Hi Dear Ones

,
PP, thanks again for your kind and wise words about mine and Ron's lightworker function involving the Gallery.
PP wrote:...eventually the negative ones at the gallery will 'fall away' or change,,,,,and of course as we know,,,it takes alot to first even recognize that it's themselves that have to change or leave....that's just the thing about the times we are living in....the negative side of things is 'losing it's grip' and 'fighting mad' about it.....hence all the ego conflicts....
Yes, I agree, and that is the process that seems to be underway involving the Gallery, though it's taking a roundabout path at present. The latest update today is that the co-founder has declared unequivocally, in response to more questioning from remaining members, as quoted in an email we received today, "
Somebody has to be in charge here and it's me. The buck stops here. I am in charge. Of everything." 
(
Sandy, we did have a Gallery contract that everyone signed with guidelines about how decisions are made democratically by vote, etc., but the co-founder completely overrode and disregarded it.

Also, it's not clear if she ever actually signed one either, since, at the beginning at least, she was just the co-founder but not one of the artists. (Very ironic; at the beginning she stated that everyone needs to treat each other with respect and so on, the same stuff we all believe in

) Hence, she is unwilling to budge at all, and her shadow remains incorrigible at this stage of her development

, though it is perhaps in the beginning of "losing its grip" and "fighting mad about it," as you said,
PP but not yet ready to "even recognize that it's herself that has to change...," as you wisely put it.
Consequently, one more person has now quit, and the one Ron's been communicating with via email also says she'll now quit for good this time, at the end of the month if not sooner. Plus, our ally the treasurer is now also quitting and reimbursing anyone that's already paid June dues. She was really the central atom among the positive folks there, and playing the primary organizing and leadership role, so with her gone, I imagine that whoever's still remaining will likely leave too, and the Gallery will now come to an end, unless there's anyone left who's content to put up with the co-founder running and deciding everything.
At least it seems we did have a healing, growth-producing effect on some there who were receptive to it, and perhaps planted some seeds for others, plus the whole thing was quite a growth opportunity for each of us as well -- it is in fact what got me started doing art again after 20-some years, so, for all its difficulties, it has also been a great gift!

Like you so wisely said,
Sandy, each of us, by working on ourselves as we are, and sharing our spiritual light with others, changes the world in this Correcting Time one step at a time!
Based on our experiences at the Gallery, along with a few other brief conversations we've had at times with other folks living in this area, though stunning natural beauty abounds here (as you can see in all the redwood photos), there seems to be a negative, distrustful, "expecting-the-worst" vibe generally among many of the people here -- when we've made kind or helpful comments to strangers here at times, their first reaction is negative, immediately misunderstanding and assuming we're insulting or threatening them. For example, a couple months back, there was a small fire burning in the yard of the house across the river from us. Ron called across the river to them, trying to be helpful, "Is everything all right over there?," just in case someone needed to call the fire department. Turns out it was actually a controlled burn, and the guy in the yard, completely misunderstanding Ron's motive, and yelled back, "Yeah, go ahead and call the cops if you want to, but I've got a f*&^ing permit!"
We've seen this kind of behavior on other occasions in this area as well. Plus, the authoritarian co-founder of the Gallery is also the vice president of the local chamber of commerce here.

So, we've decided that no matter how stunning the natural beauty of the surroundings, we just don't want to live in an area with this kind of pervasive negative vibe.
It's funny, we lived in Boulder, Colorado, a college town and a center of higher consciousness where everyone is always growing and learning and generally far more positive and conscious than most folks around here appear to be, for so long that I had forgotten that not everywhere we went would be the same way!

Since then, though I am so glad we got out of the semi-arid desert and the winter snow of the Denver/Boulder area back to my beautiful verdant native California

, I now realize that at the same time, there were many things I valued about Boulder that I had entirely taken for granted.
Our one-year lease on this place is up and goes to month-to-month beginning on July 1st, so we've been seriously considering, for a few months now (and this Gallery stuff may be the clincher!

