WINTER 1998/99 - ISSUE NUMBER 46


How You Can Help

Dear Friend of the Neahtawanta Center:

Each fall we write to current and potential members to give you an update on our work, and to request your support. We hope that you'll read on, to see what's happening at the Center and that you'll help support our work with a donation for the coming year.

Ongoing Activities
Hiroshima Candlefloat: Each year to commemorate the victims of the atomic bomb as well as victims of all wars, we organize a ceremony and candlefloat down the Boardman River in Traverse City. This tradition, which started in Japan, has become an occasion to gather as a community to remember the victims of all wars, and to renew our commitment to promoting peace. This year we also focused on the national effort to lift the embargo on Iraq, which has been so devastating to the children of Iraq. We were fortunate to have guest speaker Randy Bond from the Michigan Peace Team who spoke about his experience in Iraq.

Earth Holidays:
We host gatherings around the Solstices and other Earth holidays as a means of helping the Center, its members, local people and occasionally inn guests develop and experience their own spiritual connections with the natural world and its life sustaining energies. These observations and celebrations are a means of honoring and being guided by this incredible place of woods, water and bay shore, which, for so long have served as a basis of human habitation and sustenance. The Winter Solstice, our candle-wish ritual, has become a special holiday tradition for many in the community.

Casa Materna Collection Day:
The collection day for Casa Materna, a center for pregnant women in Nicaragua, is usually held in March. This year our boxes were transported to Nicaragua by a group called "Drive for Justice" from Xavier University in Cincinnati.

Earth Day:
We have helped to coordinate Earth Day activities in the Traverse City area for the past nine years. The main event has been the All Species Parade, followed by a rally with entertainment and educational tables from area groups. Planning is already underway for Earth Day '99. The Earth Day Committee is hosting a community brainstorming meeting about Earth Day, to evaluate and consider making some changes to keep Earth Day vital and effective. Local people are invited to join us on November 16th at the Governmental Center in Traverse City at 7:00 PM.

Synapse:
We have published our newsletter, Synapse, quarterly for the past 11 years. It has become a respected source of information covering topics such as sustainable economics, community media, nonviolence and gender issues. With an international distribution of 5,000, Synapse draws on the everyday experiences and visionary ideas of extraordinary people from our bioregion and beyond who are struggling to create a more just and compassionate world. In addition to our subscribers, a team of volunteers places stacks of Synapse at various locations in our bioregion to attract new readers and potential subscribers. Synapse is also available on the Internet at <www.nrec.org>.

Library:
We maintain a resource library at the Neahtawanta Inn, which contains over 40 current periodicals covering topics relating to sustainability, the environment, spirituality, peace issues, yoga, health, science and current affairs. Please call us if you'd like to arrange a time to come out and browse.

Yoga:
To help promote inner peace, health and well-being, the Center offers publicly advertised yoga classes and workshops as well as private classes for many inn guests. Sally teaches weekly yoga classes through-out the year. Several times a year we bring yoga teacher and organic farmer, Roger Eischens, over from Madison, Wisconsin to lead weekend and five-day yoga trainings. Roger continues to be on the leading edge of yoga, combining his extensive Iyengar training with his knowledge of kinesiology, physiology and ayurveda in a system he calls High Energy Yoga. We also bring other yoga teachers here from time to time, as well as making our lovely timberframe yoga room available for other groups to do yoga.

Workshops
This fall we sponsored two workshops:

On Nov. 5-8 men gathered at the Neahtawanta Inn for a health weekend with yoga teacher, Roger Eischens, and natural food chefs, Bob Russell and David (Grips) Krumlauf. Men don't tend to take time for self-care and nurturing. This was our attempt to lure men away from the office, computer, lawn mower, and couch to explore healthy ways of moving and sustaining their bodies, minds and spirits. (review)

On Nov. 13 - 15, we offered another Nonviolence Peace Training with Michigan Peace Team members, Tom Shea and Peter Dougherty. In addition to training people who want to go into conflict areas around the world as peacemakers, the principles learned in this training can be applied to conflicts at home, work or in our communities.(review)

We are currently working on our spring schedule of workshops so stay tuned. We will offer the five-day yoga teacher training with Roger Eischens, June 20 -25, 1999.

Sustainable Communities Project

Our main focus continues to center on exploring ways to build sustainable communities. With the help of a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, we will continue the dialogue and education on sustainability. Specifically, we are working on the following projects:

Benefits of Being a Neahtawanta Center Member
The main benefit of being a member of the Center, is the knowledge that your money is helping to address some of the most critical problems that we are facing as a society; that as a Center member you are part of the solution. Two other benefits are more tangible: a member donation entitles you to a subscription to Synapse, published quarterly; you qualify for a discount on rooms at the Neahtawanta Inn during our low season, November 1 -- April 30. We hope this discount policy will encourage you to come to the Inn for personal rejuvenation, to browse the library and curl up by the fire with a book or magazine, to enjoy the peace and quiet of the Inn, or to organize a group of fellow members to come out together. The discount rate is: $50/double; $45/single. The synergy of the Neahtawanta Center being housed at the Inn has been beneficial for both entities. Inn guests become interested in our Center activities; the Inn is used by the Center for workshops and other gatherings; and the income from the bed and breakfast supports the Center staff.

As we head into the last year of this millennium, there are many forces and voices vying for our time, energy and money. The message we continue to convey at the Neahtawanta Center is one of peace and caring&emdash;with each other and the Earth.

We hope that you will support the Center with a donation as we address issues relating to peace, the environment, and building sustainable communities. This is our once-a-year request for membership donations. Without the contributions of Center members, the Center's vital work could not continue.

For a Sustainable Future,

Sally Van Vleck & Bob Russell

MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION
Please call (616) 223-7315 for a membership form or send your donation or subscription with your name and address to:

Neahtawanta Center
1308 Neahtawanta Rd.
Traverse City, MI 496868

Return to the Index of Synapse 46, Winter 1998/99

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