Notes from Previous Calls: http://solseed.org/Group_Experiences
Dial-in Number: 1-218-936-4700 Participant Access Code: 815066
NOTE2: Bob and Boni are sick and won't be on this call
May 19, 2009 @8pm PST
- Opening Words - 5 mins
- Check in - 10 mins
- Topic 1: The Untethered Soul - 15 mins
- Topic 2: Beach Cleanup This Weekend - 5 mins
- Topic 3: Sol 2009 Invitations - 10 mins
- Logistics / What's next / homework / assign next call - 10 mins
- Closing Words - 2 mins
Opening Words - (5 mins)
Mark: Come to the edge. Ben: We might fall. Brenna: Come to the edge. Shelley: It's too high! Brandon: COME TO THE EDGE! Mark: And they came, Ben: And he pushed, Brenna: And they flew.
- Christopher Logue
Check in and Reflections (10 mins)
- Mark: Went to LA on the weekend, looking forward to Memorial Day weekend, doing well at work, planning a vacation, very excited about SolSeed stuff
- Shelley: Just got home from work, was stressed, feeling better
- Ben: New hands free device. Bringing perplexity.
- Brenna: Thankful I get to do what I do for my job and the people I meet
- Brandon: Bringing gentleness and adventuresomeness. Juggling tons of things, sent out 5-6 personal invitations to Sol 2009, which got him really excited. Really looking forward to Sol 2009.
Topic 1: The Untethered Soul (15 mins)
Chapters 4-7
- Quote from p. 33 about the Sun and consciousness
- Shelley: are we each like a sun, or is consciousness just one sun projected onto all of us?
- Mark: we aren't really pulled out of our center by observing external stimuli
- Ben: perplexed by what the author means by freedom ... freedom from things, freedom to do things, ??? what is freedom for
- Mark: most of us feel limited in our actions and scope; if we recognize our connection to the infinite, we are free from lots of physical constraints we may have constructed. If we recognize that your soul is sort of connected to the infinite then you're not constrained by where you are and how you're situated in space. There is a sense of freedom and not being bound by constraints. Freedom is the natural state we're born into and to exercise freedom is to exercise our true selves.
- Shelley: sharing personal story and hoping others will share their personal stories as well. Chapter 7 ... making the decision to open rather than close, like a flower can open or close, you have a choice at every moment to either open or close.
- Story: I was attending on the wards, worked in hospital 7 days straight, on Saturday and Sunday in hospital and things come up over and over, very busy. Closing in that situation is me getting grumpy and feeling like this job is too hard and no one understands, opening is letting go of the expectations about what it is "supposed to be" and noticing what is actually happening "in the now" and being open to that. This metaphor made it easy to put language on an experience I've had many times before.
- Mark: I have a metaphor like a plumbing valve at the top of my heart that I can open or close. If I'm feeling pressed, grumpy, dour ... then I just realize that I can not be this way and tap into that infinite source of love and get out of my own way and turn the valve. My whole attitude brightens and my experience changes.
- Shelley: I like "when I get out of my own way"
- Brenna: I like p. 37, "the world ceases to be a problem"--you can't control life, you just decide whether to hate it or embrace it
- Brandon: there isn't some list of conditions under which the world is okay or you are happy
- Mark: that's an example of freedom
- Brandon: freedom from dependence on the world being a certain way
- Ben: That's freedom from . . . problems, is there a corresponding freedom to . . . be happy all the time?
- Brandon: Freedom to enjoy the world just how it is.
- Mark: Freedom to have choice. IF your happiness is determined by circumstances, you experience a loss of freedom. We all want freedom. Awareness produces choice; we now realize we don't have to feel bad or sad. We can then focus on what we want to do and how we want to feel.
Topic 2: Beach Cleanup This Weekend (5 mins)
Logistics:
- Location: Oceanside, meet at Brenna's 12:30pm 1275 Pacific Ave, Oceanside OR
- Time: 1 to 3 pm, Sat, May 23
- Picnic with veggie dogs, campfire, weather permitting. Songs -- Shelley can bring a guitar for Mark to play. Mark you should bring meat dogs if you don't like veggie.
- Brenna offers her home for overnight guests; last minute notice is OK.
- Shelley & Brandon will drive on Sat morning, returning Sunday afternoon. We can give anyone a ride -- last minute notice is OK :)
- Mark will probably drive himself.
- Ben could come down Friday night, ride w/ S&B or Mark to coast. Could come back with Mark or S&B.
Topic 3: Sol 2009 Invitations (10 mins)
Example of an invitation Brandon has sent (sans HTML):
Hi _X_,
I'd like to invite you to Sol 2009. We're going to be doing all sorts of fun camping things, as well as discussing the topics that we each care about (it's organized in a way that we all get to help shape the agenda). I'm especially interested in talking with you about how you'd like to use your _Y_ skills/knowledge/enthusiasm to "bring life".
At our last event we had people from all over the country (including Rochester NY).
We're also planning to have a "spectacle" on the beach similar to the early tradition of burning man. The "master of the spectacle" has been hard at work ... but I don't want to over promise!
If you are interested, please add yourself to the bottom of http://solseed.org/Sol2009 and then invite the other folks that you'd like to spend the weekend with. It's going to be a hoot!
Warm Regards,
Brandon
Brandon will BCC us on future invitations he sends, but doesn't want us to avoid sending our own to people he's contacted. "Getting multiple invitations from different people is wonderful."
By the way, it's probably going to be Open Space again and Ted could facilitate.
Topic 4: The Nonprofit
- Articles of Incorporation & Bylaws: http://solseed.org/The_SolSeed_Intentional_Society
- Boni and Brandon have started some generic bylaws.
- Goal for today: Get everyone's opinion on the name: The SolSeed Intentional Society (SIS). This would be the umbrella organization.
- Other for-profit or non-profit SolSeed related organizations such as x,y, and z would be under that umbrella
- Could just be SolSeed (distinct from SolSeed as the body of all life)
- Shelley: People will abbreviate it to SolSeed anyway
- Or The SolSeed Society (SS? SSS?)
- Shelley: better to start from this because it's more correct
- Or The SolSeed Movement
Discussion: The main reason we aren't just calling this "SolSeed" is that would dilute the idea of SolSeed as the body of all life. Mark: Could it be just "Intentional Society" instead. Ben: It seems wacky to link that directly to SolSeed, but if the Seattle zoo can link from TheZoo.org, then why not? Mark: If it's an umbrella organization, a more generic name might work. The SolSeed Intentional Society is a lot of syllables. Ben's critique moved me. It would be presumptuous to call ourselves "all of life" and just use the name SolSeed. Ben: "The" Intentional Society might also be presumptuous. Brandon: You are also right. Brenna: Working on login. Shelley: None of these move me, but maybe the point of the name is not to "move" someone. Ben: How about "The SolSeed Society"?
Logistics / What's next / homework / assign next call (10 mins)
Homework: 3 chapters per week to finish by Sol 2009
- Next time let's read the whole part 3, Chs 8-11.
- Shelley will ask Ted to facilitate or find someone to facilitate the Open Space for Sol 2009
Next Call
- Facilitator (Shelley)
- Opening/closing words (Mark)
- Summary and reminder email (Ben)
- Topic ideas (Brandon)
- SolSeedName
- Permaculture (sustainable agriculture and life in general)
- Purpose of the roots (avoiding bias toward the flower)
Closing Words (2 min)
It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end. -Ursula K. Le Guin