INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF THE CIRCLE
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From: Bruce S.
Date: Monday, May 10, 2010, 9:03 AM
Subject: International Year of the Circle
Reply to: 270058
ID: 270060

Good morning, all.

In my little world -- with its Big Black Circle -- today is "the second day of the International Year of the Circle..."

For me, cowboy from the sky -- the rule is -- everybody is inside the circle...

It's a big corral into which we are going to politely and sweetly encourage the circle-stragglers of the world...

A big lasso from the sky --

(smiley-face here....)

I do feel a continuing and sustained energy on this. Not sure I can explain how or why -- but it's moving like a river and it feels solid. So who knows -- but my guess is -- "the force is with us".

*

Just a couple thoughts in reply to your comments, Starr*

Yes -- it is true, no doubt -- that Standing Women, as a project, has been at best blurry -- at least as I understand it. And yes, there has been little encouragement or contact. Actually - I would say this is true of many of the "women's networks" that we have been building and encouraging.

Why is this true? Well -- the simple actual fact is -- most of the leadership in these groups are not internet users -- or are barely internet users. They don't think internet -- they think face-to-face gatherings...

So, they don't pay a lot of attention to our internet stuff. Too bad. But so far, over the last six years that I have been doing this -- all my various tirades about this issue have been kept to myself, because we have just had to ride it out. Maybe things are changing now. Maybe...

On Standing Women -- this group was synthesized about 2007, by a small group at Ohio State University, and excited a lot of energy at that time. There was a big network of volunteers, many of whom were strong internetters -- and they started working early -- months before Mother's Day. With that lead time and that excitement -- a lot happened. We pulled together almost 4,000 events in 2007.

However -- this effort was actually pretty draining. People had worked very hard -- including me -- and we were tired. The OSU leadership was tired. The volunteers -- were scattered. And things just kind of wound down. The next couple of years were tapering off. We kept it going -- but it was not very solid.

This year -- the OSU leadership decided to turn the project over to Gather the Women -- another women's group on our network, where I know you are a member, Starr*. GTW did put a little money into the project -- enough to pay the actual out-of-pocket server costs -- and we put the Standing Women web site on my server. Lil' Brucie the volunteer did another big chunk of programming, and we started kicking the Standing Women project back into life. Jeanie DeRousseau wrote a couple of newsletters for her network, and we started pulling things together. We built a couple of new tools (people can drop their mailing lists into a box and send an announce to all those people) -- and things picked up a lot. Yesterday, we had over 500 events around the world, at 1pm local time. That's pretty good.

So -- what about follow-through? What about "the love"?

Well -- this year, now -- it's up to me and Jeanie, I think -- and the energy that we can bring, and the political cool we can maintain, to get this huge international cat-herding exercise starting to resonate.

We're working on it. I think we're making progress.

There's a few new links on Network of Circles, maybe it's getting better, here's the link to

THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF THE CIRCLE

as that little visionary page now appears

http://networkofcircles.net/circleyear.cfm

Stick around, a lot more in the pipeline...

- Bruce

PS -- is weaving "work"? Is going to the gym "work"? Is weeding in the garden on Saturday morning "work"? Sumthin wrong with "work"?

--- On Sun, May 9, 2010, in msg270058, Starr* Saffa wrote ---

G'day Bruce

As you know things are changing at an advancing rate as the Information Age is transitioning into the Age of Empowerment.

Our group has been a member of Standing Women since its inception and keep a video of it on my site. We never get any love or acknowledgment that we are part of the movement. It's like other people own it and we who encouraged it are distant memories. Even though that link is missing I guess the whole thing is about our own Empowerment to carry the lovely intention forward ourselves and just know we are part of an important movement. I think the linking of it to world religions leaves a lot of people out of the movement in these days since many people are making their own spiritual connection to the Universe and rather not be identified with religious organizations. I suppose more people are in organized religion these days than not. How to target the whole world is indeed a challenge.

I love your weaving of the circles idea, which makes us think of the flower of life and crop circles. - the circles can even link up with the circular Galactic Waves which causes DNA to change (the same circular waves affecting the entire Universe - spiraling from the Point of Creation (the Truth the scientists are not identifying). The Circle-Net needs to have a Heart in my opinion - a heart that connects with All.

