Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Welcome to "Centering for Karmic Joy!"


Welcome to 
"Centering for Karmic Joy!"
the monthly blog/newsletter from 
The Center for Karmic Joy.  

Karmic Joy is a practice and process of living with, learning from and evolving the self as it journeys through the many life cycles and seasons of the soul.  It uses an intermodal, expressive arts based approach to living and learning and draws upon the wisdom found in many different philosophies, faiths and cultures from around the world.  From the wisdom of many, it applies what is relevant in this day and age to assist each person to live sustainably within oneself and with all life on this planet. 

The Center for Karmic Joy is a sanctuary for every season of the soul located in Montclair, NJ.  It is a sacred space that is here for retreat, reflection and restoration, creative self discovery and life celebrations, education, entertainment and inspiration.  


On-Going Weekend  Programming

Free Spirit Fridays
Fridays are for letting loose from the stress of the week and setting the spirit free to dance, laugh, hear  live music, sing, eat and enjoy the festivities in the company of other conscious folks!  Come express yourself and celebrate the joy of life monthly at the Center for Karmic Joy!  DJs, Live Music, Salsa, Samba, Open Mic and more.  

So Wisdom Workshops and Events
The Center for Karmic Joy partners with So Wisdom Productions to bring you enriching, esoteric, and enlightening workshops and events that educate, inspire and entertain.  

Sweet Surrender Service-Contemplations & Conversations on Sustaining the Self through Every Season of the Soul
Sweet Surrender is a spiritual service and sacred circle led by Karma Cloud to teach the path of Karmic Joy and support each other in sustaining our connection to the Source Within the Source of Oneself.  Through practicing Karmic Joy we bring forth the beauty and wisdom of our dreams, visions and intuitions, strengthen our passion, purpose and personal power and strive to divine and design our ever evolving destinies.


Coming Up Next Month at the Center for Karmic Joy….


December
Sundays, December 2 & 16; 10-11:30am.
Sweet Surrender Service- Please RSVP to karmicjoy@gmail.com

Saturday, December 22; 7pm-1am
So Wisdom Event-Winter Solstice Celebration: Bring a dish and a drink and an open heart and mind!
By invitation only.


Next Year at the Center for Karmic Joy….


January 2013
Saturday Jan 12
So Wisdom Event: Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium; 
Advance registration necessary.

Saturday Jan 26
Young Women, Wise Women Creative Self Discovery Program Starts  
(We meet one Saturday a month Jan-June2013; time TBD)


Care to Share Your Wisdom with the World?
We are now accepting submissions from facilitators and performers for workshops and events to be held at the Center for Karmic Joy in 2013. Email inquiries and submissions to karmicjoy@gmail.com.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Sweet Surrenders



Reflections from the first Sweet Surrender Sessions

One year ago, I shared a vision with a few of my dearest friends.  That vision was to open the Center for Karmic Joy in my home. And now, one year later that dream is being realized.  This month, I kicked off Sweet Surrender Sundays and I am delighted to share that it was a most nourishing experience for all who participated, myself included.  

For November's Sweet Surrender, we contemplated our connectedness and/or disconnectedness  to the Source within the Source of Ourselves and took a moment to refresh that connection through breath awareness and arts based introspection. We conversed about the nature of the Life Cycles that challenge us.  It was helpful to be reminded that Life is a Cycle of Becoming One and Coming Undone and that within this cycle we are continually faced with our own unique Creative Life Processes to cope with the phases of breakthrough and breakdown, of knowing and not knowing, of forgetting our worth and remembering our value.  We re-discovered that Sustaining the Self is not about maintaining a constant state of bliss, but rather about sustaining an awareness that Life is a Cycle and a connection to the Source Within the Source of Oneself, for better or for worse, as we move through each and every phase of that cycle. 


Shifting from contemplation to conversation and then to artistic exploration allowed participants to dialogue with, re-vision, re-define or re-design their relationship to themselves within their unique Creative Life Process.  In a short time, all present were able to realize and impart some Pearl of Wisdom for themselves or to share with another-whether it was setting herself free of worries and finding self contentment in the act of drawing wings upon her technological devices and homework so that they could fly away into the sunrise, or turning a desire for more discipline and routine into a quest for infusing her parenting life with the richness of ritual, or bringing forth a bursting image of divine serendipity that moves off the page beyond words to dance the universe, or scribbling out the fire and frustration of stagnation and then transcribing the sequence that leads from that place to a space of surrendering, softening, centering and submerging in order to resurface with renewed hope and anticipation, or simply realizing that she is seeing and being simultaneously, at once bearing witness to her connectedness while living at the center of herself, and discovering at that center a source of love, so deep, so strong, so gentle.


Sweet Surrender allows us the time and space to bring forth the beauty of each person's unique Karmic Creation. At the Center for Karmic Joy we use the raw material of our lives to create a sustainable life of substance.  For, in the words of Ayi Kwe Armah, "Beauty is in the creative purpose of our lives."