While this piece is written by that strange entity known as Gary Bean, The Blogworthy Report is contributed to by four people total. The usual bullet points will resume soon. Today, a report on our recent two gatherings and the expanded team.

This is the first of two posts.

Planning

As you may have read in our last BW entry, the L/L home team expanded to include those positive presences known as Daniel, Joanna, and Tiffani. The third in that group we’ve had close relationship with for over 20 years. Daniel and Joanna we had never met in person. All were scheduled to converge in space/time for our two back-to-back events: Coming Home Sep 8–11 and Homecoming Sep 16–18. We were very eager for this pow-wow.

How did two events come to be on consecutive weekends? With a September Coming Home in Asheville, we were originally aiming for an October Homecoming, but upon seeing Jim’s mild sadness that an Oct date would risk the first frost, we reconsidered. He works all year in his gardens with the expectation of showcasing his flowers and plantings at Homecoming. So, Trisha proposed holding the event the weekend following Coming Home. I gasped—that is huge. That is something we’ve never done before. We might die. Austin said… Let’s be legends. And when we realized… Wait-a-minute… that might make it possible for all of Team L/L Research to be in attendance for both events, we knew that destiny was calling to us. And so we ran with our madness.

To Asheville

Following a full day of travel from South Africa, Daniel landed at Muhammad Ali International Airport (Louisville’s airport was recently rechristened a few years ago in honor of its most famous citizen) on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Joanna made the journey from the other coast of this country. And on Thursday we set off together to meet Tiffani in Asheville. In her role as Event Manager, Tiff had landed at the retreat center outside of Asheville on Wednesday to begin prepping for the Thursday event.

[Sidenote: I realized recently that Muhammad Ali and Carla had very similar lifespans: Carla: 1943–2015 | Ali: 1942–2016. Moreover, both were from Louisville. Both two of the Greatest of All Time. Both service-to-others oriented beings, just one with a better right hook.]

We’ve had lots of correspondence and video meetings and shared work over the months/years, all to great harmony, but one can never know for sure what it will be like to meet an other-self in person, especially for an extended duration. It was really, really good. Our individual notes harmonized so well that, while we weren’t singing along to Weezer’s blue album (a favorite of mine in the 90s) on the 6hr drive to Asheville, we were making melody. I’ll offer some of my characteristically positive portraits later on.

Arrival Asheville

It would be great to detail all the fun, stressful, and banal logistical and interpersonal aspects that go into the pre-production of hosting an event, but I’ll just focus on a unique role Tiffani played this time. Coming Home was being held at a retreat center where nearly all attendees would be lodging during the course of the event. It was our first time using this center, and the first time we had to manage all the lodging: motel-style rooms, tent and RV sites. So, in addition to usual event production, she was something of a retreat manager for a weekend.

Tiffani arrived early to ensure that everything was set up as it should be, get the handouts together that we mailed, and coordinate with the staff on site. We arrived Thursday afternoon, a gorgeous mid-70s sunny day, to find that everything was in good order and that Tiff was at the front door greeting early arrivals. We all hugged, introduced, and smiled big. Then, with enthusiasm, we met with our Carebear cousins, Jess, BJ, and Aaron —our friends of TOTOH (Temple of the Open Heart) with whom we collaborate on this event. It was from them that we learned Open Space Technology, and it was in partnership with them that we launched the Coming Home series in 2018. Among their services to this event, we were very grateful that Jess had led the way in coordinating various drivers for the airport arrivals and departures.

We got settled into our rooms, and then my brain went to preparing for the sequence of evening events to kick-off the 3.5 day gathering, starting with the cold open.

Opening Night

Moment One: It’s always the most nerve-wracking moment for me. People from all over the country, and sometimes world, are gathered in the circle for the first time. Many don’t know what to expect. Many are nervous or anxious. Some or many have never attended a Law of One-oriented event. Some are even quite new to the material.

