Posts Tagged ‘metta’

On the Road with Annagrammatica

May 2, 2012

Annagrammatica on the Road: “Follow Your Bliss”

Purposes: (a) visiting you (b) presenting the program “Follow Your Bliss”
Host organizations
Vehicle maintenance fund
Like us a lot on Facebook

Daily Spiritual Practice Podcast

Request prayer

Website, Product, Service Redesign

Save at our private sale

Annagrammatica on the Road

We at Annagrammatica International Headquarters are pleased to announce our first-ever nationwide tour.

Annagrammatica is taking its show on the road, traveling coast to coast — along the route highlighted in red on our clever, if slightly fuzzy, MAP — in a compact, fuel-efficient motor home, stopping as the spirit moves us.

Our launch date is “soon.” The aforementioned compact, fuel-efficient motor home has yet to “manifest,” but with the help of our good friends J.D. and Karen, and possibly Mike (if we need to expand our search into the Phoenix area), we are optimistic. Somewhere nearby, there is a vehicle with our name on it. If you see it before we do, please let us know. It will be a tidy six-cylinder Toyota pickup truck with a good-as-new slide-in camper attached, or a motor home similar to the sweet little Chinook we once owned and wish we’d never let go of; and it will be wearing a “for sale” sign.

For our journey, please send prayers and good wishes. They will make us lighter, literally. We will get incredible gas mileage and our tires will not wear out.

Eastern U.S. Click image for PDF

Our purposes are…

to visit friends and family. If you can offer us a parking spot and an electrical outlet, we’ll be in heaven. (Some of you will ask us to accept the hospitality of your guest room. With heartfelt thanks, we will decline. May we still use your shower?) … We understand that many people have barely enough parking for their own needs, or they live in neighborhoods that ban overnight motor-home parking. Whatever the situation, we will gladly stay in a nearby campground. We are eager to see you. We trust the circumstances to arrange themselves. Please contact us if you are on or near our route and would enjoy a brief visit.
to present our free 90-minute program, “Follow Your Bliss,” for churches and other organizations along the route. We have designed our presentation for family gatherings, with adaptations for other church groups (high-school youth groups, men’s and women’s fellowships, couples and singles groups, for example) as well as community centers, clubs, senior residences, convalescent facilities, detention centers, and prisons.

Host organizations

Western U.S., east-west itinerary; click image for PDF

Our presentation is whimsical and lighthearted. As is evident on the “details” web page, its spirituality is eclectic but not, we hope, irreverent. Among churches, we expect that interest will come from the less conservative denominations – Unity, Congregationalist, and Unitarian are the ones that jump to mind. But we are willing to be wrong if you know of others that might receive us warmly.

We will be emailing potential host churches and organizations approximately three weeks in advance. If you belong to an organization that would like to host our program, please send us the organization’s contact information. Thanks!

Vehicle maintenance fund

In the Middle Ages, traveling minstrels could move about the countryside assured that their mules would receive a forkful of hay and shelter for the night. We intend to travel with the same level of confidence in our transportation. Thus we are developing an exigency account, should Old Jenny’s clutch wear out or her starter motor malfunction.

Books and cards for sale. We will carry a small inventory of the book Unfamiliar Territory, plus our exclusive Random Cards of Kindness and 10-packs of holiday cards.

Donations at event. With permission from the churches we visit, we will pass the plate for donations during the program.

Meditation class. For a fee (to be determined; tentatively set at $15 per person, $120 for a class of 10), we will offer a 45-minute meditation class immediately before or after the free event (or, if there is interest and if our schedule permits, the day before or after). As summarized on the “details” web page, the class will consist of

Introduction to mindfulness
Instruction and practice in mindfulness meditation
Instruction and practice in metta (lovingkindness) meditation
Chakra balancing
10-minute body scan

Besides improving overall well-being, mindfulness training helps with "a range of physical and mental health problems...."

…with printed take-home materials on grounding, meditation benefits, mindfulness and meditation for children, online resources, recommended reading, and a summary of the instructions given in the class.

Facebook pick-me-up

We are directing potential hosts to our Annagrammatica Facebook page for updates on our itinerary. Unfortunately our Facebook page is pretty pathetic. We have never quite gotten the hang of Facebook. We have allowed it to intimidate us. Rather than doing a little research or just diving in… and rather than abandoning it altogether… we have stuck our head in the sand.

No more! We are standing tall, wiping the sand from our eyes, scraping it off our tongue, and taking the bull by the horns. We are facing down our fears. We are boldly mixing metaphors. And we are asking for your help.

We are informed (please let us know if we have been misled) that the best way to energize our Facebook page is to induce you to “LIKE” it. Actually, the the sure-fire strategy for Facebook-page popularity, we’re told, is to give stuff away, but the only thing we have in quantity is a bunch of Disney-character pencil erasers.

If you have participated in our meditation classes, worked with us on children’s programs, or heard our original music or “moments with the children” in church, we would appreciate your tossing in a brief, enthusiastic sentence or two of approbation.

Daily Spiritual Practice Podcast

A few months ago we inaugurated the “Annagrammatica Daily Spiritual Practice” podcast. We are still working our way up to “daily,” having been constrained by the need for funds that would allow us to purchase more storage space and features. Recently, however, we received a donation that will permit our publishing podcast updates more frequently in the near future.

If you have specific prayers you’d like addressed, please post them at “Pray with Sister Alma Rose.” Thanks!

Website, Product, Service Redesign

Apart from the pages relevant to ANNAGRAMMATICA ON THE ROAD—FOLLOW YOUR BLISS, we have temporarily closed down most of our website. We are redesigning our greeting cards and discontinuing many of our services.

We are also updating our E-course How to Write Poetry and Live Poetically, which continues to be available at $840 for a full year. Finding the right sponsor will enable us to offer scholarships and college credit.

Private sale: Save on Christmas cards, writing workshops, meditation courses, and more

When we unveil the redesigned website, the prices for most of our cards and other products, as well as our public-speaking and training services, will have gone up. Before the site is made public, you – the recipients of this newsletter – will have an opportunity to purchase cards and services at the old prices. You’ll receive notice of this “private sale” late this summer or in the early fall – just in time to stock up on holiday cards! And writing workshops!