:: The Center of Happiness ::

“Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible.”
— Charles Caleb Colton

“All things are difficult before they are easy.”
— Thomas Fuller

“It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.”
— Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

One definition of insanity is that we keep on doing over and over again what has already proven not to work. At such a pressured time when life and everything in it seems so crazy and worrisome we all long for a new way. We want relief from stress, a sense of belonging, and the hope, energy, and empowerment to make a difference.

Even though there are six billion of us on this planet elbow-to-elbow, (about half of them women), we still feel isolated, discouraged, and alone. Isn’t it amazing?

At this time we cannot afford to be silent and alone. I am profoundly aware of the need for and the power of connection if we are to heal and strengthen the world in which we live. It is critical that we develop an authentic relationship with our self, first, and from that centered place, create loving relationships with others.

A woman’s touch is desperately needed. Women are now being called by the circumstances at hand to find their voice and offer their conscious gentle touch to create the peaceful change that is needed.

It is not a time for women to play small. Women are doing amazing things everywhere. Even though we have amazing opportunities for communication, we remain unaware of all the incredible resources and magnificent people who surround us, also doing amazing things. One group or circle is unaware of the many other groups emerging and doing creative things and sharing valuable wisdom. It seems a critical time for the magnificence of circles as a model of shared leadership and the extraordinary wisdom of ordinary women to come boldly to life so women can connect, share, and make a difference with their innate gifts.

The need was there, so we filled it! I am writing to let you know about a new organization I have co-founded with Ann Smith and Carol Hansen Grey called Circle Connections, Inc. This membership organization offers first and foremost, a place where amazing women can connect! It also offers training, education and support to women who wish to start and/or maintain a circle group, regardless of its focus. Its members will benefit from state of the art technology to find, connect and collaborate with other circles throughout the United States and Canada.

Amazing things happen when women gather, renew, and focus their energy. One way we provide circle training is to offer joy-filled 3-day retreats where participants will be immersed in the Magnificence of Circle! Experiencing a circle in action always offers unexpected surprises and heart-felt connections.

Our first retreat is scheduled for September 22-24, 2006 at the Mercy Center in Burlingame, CA, just minutes away from the San Francisco airport. For more information about the retreat and/or to reserve your spot, please visit our website at: http://circleconnections.com/trainings/9-22-06Retreat.html
Space is limited to 40 women, so please take advantage of the early-bird sign up.

Imagine what it will be like when we learn to deeply listen to and respect one another? What if women got that they are magnificent, powerful, and gifted by nature? By empowering and inspiring women, it is our belief that the women’s circle movement will be a major catalyst in creating a world where peace and harmony exist. We invite you to join us!

Rhonda Hull, Ph.D.
Co-Founder Circle Connections
http://www.circleconnections.com

“We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.”
- Martin Luther King

“Remember sadness is always temporary. This, too, shall pass.”
- Chuck T. Falcon
-
“Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.”
- unknown

“The grand essentials of happiness are:
something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.”
- Allan K. Chalmers

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
- Soren Kierkegaard

“Hope is like a bird that senses the dawn
and carefully starts to sing while it is still dark.”
- unknown

Hello Friends and Traveling Companions,

The sun is playing hide and seek with the hopeful promise of summer finally taking hold here in Washington. It’s time to get our doors and get moving to shake off the sticky gray that can linger in the northwest, inside and out.

Have you ever come to deep rut or an unexpected D.I.P. in the road of life? Everyone at some point goes through a time when we lose our perspective and see the road of life as more treacherous than perhaps it is. Faced with a challenge we can become a D.I.P., a Dysfunctionally Independent Person. We hunker down, close people out, and attempt to go it alone. Before we realize it we can trap ourselves in our unwillingness to see anything but the low side of life.

Once depressed we feel like winter has its grip, we have hit a patch of black ice and are skidding out of control. We slip and slide with no traction and get thrown into a state of survival, disillusionment and despair that causes us to lose our confidence, creativity, and compassion in our tailspin.