Their energies are individual. They are not yet blended. It is silent—an expectant silence. And you become their first voice and point of orientation. This role does not harmonize with that confidence-challenged part of yourself that wants to hide and not be looked it, that doubts your ability to be of much service, that is sure you are a buffoon. But you push yourself off the cliff, you don’t falter, and you share what you came to share; which, in short, welcomes everyone to a safe, inclusive, and inviting atmosphere; emphasizes the beauty and the possibilities of healing and transformation when together in a container of shared seeking; and deemphasizes any specialness on the part of the event facilitators or our corresponding organizations; and calls oneself a monkey, which I did.

AVL Welcome: From there, Aaron welcomed the circle and introduced TOTOH on behalf of their team. Our friends in Asheville are beautiful human beings who are always on the beam, not of perfection but of doing work in consciousness, particularly the hardest work of them all: how to harmonize with one another. We’ve learned a lot from them over the years in cross-cultural conversation.

Logistics: Tiffani gave a weekend logistics report and opened for questions. It was her debut, and she knocked it out of the park.

Open Space Introduction: Austin introduced Open Space Technology, further priming the group for the design of the weekend.

Meditation: And then Trish held a silent meditation with an inspirational closing prayer she made before dinner in the dining hall.

Round Robin: Upon returning at about 7pm, we conducted one of my favorite activities: the Round Robin. Going around the circle clockwise, each introduces themselves. The ice breaks and the blending of energies deepens when people have the chance to speak their voice into the circle.

Banishing Ritual: Following the Round Robin, our friend Zachary Adama stood in the center of the circle, the sun already set, and conducted his variation on the Banishing Ritual. Unlike L/L’s practice, which uses a very intense and sharp enunciation of each word and gesture, Zachary chants (what to my ears are) variations on the words while gracefully flowing through the ritual.

ARG: And then, BJ and Jess, with some help from our mutual friend Red (formerly Jana), conducted the Authentic Relating Games. The first time I heard that term some years back, my culture-soaked brain thought: now that’s cheesy. But upon seeing the games in action, I was immediately converted. There are lots of variations, with the principal goal being to encourage releasing our barriers in order to facilitate authentic (aka: true, real, non-pretentious) connection. In my experience, these exercises help me personally break out of my own shell, somewhat.

Concluding around 9pm, the games were a hit. So far as I could perceive, everyone seemed loosened up, more open, and ready for the weekend to come.

Venue
Our host venue was a Christian retreat center that Jess, BJ, and Aaron scouted. At first, we weren’t sure if they would have a dogma-sourced aversion to our group. But they hold an attitude of inclusivity and open-heartedness. We felt embraced. And the grounds echoed the human energy. It was beautiful. Green abounded around us, interspersed with a mixture of facilities, stone buildings, open spaces, gardens, and adjacent small mountains.

Now, everything wasn’t perfect. Our main meeting space was a balcony with three open sides. Aesthetically, it was really pleasing. Acoustically, not so much. Our first evening featured roofers pounding away on a building nearby, along with some nearby lawn equipment, and some cars moving in and out of the parking lot just below the balcony. It was a panoply of aural accompaniment. And the food was pretty conventional and underwhelming, even under-serving some of our vegan friends. But it seemed to mitigate little against the purpose and positivity of the weekend. We’ve made a detailed analysis when considering a venue for next year.

Marketplace
As communicated in the Prague Law of One Gathering write-up:

We utilized the Open Space format that has proven so successful in the past. In this format, each attendee has an opportunity to pitch their presentation to the circle during the morning Marketplace portions. With feedback from the group, they then determine in which venue and time slot to situate the presentation. Offerings can run the spectrum of brain hemispheric activity—from the left-brained intellectual lectures and discussions to the right-brained artistic and emotional explorations—to body exercises, group activities, and everything in between.

Except that this was double the attendance of the Prague event and included an extra day. It was a buffet of spiritually productive offerings. I wish I could have attended many more.

BJ and Aaron DJ’d the first Marketplace on Friday morning, sharing both the spirit and the technical workings of OST. The large grid of columns (time slots) and rows (breakout spaces) began to fill rapidly as people stood in a line to pitch their offerings to the gathered group.

Presentations

As I wrote about for the Prague gathering, no two attendees have the same experience. Each time slot presents at least two, sometimes three or four, options. You can see the full lineup here, with tabs on the bottom for each of the three days, or tabs on top if on mobile. (Thank you to Trish for typing and organizing them.)

