What dreams may come

Hurrying to catch my bus to work last week, my eyes followed the course of hard, cold streets and sidewalks as my thoughts ticked off the day's endless list of to-dos and to-wants. I happened to glance up long enough to see the waxing light of day stretch its pastel arms into the eastern sky. For the slightest of moments the pink dawn appeared to be a dream of cherry blossoms coloring the bare tree branches along the street. I paused and smiled at the portend of spring, crinkled and fresh like crepe paper tucked behind the outline of sleeping bark and hopeful buds.

Dreams come in all forms. The light is returning, bringing with it glimpses of dreams yet unexamined and those fully awakened. Joanna Macy, Buddhist scholar, writer, and spiritual activist, has been living the dream of mindful, purposeful work for most of her life. Her pioneering guidance in The Work That Reconnects and The Great Turning, our shift as a culture from an industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization, has inspired and opened countless numbers of people to the deep possibilities that lie sleeping within them.

In her latest newsletter, Joanna writes:

"The other night at dinner, as we were sharing news and views, my Creation theologian friend Matt Fox said, 'Courage is the first sign of the Spirit. It is the root of all the other virtues.'

I loved his saying that. It caused me to think how courage is the essential ingredient of truth-speaking, how it sparks our fervor and our self-respect, how it lets us discover new strengths, new allies. And I got to reflecting on how lucky I am that the work I do acquaints me with so many courageous people."

Yesterday on my same route to work I noticed the first cherry blossoms opening in the trees. The light of the pale blushed beauty of the petals and the dark strength of the gnarled gray bark set their opposites in beautiful alignment. Our courage lies in seeing the light and the dark in union and stepping into our truth with fervor and respect.

What do you see when you look to the sky?

Join Joanna Macy this summer for nine days of intensive training in The Work That Reconnects. Click here for more information.

Tess Wixted
Continuing Studies Associate

Visit us at http://www.royalroads.ca/continuing-studies

New beginnings everywhere

Sometimes I wonder how much goodness can caress one person in their life? Me for example. I have one of the best jobs in the world. An overstatement? Well, not to me. Every day I look forward to coming to work and help to bring people like Jane Goodall, David Whyte, Robert Bateman and Joanna Macy to people like you. I started at Royal Roads in the Continuing Studies department this past October and dove into the deep underspine of a cresting wave of over 300 courses. Lots of work met me the moment I sat down and just now, in the quiet interlude of winter’s arrival, I can breathe in the work lying ahead in the exhale of a new year.

Coming to Royal Roads has been part and parcel to stepping into a deep abiding of the call to service within me. When the opportunity came to work here I leapt at the chance. Like I said, where else do you get to work with such amazing facilitators, look out at the ocean, walk magnificent gardens and have lunch with peacocks. Wow.

It’s traditional to look back at the year that has passed and examine the path with eyes now far down the road of time. This was my first year in Victoria having moved last December from wee Cortes Island, BC, my home for nearly three years. I smile at the realization of how rich and welcoming Victoria can be to a new arrival. Friends grow into communities, discoveries of secret beaches, favoured farmers’ markets and the riot of azure blue spring camas exalting from Beacon Hill. Coffee houses and music festivals, dragon boat races and busking festivals. Victoria is my home and every day I treasure its embrace of me and my life.

I’m looking forward to bringing you bits of information and inspiration from the warmest spot in Canada. I hope you’ll join me on the journey.

One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things ~ Henry Miller

Tess Wixted

Continuing Studies Associate

http://www.royalroads.ca/continuing-studies