On the first Sunday of each month, we’re gathering in community to share a great veg/vegan potluck dinner and rich conversation with great folks. After supper we’ll shift our attention to the role that art and creative expression, and the uses of beauty, have played in shifting consciousness and affecting social movements, especially as we consider the rising Occupy movement.

Looking at major movements for social change in just the past century, we find powerful rivers of art, music, theater, performance, photography, literature, and poetry, all flowing and swirling together in a powerful, surging force for change.

All these forms and artists have left a legacy of the struggles, dreams, strategies, conflicts, and visions of entire generations who left their mark on the world. Some have documented the struggles, some have expressed the injustice and suffering that drove people to action. Others have been radically innovative forms arising out of the times to break artistic and creative molds, challenging sclerotic thinking and exposing oppressive patterns.

Some of the arts have been elegant, cultured, spiritually moving. Others have been rough, rash, daring. And others have been simple yet enduring creative expressions of the pain, longing, and dreams of everyday people.

What is the art we remember? What artists come to mind?  Why do those artists and their creations still have the power to move us today?  And what creative arts do we find ourselves drawn to, or actively engaging in, today – to express how we see our world, or how we respond to it, or envision the world we know is possible?

Bring a vegetarian or vegan potluck dish to share and join the conversation.  The food will be great, the conversation lively, and the ideas we uncover are sure to stay with us long after dinner is over.

We ask a $5+ donation to help pay for the hall but all are welcome. Bring a friend and join us!

We see in the world today that ignorance and oppressive power are bringing ever greater harm to people and places. We know a different world is possible, a lighter, more just, creative, and compassionate society, a world that works for all. In myriad ways, we are working and living that goal into being.

According to the late Czech artist and leader Vaclav Havel, “Hope is a state of mind, not of the world … an ability to work for something because it is good.”

Just because it is good.

Taking action, working for something – whatever it might be – simply because it is good instantly liberates us from a perilous bargain, a losing bargain that declares, “I’ll only engage if I’ll get what I want, if I’m likely to see the outcomes I desire.” In a world as fraught with mystery as this one, that declaration affirms an imprisoned awareness pressed into an impossible time frame.

Most of us do it all the time:  I’ll march against war if it will end war. I’ll sign a petition, if the politician will respond. I’ll work on this project or cause if it will bear fruit. I’ll practice meditation if it will make me “enlightened.” We make a zillion little deals like that every day, tight-hearted bargains with price tags and timelines attached.

And yet, we know that the story of our planet and the stars and galaxies spans time-frames the human mind can’t begin to comprehend. We know that mystery is at the heart of it.

In that light, we know the few dozen years that any of us might have left here flash by in a blink. Looking through that much wider lens, tight little deals about outcomes simply slip away. As for those visions and projects that might flood me with a sense of joy, of goodness – it is pure grace to remember that seeing outcomes is not the point.

This fragment of a dream that I call “I,” this wholly constructed sense of me, that’s who quibbles and bargains over outcomes. Widening my gaze, it’s clear that my plans and projections are simply not the point. Not the point of taking action, and not the point of being alive.

Much closer to the point is goodness. How I live each day, what flavor and intention I bring to each endeavor – pondering that brings me closer. How much love, intelligence, kindness, humility, creativity, courage, delight, dignity, humor, compassion, and straight-up joy do I manage to embody in the actions I take? Those questions come even closer to the point. Those are the questions worth living with, questions that help me come alive in awareness of love. In the final analysis, that’s the only point.

So holding that intention, doing something simply “because it is good” reminds us that life is in the living. It allows us to love life simply because it is beautiful. Simply because it is. Boundless and magical, living this way is heaven. Remembering this, each breath we take is liberation.

Breath of the Heart is a residential retreat with Betsy Toll, Sunday through Wednesday, April 8-11, at Breitenbush Hot Springs. All traditions, faiths, and levels of interest or practice are welcome.

Stepping away from usual roles and routines, we will turn toward the open landscape of the heart, using the gift of breath to soften our boundaries and untangle mental habits. Our work together will connect our love for the world around us with our deepest being. Time in silence will ground us in the present moment.

Retreat sessions will include dharma reflections and dialogue, and meditation. Early mornings will offer chanting and periods for extended silence. Our shared time will be balanced with personal time for hikes, soaks,  and solitude, as well as conversation and joy in the early spring forest.

In the warm light of our radiant heart, we’ll find abundant clarity, creativity, and compassion to enrich all we do to bring peace, justice, beauty, and balance to our lives and to the world.

