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ReCreating Yourself:
The Annual Holiday Retreat
~All New Program~
~All New Price~
~All New Year~
Dec. 28, 2007
to
Jan. 1, 2008
in
Ashland, OR
What others
are saying
"This retreat has been the most marvellous experience of my 72 years of life and for certain the best investment I have ever made."
~Mary Mumford
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| Life Education |
Are you seeking to BE the change?
Learn about our transformative teaching programs here at the ReCreation Foundation
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Letter from Neale
 My Dear Friends...
Our world today moves closer toward its most Magnificent Tomorrow, and we stand in thanks during this Season of Gratitude for this wonderful experience. Extraordinary developments occur every day which confirm for us that our brightest future is on its way. Not all of these developments seems to be the most positive in-the-moment, but all of them will be leading us eventually to humanity's new horizon, the dawning of a new way to live together on this planet, and a new age of spiritual awareness.
 I am as certain about this as anything -- and I am equally certain that our progress along this path will be made easier and faster with help and determination and commitment from "regular people" all over the world...people like me and you. I mean, people other than world leaders and top-of-their-religion spiritual figures and global movie or music stars such as Bono. I mean "regular people" such as all of us. Authors, teachers, mechanics, computer repairmen, lawyers, massage therapists, real estate agents -- all of US, out here, living "real life." It's going to be up to US. We're going to do it or it's not going to happen.
And what is it, exactly, that we're going to do? We're going to work, each in our own way, to create the space of possibility for a new spirituality to emerge upon the earth. For it's new ideas about God, about Life, and about Each Other that are going to change our world and create the New Tomorrow of which we here speak.
We can begin that process (or continue it if we have already begun) by taking every opportunity that life places before us to put the message of the New Spirituality into the public forum. I hope that each one of you will give as holiday gifts this year at least one copy of one of the CwG books to a friend or relative. I say this not because I want or need to see a few more copies of these books sold (after 7.5 million, the "sales job" is over), but because I sincerely believe these books, placed in the hands of more and more people, can one day change the world. Certainly, they change people's lives. We see this happening right and left.
 So please...go out today and buy a copy of Home With God or What God Wants or even Conversations with God - Book 1 and wrap it up for under the tree. And if you're going to a Christmas party this year where there will be a gift exchange, what a wonderful gift this could be!
And if you're looking for the perfect "larger gift" for a very special Other, consider an enrollment certificate for that person in the annual Year End Spiritual Renewal Retreat produced by the ReCreation Foundation. Our Holiday Retreat is our most popular program offering every year. To learn more about how you can enroll yourself or a loved one, go to www.cwg.org and check out the information on the Holiday Retreat.
Mostly, though, you can give of the gift of your transparent love to your significant other. Transparent Love is my name for the kind of love that allows nothing to be hidden, ask everything to be revealed, renders all moments naked, and brings every truth to the room, told kindly, gently, and completely.
 Truth is the Highest Form of Love. During this Season of Gratitude, give thanks for your new determination to speak your truth as soon as you know it, and to love without condition.
God bless you all ways.
Neale.
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Beautiful Story
by
Pastor Rob Reid
The pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry--to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn--arrived in early October, excited about their opportunities When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve.
They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc, and on December 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished. On December 19 a terrible tempest - a driving rainstorm - hit the area and lasted for two days.
On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster, about 20 feet by 8 feet, to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high.
 The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor and, not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home. On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity, so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory-colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a Cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.
By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later.
She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area.
Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet. 'Pastor,' she asked, 'where did you get that tablecloth?' The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG were crocheted into it there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria. The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told her how he had just gotten the Tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria.
When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. He was captured, sent to prison and she never saw her husband or her home again. The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep it for the church.
 The pastor insisted on driving her home, that was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job.
What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return. One older man, who the pastor recognized from the neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn't leaving.
The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike.
He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a prison. He never saw his wife or his home again in all the 35 years in between.
The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. She helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman's apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.
 True Story - submitted by Pastor Rob Reid
Who says God does not work in mysterious ways...