Although our circumstances can be very tough and seem overwhelming at times, we are masters at making a bad situation worse than it needs to be. The culprit is our catastrophe thinking. The quality of our thinking directly influences the quality of what we experience. Once on a roll it picks up momentum, hooks up in cable and orders pizza.

At times like this we may lose sight of the sun, but though seemingly out of sight, the it has not ceased to exist. When listening to an old transistor radio and we get static, it does not mean that the radio station has disappeared. Instead, it means we have gone out of the reach of its signal. It is our thinking that takes us out of the reach of happiness.

The sun is shining behind the clouds. The sun, like happiness, is constant. It is our ability to access the sun that we allow to get interrupted. So, what do we do to break free of our inner winter gloom and realign with the light so we can catch a few rays?

Even in the worst of times all we really need to do is to handle this moment, and then the next second, and then another. Concentrating our focus on all that is working rather than fixing our gaze on all that is not allows the storm to eventually pass and more positive thinking to return. This does not mean that we gloss over pain or frustration. Like a whining child, it needs to be acknowledged before it can dissipate or transform. Resisting our emotions and pretending they are not there takes a tremendous amount of energy, like trying to hold a beach ball under water. As we take responsibility for the quality of our thinking, we become able to choose its direction, allowing us to reconnect with our ability to break free and to move through our fears all the stronger.

As the sun begins to shine on the Great Northwest and summer takes on it’s active hum, D.I.P. signs may appear as a way of reminding you that you have a choice, if not in the circumstances, in your attitude. By enhancing the quality of your thoughts you will be able to see above the low spot and shift your perception to appreciate all of life’s simple wonders. Gratitude, consciousness, and authentic action are the paths to take to more easily re-establishing a powerful, productive, purposeful, and positive direction.

By the nature of depression, you may not want to ask for help or get moving. Yet, reaching out when we least feel like it is an important antidote to depression, and counteracts our tendency to live life as a D.I.P., a Dysfunctionally Independent Person. So, adjust your negative thinking, refocus on the present moment, take even little steps into the sunlight and connect with your friends and loved ones to fully enjoy the long warm days of summer.

In Joy,
Rhonda

“My prayer to God every morning on my knees is that the power that is in the universe should use my life as a vessel, or a vehicle, for its work.”

– Oprah Winfrey

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Rhonda’s Reflections:

I have returned and expanded person from spending ten days with my niece and her family in Seattle. Their two year old son, Connor, was air lifted down from Alaska to Children’s Hospital in Seattle diagnosed with leukemia. In one moment all their life’s plans and expectations were turned inside out and rearranged. Their life as they knew it ceased to exist and all their dreams for the future must now be put on hold. Today, and for at least the next seven months they must discover what lies within them. Amidst the challenges, painful procedures and frightening unknowns they are called to reach within to reveal their courage. Their happiness depends on being able to travel the journey of honeing blessings out of uncertainty. As hard as it is, they are the lucky ones. Connor has a fairly good chance of recovery, unlike many who are there.

As I offered my hands for a few days to help care for baby brother, Carson, I saw in an even more exagerated way that it is not the circumstances that matter. A sense of joy and grace was available to those who were able to grasp that their power and joy was within. I have been back a few days, but I will return on Friday to walk through Connor’s many procedures and chemo treatments, as dad returns today back to work in Alaska. Ahhhh, a very difficult letting go. Let them lean on your courage today.

