Shared Transformation
Introduction to Issue 8
We were not involved in the catastrophic Los Angeles earthquake (although our house sits nearly astride what is considered the most dangerous faultline in northern California -- the Hayward). We hope our friends and readers in southern California are alive and well, and that our Midwestern and East coast kindred spirits have survived the Ice Age there! The drastic increase of natural disasters and global conflict over the past few years is thought by many to indicate a planetary transformation underway. It is as though the earth herself is shuddering through the upheaval of a cosmic awakening process!
On a less global level, one of the repeated requests in the responses to our Reader Survey (Issue #7) was for more personal experience stories. Hearing each other tell of our myriad struggles and adventures connects us in the deepest human way. It is not so much the content of what we reveal of ourselves, but the very act of revealing that makes our stories precious. All that comes forth from the sovereign domain of each individual's experience adds missing pieces to the puzzle of our kindred journey.
Unfortunately, this intimate level of sharing is what most of us fear to do. It is far easier to wax philosophical or to express our opinions (as I am doing at this moment) than to "go public" with details of one's private and naked experience. Every time I write an article for the newsletter, I feel most insecure about describing specific things that have happened to me, yet later I learn that it is just this earnest self-disclosure that gives substance and integrity to what I have said. Of course, it also provides an opening for ridicule and attack. I think we are still a decade or more away from tuning into a panel of people discussing their Kundalini awakenings -- without being dismissed as lunatics or weirdos -- on Oprah or Donahue. (Or perhaps I underestimate how many of us there really are and how ripe the times may be for spotlighting this phenomena.)
To my joyful surprise, in everything that I've written for Shared Transformation thus far, I've
received far more kudos than criticism. This might be because we are apt to be more generous and protective of
"our own" -- of those in similar straits... Or it might mean that there are a lot of good-hearted and
open-minded people subscribing to this newsletter. Whatever, I offer myself as living proof that baring one's soul
(or sharing one's personal stories, however unusual) is well-received by our readers.
-- El Collie