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Written by John Michael Thornton
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Friday, 19 March 2010 04:57 |
 Years ago I had a dream were I was speaking to this old woman about my business. In the dream, as in waking life, I was all stressed out and trying to explain to her why I was so stressed and didn't have time for her ideas. She turned and gave me a hard look before saying "Don't you know that as the Earth grows in fecundity, so too shall your business?"
 After I awoke, and looked up "fecundity," I started thinking about what she had said to me. Even now I see the same patterns of sowing, tending, harvesting and resting that I see in nature. This time of year, even as I plant seeds for the summer garden, ideas and winter projects start to show new growth. Classes start to grow again, readings become more frequent and new growth is all around. Summer will see unexpected storms and stunning growth and excitement before the busyness of fall fair season and the harvest of the year's work before the slowdown of December and January.
 Every year I forget about the pattern, my mind fills with worry and fret in December and January only to remember as spring approaches that is this normal for work as organic as mine.
Today I saw my first crocuses of spring. The bright yellow ones are always the first to bloom and their sunny faces make me remember those words from my dream, "As the Earth grows in fecundity, so too shall your business." Now is the time for new growth, and love, and Fecundity – and I am ready. |
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I want to go play outside |
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Written by John Michael Thornton
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Thursday, 04 March 2010 04:44 |
I want to go play outside. 
I don't mean I want to go shovel snow, or trudge around the neighborhood in twenty-four layers. I don't want long hikes or camping. I don't want to go looking for the best photograph, or the perfect view. I don't mean I want to work in the garden (I do, but not right this moment… cuz it's buried under a foot of snow), or continue digging for the Crazy, Insane Garden Project. I want to go Play Outside!
I want to go out with no expectations. I want to come home covered in mud and scratches. I want to find a perfect stick. I want to discover a small stream, just new from the rain, and know my afternoon is all booked up. I want to see a deer and stand so still it ignores me and then clap my hands. I want to chase squirrels and climb trees. I want to climb down the stormdrain and pretend I'm exploring the lost temple of Xxivks (pronounced drit for no apparent reason).
I think we get so caught up in the idea of work and responsibilities we forget about unstructured play. We "play" games with rules and scores. We exercise and workout and we need a goal. Everything has a schedule and a plan.
Maybe I just need some new playmates, but surely there is still time for random, unplanned fun? Running because it's fun or standing on your head or doing summersaults and cartwheels and rolling down a hill?
Maybe I should just go out dancing. That's fun, but these days I feel this pressure to meet someone, or HAVE FUN and get my money's worth, or gripe about the dj, or not make a fool of myself on the dance floor, or I go out so rarely it seems like a Big Deal. I don't want fun and play to be a Big Deal, thinking like that makes me feel old and tired.
 Feeling old and tired makes you old and tired. Fun and games may not keep you young, but it will look that way, and feel that way - and isn't that more important?
I suppose it's cabin fever, or spring fever, or some such thing. Too long cooped up, even the (indoor) cats want to get out, till they see the snow. I'm twitching for an adventure, something completely random. It's even too cold for ghost hunting, which I find a bit redundant cuz they are everywhere, and everyone thinks I'm nuts for wanting to bring a net. At least I'd get to see new and interesting places full of terror, screaming and scaring other people.
You'd think working all the psychic fairs would be fun, and some are, but it's still work. Besides, you do one simple handstand (I was bored) and people talk about it for years.
Don't get me wrong, I love what I do and in many ways I have the greatest and most exciting job in the world. I just have cabin fever and I am going bonkers.
So talk to be people, who else is going crazy out there? Are you climbing the walls? If so, are you using crampons or ropes?
What are you doing to relieve the winter doldrums or are you loving it with a yard covered in snow angels and snowmen?
I'll open a discussion in the Forum at GreatConjunction.org – tell us what you are doing or just complain about the weather for a bit. What is keeping you going as you look out the window?
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Written by John Michael Thornton
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Tuesday, 22 December 2009 22:02 |
I've been struggling with this December newsletter for a while now (most of December in fact), and I finally figured out why.  I was sitting down to write a loving missive of the holiday season, but I always want these messages to fill a need and I wasn't seeing a need for more zesty jolliness. I am seeing a need for reassurance.
So for those of you who's December has been filled with holly and jolly and other things ending in olly, skip down to the Fall update, everyone else, read on.
Stop and take a Deep Breath. You are ok.
I know this has been a difficult month for many of you and you are not alone. I have never seen so many clients and friends having such a difficult time as I have this month and for many it has nothing to do with Christmas and the holiday season.  For many, business is down or relationships are strained, it may be the weather, it may be the season, but many of us are having a difficult month and are afraid that this will be the new normal in the coming year.
Relax and Breathe Deep. You will be ok.
At first I was taking it case by case, person by person, trying to figure out what was going on, why is this wonderful person feeling like this? Soon I saw that that was not the right way to think – It's just December. Freakin, flippin December.
Let the tension and anxiety flow away, and Breathe.
This is not the new normal. This is not what 2010 will be like, and you are not alone. So what I finally realized I need to be saying to people is, "Relax, Chill out, Breathe Deep and don't make any important decisions until January."
Relax your neck and roll your shoulders – feel the tightness loosen, and Breathe.
 You are deeply loved and cared for and I pray for each and every one of you this December and for the coming year. It will be ok and we will all get through this together.
