PO Box 1238, Crestone, CO 81131 | CEOLP.info@gmail.com
An offering from the IFC/CEOLP Joint Board and Volunteers.
An offering from the IFC/CEOLP Joint Board and Volunteers.
To our online community.
A warm greeting to all of you who are part of our online community- and to those who may be visiting the informedfinalchoices.org website for the first time.
Like so many groups, IFC/CEOLP has canceled the public meeting scheduled for April 8. Our first meeting was held in October 2006: this is our first cancellation!
No matter where we are, we are all experiencing the effects, to varying degrees, of this pandemic. In a gesture of support and with the wish to build more vibrant communication and understanding, the IFC/CEOLP joint board has compiled a list of music, teachings, videos, writing and interviews that over the years we have found nurturing, provocative and a means for entering more deeply into self-reflection as we face difficult times. It is our hope that as you browse this compilation, you will find inspiration, solace and encouragement during these difficult and transformative times.
The IFC/CEOLP joint board and volunteers offer our sincere aspirations for your continued wellbeing. May you be free from suffering and its causes, may you dwell in equanimity, and discover within the path to the peace which nothing can destroy.
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POEM by Pablo Neruda, Being Quiet
Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still
for once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for a second,
and not move our arms so much.
It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.
Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would not look at his hurt hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.
What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.
If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.
Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.
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Koolulam/One Love-Bob Marley;Tower of David (Youtube)
Mooji, a Jamaican teacher based in the UK and Portugal: A Simple Daily Practice (Youtube)
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Message from a Hopi Elder White Eagle
Message from White Eagle, Hopi indigenous on 03/16/2020
“This moment humanity is going through can now be seen as a portal and as a hole. The decision to fall into the hole or go through the portal is up to you.
If they repent of the problem and consume the news 24 hours a day, with little energy, nervous all the time, with pessimism, they will fall into the hole. But if you take this opportunity to look at yourself, rethink life and death, take care of yourself and others, you will cross the portal.
Take care of your home, take care of your body. Connect with the middle body of your spiritual House. Connect to the center of your spiritual home. Body, house, medium body, spiritual house, all this is synonymous, that is to say the same. When you are taking care of one, you are taking care of everything else. Do not lose the spiritual dimension of this crisis, have the aspect of the eagle, which from above, sees the whole, sees more widely.
There is a social demand in this crisis, but there is also a spiritual demand. The two go hand in hand. Without the social dimension, we fall into fanaticism. But without the spiritual dimension, we fall into pessimism and lack of meaning. You were prepared to go through this crisis.
Take your toolbox and use all the tools at your disposal. Learn about resistance with indigenous and African peoples: we have always been and continue to be exterminated. But we still haven’t stopped singing, dancing, lighting a fire and having fun.
Don’t feel guilty about being happy during this difficult time. You don’t help at all by being sad and without energy. It helps if good things emanate from the Universe now. It is through joy that one resists. Also, when the storm passes, you will be very important in the reconstruction of this new world. You need to be well and strong. And, for that, there is no other way than to maintain a beautiful, happy and bright vibration.
This has nothing to do with alienation. This is a resistance strategy. In shamanism, there is a rite of passage called the quest for vision. You spend a few days alone in the forest, without water, without food, without protection. When you go through this portal, you get a new vision of the world, because you have faced your fears, your difficulties … This is what is asked of you. Let them take advantage of this time to perform their vision seeking rituals.
What world do you want to build for yourself? For now, this is what you can do: serenity in the storm. Calm down and pray. Every day. Establish a routine to meet the sacred every day. Good things emanate, what you emanate now is the most important thing. And sing, dance, resist through art, joy, faith and love. “
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The Dance, Robert Mirabal, from the Taos Pueblo, musician, cultural/environmental activist. (Youtube)
Short biographical piece on Mirabal, Taos Pueblo culture, (Youtube)
Robin Well-Kimmerer, BRAIDING SWEETGRASS (book)
Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Peter Wohlleben, THE HIDDEN LIFE OF TREES; (audiobook)
What They Feel, How They Communicate- Discoveries from A Secret World.
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Padraig O’Tuama, former director of the Coormeela community in Northern Ireland, founded during ‘The Troubles’ to create a place for developing skills in reconciliation, author and theologian.
‘Belonging Creates and Undoes Us’, Interview with Krista Tippet, ON BEING.
Stephen Jenkinson, MSW palliative care author, storyteller, philosopher and founder of Orphan Wisdom which focuses on deep living skills and creating human culture.
GRIEFWALKER: (Vudu) or (Prime Video)
DIE WISE: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (website)
COME OF AGE: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Troubles (website)
Gregory Boyle, Jesuit priest, founder Homeboy Industries.
TATTOOS ON THE HEART; The Power of Radical Kinship (website)
BARKING TO THE CHOIR; A Case for Radical Kinship (website)
Sebastian Junger, author and embedded conflict Journalist.
TRIBE: On Homecoming and Belonging (website)
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Francis Weller, THE WILD EDGE OF SORROW: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief (website)
Frank Ostaseki, found Zen Hospice, THE FIVE INVITATIONS: What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully (website)
BJ Miller and Shoshana Berger, THE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO THE END: Practical Advise for Living Life and Facing Death. (TedTalk and Interview on Fresh Air)
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John O’Donohue, former Jesuit priest, poet, philosopher, CELTIC WISDOM (website)
Ram Das, teacher and philosopher, POLISHING THE MIRROR: How to Live From Your Spiritual Heart. (audiobook)
David Whyte, poet and philosopher, WHAT TO REMEMBER WHEN AWAKENING: The Disciplines of Everyday Life. (audiobook)
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Kate Wolf, musician and activist. GIVE YOURSELF TO LOVE (Youtube)
Leonard Cohen, musician, composer, philosopher, COME HEALING (Youtube)
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SERVING LIFE: Prison Hospice Project. Forest Whitaker director.
DEPARTURES, Japanese film. (Prime Video)
22. THE FAREWELL, award winning film. (Prime Video)