I'm not so keen on the word 'network' - because the term has been appropriated by $Business. and it implies work. I do like some of the terms you mention in this passage on the Weaving site.

"For many years, internet visionaries and pioneers have seen the internet as a place for "weaving". The term Netweaver appeared in the mid-1980's, and even the term Lightweaver often indicates the weaving of an internet tapestry.

This entire web site can be understood as a kind of loom to support network weaving -- a weaving of relationships, of interconnections, of an expanding field of understanding that links diverse elements or threads. This site is a tool or framework we are building to support a great task of collaborative weaving -- for the circle- weavers and visionaries of this world who sense a common vision and want to work together.

Here, you can gather your resources, build connections with others, and weave your tapestry of relationships, insights and illumination.

(to be continued...)

Loving-Circle-Net-Weaving - Starr*

--- On Sun, May 9, 2010, in msg270055, Bruce Schuman wrote ---

Good morning. Happy Mother's Day from Santa Barbara CA.

Starr*, thanks for your message. I do want to reply, and will. I've been thinking about those big magical graphics we created here a while back -- including the ones you made. There's a lot of power in those images. We'll get back to those things...

This morning, I just want to briefly mention an idea that's been coming through for me.

As I've been suggesting, this image of "Weavers" -- and of "Circles" -- and of "Networks of Circles" -- is resonating very strongly for me right now.

One thing we've been working on is the "Standing Women" project -- bringing women (and men) together, all over the world, on Mother's Day -- to "stand for a better world."

I like this project, because it is "simple and profound", in a phrase from the Parliament of World Religions. It captures the essence of collective spirit, and does so in a way that is not controversial.

Our little website for this project is collecting and organizing these "standings" -- right now, as I write this, there are 473 events listed around the world. That's pretty good, considering that there was very little systematic publicity for the project this year until about a week ago.

http://standingwomen.org/stand/page3.cfm?sy=2010

What's been happening for me is -- I can feel the power of this vision and process, coming through me quite strongly. And I am feeling the calling -- to get out there and "organize" this process a bit. I want to see the energy of circle -- particularly mystical/spiritual circles -- or secular/political circles with a resonant core -- growing in the world. I want to see them springing up everywhere -- and I want to provide ways that resonant fields everywhere can begin to meld into a broader resonant unity...

So, this phrase "International Year of the Circle" just kind of popped into my head. I think it's a good concept -- I think circle-leaders and authors will be interested -- and I think we do have the tools and energy right now to undertake this vision -- reaching out to circle-processes everywhere, and calling them all into a big simple non-controversial framework, that can accommodate and incorporate and embrace what could eventually be every human concern -- all in one converging resonant field...

Here's a webpage that is a start on this vision...

http://networkofcircles.net/circleyear.cfm

I am just planting the seed today -- so, all this is right now -- is just this seed. But the vision for me is -- this year -- this "IYC" -- this "International Year of the Circle" -- starts today -- May 9, 2010 -- and continues until Mother's Day 2011. The idea is -- by Mother's Day 2011, we will have expanded this resonant field in a way that now embraces and includes and holds in resonance 1,000,000 people...

Jean Shinoda Bolen wrote the book "The Millionth Circle" -- and this vision is partly guided by her insights and continuing work and speaking. I'd say for right now, we're not so much aiming for "one million circles" as we are for "one million people participating in resonant circles" -- something like that.

But it just feels to me -- that this is an idea that can happen. I can feel the energy out there. Millions of people DO want to do something like this -- and what they need is a simple framework that makes sense, a sense that they are not alone, a sense that these things can be held together -- a sense that it IS happening, and let's roll...

So, right now, I've got a start on a framing for this project, at the domain "Network of Circles".

http://networkofcircles.net

Here's what the header looks like right now:

This site is not really working yet -- but it's full of ambitious stuff, with emerging tools for "circle builders everywhere" to come into the framework and begin to weave their own circles -- interconnecting with others in endless possible ways.

I think this thing is going to grow. It's a big bite, it's a big vision. But it's simple and resonant. Like the "Grandmother Drum" -- it's tuned to the heartbeat of the world. It's a call from the primal energy currents of life. It's calling us strong...

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