Stop Idle words

Happy Fall! I hope you greeted the changing season with as much enthusiasm as I did. Today, I start a new quarter of teaching at my local college. After 18 years (gasp! really?) I'm still excited about the first day of schooooool. Here's why, firstly, my students are shining rays of hope, eager to learn (education is one of the greatest blessings of a free world, in my humble opinion). Secondly, the skill they wish to learn is American Sign Language, and I have the great honor of teaching it. The class is taught voice-off and over the years, the feedback has been that ASL is one of the most fun and peaceful classes students have ever taken. This poem attempts to express the precious gift of American Sign Language:

Stop idle words

©2013 Karla Johnston, www.InnerConstellation.com

Living in a world communicating 
from the neck up:

lips, tongue, palate, teeth:

enunciating,

articulating,
pronouncing.

Vocal chords stretch, pull
sometimes lovingly

sometimes deafeningly...

ahhhhh.

Living, breathing, communicating

full-bodied:
fluid arc of hand lightly touches crown, 

drops down.
5 components of a sign: 
handshape,
location,

palm orientation,
movement,
and my favorite—
non-manual expression.

What?!

Language requiring the hand
yet expressing non-manually?
Holistically: 
body, mind and heart just a humming, 

but you can’t hear it, 
not from the neck up, that is.
Drop down,
follow my hand—
top of head to soles of feet,
simply listen.  

International Day of Peace, this Saturday, September 21

Join me in intending Inner Constellation peace as well as peace for your local and global community. The following is taken from a newsletter written by an amazing woman, Sheva Carr, who has spear-headed a major event culminating this coming Saturday:

Saturday, September 21st is the 31st International Day of Peace. This year's theme is peace education. We invite all hearts who celebrate and choose to co-create a world at peace to join us in a global peace celebration, creation and education conference call at 9:00am PT, noon ET, alongside special guests who have given their lives to a world at peace and the 215 peace team players who have attended the 8 week Peace Team Training Camp. 

 

Educate yourself and engage in a world of peace as a peace team player!

 

JOIN THE FACEBOOK GROUP HERE (all previous calls culminating up to this point can be accessed)

 

 

CALL DATE AND TIMES:

 

Saturday, September 21st

 

9:00am-10:30am PT

 

DIAL IN:

 

(559) 726-1300

 

Participant Access Code: 574998

 

On Saturday's call you will learn:

• The eight pathways of a world of peace
• Some history of each domain, where we stand now, and future trends contributing to a peaceful world
• Who’s doing what in each domain to create a culture of peace
• What you can do as a peace team player in each domain and on your unique pathway to peace
• How to connect the dots of personal, local and global peace initiatives as important playgrounds for your pathway to peace
• How to create a morning practice that builds a culture of peace in you and around you
• How you can be a part of the International Day of Peace
• How you are already a pathway to peace
• How you are a part of a global family of peace team players just waiting for someone like you to play with!

 

You will hear from:

• The Co-Founder of Pathways To Peace, and the International Day of Peace, Avon Mattison
• Peace Team Training Camp leaders Olympic athlete Marilyn King, and Heart Ambassadors Director Sheva Carr
• Key players at the international level who have given their lives to the practical path of peace building who will move, touch, inspire and ignite a flame of peace in your own heart.
• Teen girls from Israel/Palestine who live by the motto "An enemy is a friend who's story you have yet to hear" and work with an organization called Creativity for Peace.
• Representatives from the United Nations.

 

Peace Team Training is designed to help you start your day the Olympian Way as a peace team player engaged in creating a world where a culture of peace thrives! Looking forward to "seeing" you there and winning the gold of peace- TOGETHER!

 

YOUR HOSTS:

Marilyn King, Founder of Peace is the Only Gold and Representing Pathways To Peace as the Co-Chair of the UN NGO International Day of Peace Sports Sub-Committee

Sheva Carr, Director of Heart Ambassadors and HeartMath’s HeartMastery Program and Pathways To Peace Delegate to the UN

 A SPECIAL PROGRAM OF: THE CULTURE OF PEACE INITIATIVE and PATHWAYS TO PEACE

 

"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at the goal." 