Here’s a quick synopsis of those I can remember attending, just a sampling of the many offerings available:

1. Presence Play – Improv Workshop – Stephanie has innovated techniques through her work using improv with troubled teens as a means to help them express and heal in university-sponsored group settings; and she’s done stand-up at Second City. She led the first improv experience I’ve ever attended that was equal parts uncomfortable (because of my personality), fun, and insightful, and that blended in humor really well. And it got off to a good start when, during her intro talk, I leaned back on my chair and it folded underneath me, causing me to fall on my ass in front of the gathered circle. Red-faced, I offered my fall as tribute to the improv session.
   
   
2. Harmony Council – Jess and Red shared their work pioneering the women-powered Harmony Council, which is best described in their own words from the Marketplace grid: “The Harmony Council is a template for a process we’ve developed in community over the last 3 years or so to resolve conflict at nearly every level, from person to interpersonal to community. It is a way to harness the transformational power possible when we’re willing to be surrounded by, and surrendered to, a circle of sacred witness and the open-hearted mirrors of our other selves.”
   
   
3. Seeker Seeks the One – This was my offering. We discussed the mystical seeking of unity, springboarding from quotes that I had collected and passed out to everyone.
   
   
4. Meet the Monks – First, some backstory: One attendee, Helga, was a riot just by being herself. Hailing from Appalachia, as she described it, she had an unmistakable presence, projecting her voice with candor and salt-of-the-earth humor. Helga reached out to members of the conference of black-robed Anglican priests which was happening at the retreat center simultaneously to us. She asked if they might want to speak to our group! lol. Surprisingly, they said they would.
   
   Also… she took the print-out of Ra quotes (that I had distributed in the session mentioned above) and gave it to the priests at lunch. After she told me of this interfaith exchange, I looked over to the other side of the dining hall to see the 8.5×11 stapled printout being read with studiousness by a priest robed in black, then passed to the next, and the next, each holding a poker face that didn’t reveal what was going through their minds. I can only imagine! Given that the quotes I selected were centered on the mystical seeking of the Creator, I would like to think that there were spiritual essentials that might resonate with their dogma-bound but God-loving hearts.
   
   Well, two of those priests came to speak to our group. They shared some of their biography and their religious path. Honestly, it was great. For me, not so much because they and we learned something about our mutually odd beliefs, but because we shared ourselves across different worldviews. They didn’t proselytize or seek to gain converts. They were actually quite brave in showing up in such an open spirit when they could have rejected the offer or sought to utilize the opportunity to serve their specific religious mission in some way.
   
   
5. Negative Greeting – Red led a group discussion on the ins and outs of navigating, identifying, and responding to negative greeting that did a great job exploring it through theory and personal example.
   
   
6. Essential Principles of Soul Evolution – Shahla, someone with whom we had corresponded but not yet met in person, and who was a delight to meet in person, led a discussion on spiritual evolution grounded in quotes collected from the Law of One.
   
   
7. Start a Study Group – Aaron led a talk about his years of facilitating and co-facilitatating the Asheville Law of One study group, along with discussing the principles of coming together for shared study. It was interesting: four of the facilitators for three Law of One study groups were present at Coming Home: Aaron and BJ for Asheville, Luis for Austin, and Rhonda for Birmingham, among other members of the various groups. The same happened with different people at Homecoming the next weekend. They were all cross-pollinating the flower-strewn Law of One field. 🌻
   
   
8. Sexual Energy Q&A – Suzanna, a longtime friend and board member, offered a second talk opened to everyone (the first was a women’s circle) to explore sacred sexual energy transfer. It was illuminating in revealing greater possibilities.
   
   
9. Spoon-Bending – In the over 19 years since I moved to Louisville, it is surprising that no bizarreness like this has come up on a group level. Daniel, L/L’s web developer, facilitated a group activity on what’s called “quantum spoon-bending.” It’s not spoon-bending using telekinesis alone. Instead, there is some visualization performed on the spoon, along with a request made, followed by a sensitivity to receive a response from the spoon, as it were. When it cues you, then it’s ready to bend with ease using minimal mechanical action from your hands.
   
