Monthly Archives: November 2012

AWAKENING TO COMMUNITY

Posted on November 28, 2012 | Leave a comment
Writer's Stop

Writer’s Stop (Photo credit: Stephh922)

“Some people think they are in community, but they are only in proximity.  True community requires commitment and openness.  It is a willingness to extend yourself to encounter and know the other.”  David Spangler

Are you part of a community, personally or professionally?  What does it offer you that you value?

My blog post today is a bit different.  Recently, Brad Swift, a member of my writing community, tagged me for a blog tour, The Next Big Thing—my very first!  The way it works is that a writer answers questions about her/his next book (or one recently published), tags five other writers and passes it on.  The next week those writers do the same thing, so it’s a great way for writers to connect with a larger audience.

I love this idea because it’s about community.  As I’ve often written, one of the major world shifts we need to make is from competition to community.  That’s why I’m grateful to be living in a town where writers are a community and the writers I’ve tagged below are a part of that.  We’re here to support and help each other so that we are all successful.  It’s a great way to live, so check out these special people at the bottom of my answers.

What is the title of your latest book?  Awakening to the Dance:  A  Journey to Wholeness which I published in June 2012.  

Where did the idea come from for the book?  I never planned to write a memoir, but ten years ago when I was out of work and had reached a point with a novel that I couldn’t get past, a woman suggested to me that I’d lived an interesting life in an interesting time and should write about it.  Desperately needing a new project, I began reading my journals from the 1960’s to the present.  As I began writing, the process of exploring my past was spiritually transforming and became part of the story.

What genre does your book fall under?  It’s a memoir.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?  I’d love for Kiera Knightley to play me.  Kevin Costner would be perfect for Neal.  Judy Dench would be perfect for my mother.  Of course the book spans about 40 years, but I’ll let the director solve that problem.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?  Awakening to the Dance: A Journey to Wholeness is the inspirational story of a woman’s search for her true identity apart from society’s expectations, her commitment to following her passions of dance and writing, her desire to find a soul mate, and the gift she receives by integrating spirituality into her life.

Was your book self-published or represented by an agency?  I published the ebook through  Kindle and Pubit and the paperback through Create Space.  It’s available on all three and on Amazon.com.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?  I took almost ten years to write the book.  I was teaching full-time, and I have no idea how long it took to complete the first draft.  I probably spent at least two years just picking and choosing the most important stories.  Then I had to pare those down and focus the story more on the main theme.  I did extensive rewriting for several years because the book was originally too long.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? Every story is unique, but my guess is that any memoir written by a woman who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s would have similar themes.  It’s not about abuse or alcohol and drug addictions as many memoirs are. Of course, part of it could be called a “dance memoir” but even that part focuses on how dance increased my mind/body connection and contributed to my spiritual awareness that we are all One.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?  I realized that I had used many practices, such as meditation, affirmations, chakra balancing, and releasing my fear, that dramatically changed my life for the better.  When I was younger, I had no idea it was possible to live mostly free from fear, so I wanted to inspire others so that they could create the lives they desire and be free from fear.

What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?  During the 1960s and 1970s when I was a modern dancer, the entire art world was experimental, breaking all the old rules and supporting authentic expression.  It was a fascinating time.

In everyday life, men and women were struggling with the male and female stereotypes that no longer served us.

The book also has a strong love theme. I write about several major relationships with men all of whom were very powerful forces in my life.  In one way or another, each helped me grow and explore the nature of love.  But loving oneself and spiritual love are also themes that run throughout my story.

Please take a look at these fascinating writer friends:

Debra Lloyd, Trey Carland, John Waterman ,Celia Miles

What does your community mean to you?  Please comment.

 ©2012 Georganne Spruce                                                                         ZQT4PQ5ZN7F5

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AWAKENING TO THE FULLNESS OF LIFE

Posted on November 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.”     Melody Beattie

When life is difficult, do you take the time to express thanks for what is good in your life?  Do you focus on what you don’t have or what you do have?  How does being grateful enhance your life?