Martin Luther King, Jr

Be Love, Yo!

A friend and dear angel in my life recommended a website a few months back called, Daily Good: News that Inspires. I absolutely love this website for the nourishment it provides. There are two articles that warmed my heart this morning. Firstly, to give you a bit of a taste, the following link is a story about a chance encounter at the local library that turned into a day of miracles, all revolving around the intention to love more fully each and every day. It aligned perfectly with one of my North Stars: establish Love as the number one condition. The title is Be Love, by Jennifer Pastiloff. I admire the writer's simplicity and courage.

OK, now the next Daily Good article is mind-blowing. There is an amazing young woman, Maggie Doyne, who at the age of 18, fresh out of high school and still wet behind the ears, began creating orphanages and schools for children in Nepal. The depth of her love is awe-inspiring. You can read the Daily Good interview with Maggie Doyne and also listen to her speak. She clearly and movingly tells of the development of her North Star, that literally showed up in the form of a little girl, a Nepalese child porter. Maggie's story transmits awesome hope, she's a saint in my opinion.

Dear Inner Constellation readers, may the above articles confirm and anchor the IC Blog mission--

...you are an expression of the Eternal: body, mind and heart are the gateways. 

September 11 Commemoration

This year as I experience the anniversary of 9-11, I know in my heart-of-hearts those who lost their lives are no longer bothered by the tragic events that occurred twelve years ago. For family members and friends, however, I'm reminded of the importance of release, forgiveness and finding peace. A poem came to mind that I thought to blog. It was written some years back, when a loved one was lost to senseless tragedy. I realize now, this poem solidified the makings of my Inner Constellation Truth #2:

Energy never dies it just changes form


Mother Green

©2007 Karla Johnston, InnerConstellation.com

Dry bones buried inside your recesses,

beneath the Acacia grove.

Emerald leaves fall like stars from heaven,

autumn moon traverses on.

Uprooted from the river bed,

Water Lily sacrificed to earthen mound,

terribly wanting,

not foreign to this weeping place.

Tears of sorrow, uncontained,

wed the land.

Flower of the pond,

no longer insufficient.

Bridge to ford the stream,

cross-over unseen.

Precious child received,

into the arms of Mother Green.

64-year-old Woman Completes 110 Mile Swim Without Shark Cage!!!

Is this just plain crazy or North Star driven, or...perhaps both?! As of this morning, Diana Nyad, is the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the assistance of a shark cage. When she came ashore, she was greeted by supporters surrounding her in waist-high water while cheering her on.

Before walking to an ambulance of her own accord Nyad said:

I have three messages. One is, we should never, ever give up. Two is, you're never too old to chase your dream. Three is, it (swimming) looks like a solitary sport, but it is a team.

It was Nyad's fifth attempt to what she said would be her last try to complete the 110 mile swim. The other times she was forced to stop due to boat trouble, storms, unfavorable currents and jellyfish stings. So, I know if you're like me, you might be recalling that scene from the movie, "Jaws," when the toothy-maw came up from the deep to close around the oblivious swimmer flailing on the surface (gives me shudders, still!). How did the team keep the sharks away? The answer has an Inner Constellation flavor (no pun intended)...Nyad's support team carried equipment which generated a faint electrical field around her, specifically designed to deter Jaws and his buddies. I would definitively agree it takes a team! Here's another little piece of Inner Constellation metaphor--the boat also dragged a line in the water to keep her on course.

OK, so my vote is, Diana Nyad is no crazy lady, rather she's a lady crazed by her North Star. This 64-year-old woman did not allow the obstacles in life (you know: mechanical difficulties, poisonous stings, suck-you-down currents and sharks!) to knock her off course. Might we take inspiration from her life example when confronted with our own challenges to staying the course and keeping our sights on our North Stars? For more information on Diana Nyad's amazing story click here.

If you're unsure of your North Star, or if you know your North Star and wish to launch out on a more solidified course, consider contacting me for a no-charge 20 minute coaching session. Beginning dialogue with you and your North Star is my absolute favorite way to spend 20 minutes in the course of a day! I would be honored to become part of your support team.