   Much to my astonishment, most everyone fulfilled the exercise as I watched them bend spoons with little applied effort. I didn’t, despite sincere intentions. The spoon I was working on felt like steel. I could bend it with applied force, but it would require two hands and some juice. Eventually I surrendered and passed the spoon to Trish. She did the exercise for a second time (having already mauled her first spoon) and, sure enough, when the time was right she bent that spoon like it was a paperclip. Amazing.
   
   Inspirited with newfound confidence in the group’s spoon-bending prowess, we took an unplanned step further and attempted a Matrix-style, mind-only spoon-bending. We gathered in a circle around a vertically situated unbent spoon. Throwing together an ad hoc procedure for how to go about harnessing our collective mind-lasers to bend this spoon, we checked in with Daniel, the session’s facilitator, about what request we might make to said spoon. Laughter erupted when he quipped, “Please bend spoon; please, please, please.”
   
   Despite that powerful incantation, and a period of intense silence and group focus, the spoon defied our collective will and remained in its full upright glory. But we had a great time.
   
   
10. Ten Fire Dance – The retreat boasted a sizeable firepit with concrete benches around which about 30 people could sit comfortably. On Saturday night we were treated to poi fire dancing by Ten, a professional fire dancer. It had a sacred edge to it as the talkative crowd gathered around the bonfire became silent to witness this dance of fire against the night’s blackness.
    
    
11. Creating 4D+ intentional community – Karin and Jess gave a presentation and opened the discussion for Q&A about their work building and sustaining intentional community modeled on fourth-density positive values.
    
    

Austin and Aaron each also offered a group study session using quotes from the Law of One, with one about service to others and the other about deepening authenticity.

Closing

What a continuation and intensification of the energy experience in Prague and Berlin held just a few weeks prior. Intensified because it was an extra day, there were more people, and we were all lodging on site. It was spiritual caffeine, and with longer lasting effects than its chemical counterpart and without the jitters.

Judging by various conversations I had combined with the reports at the end—that you can read here courtesy of the notes that Trisha took—everyone eased into the event really well. Gratitude was widespread. Many committed to returning as long as the event would be held.

Attendees contributed about a third of L/L’s scholarship funds for the event which helped people be there (thank you!). It was a big group for us. We’re uncertain about the net value of a group that size. Is important intimacy lost? Shouldn’t we try to meet the need as best we can? Questions we must consider, which will be aided by a poll that we’ll issue to gather attendee thoughts.

But it, along with the Prague/Berlin events, and the subsequent Homecoming gathering, really stoked our fires. We hope to have more next year, including online opportunities.

Also, two new Law of One study groups sprung from the Coming Home gathering: one in Chicago and one in Philly! And incidentally, at the same time they formed, we heard from a group in Mumbai that meets online to study the Law of One in Hindi. Ra’s ripples in the mass mind ricochet around the planet.

This post continues below with the Homecoming Gathering.

This is a continuation of the post above.

To Louisville

The day following the event’s closing, we got to introduce the L/L crew to the Village, which is just the name that our Asheville friends have for their loose intentional community where many of the group live near one another. We enjoyed one of their daily communal meals. We met for a meeting to discuss the plusses and deltas of the Coming Home event and to plan for next year.

And the day following that, we embarked on a six-hour roadtrip back to Louisville! As a full group this time, with Tiffani in the van. (Cumberland Falls is just a few minutes off I-75 in Kentucky on the way. We stopped for a minute. The second largest waterfall east of the Rockies after Niagara, it is beautiful.)

Preparing for Homecoming

Upon arriving home, our six-person crew—Daniel, Tiffani, Austin, Joanna, Trish, me—forgot all about the event that just occurred in order to clear our minds and bodies for the event that was just 2.5 days away! In all my years, I never thought we could pull something like this off. Homecoming is a very intensive production effort, converting a suburban home into a weekend venue for usually up to 40 people, for whom we provide five homecooked meals and transportation assistance from/to airport and hotels. It is a long L/L tradition to help assist people flying into the event that is important, not only to help reduce the cost for attendees, but to help them to feel welcomed and at home from the moment they exit the airport.

