Leadership training this weekend was so inspiring. Matthew and I kept on saying to one another, "look at_________(we could fill in so many names), how amazing they are!" What a powerful group of leaders out in the world fulfilling on their commitments! What a tremendous community they are. This was their final weekend of an eight month course, with people gathering from all over the country. I am so grateful for each one of you.
Winter mornings and nights have us warming up around a campfire. Leche is starting to show signs of an upcoming birth, and we are so excited. I'll keep you posted.
Persimmons and pomegranates are just about ready for picking. Walnuts are off the trees drying in the barn. Our wine has been filtered once and the flavor is amazing.
Our community is seeing legal threats as an opportunity to crank up the love! How wonderful is that? We couldn't have asked for better partners for keeping our attention on gratitude!
Love you all,
Terces

Anne Kubitsky has a vision.  In a country with a tanking economy, a discouraging political situation, and escalating national protests, she has become a leader in the awakening of gratitude.  The ‘Look For The Good Project’ is a community art project that encourages people (like you!) to share little bits of what they are grateful for, via postcard, in an online art gallery.

“Why not offer people a chance to pause and reflect on something that

A big thank you to Terces and Matthew from all of us!  Thank you for being fierce love warriors, for always being a space of love, and for listening with compassion for all of us.  Thank you for always seeming to get bigger!  Thank you for holding the space for dialogue and giving us the opportunity to share our amazing organic food and love!!!

"There is only one consciousness, equally distributed everywhere." - Ramana Maharshi

This year has been a year like no other in history.  On Jan 25th, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power following 18 days of unrelenting public protest.  In August, Moammar Gadhafi's 42-year rule came to an end as Libyan rebels overtook Tripoli, after 6 months of civil war.  Earthquakes and tornadoes have escalated to unforeseen severity, and the U.S. has seen the rise of the Occupy Wall Street movement in every major city, and met with the opposition of police forces in New York, Cleveland, Oakland, Denver, Atlanta, Nashville, and elsewhere.  

It isn’t every day that you hear great music with a real message.  I mean, not everyone is John Lennon or Bob Marley – right? 

That’s what I thought, but I had to think again when Erin Ross introduced me to Luminaries, a Venice based consciousness-expanding Hip Hop group whose history as teachers, social workers, activists, MCs, and instruments of service informs their music and their message.  These are not just incredible musicians, but messengers of hope, whose song titles on their debut album, “One,” read like a list of mantras: “Everything is One,” “Only Love,” “Show the World,” “Peace” and “Be the Change.”

Every day new products hit the shelves of stores that can do more, better, faster, and smaller.  I'm sure you or someone you know owns a laptop, a smart phone, or a ipad (the mico-powerhouses of modern computing).  Not only do we have access to a world of information in the palms of our hands, we also have access to more mundane technological masterpieces: fridge magnets that play digital videos, ant farms that project moving images of the ants onto the ceiling, and laptop fans to keep your laptop cool as you stream video while playing solitaire.
In our modern experience of high-tech saturation (both necessary and superfluous), I would like to serve up the technological equivalent of some down-home cookin’. I present to you three low-tech, high-impact appropriate and responsible technologies that are transforming the lives of regular people worldwide.

Solar Bottle Lights: In the town of San Pedro, just outside of Manila in the Philippines, a local transformation is occurring.  Men salvage used plastic bottles, fill them with water, and cast light into dark places. Huh?  That's right.  In an area where most buildings are made of corrugated steel, most families have had to rely on expensive electrical lights to see in their homes during the day.  Not any more.  At the price of $1 per installation, many families are opting to let the sunshine in, using plastic water bottles filled with water to create solar ceiling lights.  Not only is this diverting waste from landfills, it is also creating green job alternatives for people ready to embrace this new technology.

We are back from Maine and our precious visit with Matthew's parents.  We are so grateful to still have them living and count our time with them as such a valuable gift.  I was able to read an autobiography of Carl's (Matthew's father) father who was born in 1873 and lived to be 96 years old. It was such a beautiful look at some of the strengths and endearing qualities of the Engelhart family: thier love of people and gathering of community, and their acceptance of different ways of thought and appreciation of others. I was also able to experience some living history from a very personal perspective.

How grateful I am for all we have and the ongoing love and support of our family and community. This is clearly a good time to be alive.

On my birthday I rode my bike with no hands and swam in a beautiful fresh water quarry. Thank you to everyone who extended their loving wishes for me in my special day, they were each so deeply appreciated. Anne, Matthew's sister, and her husband Doug came out to Vinalhaven from Boston and made me a delicious birthday cake! Thank you both.

I'm back from a second amazing Leadership weekend at Be Love Farm in Vacaville, CA. I am incredibly grateful to be part of a group of forty strong dynamic and diverse light workers growing under Matthew and Terces leadership. Terces and Matthew's commitment to community and growing leaders is amazing, inspiring and producing incredible transformations.

This weekend I got in touch with how this training is providing me tools for a powerful inner healing. I grew up in a home in which community was always present. First, as a one of five children of a diplomat living in Germany, Turkey and Romania. Community showed up in the form of visitors and guests attending gatherings in our home, and visits and travels to others homes and places. Life swirled around me and I was enriched by it. Then as an adolescent, my parents settled in Washington, DC and created a spiritual center. From the age of thirteen, my parents held classes, services and workshops in our large home. In addition to these activities my father brought home a few assorted yogi's, inventors and kind folk who had fallen on hard financial times. These folks found refuge in our basement and lived with us for periods of time. During these years I experienced community connection in meditations, classes and services. But my experience included not only loving connection, but also anger at some of these strangers for intruding on my family experience. With my siblings, we criticized some of the community for being too wacky or weird. Honestly, I was embarrassed in front of my peers because I didn't have a “normal” family life! Looking back now I see my experience as a powerful early education in community. However there were gaps in my understanding of community, and those gaps began to show up when I was called to create and grow a spiritual center in NYC from 1975 – 1985. I am grateful I had the tools to create a dynamic center of spiritual learning and practice in mid-town Manhattan. So many people were benefited, so many good relationships grew. However my leadership skills, especially in growing community, were limited. I was still committed to being right and having strong opinions of others. I practiced unconditional love in meditation, but once I left meditation and re-entered ego awareness, the unconditional love gave way to judgements and opinions. These practices limited my effectiveness, and ultimately led to burn out.

Hi

Just returned home after a weekend leading our Sacred Commerce workshop in Harbin to 85 folks! What a wonderful experience seeing all the people wo are gathering from around the globe to learn about a new way of doing business. Three of our Leadership Course graduates led sections of the workshop this weekend and all three were incredible! I can see our vision for developing future leaders coming into fruition. Thank you Erin, Yebuny, and Alexia.

Today is our only full day on the farm this week as we pick up our new delivery van tomorrow, for our Santa Cruz location set to open on August 15th!  Watch for opening announcement.

Throughout human history, some of the greatest movements with powerful results have mostly been led by charismatic figureheads like Gandhi, Nelson Mandela or Wangari Maatthai. The truth, however, is that those movements happened because courageous everyday people stood with those leaders for something that seemed impossible - independence, basic human rights and environmental justice - and made a real difference.

·      4 years to generate the collective will that ensures a bright future

·      4 years to begin to turn this ship around and the shift we all know is needed