Dear reader, consider yourself invited to the quiet REVOLUTION.  Welcome.  Participate.  We at Nourish & Flourish are excited to gather our tribe and welcome you to join us, who seek out other members, to take your creations to the next level.  Attend a Nia class.  Saddle up to our Organic Juice and Tea bar and start a conversation anew.  What might emerge from informal conversation fuels curiosity ~ the desire to connect.  Find out about how you can maximize your life here in Asheville through Network Care (Network Spinal Analysis).  Attend one of our introductory talks.  Sing with us on Tuesday night Kirtan with Sangita Devi.  Keep an eye on our calendar as we flourish.  We are excited to meet more fellow participants.  In the quiet Revolution, we are in for a most magnificent ride.

Can you hear it calling?  We look forward to seeing you soon…

ii

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Saturday, April 16th from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm

It won’t be a party without YOU! So bring your friends and family and join us for:

• 2 for 1 drink specials on all our Fresh Organic Juices and Amazing Rishi Teas – That means bring a friend or 7.
• Yummy treats from West End Bakery
• Nia Class at 10:15 am led by Jenny Lumb
• Live Music from Jake Wolf

With the Springtime weather inspiring more outdoor and energetic activity, the Grand Opening of a Fresh, Organic Juice & Tea Bar at Nourish & Flourish offers Asheville a new place to fuel up on vitalizing and delicious drinks.  Stop by on Saturday, April 16^th from 8 am to 1 pm to take advantage of 2 for 1 drink specials and listen to the amazing musical styling of Jake Wolf.

Another addition to the wave of new energy coming into the River Arts District, the bar at Nourish & Flourish provides an interesting and unique place to hang out with its curved concrete bar top and its view of the trains coming and going over the railroad tracks.  It is also a quick place to grab a drink to go with free street parking and off street parking right next to the building.

For their fresh juices, Nourish & Flourish works with a local distributor, using only organic fruits and vegetables, sourced locally whenever possible.  Look for special seasonal juices when local produce is abundant and at the peak of its flavor.  Their carefully selected loose-leaf tea selection is supplied by Rishi Tea who imports directly from gardens across Asia the highest quality teas made according to ancient artisanal practices using organic cultivation techniques and Fair Trade standards.

Top 5 reasons to attend the Grand Opening…(drumroll please)

1. You feel your ordinary life could use a little zip…or A LOT of ZIP!!!
2. Brian and Jenny throw a GREAT PARTY Y’all.
3. We make the BEST fresh Organic Juices in Asheville…dare we say the entire Universe?!?
4. There’s no better way to start your day than with the right cup of tea.  Besides, coffee is so 20th century don’t cha know.
5. You’ll be sad all year if you missed this!!!!

Find Us

But the trees and the flowers, they do have that experience.  They have been here before my time and will be here long after I am gone.  And even with that experience, that knowing, of a possible overnight frost or late snowfall, they choose to bud and to blossom and to open themselves to the Springtime.

I am touched by their trust.  For me, trust means making choices with no guarantees, knowing that divine nurturance will provide what is needed for my journey.  It means making choices moment by moment, implicitly trusting my innate steering mechanism of heart-knowing.  Trust implies surrendering to the will of the divine self, letting go of the steering wheel, of what the ego deems to be in control of the outcomes in Life.  It means deeply trusting the processes that are at work within the present spiral of evolution.

And although the Springtime magic is most visible above the surface of the soil, I am reminded that the true magic happens down deep.  The roots are the source of life, the nurturance, and the support.  The trees and the flowers remind me to connect to my roots, and to drink from the primal waters of unity.  To reach into that sacred space where we are all one.  This is where my deepest roots receive nourishment.

This Spring, I am consciously choosing to embrace the depth of my receptivity.  It is a common saying that it is better to give than to receive.  Giving is a powerful way to learn how to receive, but it is not the whole picture.  There is a circuit of completion in giving and receiving that happens within.  If we trust unconditionally in the giving, we are not attached to how the gift is received.  Similarly, if we trust unconditionally in the receiving, we are not attached to the form of the gifts that come into our lives.

Recently a friend emailed to me one of my all time favorite poems by Rumi:

“The Guest House”

This being human is a guest house,
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Rumi’s poem reminds me not only that Loving What Is is the only sane choice, but also that the universe is an inseparable whole.  Giving and receiving are but two sides of the same coin.  “A joy” and “a depression” are but two sides of the same coin.  All points are connected in time and space.  We exist within a potent field in which all things are not only possible but constantly being created.  Within this field, the linear causality of time and space has been freed into an open system in which all time and all space exist and interact simultaneously.  Synchronicity is a given.

As individual beings, we are each a part which contains Memory of the Whole.  As we sense all life to be of one source, we access empathy, patience, and kindness.  By nurturing others, we are nurturing our oneness; invoking grace to nourish our shared life.  The love we meet life with will also love us back!  Likewise, let us be reminded that as we holistically care for our own well-being, we are inherently vitalizing the whole.

Within each of us, divine essence and the physical meet as one.  The heavens touch the earth; spirit and matter unite.  The actualization of creative potential is at the heart of our nature, bringing depth, richness, and importance to our lives.  Let us delight in all that we have to bring to this planet.  And let us enjoy all that this planet brings to us.  What are you enjoying today?

“Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things. I am tempted to think there are no little things.”

~ Bruce Barton

I was reminded of the power of ‘little things’ as the building blocks to all our relationships – a truth I witness everyday in working with people at Nourish & Flourish.  As I make gentle touch contacts on spines, I witness profound physical, emotional, mental, and even spiritual shifts.  I like to say, “Truth is truth no matter how you slice it.”   And yet sometimes, as in this example, just because I KNOW something intimately in one aspect of my life, doesn’t mean that I apply it to every other aspect.  However, once you truly embody something in one aspect of your life, it can simply require a shift in perception that allows the behavior to follow suit.

Little things can also work in the opposite direction.  When a relationship goes south, and I don’t mean for a vacation in the Bahamas (a big thing!), it is usually a stacking of all the little annoying things that create the resistance, resentment, rejection, and repression that lead to the eventual demise of a union.  Listening to your lover’s “Please do not..” requests and honoring them is also a powerful relationship builder.  Remember, it is not about giving what you want to give, but giving what the other person wants that is the difference between a gift and A GIFT!!!

So in this month that our culture collectively focuses its attention on love and relationship, think of the little things you can do to add depth in all your relationships.  What would it be like to consciously choose to add little tokens of Love in each of the relationships you want to grow.  Now that you’ve thought of it – and I am speaking to myself here as well – what are one or two ‘little things’ that could add tremendous richness to the quality of your relationships.  Giving in little ways may seem to take a lot of energy…at first.  Most things do – at first.  Celebrate your relationships in this month (and beyond this month!) with little things in little ways and feel the big impact it makes.