We have many rows to till and seeds to plant
The Charter for Compassion supports a number of different blogs and we've added a new one this week written by Vanessa Hurst, author of two books on compassion. Please visit are blog page and hear from poet and artist, Aberjhani, David Breaux who has been traveling the world since 2009 interviewing people about compassion, professional photographer Steve Kaye whose photographs of birds are accompanied by stories of kindness and compassion and John Smelcer, author of over fifty books, whose work includes collaboration with Joseph Campbell and the Dalai Lama. Watch for new weekly installments to these various blogs. Here is an introduction to Vanessa's first blog: "Do. Not. Go. Back. To Sleep":
Today is the day. No more procrastination. No more excuses. No more stuck in who I am so that I forget who you are. Today is the day to be my authentic self so you can shine your authenticity. Today is my day...and yours.
We have been collectively shaken awake. No longer living in a world where everything is okay, we cannot longer afford to be wrapped in the comfortable blanket of our illusions. Wide awake, we notice that while we thought we were wrapped in a comforting blanket; in fact, we have been embedded in the cracks of a shattered window of illusions. Not only is everything not okay, we are pushed from complacency and propelled into the uncertain. Read more.
Rethinking Madness: Psychosis and Spiritual Awakening: Free Webinar, March 22, 11 am PT. Register here.
Charter partner, CRAZYWISE Film in collaboration with Shades of Awakening invites you to a live discussion about how we can bring change to the current paradigm that governs the diagnosis and treatment of severe mental emotional distress.
Over the past 30 years, the broken brain and chemical imbalance theory of "mental illness" has had mixed results at best. While sales of psychoactive pharmaceuticals have increased 8000%, suicide and mental health disability rates in the US have also shot up. It’s time we rethink madness. Are there spiritual aspects to mental illness? Is there a relationship between shamanism, spiritual enlightenment and psychosis? Are these just breakdowns, or can they be breakthroughs?
Let’s come together to reframe the experience called ‘mental illness’. Join host Dabney Alix of Shades of Awakening for a live discussion and Q&A with panelists Gabor Mate, Robert Whitaker, Will Hall, Ekhaya Esima and CRAZYWISE director Phil Borges. It’s time to shift the conversation, in our homes, in our hospitals and in our communities.
Festival of Faiths, April 19-22 in Louisville, Kentucy
The 2017 Festival of Faiths, Compassion: Shining like the Sun, will take place April 19 – 22 in Louisville, Kentucky. Don’t miss this limited time offer to purchase tickets at a reduced rate! Use the code COMPASSION and receive 25% off all tickets! Offer valid through Sunday, March 12.
(code works both online and through the Kentucky Center box office)
A Day in the Life of the Charter
We'd like to share with you a typical day in the life of the Charter. We begin by processing between 150 and 300 pieces of e-mail. It is distributed to our lead volunteers in each of our sectors. Mimi Hicklin, our administrative assistant responds to new city and partner registrations and sets up a number of conference calls to have new city applicants meet with Marilyn Turkovich in a future conference call. Mimi, also maintains the events calendar on accessed through our homepage, and posts blogs and articles on our website Conference calls begin with east coast U.S., European and African and Middle East cities and partners start at around 6 am PT and calls to Hong Kong and Australia begin about 5 pm PT. On Thursdays we have our lead volunteer meeting to find out what is happening with our work. We usually sponsor at least up to four webinar and conference calls each week and these are expertly lead by Reed Price. Unfortunately Reed has had to cut back his hours with us, but is still faithfully giving us volunteer hours. We are getting approximately 10 new city campaigns beginning each month and between 20-30 new partners to support our city initiatives. There really is never a dull moment with the Charter. Want to volunteer with us? We need help in so many ways: translating (especially in French and German), folks to help with our new Marketplace, and we need leads in business, arts, environment and education. We are still at only 1.5 employees and in order for the Charter to be fully functioning we need at the very least three people. Are you a member of the Charter? If not, we'd like you to become a member. Membership currently supports 1/3 of our annual budget. If you are a member, please renew your membership or consider making a donation to the Charter.
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