Comfort is the foundation for creativity and creativity is the flower
that gives off the fragrance of service.

BURMA

The International Burmese Monks Organization launched a new effort to provide relief through Burma's powerful grass roots network of monasteries--the most trusted institutions in the country and currently the only source of housing and support in many devastated communities. Donate now.

COMFORT WISHES

You begin because you read Rilke's lines, "You are not dead yet, it's not too late/to open your depths by plunging into them/and drink in the life that reveals itself quietly there."

You read these lines and your depths stir and grunt like an old man getting out of bed in the morning: there is hope!

In the same instance, your monkey mind whines, "There is nothing to plunge into because you are empty, blank, scoured out. You are a list maker, an email answerer, a Crackberry fiddler, a carpool driver, a rusher, a summer planner vacation camp scheduler, a deal maker, a paycheck winner, a counter wiper, a butt wiper but a depth plunger, a drinker of life? I think not."

The monkey mind loves to hector, "Too late, too late. No point, no point. Nothing in there, nothing in there." But the monkey mind is a liar. Sometimes a very convincing liar but a liar never the less.

Today I beg you to know that
your depths are illimitable, infinite
teeming with life like the Artic sea in summer
expanding ever higher like the Himalayans
luminous with mystery like the mind's eye of God

Yep, that's you.
Yep, right now.

GET SUPPORTED TO CREATE

Last Chance $200 off the Writer's Spa
But only if you register by May 15th
Update: we have only 8 double spots left.

"I feel like I fell in love with myself, the woman I discovered at the Writer's Spa! I always knew she was in there but it was wonderful having the help to get her to come out and shine. Your Spa went way beyond my expectations, and let me tell you... I had really high expectations!" --Karen Booy, 2004, 2005, & 2007 Participant

We want you to fall in love with yourself, your creative voice, your one of kind ideas. Celebrate your brilliance for an entire week with our support, guidance, the magic of Taos and oh, the food helping you to create, create, create! Read the details here.

FROM OUR COMFORT COMMUNITY YAHOO GROUP

"I'm happy I finally logged into this community. I've been using The Life Organizer faithfully for 14 weeks now. Every Sunday, I sit down and answer as many of the prompts as speak to me. It's been truly enlightening. Yesterday I had this terrible backache, and the prompt was, 'How can I meet myself where I am today?' and then 'So, this Is where I am; now, what do I need?' I thought, I'm a little depressed, a little achey, a little lost. I immediately thought, a hot bath! so that's how I nurtured myself. It turned my otherwise depressing evening around. I went out and did some projects at a cafe, and came home refreshed and feeling productive. It's amazing how we can ignore our even most basic needs, even physical ones!" Dawn

Join for fr**EE and get support on all sorts of self-care issues, especially using The Life Organizer. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/comfortcommunity

Jen's Life Organizer thoughts: I go out into my backyard every morning and I breath in the lush NW spring green and I ask to be blessed, for my new direction and projects to become clear. I name what I am grateful for, I thank the cells in my body for doing what they do, then I send energy to those in need. Finally, I set an intention for the day based on how I want to feel--today it was "I want to feel supported as in letting things and people and even furniture support me." I'm finding this simple centering practice lovely and the carrying of ONE intention throughout the day a wonderful still point to return to when monkey mind shouts "You will never create anything new again."

Fr+EE CLUTTER BUSTING CALL

Vicky White, the Feng Shui Coach, is offering a FR'EE call for my readers: "Powerful Strategies to Use Clutter Busting as a Tool for Transformation". You'll learn strategies for making clutter busting an important part of your spiritual practice and using it to boost your prosperity, creativity and any area of your life. For more information and to register see: http://www.LifeDesignStrategies.com/cbcc_jen.html

Thursday May 22
5pm Pacific / 8 pm Eastern

I'll be on the call, too!

BODY+SOUL UPDATE

You may have gotten the new issue and wondered where I went. After gosh, I think something like four or five years, I'm no longer writing my column. I'll miss writing for such a cool magazine. If you miss me, why not drop an email to editor@bodyandsoulmag.com.

COMFORT READS

Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe by Jennie Shortridge
Middle-aged biology teacher Mira runs away from her perfect life, taking with her only a small singing dog named Patsy Cline and personal electrical device (rhymes with "shy dater"). She embarks on a journey of love, sex, and coffee in Fremont, Seattle - aka, the Center of the Universe. Perfect find yourself love yourself read – light and comforting while not too fluffy.

Yoga Wave with Shiva Rea
Influenced by her surfing practice, this CD offers a heart filling and challenging intermediate practice.