Everyman's Journal 2011, #40
© 2011 Rev. David Seacord
March 11
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Last night, even though the sunset
wasn't red
the evening was beautiful,
scent of orange blossoms
wafting by osmosis,
the free-spinning windmill
motionless
in the stillness.
Mom sat in her rocker
on the porch
and talked softly---
Lady lay curled at her feet,
I stood in the yard
watching the evening,
occasionally nodding or making a sound
so that Mom would know
I was aware of her.
She knows I don't often
really listen,
and that's ok...
it's more about that I'm
just there.
And I am,
just like the flittering small evening birds
feeding on the fruit flies
who call my compost
home...
And just like the five new
baby zucchini plants just
emerged from the
underground...
What makes a beautiful life?
Just this: a heart at peace
because it knows
Love.
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Hello, I'm back. The past two weeks have been an intensely busy time full of breakdowns and breakthroughs, paradigm shifts, travels, and much brotherhood bonding of the heart. Much too much to allow writing about it as it happened (which is why there have been no editions for a while), and much to much to encapsulate in a normal sized entry today either. In all likelihood, great source material for several more days to come....
Let me start with an overview sentence....
A few weeks ago Loren Lockman, a good friend and an amazing health coach (who has made a big difference in my life) contacted me from his Tanglewood Wellness Center (.com) in Panama to ask if I would be interested in setting up some lecture/seminar events for him here in Yuma, since he was going to be doing events in several other Arizona cities anyway, and this would be a great chance for us to get together (it had been 5 or 6 years since we had seen each other). For me it was one of those moments of choice that calls for yes very strongly, even though my mind was trying to warn me that I already had a very full plate of commitments to accomplish. I said yes, and jumped into 'event production mode'... an intensely turbulent 'fast-track creation', fraught with drama and mystery and uncertainty. I would like to report that I handled it all like a fully enlightened being, being always calm and centered and clear... but of course, that would not have created my 'Adventures with Loren'.
In a nutshell, I was initially inspired to envision that I could create an event with hundreds of attendees fully prepared to receive Loren's paradigm-shifting health wisdom, but creating an effective strategy of communicating to 'the entirety of Yuma' proved to be a difficult accomplishment and in the end, it was a very appreciative group of 13 that attended his full-day seminar last Saturday. Along the way, many adventures and lessons....
My Lessons in Integrity:
My first clue that something off my screen might be approaching came out of the mouth of the radio talk show interviewer, right after he agreed to book Loren as a guest for the whole two hours of his Wednesday morning show the following week.... he said, "Just so you know, I'll be doing my homework on Loren... you know, going to his website, all that, so that I can get to the heart of it all with him". When he said that, suddenly I remembered... and I also suddenly felt vulnerable. I had forgotten (because a long time ago I had trusted and accepted Loren's version of what had happened) that many years ago a young woman who had come to his Center had had to be hospitalized, and she had then died. So even though Loren's record contained 2000 amazing health recovery successes, that one failure had created a huge reaction and a vicious attack on him by powerful people in the medical establishment.
When I remembered that all this was now in Loren's past, I felt pretty stupid for not remembering, but then, all this stuff had occurred AFTER I had had a great experience with him, and had received a huge health benefit from his work. But I had already made large requests of everyone of influence that I had come to know here locally, in my efforts to get them and those in their circles of influence to come and hear Loren speak. In other words, I suddenly realized I was in the position of promoting a friend who had what some people might consider an unresolved and legitimate tarnish on him from the past, and that there was a risk that my friends could catch some flack if they promoted him... and that I was the guy who'd be responsible for that being a problem in their life, or at least responsible for them not knowing the whole story.
So I went to the internet to see what was so, and what I saw there was quite depressing.... that Loren was a 'quack', that he had 'fled the country', that there was a huge unpaid fine levied against him. Oh God...
Luckily, I personally knew that certain charges were not true. Having known him for more than a decade, and having been one of his health successes too, I knew he was not a 'quack'. I also knew he had not 'fled the country' because I could remember all our conversations about his dream of moving his wellness center to the tropics in the years before the death of that unfortunate young woman. As I hadn't talked with him for a good while, I didn't know about the fine, so the next time we talked I asked him about that, and shared with him my concerns. He was clear in his explanation about what the Medical Board had done and he was optimistic that all this stuff was in the past, but if it did come up, he could explain what was so. He told me not to worry.... :-)
So I moved forward, promoting him as well as I was able everywhere I went. And then Loren arrived.... was given a warm reception at the church I often attend, delivered a wonderfully successful presentation about his work Monday morning to a group a women learning vegan cooking, and all seemed well. However, in the afternoon, the phone rang...
It was Mike, the president of the community club, which I had rented for a Tuesday night lecture. He informed me that they were canceling my rental.... that several of the club members had been calling him informing him that Loren was a quack etc, and that they had already sent out an email to inform the club membership that the event was canceled. What to do? I tried to reason with Mike there on the phone, but to no avail. I scrambled and found another place nearby, and then on Tuesday night, stood outside the clubhouse and redirected our now tiny audience to the new location. Instead of a packed house of community club members, 5 people (non-members) came.
But I just got ahead of myself. Back on Monday night Loren and I had a heart to heart. I don't know what I said... it just flowed out, but I made it clear that the way this was going was headed for disaster if we didn't create a whole new way of being about this event in his past that was following him around. I lobbied for openness... bring it up and deal with it early, just as soon as the audience was warmed up to him etc. And never 'just not mention it', because if they found out later from the internet, then he had no possible way of correcting the damage.
I told him I was completely here for him, that I totally believed in him, but that I also knew we had to inform our supporters, even at the risk of the doors closing on us. That night, Loren had amazing listening and never argued, though I am sure it was not easy to hear.
I got on the phone in the morning. Each conversation I had was easier, and each left me feeling cleaner. Some people did step back, but some didn't too. We went forward, and at the Tuesday night lecture, I was pleased how effectively Loren 'outed' himself. Nobody left.
And Wednesday morning, at the radio station... yep, you bet it came up, but Loren 'be'd with it' real straight, and it was just a blip in the screen... and then the conversation moved on to the health miracles that were commonplace at his Wellness Center.
Winding down to a finish for today here, what can I say I learned? Well, one thing is that while nothing is written in stone, sometimes it takes risking all the investment you have already made just to get to take the next step. Like salmon had to do, before the fish-ladders at the big dams.... somehow they had to get up and over those rapids and waterfalls, even when it looked impossible.
And of course, I re-learned (to quote Ursula Le Guin) "It is good to have a goal, but in the end, it is the journey itself that matters...".
Namaste,
David
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My partnership request.... Please consider yourself an important gateway this message is passing through on its way to others. Please do 'send it on'. Thank you.
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Rev. David Seacord
Fine Art Painter / Sufi Cherag
(my fine art website)
www.davidseacord-everymansjournal.blogspot.com
(archived writings and poetry, circa 2002 to 2004)
www.davidseacord-acimcommentaries.blogspot.com
(archived 2010 writings on the lessons of A Course in Miracles)
www.everymansjournal2011.blogspot.com
(archived entries of this years Everyman's Journal)
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