Questions float through my head about how my work has been disrrupted, writing due dates missed, and yet this is where I am called to be… to witness grace in action and to offer a safe and sacred place to be human, along with the reminder, when it is time, to breathe and stand up again one more time than you falter. Here is the choice point between faith and fear. We are resilient. We stand up. This is all we are called to do. And now is the only moment we have, and the sun is shining, even behind the clouds.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Rhonda’s Reflections:

I have returned and expanded person from spending ten days with my niece and her family in Seattle. Their two year old son, Connor, was air lifted down from Alaska to Children’s Hospital in Seattle diagnosed with leukemia. In one moment all their life’s plans and expectations were turned inside out and rearranged. Their life as they knew it ceased to exist and all their dreams for the future must now be put on hold. Today, and for at least the next seven months they must discover what lies within them. Amidst the challenges, painful procedures and frightening unknowns they are called to reach within to reveal their courage. Their happiness depends on being able to travel the journey of honeing blessings out of uncertainty. As hard as it is, they are the lucky ones. Connor has a fairly good chance of recovery, unlike many who are there.

As I offered my hands for a few days to help care for baby brother, Carson, I saw in an even more exagerated way that it is not the circumstances that matter. A sense of joy and grace was available to those who were able to grasp that their power and joy was within. I have been back a few days, but I will return on Friday to walk through Connor’s many procedures and chemo treatments, as dad returns today back to work in Alaska. Ahhhh, a very difficult letting go. Let them lean on your courage today.

Questions float through my head about how my work has been disrrupted, writing due dates missed, and yet this is where I am called to be… to witness grace in action and to offer a safe and sacred place to be human, along with the reminder, when it is time, to breathe and stand up again one more time than you falter. That is all we are called to do. And now is the only moment we have.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Rhonda’s Reflections:
I have returned and expanded person from spending ten days with my niece and her family in Seattle. Their two year old son, Connor, was air lifted down from Alaska to Children’s Hospital in Seattle diagnosed with leukemia. In one moment all their life’s plans and expectations were turned inside out and rearranged. Their life as they knew it ceased to exist and all their dreams for the future must now be put on hold. Today, and for at least the next seven months they must discover what lies within them. Amidst the challenges, painful procedures and frightening unknowns they are called to reach within to reveal their courage. Their happiness depends on being able to travel the journey of honeing blessings out of uncertainty. As hard as it is, they are the lucky ones. Connor has a fairly good chance of recovery, unlike many who are there. As I offered my hands for a few days to help care for baby brother, Carson, I saw in an even more exagerated way that it is not the circumstances that matter. A sense of joy and grace was available to those who were able to grasp that their power and joy was within. I will return Friday to walk through Connor’s many procedures and chemo treatments, as dad returns today back to work in Alaska. Questions float through my head about how my work has been disrrupted, writing due dates missed, and yet this is where I am called to be… to witness grace in action and to offer a safe and sacred place to be human, along with the reminder, when it is time, to breathe and stand up again one more time than you falter. That is all we are called to do.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Rhonda’s Reflections:
I have returned and expanded person from spending ten days with my niece and her family in Seattle. Their two year old son, Connor, was air lifted down from Alaska to Children’s Hospital in Seattle diagnosed with leukemia. In one moment all their life’s plans and expectations were turned inside out and rearranged. Their life as they knew it ceased to exist and all their dreams for the future must now be put on hold. Today, and for at least the next seven months they must discover what lies within them. Amidst the challenges, painful procedures and frightening unknowns they are called to reach within to reveal their courage. Their happiness depends on being able to travel the journey of honeing blessings out of uncertainty. As hard as it isl, they are the lucky ones. Connor has a fairly good chance of recovery, unlike many who are there. As I offered my hands for a few days to help care for baby brother, Carson, I saw in an even more exagerated way that it is not the circumstances that matter. A sense of joy and grace was available to those who were able to grasp that their power and joy was within. I will return Friday to walk through Connor’s many procedures and chemo treatments, as dad returns today back to work in Alaska. Questions float through my head about how my work has been disrrupted, writing due dates missed, and yet this is where I am called to be… to witness grace in action and to offer a safe and sacred place to be human, along with the reminder, when it is time, to breathe and stand up again one more time than you falter. That is all we are called to do.

“ To set out boldly in our work is to make a pilgrimage of our labors, to understand that the consummation of work lies not only in what we have done, but who we have become while accomplishing the task.”

– David Whyte