A week or so ago, I traveled to Flagstaff, Arizona, USA – where I had lived for over 20 years – to participate in the final memorial service of my dear friend, Jenny. Three of her beloved friends and I went to her favorite place to hike in Flagstaff. We brought bunches of her favorite flowers, readings, and songs we thought she would enjoy and slowly walked the trail, stopping to add something – a word, poem, song, or whatever came to us as we moved – and then had a picnic lunch with some of her favorite foods. It was a glorious and beautiful fall day in Flagstaff.

Sigh. It was both a beautiful and gut wrenching experience.

The main thing I walked away with is a kind of awe for the process of life when we let Life take the lead.

For example: the aspen trees had begun to turn their bright, fall colors. Soon the leaves will start falling and the trees will look barren until spring, reminding me of the barrenness in my heart… I am tired of saying good-bye to my friend: I am ready to start focusing on how my long friendship with her supports my life every day. In a way, I am also wanting to welcome the friendship to continue even if her physical presence is no longer here. Autumn seems a perfect time to acknowledge and respect this transition in all its beautiful and barren moments.

And, finally, I’m celebrating three of the NVC Academy’s collaborations coming up this month:

1. Our NVCfest is this month! This is the NVC Academy team’s annual celebration of YOU, our trainers, and NVC in general. The purpose? To enjoy a fun and enlightened time with our NVC community, and to bring greater sustainability to the NVC Academy so we can keep our work going. And each year, all our trainers continue to donate both raffle prizes and their time, which fills me with an ineffable sense of gratitude and joy.
   
   
2. Mid-November I’ll be offering our first course to be translated into Chinese. The course is called Self-Empathy: Healing from the Inside Out, and everyone is welcome to register.Many thanks to the Chinese team that is collaborating with us, including Liu Yi, who is the only certified trainer in China!
   
   
3. Miki Kashtan’s brilliant work called Convergent Facilitation is being offered by Lisa Rothman and Aya Caspi starting November 4th. We had such a huge outpouring of interest in this program last year that Miki asked if we’d offer it again. How could we say ‘no’ when so many of you said ‘yes!’

All this is further proof that in all of life the seasons change… We mourn losses, acknowledge it when our actions or words stimulate pain in others, we search for new beginnings, and we celebrate when we find them! All in support of the Life that is in and around all of us.