), moving a couple of hours south, down to Santa Cruz on the coast, which is also a college town (with the nickname, "Surf City"

), and a center of higher consciousness, though maybe about half the size of Boulder (which I thought of as relatively rural and a small town when we lived there, which I guess it is when compared to Denver an hour south, but its nowhere near as rural as the areas we've lived since leaving there

). From many folks who've lived in and/or visited both places, they consider Santa Cruz to be "just like Boulder, only with an ocean," the best of all worlds. Plus, we wouldn't have to give up the redwoods either

-- from what we can gather so far, Santa Cruz is also surrounded by lots of mountains (another similarity with Boulder), as well as lots of redwoods, similar to here. The mountains are higher than where we are right now, however, so the trick, for our current preferences, would be to find a place that's at least somewhat in the mountains and redwoods and out of the in-town hubbub, but not so far up that it snows and is too far away from conveniences like good health-food stores and such.
Interestingly enough, a few weeks ago, I was thinking about how handy it would be to have a Santa Cruz phone books as part of researching the area, so I did a google search online for "Santa Cruz phone book," and, amazingly enough, I found an ad on Craig's List (a now nation-wide website here in America with free classified ads of all sorts, which originated in, and is very popular and active in, the San Francisco bay area) that a college student had put there just three hours earlier that day for a free brand-new 2008 Santa Cruz phone book, of all things!

That really felt like an affirmative sign, and like I was receiving Divine help there

, so I quickly emailed the guy, and it turned out I was the first person to answer the ad, and he was willing to mail me the phone book provided I reimbursed him for the shipping cost, which I did, so now we've already got a phone book for the area!

We may take a short trip down there before too long to check out the area and begin looking around for a new place.

We've been thinking so far that we may try to move there around September or so. So we'll just see what evolves...
PP wrote:now how did you just happen to create a 'little web site',,,,I find that's so incredibly 'smart' of you....I need to do one,,,and honestly I'm just at a loss....perhaps I'll pm you and get some advice on it...if you don't mind...
It seemed like a good idea, and I was able to do it relatively quickly due to my experience with it through previous jobs, projects, etc. Yes, feel free to PM me for advice if you wish -- Nowadays, more and more, there's a lot of software available, and lots of online companies that make it pretty easy and accessible to create one's own website as well.
I look foward to seeing pictures of your resident cedars when you get around to taking and posting some!
Thanks for that great power-animal information on hawks from Ted Andrews. That's very interesting and apropos about the hawks being attacked. I agree, it makes complete sense for a member of the hawk clan to have showed up during all this!
I agree with
Sandy, feel free to talk about your upcoming trip to your heart's content; we won't dunk you!
Good luck with the "Battle of the Nettles!" Sounds like you may need a physical suit of armor like the spiritual one you were recommending to
Heather!
I promised myself,,,that if the only thread I can do,,,,it's this one,,,
That's my approach too, and it often turns out that this
is the only one I can do, much of the time!
I agree, there is such abundant creativity in this group! What a great idea to paint a little rock village for your garden -- you go girl!
Lilly, it sounds like you're continuing to process through some old emotions and letting them go. As I said on
Liz' love thread, I sat on the dryer and looked out the little laundry-room window down the hill into the redwood forest, and thought of all my connections to everyone here and everywhere around the world, including all of you, and cried, a mixture of mourning the passing of the old and rejoicing in and appreciating the abundant positive connections in my life. I'm so thankful for this 11:11 community, and the fact that I can remain connected even if we're contemplating moving again, and no matter where we physically reside.
Lilly wrote:Finishing the painting made my day.....this is my heart's desire and I love it....
Hurray!

Congratulations on finishing your painting! Doing art is my heart's desire too, and I love it too!
You're quite welcome about the tree-hug!
Sandy, thanks for your kind words about my website!

I hope your runaway Boyd is doing well too!
I'm glad to hear that Geoff is indeed off on an exotic vacation, and I add in my prayers for him and Janet to have a safe journey.
Sandy and
Heather, I can understand about the driver's license thing -- I'll admit that even after a year, I am still frightened of driving on this narrow winding one-lane, two-way road along the steep side of a hill that our house is on (where, if you meet someone coming the other way, one person has to back up

)! I avoid doing it often, and just let Ron drive most of the time.

I'll also admit that I'm scared to drive on the traffic-jammed San Francisco bay-area freeways -- the drivers seem amazingly agressive by Colorado standards

-- but then again, when our friend from New York City came out here, flew into San Francisco and rented a car, she said it was nothing compare to New York City drivers!
Heather, I'm glad to hear that you're being so happily welcomed back to your job!
Thanks for the links on ospreys, that's all very interesting! How cool that the osprey is Nova Scotia's provincial bird!

On the first link, I see from the small picture of the osprey head in the upper right corner of the page that some of them do indeed have a black "mohawk-like" stripe across the top of their head -- now I'm pretty certain the bird I saw was indeed an osprey!

I'll definitely have to do an osprey power shield before long!
November, thanks so much!

I put the power shield in the mail today, and have also donated a portion of the proceeds to our wonderful 11:11 Progress Group!
Maria,

to you too!
Okay, that's enough for tonight -- it's nearly 1am here already!
Love to you all

,
Aqua Deb