Retreat fee: This retreat is offered at cost before March 1, for $50 plus lodging. After March 1, the fee is a slim $75. Space is limited, so early registration is encouraged. Call 503-771-1940 or post below if you have questions or would like to make payment arrangements. 

Register below, or by mail to Living Earth. Payments can be arranged; final payment must be received by April 3. If by mail, send to: Living Earth, PO Box 86960, Portland, OR 97286.

Lodging: Rates below are for 3 nights inclusive, per person in a shared cabin, with 3 delicious meals daily and use of all facilities and hot springs:

• Plumbed Cabin: $264 plus $50 (March 1), or $75 (after March 1)
• Standard Cabin: $216 plus $50 (March 1), or $75 (after March 1)
• Dorm Cabin: $156 plus $50 (March 1), or $75 (after March 1)
• Lodge Room (if available): $165 plus $50 (March 1), or $75 (after March 1)

Make a Reservation

Retreat Fee + Plumbed Cabin (before Mar. 1) $314.00 USD Retreat Fee + Standard Cabin (before Mar. 1) $266.00 USD Retreat Fee + Dorm Cabin (before Mar. 1) $206.00 USD Retreat Fee + Lodge Room (before Mar. 1; if available) $215.00 USD

NOTE: Three retreat sessions each day are held in the River Yurt, located down the hill from the Lodge, past the Medicine Pools near the Labyrinth.  Check the Breitenbush website for details about site facilities and lodging.

Betsy Toll has been exploring spiritual practice, compassionate service, and conscious social action for three decades. She leads workshops, dharma circles, and community programs with Living Earth in Portland, and volunteers as a non-denominational hospital chaplain. Honoring teachers and wisdom from many traditions, Betsy is especially grateful to Ram Dass and Joanna Macy for their friendship, wisdom, guidance, and love.

The quiet days as one year is ending and another begins offer time to settle and slip into the moment. In the stillness, there’s time to breathe, and time to reflect on our gains and losses, leaps and stumbles, joys and sorrows, all in a widening context of meaning and possibility.

The year just ending saw citizen activists occupying the State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin, and countless hundreds of thousands surging into the squares of Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya and Syria, as well as France, England, Australia, the U.S., Greece, Italy, Ireland, India. Actually, the powerful impetus of social change swept into nearly every country in the world,  with citizens flooding into the streets in jubilant, defiant, non-violent displays.

In some places the people’s determination and non-violent vision surged over barricades and brought leaders down. Elsewhere, oppression escalated into violence, non-violence was abandoned, and the outcomes are still in question.

But in many places, the exhilarating solidarity of newly-emboldened citizens stretched across cities and oceans and continents, declaring in unequivocal terms, “This is what democracy looks like!”

Each new dawn and each new day holds mystery. What lies ahead has yet to take shape, as past and present mingle and flow into form. But some of that shape is up to us. How much startling beauty, radical courage, bright cooperation, justice with dignity, loving generosity, full-blown magic, and peace beyond all imagination will we create?

If not us, who? If not now, when?

Whether we are young or old, strong or frail, healthy or ill, all of us experience joy and sorrow, we all face change and loss. And we all have the inherent capacity to be fully present for life with clarity and openness.

Whether we’re students or social activists, raising families or serving our communities, or slowing down near the end of life, the richness we experience in being alive is intimately connected to our ability to be present and open to conditions just as they are.

In this half-day workshop with Betsy Toll, we will consider what a practice of presence means. We’ll explore ways to open our hearts to what is in each moment, enhancing the ease, well-being, and joy that are available no matter our situation or where we are on the journey.

The workshop will offer  tools to increase our sense of equanimity and balance, even as we engage in work and play, tend to obligations, and live our lives. Dress comfortably and feel free to bring a memento of someone or something you love. For more information, please contact us via webform, email, or phone.

Note: Space will be limited; advance registration is recommended.

Workshop fee is $30. (First Unitarian members can register for $20 by calling the church at 503-228-6389.)

Betsy Toll has been exploring spiritual practice, compassionate service, and conscious social action for four decades. The founder of Living Earth, Betsy leads weekly dharma circles in Portland, as well as workshops, retreats, and community programs. She volunteers as a non-denominational hospital chaplain, incorporating teachings and insights from many spiritual traditions, and has worked in hospice care and grief counseling. Betsy is especially grateful to her teachers Ram Dass and Joanna Macy for their friendship, wisdom, guidance, and love.