Time to Refresh Your Inner Life: three months till the 2012 Feast for the Soul begins

I know it was no accident that in the past two weeks two people have approached me about the next Winter Feast For the Soul. In each case they expressed how much they appreciate the time set aside to renew our commitment to daily spiritual practice. These people also described how they had fallen away from their daily practice and were looking forward to the coming Winter Feast for the Soul as an opportunity to get back "on track".

As the weather changes here in the mountains, we are slowly getting all the pieces in place to create the coming Feast. It is my hope that this newsletter will stir up a little curiosity on your part. Read on to find out what we have in store for you.

2012 Meditation Guides Who Will Enlighten Your Soul

• David Less returns again to record Universal Meditations twice each week.
• Phil Jones will be back to lead you in twice weekly Buddhist Insight Meditations.
• Anam Thubten will record weekly meditations in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
• Susan Kaiser Greenland will return to guide daily stillness/mindfulness practices for Children.
• With Susan’s help we will also have Children’s Meditations recorded in Spanish!

There may well be others who will round out the list, but these are the teachers who have committed as of this date. Bios for all teachers will be included in future newsletters.

Acts of Kindness as Spiritual Practice

We have added a new spiritual practice to the list of recommended daily practices: Daily Acts of Kindness. Kindness flows naturally into your life as a companion to your daily spiritual practice. As you witness the fabrications of the mind you become kinder toward yourself and others.

For those who find it impossible to meditate for forty minutes each day, a commitment to Acts of Kindness may create another way for them to join the Feast.

Acts of Kindness toward others begin with kindness to yourself, From that place of fullness you become kinder, more patient, and more loving toward others. We will develop this topic in our coming newsletters and hope that you will join the Dalai Lama in making Acts of Kindness your daily practice.

New Approaches to Forty Minutes of Practice

In an attempt to embrace the realities of the daily lives of working people we have looked at alternatives to a single practice period of forty minutes. We have discovered that some of you found a way around this challenge. Here are a couple of choices that might help you on those days when 40 minutes is just not possible. Try these and see how they work:

• 10-10-10-10: Practice for ten minutes four times a day
• 20-20: Practice for twenty minutes twice a day

The full benefits of forty-minute periods of meditation are well known. But there are other interesting riches that come from more frequent practice sessions, even if they are shorter. We will discuss those again in future newsletters.

Karon Korp Resigns for Reasons of Health

We were saddened, although not surprised, that Karon informed us of her resignation from her role as director of the Winter Feast for the Soul. Karon has been undergoing chemotherapy since March. She submitted her resignation on August 16.

We are grateful to Karon for all of her work over the past 18 months and send her our prayers and love in the months ahead.

In the absence of a new director, I (Valerie Skonie) will resume my duties as both Founder and Director of the 2012 Winter Feast for the Soul during the coming months.

Winter Feast Needs Your Help:

In order to continue our work, we need your help. There are several ways that you can help us this year: We need people for the following jobs:

• Social Media Manager to help us update our image on Facebook and other social media
• Graphic Artist to create a brochure or flyer for the 2012 Feast
• Prison Project Manager to coordinate the correspondence between prisoners and their "pen pals"
• Local Area Coordinators to distribute posters and coordinate local meditation sites and events to bring information about the Feast to your community.

If you are prepared to lend a hand, please email me: valerie@winterfeastforthesoul.com. Please write VOLUNTEER in the subject line of your email.

And of course, we need your donations. Please consider a donation of any size to help us stay solvent as we enter this, our fifth year of bringing this period of spiritual practice to the world.

Until next time, I send you Love and Blessings,

Valerie Skonie
Founder and Interim Director

Or send your check to:

Winter Feast for the Soul
P.O. Box 2773
Asheville, NC 28802