I’m still warm and fuzzy from the first of what will be more Visioning Sessions. What a delight it was to gather with our fellow community members and friends yesterday to begin a series of ‘seeing’ and ‘feeling’ our way into the future of our Beloved Community. My heart is so full!
As most of us are aware, in so many ways our community is moving into its next iteration on many levels.
We’ve signed an offer for the purchase of our community home, the Pandosy Peace Centre. This lovely space has held our community for almost 22 years of administration, countless meetings of our Board, our Transformational Education Institute, our youth team, our Wednesday evening Compassion Care Group services, Saturday Salons, practitioner meetings, staff minister meetings, choir practice, music rehearsals, community town hall meetings, annual general meetings, more classes than we could possibly count (Science of Mind 100, 200, practitioner and ministerial training), workshops, retreats, individual practitioner sessions, thank-you dinners for our Conscious Giving members, membership dinners, potlucks, games nights… and more!
I believe this space really grounded our community and created a solid foundation as it acted as a hub for all of us. Much appreciation goes out to all who have contributed their energy at the Peace Centre through volunteering as receptionists, renovators, spring and fall cleaners, gardeners, and other roles. Extra love to Judy Kerr and Gilles Prudhomme who served as caretakers extraordinaire! Much gratitude goes to our teachers, facilitators, meeting leaders, and all members and friends for using this space. It has been so well used and so well loved.
It’s been made apparent that it’s time for our ‘next.’ I know that we move into this next with all the love and care from the past as impetus and strength for our moving forward.
There’s the perhaps even greater next: life and community post-Covid. I don’t think we’re quite there yet, but there will come a time when the pandemic part of Covid will be over. How that all resolves itself and what our community decides is “ours to do” is still in the realms of the unknown; but I have trust and faith that the time will come when our next steps will be evident.
On the broad and not-yet-determined horizon, is my retirement. No, it’s not imminent; but I think it’s important for me to be transparent in sharing with you all that our future planning will be taking that into consideration.
In closing, I wanted to share with you some of the themes I heard come out of the visioning process, just to be planting some seeds from this lovely and heart-opening process. (I hope you’ll join us for the next one, the very tentative save-the-date will be December 4, 2021.)
Here’s just a taste of what came through.
Celebrating the past that has brought us this far.
Now we build on our firm foundation of love.
It’s time to send our message out there in a BIG way.
Visibility, outreach, our community and the greater community, standing strong.
Grace, healing and LOVE!
My heart is truly filled with profound appreciation!
Love, Dr. Deborah
If you missed yesterday’s Sunday Celebration talk given by Dr. Deborah Gordon, titled Oneness is not Sameness, you can watch it (and other past services) on the CSLK YouTube channel.
Practitioner of the Week is Rev. Jeanette Vinek. If you are looking for one-to-one prayer treatment support for ANYTHING, you can contact this practitioner directly via email at jeanettef@telus.net.
MIND-FULL MOMENT
“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
— Melody Beattie
Copyright © 2021 Centre for Spiritual Living Kelowna. All rights reserved.