As most of you know–because you were there, with me, making it happen by casting your vote–that Alchemy won the Next Top Spiritual Author contest in 2010. That was announced before I saw the contract, but when it arrived, I was not moved to sign it. After two weeks of picking the brains of best selling authors and just waiting for the decision to be made known to me, with the blessing of my Singapore investor, turning down the deal was as big or bigger a win as accepting it. For some books, it may have been a good direction, but it appears Alchemy is taking a different route, for now anyway. Going into the contest I knew that a …
When non-violent communication is violent
“You always interrupt me,” came the complaint. “In non-violent communication we own-up,” she continued… I have periodically heard about something called “non-violent communication” and while I knew nothing about it, immediately I liked the idea the name implies. But this was the first time I ran into it head-on in real life, and I clearly saw how it failed (in this case) to meet its own namesake. (Or perhaps there was confusion in its understanding, or application.) I had been communicating with a co-worker and wanted to share an insight, but when I began to address the subject, I was interrupted and the topic went in another direction. “You always interrupt me,” she complained. “Always?” I asked.
The way I met the Peaceful Warrior
The Way I Met the Peaceful Warrior I love the old zen story about the farmer who’s neighbors thought it was a bad, unlucky thing that his horse ran away. The old man’s reply? “We’ll see.” As the story goes, the horse came back with another wild horse, and the neighbors quickly switched to remarking how good and lucky that was! The old man’s reply? “We’ll see.” Then the old man’s son started training the horse for riding, but he was thrown and broke his leg. Again the neighbors switched to how bad and unlucky that was. And again the old man replied, “We’ll see.” Later the army came but could not conscript his son due to the broken leg, …
Alchemy wins book deal, $50,000 marketing package
November 15, 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Alchemy of Love and Joy wins book deal, $50,000 marketing package Ottawa, ON – Cindy Teevens, author of The Alchemy of Love and Joy has won first prize out of 2,800 books in the “Next Top Spiritual Author” contest. The prize is a book publishing deal with Hampton Roads (USA) plus a $50,000 marketing package. The contest began last spring with over 2,800 entries from around the world and ended November 15th when Teevens got that call that her book won. The Alchemy of Love and Joy is a story of suffering transcended into joy, and a powerful yet simple life-altering practice. It is how to feel good no matter what is going …
If the lake doesn’t take it –the wind’s going to break it
“Whhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!” the wind howled directly at us with a strength and length I have rarely known. Since Dad passed beyond this life in May, I have been introduced to family members I had never met before. This summer about sixty of them gathered together for a week of camping on family property on the very edge of Lake Erie for a family birthday and Canada Day. My tent was pitched just a few feet from the last of the green turf, which was protected by massive rocks that shielded it from the continuous, pounding waves. While wind cannot be seen, it’s potency can be known when you stop and look, listen, and watch.
Perspective is everything, for everyone…even Stephen Hawking, and God
Perspective is everything, for everyone…even Stephen Hawking, and God The newspaper headline reads, “God did not create Universe: Hawking.” Hawking is not immune to being a respected error-maker and now I may add him in second place to my all-time favourite: Descartes, who declared “I think, therefore I am.” “I am..” comes before the thought “I am a thinker.” There must be Knowing before thinking. As a result of this mistaken identity of being a thinker, many people have, in essence, come to worship the thinking mind, and their thoughts as truth. It would be closer to the truth to say “I am, therefore I think.” Oh well, to err is human, and other brilliant thinkers once concluded the earth …
You were Born a Bundle of Joy!
Three times people who turned and looked at me were drawn, with a new smile as broad as mine, to ask if I needed help. They returned to their business in the mundane state they were in before. Looking around the room, scanning the six or so people working, I felt like I was going to burst—I felt like a child with a secret.
Man Makes Plans, and God Laughs
Man Makes Plans, and God Laughs The giant chestnut tree that Anne Frank wrote about in her diary, while hiding from the Nazis during World War II, crashed to the ground this week. While Frank and her family were hidden for more than two years, viewing the tree from the attic was her only respite from the cramped quarters. Instead of cutting-down the fungal-infected, 150-year-old tree for safety reasons in 2007, officials built a steel support that was intended to keep the tree standing for up to fifteen years. However three years later a powerful storm took the tree down. “Man makes plans, and God laughs.”—Yiddish proverb This proves that while we busily make plans, the Universe, God, Source, Reality, …
The Joy of Being
The Joy of Being Seek joy! Seek joy until you cause joy! Cause joy until you know you are joy. –C. Teevens When I urge people to seek joy, usual mind may think that means vacations on sandy beaches, a shiny new car, ecstasy with a lover, or a rich bank account. That is the usual way people try to make themselves happy. The blatant reality is that all of them come and go. All of them are impermanent and unreliable. Because we have needed them, we believe in free will so we can try to make them happen. And it may be that you do get them. Once, twice, or even more. Yet still, they do not stay. And …
The Alchemy of Death
The Alchemy of Death Ring…Ring… “Cindy! The phone’s for you,” my friends called. This was unusual. I was in college and had just turned nineteen. I did not often get calls up there, in New Liskeard, 160 km north of North Bay. On the other end an unrecognized voice said words I will never forget: “Hello, this is your long lost Father.” In some kind of limbo, I thought of my Dad and, partly stunned, I said, “My Father’s not lost.” Reaching around in my memory, thinking about my Dad at home who raised me and how this was not his voice, I remembered what was not high in my consciousness; that I had another “Dad”. My blood father. It …