Expanding Life Through Love and Joy

It seems to me that my life has expanded this year.  So much good has come to me.  I’ve been more regular than ever about my gratitude practice, and I’ve felt my heart open and expand.

My dear spiritual teacher Gladys used to say that the reason we are in this physical life is to expand our energy through experiencing love and joy.

So, on this day before Thanksgiving, I want to thank everyone who has helped make my journey rich and rewarding this year.

I Am Thankful For Family

First, I want to thank my brother who has been so supportive in many ways.  Before I published my memoir this year, I sent it to him to read.  I have to admit I was rather nervous about his response.  We may have grown up in the same family, but everyone’s experience is unique.  I was relieved that he accepted what I had written as my story and shared his point of view about it.  Since he is also writing a book, we have become closer as a result of sharing this experience.

I also want to thank my niece for reading the book and sharing her thoughts and feelings about it.  I have valued our discussions so much and they have taken us to a deeper level of understanding our family and relating to each other.

I Am Thankful For Spiritual Friends

Secondly, I want to thank the personal friends who have encouraged me when I was down, celebrated with me when I succeeded, and bought my memoir, Awakening to the Dance: A Journey to Wholeness, the moment it came out.  I also want to thank you for spiritual discussions and hikes in the woods that have calmed my soul.  I am also grateful for those I’ve met through the Jubilee Spiritual Journey Team and the Open Table Discussion Group and the discussions we’ve shared on deep and spiritual topics.  You’ve been an inspiration.

I Am Grateful For Writing Friends and Technical Guides

Thirdly, I want to thank again the members of the networking group, Freelance Fridays, especially Joe D’Agnese and Brad Swift for your wonderful support through every step of the publishing process.  The exchange of ideas about publishing, promoting, and the business of book selling has educated me in ways no books can do.  Thank you for sharing your real life experience.

Fourthly, I want to thank two technical teachers, Sarah Benoit and James Imes, for their wonderful classes in social media marketing, blogging, and ebook publishing.  Their classes were part of AB Tech’s Small Business Incubator headed by the supportive Duane Adams.  Andrew Plyler has also been a great help leading me through the quagmire of computer challenges I’ve faced, and I understand 90% of what he tells me the first time because he knows how to talk to nontechnical people.

I Am Grateful For Readers And Workshop Attendees

Last, but definitely not least, I want to thank everyone who has bought a book, and I’m especially thankful for reviews you’ve put on Amazon.  I also am very grateful to everyone who attended my “Release Your Fear” workshops.  Each time I teach it, I learn more from those who share their fears and concerns.  You are my teachers too and I have learned so much from you.

And of course, I am most grateful for my wonderful blog followers and readers.  Your comments and support and your wonderful blogs have been a source of inspiration to me.

I Am Grateful For the Abundance of Community

With all these gifts coming into my life, my ability to experience love and joy has expanded.  I have released so much fear and learned I can trust the Universe and Spirit to guide me down the right path.  Something huge has shifted too. There was a time when I would have been extremely uncomfortable accepting so much help. I had to do it all myself.  I was afraid of depending on someone else. Now I’m grateful for the community of generous people in my life and have learned that accepting what is given lovingly is as important as giving.

Was it the gratitude practice that made a difference?  I don’t know, but I will continue it for sure. I like what Eckhart Tolle says in A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, “Acknowledging the good you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”

May you have an abundant Thanksgiving.   What are you thankful for this year?  Please comment.

© 2012 Georganne Spruce                                                          ZQT4PQ5ZN7F5

Related Articles:  Eckhart Tolle Quotes, Key to A Happy Life,  The science of being thankful (mnn.com), Eckhart Tolle on Gratitude

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AWAKENING TO SHADOW’S TREASURE

Posted on November 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

“It is only when we have the courage to face things exactly as they are without any self-deception or illusion that a light will develop out of events by which the path of success may be recognized.”  I-Ching

Do you always avoid negative emotions and stuff them down inside?  Are you comfortable expressing all your concerns and emotions to those you love?  How much of who you really are do you keep hidden?