From receiving the tent and setting up the circle, reengineering and cleaning the house, preparing the meal arrangements, making big Costco/Kroger runs, coordinating with attendees, and so forth, it went surprisingly smoothly and was less stressful than it’s been in years past. We have a really good team. And we were aided by Anthony, an alumni attendee who is an intensive reader of the L/L library with seemingly infinite personal energy (at least I have not sensed a limit to it), who arrived early to help out.

Thanks to his loving tending from late winter onward, Jim’s gardens were a bounty of beauty and color. And minus some pain in his hip for which he would get a replacement surgery in late October, Jim was in great form and ready to receive the coming invasion with open arms and a corresponding heart.

Nothing ever goes completely according to plan, though. Jim’s basement had flooded at some point during the pandemic. This destroyed the boxes of meditation cushions (for the seated backjacks) stored down there, along with the burlap curtains we purchased and cut to string around the perimeter of the 40x40ft tent to block sun and add an aesthetic comfort to the large canopy. We discovered this the day before Homecoming and had to improvise.

Homecoming Commences

The hours leading up to the start of the event are among my highlights. I love seeing people who haven’t seen each other hug and shared updates and smiles, along with those who are new to each other embrace in open spirit. The exuberance felt particularly high this time around. Primarily, I think, because there was a three-year gap since our previous Homecoming. Many of our friends have been coming for years. It had an air of a family reunion, along with several new faces in the mix.

Except for some baked chicken, Trisha prepared an entirely gluten-free vegan dinner that included: the aforementioned seasoned chicken, tofu, stir-fry vegetables, homemade stir-fry sauces, rice noodles, rice, garlic green beans, and sesame cabbage salad. And when stomachs were full from that, she brought out vegan/GF chocolate cake and vegan/GF pineapple-passionfruit cake.

She began work on this a month or so in advance, freezing what she made knowing that we’d be at Coming Home the weekend prior. It is an incredible amount of work that she has volunteered of her own initiative for nine Homecomings now, beginning before she was a staff member, and now undertaken in addition to her staff responsibilities. She is a sight to behold. Though tending to all that during the weekend in a kitchen not designed for 30–40 people causes her to miss much of the event, so this year she is finally showing signs of relenting and considering alternative options for future events. Fingers crossed.

The Schedule

As mentioned, this all takes place in a suburban home. We rent a canopy and pay the company to set it up in the backyard behind the garage. Because we got started with Homecoming later in the year than usual, every tent company was booked up for September. On a hail mary, we found a company who would make the 1.5hr drive from Cincinnati… at a premium.

The canopy goes in the one semi-open space that Jim hasn’t occupied with stone structures built by hand over the decades, mostly using limestone that he hauled from the Avalon property he and Carla used to own. (Avalon was nestled away in a small valley next near the Ohio River about an hour away. No electricity or running water, just an ancient shack with a foundation of stacked stone, it was a lovely place.)

Due to the lack of space for breakout areas, we cannot create a true Open Space Technology format with the circle pitching their ideas each morning. Instead, we build the schedule in advance from attendee submissions. We received 18 total that we were able to split between the tent and the living room. You can read the curriculum here, if interested. Everyone contributed great material, whether it was a lecture, a discussion, a practice, or a slideshow.

Homecoming tends to be a little bit more left-brained and a less embodied practice. It is, however, a great complement to Coming Home. As always, it is a socially boisterous event, balanced by moments of silence and meditation.

It carried that same spirit of gratitude for connection, with several of the attendees describing that feeling of absence making the heart grow fonder. It was a boon to our spirits that made a wonderful consummation of our journey of three major events and one minor in the span of five weeks. This was enhanced by the sense of being in our home space with family members.

At the Prague event, I mentioned that Austin, Trish, and I had the opportunity to cross a barrier and channel in front of others for the first time. The Homecoming also presented a similar opportunity. Unfortunately, I was too pooped to get energized and clear enough to channel, so I reluctantly bowed out. However, Kathy, one of our channeling circle members and a dear friend with an angelic gentleness about her, made her first go at it(!), alongside Jim, Trish, and Austin. Trish was particularly impressive considering that she’d gone through everything I had—including two weeks of people hosting + rotating driving duties with me to/from Asheville—and spent a lot of the weekend busting hump for the food production. The channeling circle did wonderfully together! I was filled with gratitude and a sense of home watching them channel Q’uo.

