in
this issue
Your Monthly Money Journey
"I began to wonder: suppose I were hit by a Mack
truck tomorow; how would my checkbook stubs reflect what I cared
about?" --Gloria Steinem
This month, you build on your
previous work analyzing your cashflow. With that information you can
discover how closely your money flow is aligned to your spiritual
core.
One by one, write in your private journal your
responses to these questions:
- How do you feel about the cash flow statement you created?
- Are there changes you need to make?
- Are there changes you want to make?
- What are some of the discretionary categories that take a
measurable chunk of your money?
- Are your earnings at a level that reflects the value of your
work and your belief system?
- Do you see any spending that needs re-evaluating?
What is important to you?
Take some time to focus on
what you want, as well as your discontents. These questions will
help you assess whether your use of money is in line with what you
really care about:
- What are you really passionate about?
- In your life or the world, what would you want to change if
you could?
- What part of your cash flow is in line with what you really
care about?
- What part of your cash flow seems to be in conflict with what
you care about?
Alternatives
Consider this: each
detail, each financial decision, has the potential to bring your
attention to other possible alternatives.
Bring your new
financial awareness to prayer, meditation or contemplation as you
consider what is next for you on your Money Journey.
Next month:
Discover your personal dream and identify
ways that you or your money could support that dream.
Can't wait till next month?
Speed ahead on your
Money Journey using A Woman's Book of Money & Spiritual
Vision. The book is featured on our
website, with links to booksellers and the publisher.
Want to share your money journey with others?
We
recommend forming a group of 12 to 15 members, and meeting for 6 or
7 sessions. To help you create a productive and enjoyable
experience, we're creating materials to assist group leaders.
Email us for study group details
Ecovillage Links
|
Welcome to our August newsletter on money and spirit. This
month our theme is ecovillages, communities that are
designed to be ecologically sustainable, economically
self-contained and spiritually supportive. This growing
movement has been called "a revolution in habitat" by the UN,
and many new ecovillages are joining the thousands already in
existence.
The Women's Perspective travel group
recently returned from Scotland's Findhorn Foundation
community, a leading ecovillage where the group lived and
worked for a week. Kenya is the destination of our next
transformational travel opportunity. Read about both trips in
this newsletter.
September 18-19: Feminine Archetypes, Money &
Women: Tapping into Financial & Spiritual Wisdom,
joint workshop with Jean Shinoda Bolen in Darien, Connecticut.
Click
here for details.
|
Findhorn Foundation: Scotland's
Ecovillage with a Spiritual Core
 (Left: Participants in
Findhorn Experience Week, including seven from Women's
Perspective.)
A group from Women's Perspective
returned last month from a weeklong immersion in Scotland's
Findhorn Foundation community. Mornings we worked with members
of the community in daily chores like home care, gardening and
food preparation. Afternoons and evenings provided nature
experiences, dinner with the community, sacred dance, and
meeting with Findhorn's staff, including their UN
delegate.
As Laurie Powell noted, "Findhorn Foundation,
at first glance, may lead one to believe that the 1960's have
been revived, but there is only a surface similarity. Findhorn
Foundation is a very 21st century group of people living
together in a community while remaining connected to their
individual spiritual cores."
During our visit, we learned "attunement," a method of
centering one's self and engaging the unique spirit of those
present in the group. Before every activity, we practiced
attunement as the guiding life principle at the community,
beautifully expressed in this quote from Angeles
Arrien:
In the sweet territory of silence
we touch the
mystery,
where we can connect with deep
knowing.
The experience was intense, personal and powerful. Mary
Connors described the week as "a delightful and challenging
experience. The spiritual pilgrims I shared time with will
always be a part of the fabric of my inner world ... in this
community we received and gave the best of who we are."
Findhorn Foundation is one of the largest ecovillages in
the world, and a leader in the growing ecovillage movement.
Ecovillages are communities creating new models of how to live
in a world of environmental and social threats.
We
learned about Findhorn's wind power generator and
participation in a local organic farm. We saw housing created
from straw bales and recycled whiskey barrels. Click
here to view more photos.