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Aloha to all of you at CwG
 My brother and I are part of the CwG ohana (family) and experience the gratitude for this opportunity daily, in whatever circumstances appear...including diagnosis and treatment of lymphoma B 3 years ago and a major tib-fib fracture this year (at 65). I KNEW beyond any shadow of doubt that each instance would bring more miracles into my life, and they did! While I appreciate the instant suggestion of sedating someone for pain, my recall of Deepak Chopra's suggestion of deep breathing (regularly, not just in crisis) offered an immediate change in the pain level...and the words that were part of my 6- week experience in a Buddhist monastery in Chiang Mai a dozen years ago - "no doubt, no worry, no expectation, present moment" - came to the forefront of my thoughts. Not to mention the endless words from CwG materials. Every moment is another opportunity for gratitude, for knowing that it need not be judged as "good" or "bad" but to instead be welcomed as another joyful life-experience. Bless you, Neale, for sharing your life experience with all of us so transparently!!
a hui hou - Verna and Ed
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Attitude of Gratitude
By Bonnie TannerAh yes, Thanksgiving does certainly bring to mind many things in my life to be grateful for. In Canada our Thanksgiving is in October & I have enjoyed the tradition of family & turkey for years, but in recent years have asked around our dinner table for us all to think about the many things we have to be thankful for. Like most of us, I have so many things to be thankful for-one that quite often takes people back. I have scleroderma & am very thankful for it. Initially I started down the path of feeling sorry for myself; this can be a very painful & disabling way to die. However within 2 weeks I changed my attitude & after 9 years of living with it, most people are unaware I even have it. I went through the 5 stages of grief rapidly & added a 6th stage. This of course is gratitude. I realized I had created it through my decision to not deal with certain areas of my life, emotionally or spiritually. I had done what I perceived as a lot of growth over the years, and my ego had a bit of party trying to figure out how I missed this one. Then I just decided to deal with whatever I needed to, look at whatever I needed to, & be honest with myself. What a wonderful blessing this was turning out to be!! For without this disease would I have taken on this journey? Would I have been so willing to look at my life? Would I have found some of the amazing friends I now have in my life?  Then, when I was doing so well, loving so well, I lost my fiancé. That was a huge loss! It didn't take me too long to dive into the CwG series & face my loss in another light, i.e. thankful for the time we had and the love we shared knowing it had prepared me to love in a deeper way than I thought was possible and discovering my love continues on, as does his. Even though I am not physically with him, I most certainly am connected spiritually. For all this & much more I am very thankful. Happy Thanksgiving. Bonnie Tanner |
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Message from Marion
by Marion Black
 I was thinking today of what I'm grateful for - right now I'm sitting in Southern Florida in the home of my newest friend, and at the same time I'm looking back over the last year of my life with amazement. The last year has been the hardest emotionally of all the years in over a decade, and yet by far it has also been a year full of more personal growth than I've ever experienced. I've lost a lot and gained ten-fold more. People have left my life and new friends and guides have arrived. My son has gone from being a little boy to growing almost as tall as I am, and my daughter has slowly stepped from being my baby to becoming a bright shining light of warmth and joy and gentleness. I've shed enough tears to drown in, but I've also had more joy and laughter than I've experienced in a very long time.
I'm not so sure that any of this is so unusual. I'm not even clear if it's been truly so much better or worse - because it could be just that my awareness and my sensitivity to it all is greater than ever before - no matter. What I know is that I'm incredibly grateful for who I am today.
I'm grateful to the Conversations with God material and all the different aspects of my being that I've gotten to experience through my ever-growing, constantly changing understanding of this material. Conversations with God has given me a framework within which I've learned to navigate the world and my life with understanding and insights that make it an incredible journey. For many years, CwG has been my greatest passion - it's the one thing in my life that speaks to my heart louder and deeper than any other, and for that I am the most grateful.
Within the framework of the Foundation there are many things I'm grateful for - one is the opportunity to write to all of you and share myself and my life. This opens up a door in my life to interaction on a global level with more people than I could ever have imagined. Every day I get to the chance to communicate and interact with many people who contact the Foundation for a million different reasons. I get the joy of sharing my love and understanding of Conversations with God with many. This is something for which I have gratitude beyond measure. Through this material I've been granted family and community that far exceeds my wildest dreams. Through this living of my passion, I've had the chance to grow and learn and remember more than I ever thought possible.
So at this time of Thanksgiving I want to offer my thanks to each of you, for all you bring to my life and all you allow me to be, in doing the job I love so dearly.
On a closer to home level, I want to offer my thanks for two people I work with at the Foundation. These two individuals are the backbone of all you get to enjoy through CwG. These are my dear friends and co-workers Michelle and Kate. Some of you may have encountered them in your interactions with the Foundation, but to most of you they're strangers and I'd like to take this very special time to share them with you.
I've been given often by the Universe. She started out as my babysitter when my children were younger and I'd just arrived in Oregon. As a single mom I've noticed through my journey of having to work and parent that the Universe has always sent me others to help in very significant ways in order for me to be able to do my work, be of service to others and still provide a great deal of love and support to my children. Michelle was one of those significant people in our little family's life. For about a year Michelle took care of me and my children and helped in every way imaginable. As time went on she started helping me with my work, and began to learn accounting and data entry.
