Hello Sweet Fall

Yesterday was the Fall Equinox and I had a wonderful day celebrating it. I went Agape with my sister, and then we went to the farmers market with my hubby, then I went to The Global Mala Project, and participated in 108 sun salutations with hundreds of others. And! what a blessing, I got to see Andrew Harvey speak (along with others). He shakes the ground with his passion. I was transfixed. His calling is one of Sacred Activism, and is the clarification to a lot of things that I have been struggling with for the last 3 years. Thank you new teacher! about him(from his website):

At the age of 21, he became the youngest person ever to be awarded a fellowship to All Soul’s College, England’s highest academic honor....has taught at Oxford University, Cornell University, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, The California Institute of Integral Studies, and the University of Creation Spirituality as well as the at various spiritual centers throughout the United States. He was the subject of the 1993 BBC film documentary The Making of a Modern Mystic and appears also in Rumi Turning Ecstatic and The Consciousness of the Christ: Reclaiming Jesus for A New Humanity.
Andrew Harvey is Founder Director of the Institute of Sacred Activism

"A spirituality that is only private and self-absorbed, one devoid of an authentic political and social consciousness, does little to halt the suicidal juggernaut of history. On the other hand, an activism that is not purified by profound spiritual and psychological self-awareness and rooted in divine truth, wisdom, and compassion will only perpetuate the problem it is trying to solve, however righteous its intentions. When, however, the deepest and most grounded spiritual vision is married to a practical and pragmatic drive to transform all existing political, economic, and social institutions, a holy force - the power of wisdom and love in action - is born. This force I define as Sacred Activism."

- Andrew Harvey

Another highlight?? Om Namah Shivaya sung over and over and mixed with others by the always lovely Donna De Lory....
I didn't realize until I got home that she's this Donna.....
So I am having a post event fan freak out!! She was right there! Right in front of me! Did I tell ya'll that I am going to MADONNA with my friend Peter? won't be the same with out donna and nikki, but somehow I will make it through;)
I hope everyone is enjoying the fall! It is my favorite season.
peace and love!

here's some new mixed with some old

Hello Friends, Last night was the first meeting of the fall session of this great spiritual book club I have joined. I met these lovely ladies through a womens networking group I am in called First Tuesday. It is a large group of women, but a smaller group met each season with a diffrent theme to have a book club. This season it is " A Buddhalicious Fall" and we are reading Thich Nat Han's Our Appointment with LIFE, and Sogyal Rinpoche's The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying and our first book was Awakening Loving-Kindness by Pema Chodron


Not only do I get to meet with this great group, but it is so wonderful to be able to share our journey, a-ha moments, incites and struggles with this amazing book. I found myself drinking it all in, with what felt like new eyes. I have seen many of these ideas before, but this time, I guess, I was prepared to hear them. I feel like I have been introduced to a new teacher. I really connected to Pema's style and am resisting the urge to start her other works till after I read the next two books for this book club. I will let you know how it is going. I started this book on the airplane to Denver when we went to The Transformational Gate a few weeks ago. The parallels of the lessons here, with the growth I am experiencing through Network Care were constant and for those of you who have expressed a wish to have a better understanding of this care Barry and I are apart of, I recommend this book, to help explain what I feel I am not explaining as well as I would like to. To Clarify: this is NOT a book on Network care, it is a Buddhist study of awakening loving kindness in ones self, but the lessons of observation, truly feeling the muck and the fear and the pain and making friends with all of our perceived dark sides, finding balance, and observing our interpretation of reality, This is some of what I get out of care, and out of this amazing book.

Some jems from the book:

Our wisdom is all mixed up with what we call our neurosis. Our brilliance, our juiciness, our spiciness, is all mixed up with our craziness and our confusion, and therefore it doesn't do any good to get rid of our so-called negative aspects, because in that process we also get rid of our basic wonderfulness.We can lead our life so as to become more awake to who we are and what we're doing rather than trying to improve or change or get rid of who we are or what we're doing.

and how about this

The problem is that the desire to change is fundamentally a form of aggression toward yourself. The other problem is that our hang-ups,unfortunately or fortunately, contain our wealth.

I would love to hear from you if you do read it.TTFN

please watch, please share

holy frickin' crap, she's 15 years old. what an eye.

I just realized that I have not tooted my horn for my fabulous sister in the last five minutes. Those of you who know me know that she is like a super hero to me. I can't get enough of her. So it's only fair that you all fall in love with her too.
Check out her design blog with great picks of all her crafty know-how.
Anomaly Room by Amber Kristine oh, and because this picture is more than a month old, both of us have diffrent hair color. She's blondie now and having more fun. I think I am going to try red again, next. When we are old maybe all our hair will fall out, but hey, I love wigs so it maybe a new adventure.

Last night we went to the fancy-smancy Bel Air Hotel to celebrate the birthday of our dear friend Cristy Thom. I wanted to post a quick note about how amazing this woman is! Cristy will be having a show in November of her paintings and it is not to be missed.
I will post the gallery information when it is closer to the time, but until then, check out some of her work.
My favorites?


But really, I can't narrow it down, and there will be new stuff that is not on her site. I can hardly wait!
Speaking of art, we went to a show at the lovely Cella Gallery in NoHo on Friday. Edward Walton Wilcox(I want I want I want the Mao Panda piece!!) and Stephan Canthal are incredible. Stephan prints his photography on brushed aluminum which shows so much stronger in person then on the web site.I love the train tracks one.
My hubby, W.B. Fontenot, will be showing at the Cella in February.
check out these artist, get inspired, go create beauty in this world...have a blessed day!