Finding Treasure in the Darkness

As we move deeper into winter, days grow longer and the darkness envelops us.  For many people, it is an uncomfortable time, but like every season, it may hold hidden treasure if we are willing to look for it.  Deep within our unconscious, we all have what Carl Jung called “the Shadow.”  As the weather pushes us indoors more and the light decreases, it is the perfect time for reflecting on what we need to heal and release.

Scorpio, the Transformer

Beyond the change of seasons, other influences are affecting us.  Scorpio, the astrological sign, urges us to dig deeply and explore the part of ourselves we prefer to deny.  It is a time when the changes we make can be transforming.  Visit www.astrodelight.com,  Belinda Dunn’s website, for some very interesting information on Scorpio’s influence.

Mercury Encourages Reevaluation

In addition, Mercury is in retrograde.  Okay now—don’t leave me.  Trust me—all these influences that appear so negative really are gold if we know what to do with them.  The good news is that Mercury goes direct again on the 26th.  I’ll be glad, believe me, because I’m tiring of all the phone calls it has taken to make one simple appointment.

Mercury is about communication.  When it’s in retrograde, it’s a good time to review and revise what we are doing with our lives.  It’s also a good time to clear out what is no longer useful.  It’s not a time to start something new, but it’s a good time to plan for the future.

Becoming Conscious of  Shadow Issues

While this period and its influences may make us uncomfortable, it’s a time when we can do some serious inner work.  When I read the I-Ching quote above, I immediately thought of Carl Jung whose thinking has always increased my understanding of human psychology.  In his book Psychology and Religion, he said, “Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.  If inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it.  Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so that it is continually subjected to modifications.  But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected.”

Let’s say that it makes you angry when people are disrespectful to you, but you’ve been taught it’s unacceptable to feel anger.  How do you deal with that?  Most people repress it and keep repressing it.  When we do that, we tend to project the anger onto others in situations that have nothing to do with the situation at hand.  Our reactions to situations become distorted.  The wife who feels her husband spoke disrespectfully one day but said nothing may lash out at him the next day for forgetting an item at the grocery store.

What is kept unconscious will come out in other unhealthy ways or will manifest as illness, for the mind and body connection is very powerful.  Over a long period of time, these repressed feelings poison our physical and mental health.

We Must Release Fear To Become Conscious

If this is true, why do we choose to live so unconsciously?  Because we are afraid.  When we live this way, fear rules our lives, and only when we allow that fear to surface, can we really begin to free ourselves from it and heal.  To do that, we sometimes have to go against cultural norms.

In our Western culture, we emphasize having a positive attitude to an extreme degree; therefore, we are discouraged from looking at our Shadow and its fear content.  But denying our darker side rather than dealing with the related issues only prolongs the damage this dysfunction can do in our lives.  When we allow our buried feelings to become conscious, we can see what is going on, we can heal and release what is limiting us.  We create an opening where the light can come through, where new ideas and ways of living can evolve.

After the Darkness Comes the Light

It took me many years of releasing my fears to come to a point where I could actually publish my memoir Awakening to the Dance: A Journey to Wholeness.  But when I committed to that and faced all the fears that came up, I also committed to a healing journey.  It was very painful sometimes, but it led to a place where I am happier than I’ve ever been, where what is lurking deep inside isn’t scary any more.  And I know now that no matter how uncomfortable dealing with the fear is, releasing it will lead me to more light.

Be willing to go deeper and find the buried treasure within and transform your life.  Peace, Love, and Joy to you on this amazing journey.

If you are in the Asheville, NC area, join us for my “Release Your Fear” workshop at Crystal Visions Bookstore tomorrow night from 7-9:00 pm. $15 at the door.  Releasing your fear is a good way to begin retrieving your Shadow’s treasure.