Synthesis

Throughout this writing I’ve referenced the energies and orientations of those sisters and brothers who joined us in these sacred spaces. I’ve spoken in highly positive terms because that reflects what I saw and experienced. But the joy and the meaning experienced by each arises in a context of suffering in the journey of service which unfolds in a hard, sometimes cruel-seeming illusion. Buddhas do not attend—except in the sense that, in truth, we are all buddhas—but people with wounds and scars, loss and limitation, confusion and episodes of privation, despair, and anguish.

What each shares in common is what they seek to do with that pain. There is a whole menu of options available in our third-density plane, from playing victim, to becoming embittered, to waging war, to seeking answers through material gain, to distracting the self, to… nothing. The spiritual seeker, instead, seeks healing, learning, and growth. In other words, they seek to use their catalyst—that wonderful word the Confederation uses to describe all life experience, the pleasant and the unpleasant. This is true of any embarked consciously upon the path of seeking the Creator, whether or not they read L/L’s work. The Law of One just offers a particular frame and platform for that seeking, and creates a common vocabulary for those who come together in its study.

And that is probably what most impressed me about everyone. There is an aspiration for the light. There is a desire to learn the ways of love. There is a need for healing the self. There is a quest to use the hard experiences for positive growth. There is a current of service.

I loved the personal stories I heard. I do have one representative example to share that doesn’t come from the events, actually. Because it was emailed, I can more accurately represent it in the person’s own words. This is a seeker with whom we’ve had some correspondence from India. They wrote:

Also wanted to inform the team that last Sunday (6th and 7th Sept) I had a heart attack, a symptom that was being built up for about 60 days with symptoms of fatigue, frequent headaches, blocked nose and gastric. On 8th I went for a healing treatment and on the same evening before I could begin, I had a massive attack, almost deadly. I somehow managed to breathe enough to get to emergency and surgical procedure was done on same night. So I survived 😅. Perhaps isn’t ripe enough for harvest 

They put a stent on one of my arteries (LAD) which had 95% block. Whilst the experience was scary, due to the Ra Material I learned how to harness the love of one eternal creator to embrace, love and internalize this catalyst. I continue to pray for effective learning from the catalyst which I believe with the love energy of the creator I will learn it. I was peaceful throughout the experience, except for extreme painful situations where the mind was disturbed, but otherwise settled down with complete acceptance. 

It’s not so much the Ra Material’s role in supporting this seeker that I wish to highlight here, though that too is of note, but rather, this being’s consciously intended and cultivated acceptance of their catalyst. This attitude, however variously and imperfectly embodied, is representative of what we witness at gatherings. And it humbles the self to be in its presence.

The Team

It is so good working on a team, together seeking the Law of One in shared mission. Austin, Trish, Jim, and I all loved meeting Joanna and Daniel in person, and reuniting with Tiffani. I will not do any justice to the fullness and complexity of the three new team members, but maybe I can offer an infinitesimal window into their depths.

Daniel

Meeting Daniel in the physical was a seamless continuation of the work we’ve done together for a few years over messaging apps and video. He is gentle and preternaturally calm. His voice has a meditative quality to it. With me driving and him riding shotgun, I learned pretty quickly that it was easy to be silent in his company, which is something I greatly appreciate as I am not a natural extrovert in social situations (I typically have to turn it on).

Though possessed of a gifted intellect, particularly, obviously, in the realm of web development (if you could see the magic he’s worked), there is an uncomplicated spiritual simplicity to Daniel that is easy to feel affinity with. The positively connoted simplicity that the spiritual seeker strives toward.

We have become great collaborators on the website, but it’s not just us leading ideas forward. He is constantly staying on top of the workflow, initiating new projects, and innovating new design strategies to meet and exceed the potentials of what’s possible. (There are great things in the pipeline.)

This was his first trip to the States, and his first two Law of One-centered events. In his opening introductions for both events, he mentioned that one of the primary values for him was getting to interface with some of the actual readership instead of the programs, numbers, and abstraction of web design. I think that it really inspired him to see the living impact of L/L’s material and of his work on the website.