What ever you can Breathe through, you can Live through.
Relax, and Breathe. |
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Written by John Michael Thornton
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Friday, 03 July 2009 18:41 |
Recently a 35,000-year-old flute was discovered in western Germany. The meticulously carved flute was found near fragments of other musical instruments and a female figurine proving music flourished even in the earliest days of human history.
You have no idea how happy this makes me. While I never doubted that people have always made music - lifting voices in song, clapping hands and stomping feet – to see that even from our earliest days we took the time out of our busy schedules of hunting, gathering, and running from saber-toothed tigers to make musical instruments, carve sculpture and paint the walls delights me and gives me reason for eternal optimism.
Music has always been a part of my - life from childhood songs to music lessons (violin, piano and voice) to the Boardman Orchestra to musical theater to dance classes. My Sermons and Podcasts often include songs and music accompanies me thought my day. Rarely a day goes my without song and I cannot imagine a world without music and birdsong and dance.
I feel rhythm and flow in my work and often hear bits of poetry in my readings and while I often resort to cheap laughs and stories in my teaching and lectures, I love a nicely turned phrase and strive for a rising crescendo when I lecture and teach. Even now I'm trying to figure out how to shoehorn a song into my lecture at ULE (I even have the perfect song to go with my topic – Ethics and Responsibilities of the Modern Mystic. You wouldn't think I could find a song for that topic, but you'd be wrong.).
Lately, I've been going out dancing more. Heather and I have been hitting a new club and a few old ones trying to find a dj who will work with us. No oldies, no radio edits and nothing too slow, thank you very much. I love a good mix of different styles, tempos and beats. My modern dance teacher wanted us to be able to dance to anything, so we moved to radio jingles from the 40s and 50s, aboriginal chants, Euro pop and everything in between. Dancing in silence with nothing but your heartbeat and the sounds of your body and breath providing the beat. Ballet and ballroom and folk and country line dancing – trying to find the limits of what you can do and what you can move to – all the while striving to hear the heartbeat of the Earth beneath you. Moving to the sounds of nature and feeling the Connection.
Last night was for live music at the Boom Room - Jann Klose and with Chris Marolf on upright bass (Chris also had a kora, this awesome, handmade African stringed instrument made just for him) with dancing after (and why is the dance floor always empty these days?). Jann was amazing, as ever. I love the diversity of age at his shows and how rapt the audience is. Usually, when you see a band in a bar half the audience is just there to drink and talk, leaving the band to fight to be heard over the noise, but the room is quiet when he plays. People listen, you can feel the sounds soaking in as if each person is pulling the music in rather than letting it flow over or be ignored as background.
I've seen Jann play a few times now, we always talk after the show and we're on each other's mailing lists, so there's this strange sense that we know each other even though we've probably spent little more than an hour talking, total, over the last few years. The magic of this medium is how close you can feel to someone you barely know and how even something as ephemeral as e-mail can foster the sense of Connection.
I'm teaching again and we've been talking in class about how to connect and what it feels like, how do you know when you've connected with a client? How can you be sure you are connected to your divine source? What does Connection feel like? So last week I made them dance (and this time it WORKED! Sorry first class, erk.) I dressed it up as a psychic development exercise, but it was a waltz. When two dance partners are Connected they move at the same time. While one may be leading and one following, they move as one organism. There is no pause or lag time between movements – it is a connection on the psychic level that translates beautifully into giving a psychic reading. It also teaches you to trust your self and your instincts with another person… and not worry about looking like a fool. You can't take yourself too seriously if you are going to be a psychic.
After the concert we went dancing. Moving to the music. Thinking of nothing but the other dancers and the next movement. Fitting yourself into the empty spaces on the dance floor. Flowing into the gaps and filling a space with motion. Responding to other movement or escaping to your own world you become a part of the universal dance. The flick of hair echoes the flutter of a leaf, the sinuous shake of a hip moves like rushing water wile an agile foot skips like a stone across the water. In every movement and every beat you can feel what our ancestors felt as they made music under a different sky, danced around a fire and felt a Connection. |
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Written by John Michael Thornton
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Monday, 30 March 2009 05:12 |
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 Brad, Lori and Ava were back in town this past week for the first time in over a month, this is the first time I've been able to see them since Thanksgiving. It's amazing how good Ava looks. She's walking around, smiling and doin the baby talk thing – you'd never know she was sick.
Looking at pictures from the last few months it's hard to remember this is a little girl who learned how to walk with tubes dangling from her and has spent almost a quarter of her life in the hospital.  She acts like any other one year old, happy to see family and running around at high speed with her grandmother sprinting after her. That’s one of the great things about being home for a week, Lori knows her mother is hyper aware of everything Ava does and she can breathe for a minute.
The community response has been amazing. Lori and Brad have received calls, letters and donations from people they've never even met as word has gone out about Ava. The spaghetti dinner fundraise at the Canfield High School pulled in hundreds of people and over fifty baskets were donated for the Chinese Auction.  It was an amazing turnout and a wonderful show of generosity from the community.
The next fund raising event will be a Dinner Dance at St. Nicholas Social Hall, Friday, April 24th from 7 – 11 pm, tickets are $20 each. 764 Fifth St., Struthers, OH. For reservations call 330-536-2136
Brad, Lori and Ava head back to Cincinnati for the next round of chemo today.
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