© 2012 Georganne Spruce                                                     ZQT4PQ5ZN7F5

Related Articles:  The Hidden Value of Mercury Retrograde, Suppression and Repression, Memories, Dreams, and Reflections by Jung

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AWAKENING TO OUR CHOICES

Posted on November 7, 2012 | 3 comments

“If we really want to be full and generous in spirit, we have no choice but to trust at some level.” Rita Dove

When you make a choice, do you think about the consequences?  Do you think about how your choices will impact those around you?  What do you expect our country’s leaders to base their choices on?

The Balance of Power Has Shifted

Yesterday was a game-changing day for the United States.  Barack Obama was re-elected as president, but who elected him is as significant as the victory itself.  Something is shifting in this country.  Ninety-three percent of African-American voters voted for him.  Seventy-one percent of Hispanic voters voted for him, and fifty-five percent of women voted for Obama.

These groups of people, who during my lifetime have struggled for equality in the system, are finally stepping into their own power.  Now the numbers are great enough to influence change in this country, and I think that’s a good thing.  Their choices count in a way they never have before.

We are fortunate to live in a country where we have a system that allows us to choose the people who run the country.  The choices we make on Election Day are significant, but the choices we make each day of our lives can also bring about huge changes.  The diversity in this country will not go away.  We have only one choice—learn to live with people who are different from us.

We Must Choose To Trust One Another

To be the spiritual beings we truly are, we must be willing to trust.  To do that, we have to give up the need to be “right” all the time.  Our need to be “right” keeps us attached to issues that need to be released.  In Rasha’s Oneness, Oneness says “When you are able to let go of the need for ego validation on the issues that help define the history of this lifetime, you have taken the tentative first steps toward liberation from those patterns.”  This is how we become unstuck.

Fear Beneath the Need To Be Right

Have you ever made a decision to prove you were right only to have it blow up in your face?  When we let our egos run our lives, we often miss making the wisest choices.  When we feel the urge to prove we are right, we need to look for the fear beneath that need and deal with that first.  Releasing the fear frees us to act from a deeper place and calms the ego.

Likewise, our leaders need to stop worrying about whether the vote on an issue is won by the Republicans or the Democrats.  This isn’t a football game.  The only thing that matters is did they do what is best for the majority of the people?  Will this decision help people to live better lives?  Our leaders must choose to be trustworthy so that they can trust each other and the people can trust them.  Too often, good ideas have been dropped because one side couldn’t stand to see the other “win” and blocked the law’s passage.

Act For the Highest Good Of All

The question then is not “Am I right?  Did I win?”  The only question we ever need to ask when making a decision is “Is this for the highest good of all?”  If it isn’t, the decision isn’t the right one.  Our decisions are energy flowing into the cosmic ocean to support its life or to pollute it.  When we act out of love and generosity, our spiritual energy feeds the whole.  We should expect no less from our leaders.

As Oneness says, “All the rules are changing now.  Your world, as you have been schooled to understand it, has already ceased to be.  The cellular structure of every life form on your planet has been altered.  The resonant vibration of every living thing has been augmented.  And the attunement of all consciousness to heightened levels has been achieved.  As a race, the human population has opened itself to receive the gift of Grace.  And even though precious few are aware of that shift, all are manifesting the result, in one form or another.” (Page 104)  One result of this shift is that we are no longer in control.  Resistance to the change taking place is pointless.

Those who are creating the positive changes in our society are the ones who are aware and are leading the way for the rest of us.  Because of these changes, we need to make better choices in our own lives and insist that our leaders make better choices that will create a life that will uplift and enrich us all.  We all deserve a life that is “full and generous in spirit.”

© 2012 Georganne Spruce                                                                  ZQT4PQ5ZN7F5

Related Articles:  Is Being Compassionate Healthy? Freedom Is Accepting Our Consequences, Leaders Who Work Most Effectively

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