I mentioned his meditative-like energy. At the Homecoming Gathering in the living room, he led a guided meditation that he created. Those gathered were very surprised that this was his first time. He took the group to a place of serenity and focus. One male attendee was even in tears at the end, feeling his heart very open. Daniel has plans on designing a meditation app that will integrate with the website and allow us to finally be able to support meditation practice and interactive shared meditation events.

Joanna

I’ve learned some of the snippets of Joanna’s own life journey in this incarnation, so I was greatly looking forward to deepening my understanding of her unique path. That, fortunately, was fulfilled. To a degree at least, as learning about an other-self is never-ending. Born in the Philippines, she spent the first portion of her life growing up in the slums of Manila. After her family was able to relocate to the States, and long before she knew what wanderers were in the Law of One-sense, she had distinct experiences of being different. In fact, her first US ID card listed her as “alien,” seeding or maybe intensifying an awareness that she was other-than that set up a condition of learning in the years to come.

There is a strong conscious drive in Joanna. A desire to examine herself and to confront those areas of where growth is needed. Combined with a desire to advance her understanding, in surrender to the inability to fully understand, of that which is beyond the boundaries.

What I think is one of the keys to her integration into the L/L team is that quality of the heart that exercises those spiritual disciplines Carla liked to speak about: praise, prayer, and thanksgiving; seeing the beauty of the human experience; finding creative ways to bring out the interconnectedness of all things; and bringing alive the magic. I think that this core attitude helps to develop the magical personality through the challenges that arise.

She’s also a great pun master, which makes sense as she earned her degree to become an English teacher. And she has been such an appreciated addition on multiple levels, including leading up the prison ministry and her support of the seeker ministry. She puts a good deal of effort in to meet seekers as best as possible.

We had the opportunity to be with Joanna and Daniel for two solid weeks through two gatherings, with both staying at Trisha’s and my home. A couple of my most cherished moments from that period came from just relaxing with a glass of wine and conversation at our place with these two between and after the events.

Tiffani

As I’ve talked about in a podcast that Tiffani joined us for (oh, that dusty podcast… someday soon we shall return to you), Tiffani and I met the same weekend we both first met Carla and Jim. It was April 2002, in Louisville. We were different people then, but we were both alive in the relative newness of Law of One study and the spiritual path itself, but where she was self-confident, I was not. Tiffani has had a long journey of friendship starting with Carla, Jim, and me that has grown to include Trish, Austin, and others at L/L.

As described in the BW report when we announced the new team, Tiffani was the only applicant who had any experience at L/L Research events. Almost 20 years in her case. So after proper vetting, we, in consensus with Jim, designed the new role of Event Manager. Holding space for spiritual seekers at in-person events is an important priority for L/L, but it is intensive and more than our existing workloads can accommodate.

We have various divisions of duties and specialties at L/L Research. Since Carla threw me into the ring in 2006 and asked me to produce an event with no experience, I’ve been leading up their production, learning how to improve every year. So this year I put in a lot of time and showed Tiffani the ropes of event management through three unique events–one international, two stateside. Coming Home was where she had the most opportunity to shine, and shine she did. She was like a multi-armed Hindu deity, holding together the various logistics of the event while playing hotel manager while liaising with the venue staff. She was able to take a lot off my/our shoulders. We’ll see next year she’s ready to more independently lead up production of gatherings.

We’ve explored in the podcast and I’ve written previously about her strength of will in the direction, as she describes it, of surrender in recovery from alcoholism. What I also admire about her is her social fearlessness. She doesn’t have my social hang-ups, awkwardness, or frequent avoidance of social situations. An extrovert by nature, she can talk to anyone. Unlike the quieter Daniel, when Tiff is in on-mode she externalizes her thoughts in a steady stream of consciousness. She did great speaking to the group, blending warmth, humor, and information.

What strikes me most when I consider her spirit is the strength of her will and faith. To pull through what she’s pulled through, and to come out with a cleansed and forgiven heart that takes responsibility for her creation, the shadow included, and sees always the best in others. Tiffani, like the others, is strong in the ways of the heart.