<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hello Ruby and everyone else too!<div><br></div><div>I love love love the ideas mentioned here and on the Wiki; they sound ambitious enough to get juices flowing and still be do-able. The thoughts of creating special spaces at the 4 corners of Nowhere dedicated to the elements makes me feel super tingly! It's as if we would be creating a magic circle (a circle with corners mind you!) of power around us, creating a sacred space within that circle in which all kinds of healing, happiness, harmony and high jinks could take place. So much comes up for so man of us when at these events, and having the Writing Stations would be a great way for folks to work on processing their stuff, getting stuff off their minds, striking while the creative iron is hot. Love it.</div><div><br></div><div>As for the opening and closing ceremonies, a ritual that might work would be the creation of an arrow at the opening. This arrow would be representative of either the things we want to release, or the things we want to create or bring into being for the future. Or possibly both? Perhaps the decorations at the tip of the arrow could be release-type things, and those at the base could be what we want to manifest? The opening ceremony could be where we bless and dedicate the arrows, and then during the week, we create them, decorating them as we gain insights from the 4 Writing Stations, and from our daily interactions with our fellow Nooners. At the closing ceremony, we could let our arrows fly, probably into a fire (burn barrel would be fine), releasing our attachments to all we have put into them, and to the outcome. Would work well with the releasing/destroying of the writings also, I think.</div><div><br></div><div>I've participated in a version of this ritual before and it was very powerful. Any interest?</div><div><br></div><div>Blessings</div><div><br></div><div>Mel</div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On 24 Oct 2008, at 14:12, Ruby May wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(123, 0, 153); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Dear all,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I know this is a little strange as I am on the other side of the world and wont be at decom this December but it would be really awesome if anyone interested in the Heart of Nowhere could all meet up and hang out and maybe discuss some ideas for next year...</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">If you haven't checked out the wiki page for the Heart of Nowhere <a href="http://wiki.goingnowhere.org/2008/HeartOfNowhere">http://wiki.goingnowhere.org/2008/HeartOfNowhere</a> do have a peak - a few people have written some thoughts down and hopefully it will continue to grow.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Something really exciting that is in the pipelines is 'Feeding the Heart' (or title still to be decided upon) - an ambitious project that Ellen is facilitating, which will include the participation ideally of every single Nowhere citizen. The idea is to have 4 writing stations positioned at North, South, East and West points on the outskirts of Nowhere and decorated e.g according to the elements they represent. Nowhere citizens would be invited to write/type at each station, expressing anything 'from the heart'. An opening ceremony could tie in with the four stations by e.g lighting each station, inviting the different energies into the circle of Nowhere and transforming the whole of Nowhere into a 'magic circle'. The idea would then be for everyone's collective writings to be hung for everyone to see on the Saturday and then as part of a closing ceremony on Sunday, the scraps of paper of fabric could then be transformed or released or destroyed in some way.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Ellen, I hope I have done justice to your idea by attempting to summarise it in a paragraph. It is obviously still in the early stages as well and will continue to grow. </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">To read in more detail check out<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://wiki.goingnowhere.org/2008/FeedingTheHeart">http://wiki.goingnowhere.org/2008/FeedingTheHeart</a> and please feel free to add your ideas and comments on the wiki.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I'm really excited at the idea of this project and combining it with an opening and closing ceremonies...I think it could be very powerful and magical and meaningful to many and be a fantastic way to get a broad spectrum of people involved and participating.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">So this email is a shout out for anyone who thinks they would like to get involved - in 'Feeding the Heart' or the opening and closing ceremonies - either in the organisation or decoration, or costume making, dancing, singing, throwing ideas around....and to anyone coming to decom who is up for coming along to a little gathering.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Ellen and Tessa - can maybe you guys take on from here? Feel a little jealous as that weekend I will be far away from some of my favouritist people in the whole world...although who am I kidding, I will be spending my last week in India on my way to a super sunny Christmas in New Zealand followed by Kiwi burn, weeeee!</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Anyways, sending all of you a warm hug and ray of sunshine and look forward to hearing some responses....</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">x</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Ruby.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br> </div><div align="center" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div align="center" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="arial narrow" style="font-style: italic; font-family: garamond, 'new york', times, serif; "><strong>"</strong></font><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: garamond, 'new york', times, serif; ">Kissing a man who doesn't wax his moustache is like eating an egg without salt"</span><br></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "></div></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>Heartofnowhere mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Heartofnowhere@goingnowhere.org">Heartofnowhere@goingnowhere.org</a><br><a href="http://lists.goingnowhere.org/mailman/listinfo/heartofnowhere">http://lists.goingnowhere.org/mailman/listinfo/heartofnowhere</a><br></div></span></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>