 Over time, Michelle has essentially become the Foundation's accounting department and, through this process, she has come to understand and really learn the Conversations with God material. Michelle is someone who the Foundation leans heavily on. She's one who is always there and always willing to help in any way she can. I can call Michelle late at night and she's there. I can ask her to work with me at the crack of dawn, and she's right there. Whatever it takes, Michelle is willing to do it with a smile on her face and great love in her heart. Michelle is an angel in my life and that of the Foundation. Without Michelle, we couldn't do what we do nearly as efficiently or accurately as we're able to do with Michelle. I think all of us in and around the Foundation are deeply grateful for this amazing individual twho brings so very much to all of us.
 Then there's Kate - Kate the Great! This dear soul started out as a friend of mine as well. From the moment that I met her I began to deeply appreciate the joy that she brings into the world around her. I imagine Kate was a bundle of joy from the moment she came into the world, and she is very much that today to all of us. Kate handles all of the administrative tasks that are necessary to keep the LEP running. She keeps all of our systems running and current, and she supports all our students and facilitators through the LEP experience. She has this vibrant energy and she's a pillar of strength for all of us-always level headed, willing, kind and compassionate with a bounty of joy and laughter in all that she does.
I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to get to work with her and laugh with her from the first moment of any day. I think staff and faculty and students all feel this from Kate and we are very grateful for getting to dance and play with her. Over the years she's been with us Kate has come into her own as a person grounded in the CwG material. She's also become a mother this last year, and with that experience, I've seen her deepen into a powerful woman who has grace and a new depth that only comes with the experience of motherhood. She's just amazing!
So this Thanksgiving on behalf of the Foundation I want to offer great gratitude and appreciation for these two very special angels who have made our beloved Foundation a part of their journey.
To all of you: may you share this season with those you have the deepest gratitude for and offer thanks for the incredible individuals each of you are and for all you bring into the world with you.
Love always,
Marion Black Executive Director
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Questions from CwG Readers
Subject: Help
 My wife returned from a trip to visit her family and told me she was divorcing me. I'm having a very difficult time with this as I love her very much, but obviously she doesn't love me anymore. I am devastated by this...Why??? Where is God in all of this???? What's His Purpose for me in this...Is there a different path for me to follow?
Dear Friend,
I am Anke Blaue, an LEP graduate, and I was asked to answer your question.
I can really understand your sorrow and despair. Sometimes life doesn't seem to make any sense. I can also see how you can't understand the purpose of this situation. This is a very human perspective and we are HUMAN BEINGS. But we are not only human beings, we are also divine beings. Our life in the relative world, our life on earth and in a physical body in time and space, is a conversation between the divine and the human. That is what Conversations with God is all about. And as I assume you know, we are all having a conversation with god. This conversation between the divine and the human being, between illusion and illumination, this conversation is what makes us experience life. Both sides are absolutely important and interdependent. The divine side can only experience itself through the human and visa versa. The human voice is very clear and strong in your sorrow. Now I want to offer you the conversation with the divine.
Are you ready?
This is what God would say and ask:
There is a purpose in everything, what is the purpose of your wife wanting to divorce?
Nobody can stop you from loving her, it is your gift to her.
There is a positive intention behind everything. What is the positive intention behind your creation of this situation?
What is your wife giving you?
You have created this situation. Your soul wants to experience something through this situation. Which opportunity is the situation giving you?
You might not have the answer right a way-maybe in a few days, but if you answer this question for yourself, you will experience your divine side. The divine side of you knows that there only are opportunities in life, and sthat everything has a purpose and is only there in order for you to step into your highest version of yourself. And remember, the divine answer always gives you joy.
Love,
Anke
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MAY YOUR STUFFING BE TASTY, MAY
YOUR TURKEY BE PLUMP.
MAY YOUR POTATOES 'N GRAVY HAVE NARY A LUMP,
MAY YOUR YAMS BE DELICIOUS,
MAY YOUR PIES TAKE THE PRIZE,
MAY YOU! R THANKS GIVING DINNER
STAY OFF OF YOUR THIGHS.
GOBBLE TIL YOU WOBBLE.........
AND IN ALL AND FOR ALL THINGS GIVE THANKS. |
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The CwG Weekly Bulletin is written and compiled by Neale Donald Walsch, Rose
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If you would like to connect with us with any comment, question, or sharing,
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If you would like to send a comment or a question to Neale here at the Weekly Bulletin, you may do so by addressing an email to: weeklybulletinresponse@CwG.org
Please note that because of the volume of mail that we receive, it is possible your letter will not get printed here. However, we do our best to see that all letters get a response, if not directly from Neale, then from a CwG Foundation staff person, or LEP participant.
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