Read
more about WP's trip to Findhorn Foundation »
|
|
Book Review: Ecovillage Living
 Ecovillage Living: Restoring
the Earth and Her People, by Hildur Jackson and Karen
Svensson, is a primer on the rapidly expanding ecovillage
movement. A beautiful and inspiring book, it includes profiles
15 ecovillage and offers dozens of articles by pioneers of the
ecovillage concept.
Most impressive is the spirit of experimentation, hope and
creativity displayed by ecovillages. The way to build a
globally sustainable future will come from on-the- ground
experiments like these, and it's heartening to see the
diversity of approaches.
Ecovillage Living provides models of urban and
suburban ecovillages as well as those in rural areas. The
unique situation of countries where village society is still
well established is especially fascinating. As an example, Sri
Lanka's Sarvodaya Movement already includes 15,000 villages.
To learn more about ecovillages globally, see the links in
the blue column on the left.
|
|
Money & Spirit Events & Trips
 (Left: Holding hands is
a physical expression of our deepest yearning to connect with
each other through body, mind, heart, and spirit. This photo
was taken by Ann Reeves during our 2002 trip to
Kenya.)
Transformational Travel to
Africa
Space is still available on the Women's
Perspective trip to Kisumu, Kenya November 20 - December
3 to attend the International HIV/AIDS Widows Conference.
Our group will share financial skills with the widows in two
sessions on "Financial Destiny." We will also work with
orphans of HIV/AIDS, helping them record their new lives in
photographs.
On the trip, we will deepen Women's Perspective's
relationship with Margaret Auma, a foot soldier in the front
lines of the war against this dread disease. Margaret has
established support groups for HIV/AIDS widows, opened an
orphanage for children of HIV/AIDS victims, and conducted
workshops for village watchmen to protect women and children.
Earlier this year Margaret came to New York as a delegate to
the 2004 UN conference on women, and she visited with Women's
Perspective in Connecticut as well.
To join our Kenya
trip email list, click
here.
September 18-19: Joint Workshop with Jean
Bolen
Explore powerful feminine archetypes at our
workshop, Goddess Archetypes, Money and Women: Tapping into
Our Financial and Spiritual Wisdom. Led jointly by
Rosemary Williams and Jean Bolen, the workshop will help you
discover your own deep sources of wisdom. This workshop takes
place in Darien, Connecticut, at the Convent of St. Birgitta
on 10 beautiful acres overlooking Long Island Sound. The cost
of the two- day workshop is $250, including lunches. A non-
refundable $75 deposit will reserve your place; the balance is
due September 13. For registration details, click
here.
More Workshops & Events:
NEW! Fairfield, CT: September 8; new Money &
Spirit book group begins meeting. Click
here to request information.
Westfield,
MA: Oct. 2, Life, Values, Money - Connecting Your
Wallet to Your Soul, Genesis Spiritual Life Center
Manchester,
CT: Oct. 9, Women, Money & Spirituality,
Manchester Community College
NEW!
Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX: Oct. 15-17; Money &
Spirituality workshop, part of Gather the Women - 2004
International Congress.
NEW!
St. Pete Beach, FL: Nov. 30 - Dec. 3; Faith &
Money: Breaking the Silence, Ecumenical Stewardship
Center's 2004 Leadership Seminar.
Tucson,
AZ: Jan. 13-16, 2005; workshop on Money &
Spirit, offered during the Social Justice Biennial
Conference of the Presbyterian Health, Education & Welfare
Association (PHEWA). Click
here to request registration details.
Click for
the Women's Perspective calendar »
|
|
Support Women's Perspective
 Women's Perspective
gratefully acknowledges a generous contribution from Courtney
Bourns in memory of his wife, Jane Bourns, who died last year.
Jane was a vital force in the creation of Women's Perspective.
Courtney's gift honors her life, creativity and extraordinary
generosity by inaugurating the Jane Bourns Fund to support
Women's Perspective. We invite those who knew and loved Jane
to make their own donations to this fund.
Does Women's Perspective help you connect your financial
life with your spiritual core? Your tax- deductible
contribution will help us extend our mission to women
everywhere.
Click
to contribute »
| |
