How challenging it can be to be honest and to take a clear look at behaviors and motivations. I have the image of a tornado in my mind. Swirling around creating a funnel of dust and upheaval, everywhere it goes it leaves behind a path of destruction. I think unconscious living can be like this. A confusing tornado of thoughts and emotions in which one can lose sight of the ground they stand on. Increasing the confusion is oftentimes for me stepping into another persons funnel cloud.

A day of remembering.. remembering those who lost their lives in war or military service. A day to honor those that have gone before us who have by their lives given us freedom. As I sit on this day of remembering.. i think of the wars that go on all over the place. War on drugs, war on cancer, war on poverty, war on greed, war on science, war on terrorism.. so many wars.. it is overwhelming as i think of the lives lost and won in these wars. Each for a particular purpose, but i cant help but wonder, what is it all for? For a better life. For freedom from all that ails us.

I have attended a number of Enneagram training sessions - Jerry Wagner, Riso Hudson, Helen Palmer, IEA conferences - and while I have learned a lot personally about the Enneagram and I am beginning to see that there is also a profound opportunity for growth from the community I am building.  Folks I didn't get to know well at on session show up at another. Someone I sat next to one day and had a meaningful experience with sends an email, I bump into someone at the IEA Conference.  There is an incredible space being held by those of us who study the Enneagram for ourselves and each other.

If you weren't able to "attend" Pangea day live today then you still can, the entire broadcast is available at www.pangeaday.org. According to the Pangea website there were more than 1000 events and parties and millions watched from the comfort on their own computer. I attended an event in San Francisco that had more than 100 people attending. We were all moved by the films and music that demonstrated we are all one. There was laughter when the man said he had been married for 24 years but was in love for the last two (forgive the inaccuracy of the numbers).

I have been listening to a wonderful new CD created by my teacher Dr. Deborah Ooten and colleague, Ron Esposito. What a gift this cd has been as I have already used it twice in my work as a campus minister. Dr. Ooten takes us through a guided meditation which deepens the practice of awareness of those things that pull us from the present moment - Objects of thought -thinking, fantasy, memory, planning; Objects of Emotion - feeling; Objects of the Body- physical sensation. All of these if not observed take us from that place of essence.

In case it hasn't appeared on your radar May 10, 2008 is Pangea Day. "Pangea Day is a global event bringing the world together through film. Why? In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it's easy to lose sight of what we all have in common Pangea Day seeks to overcome that -- to help people see themselves in others -- through the power of film."

This weekend in Minneapolis Russ Hudson delivered an Enneagram and Holy Ideas workshop. It was well attended, 105-110 people from around the US and Europe participated. I have read Sandra Maitri's books and A.H. Almaas'‚ "Facets of Unity" but had never heard anyone talk about this deep and amazing work.