CIYO Alumnae Spotlight - Musician Virginie Robillard

Virginie Robillard is an amazing CIYO Alumna who lives in Paris. If you are visiting France, do take a moment to find out if she is performing during your visit. She is amazing!

And during our Sept 2011 CIYO in France, she played a beautiful piece (Sicilienne) by 18th century woman composer Maria Theresia Von Paradis. Since we don't have a clip of her playing it, I am sharing Zuckerman's own beautiful version.

Occupy your own center

Various friends of mine, the occasional pundit on tv, my next door neighbor yesterday......they all keep asking what is the clear demand of the Occupy movement participants.  Something about the question keeps triggering me. So rather than attribute it to some genetic predisposition towards chaos inherited from my anarchist Italian grandfather, I’ve started to wonder….....

I think I get irritated by the question because it is my belief that an emergent collectively informed movement cannot have a 'clear demand list' until it has had time to test its ideals against the realities of the societal and political system of which it is a part of. And because rather than defering responsibility to 'them', this sort of movement provides each of us with an opportunity to rediscover our own core responsibility.

I see the Occupy 'movement' at one level as simply demanding that we each wake up and think about what is and what is not right in a healthy society. And from that thoughtful awareness, take what action would be more aligned with our values. And to me, that root cause 'demand' is both powerful and a hell of a lot more demanding of me/us personally, and collectively than simply considering whether I support the Occupy movement or the status quo.

So what if ‘their’ essential demand were that we should each stop worrying about their demand list and instead consider what it would take for each of us individually to fully Occupy our own mind, heart, spirit, body? and out of that place of center, what would we then be like when interacting with others who share our neighborhood, our countries, our world? And how often are we really in that state of being with ourselves and one another? And how often do we want to be?

Just musing....

What is your work? What are you most passionate about? What is one thing you've always wanted to do or experience?

If you feel like hosting an informal dinner gathering for a group of relative strangers who you just know have some amazing lives........you may want to send out some pre-gathering questions and ask them to do a Reply All (or for a more kinetic version, have them write their answers on sticky notes as they come in and have them wear them as they mingle and mix around the room).

1. What do you call your work these days?
2. What are you most passionate about?
3. What is one thing you've always wanted to do or experience?

Give it a try. You may be surprised at the answers and the level of connection that can blossom as a result.

And most importantly, have fun hosting and being hosted!

CIYO'ing - mid November update

Just back from beautiful Windhorse Farm in Nova Scotia, a family run (by Jim and Margaret Drescher) sustainable farm and forestry program.

Windhorse Fram is only 1.5 hours from Halifax, Nova Scotia and they have beautiful facilities for individual retreats, family reunions or leadership development programs nestled in 300 acres of beautiful farmland and forest. See www.windhorsefarm.org for their upcoming events and more details.