Christine: Searching for a story to believe in
First stories
I'll never forget the sense of awe I felt one summer night as a child standing all alone at the ocean's edge -- the enveloping darkness, the rhythmic sound of the surf, the immense sky overhead filled with stars and a yellow moon just above the horizon. I sensed the life energy connecting all things. As my small feet squished into the soft wet sand, I felt happy and excited to be alive and I felt like I was one with a beautiful, loving universe.
Since then I have been searching for stories about the awe-inspiring world I glimpsed that night. I looked for stories that would help me answer the age-old questions: Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here?
Ever since I can remember, I have always loved stories: compelling stories with fascinating characters who take me on new adventures and teach me something along the way, stories that reconnect me with that feeling of love and awe I felt at the beach that night.
Thinking about the very first stories I heard as a small child at home, in school and at church, I remember wanting to believe in them but there was a part of me who knew they were not telling me the whole truth about the world and my place in it. In Sunday school class, listening to the Creation story, I wondered how a Father God could give birth to the whole universe by himself. Where was the Mother Goddess? I knew that women had incredible powers including the power to give birth to new life. Where were their voices? Where was their perspective?
The world of the Bible seemed filled with stories of conflict and punishment. In school, the stories I learned in my history class were filled with war and domination. On TV and in the movies, there were more stories of good guys versus bad guys. Women were always the minor characters in the drama.
These fear-based stories filled my young body with anxiety. They didn’t help me understand the world I saw that night when I was at the ocean.
I found that being outside in nature was healing for me. There I could feel confident and free. Mother Earth nourished me with her steady presence and reassured me that the goddess did exist. Her changing seasons, her plants and animals all around me taught me lifelong lessons I would always remember.
I came of age in the 1960's and like many others of my generation, I began to question the stories I had grown up with. It dawned on me that almost all the stories I had learned were written about men, by men and for men. They were stories that made the world a more dangerous place.
I was encouraged to see new stories by people who were working to create a world based on love and compassion. These stories of human rights and peace and justice opened my eyes and reminded me of the world I saw that night on the beach. I decided to devote my life’s work to making these stories a reality.
I studied to become a teacher so that I could create a safe environment for children where they could explore and learn in a loving community.
Concord Children’s Center
When I got married, and became a young working mother, I experienced firsthand how our society fails to put the well-being of families and children first.
I saw many families struggling to meet the conflicting demands of parenting and work. Collaborating with another working mother, I co-founded the Concord Children's Center, a nonprofit school devoted to caring for young children.
We focused on educating the whole child. We emphasized the importance of creative play and spending time in nature. We read stories that had life-affirming messages of love, respect, curiosity and connection. We gathered together each day in a circle for a "Golden Moment" of meditation followed by sharing our own stories. The Concord Children's Center filled an unmet need and forty years later, it has three locations and serves over 200 children and their families.
I joined Educators for Social Responsibility and TRUCE (Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment) to teach workshops on social and emotional learning, conflict resolution, and the influence of the media's stories on young children.
Meeting Robert and finding a new story
My professional life was fulfilling, yet I was suffering emotionally. In my 30's, I finally admitted to myself that my marriage was not a healthy one. I wanted my children to grow up in a loving home so I found the courage to face life on my own as a single mom.
The following year I met Robert and my whole life changed. For the first time, I experienced the healing power of love. Robert treated me as his equal and saw me as a goddess and his life’s partner. He helped me re-write my personal story so that I was no longer a victim but a heroine.
Robert and I shared what we were learning about love by teaching personal growth and relationship workshops. Using the approach Robert outlined in his book, Finding Serenity in the Age of Anxiety, I joined him when he counseled couples. I became a life coach and helped women find their own authentic voices.
Our lovers journey has been joyful and ecstatic, yet not exempt from conflict, pain and sickness. Even when I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and could barely walk or hold my toothbrush, I trusted in the healing power of love. I made lifestyle changes and learned how to release the fear and tension that I had carried in my body since childhood. With Robert's help and that of other holistic practitioners my body healed itself and I felt more fit that I had in years.
After we had been together for a few years and had a child of our own, Robert had a vision that he shared with me. That was the beginning of hearing a new story unlike any that we had ever heard before. It is a story that deepened my connection to Mother Earth. This was the story that I had been searching for all my life about that beautiful universe I saw as a child. In this story, women’s voices sing out powerfully. This new story eventually grew into Human Earth Awakening.
This planetary love story began with our personal love story. I knew that if two human beings with traumatic backgrounds could create a new world of love together, then the same was possible for a traumatized humanity.
Human Earth Awakening is a new story about meeting the very real challenges we face as a species where men and women together create the kind of happy, healthy planet we all dream of. Robert's love changed me and this story transformed both of us. It gives us the chance to share the good news that the power of love and truth can change our world.
Connecting the personal and the planetary
The connection between the personal and planetary came home to me in a dramatic way recently. While we were writing our story, the climate crisis came to our town.
White Pond is a beautiful and beloved pond located near its more famous sister, Walden Pond. Thoreau called White Pond the "gem of the woods." During the summer of 2015, White Pond suffered an outbreak of toxic algae that made it unsafe for swimming for the first time in its history. Global warming and human misuse are the two biggest factors in the alarming rise of toxic algae in bodies of water all over the planet.
While we were "thinking globally," we felt called to "act locally." As citizen activists we created a Preserve White Pondwebsite and Facebook page, raised awareness, attended town meetings, met with town officials, wrote articles for the local paper and collaborated with others to develop an action plan to help heal the pond.
I learned that change is not simple or easy, but it is always possible. I was surprised what a big impact this local climate crisis had on me emotionally. I experienced once again how connected my well-being is to the well-being of Mother Earth. I felt even more compassion for all the people around the world whose lives are being affected far more catastrophically by climate change every day. I learned that in real life, as well as in the story of Human Earth Awakening, the path to creative change is using our personal power to tell the truth with love.
Living the new story
Writing this new story with Robert helps me answer those questions I first asked on the beach that night long ago. This past summer in Maine, sitting on rocks along the ocean’s edge with Robert and our son, Gabe, I experienced that same feeling of awe and excitement I had as a child. I watched the endless sea and sky in brilliant shades of blue and green, the waves crashing onto rocks as old as the earth herself. I understand now more than ever that my feeling of being one with the world is true. We are all one being. There is no “other.” It is all life energy and it is in us and all around us.
I am living the story of Human Earth Awakening every day. Now I have a story about my origin and destiny which restores my faith in humanity and includes women’s voices. It clears my mind of the old stories of Empire and heals my heart from the despair of living in a world of fear and anxiety. This story embodies my values and guides me. It breathes life into the vision we all share of peace on earth.
I am looking forward to the next chapter in my life. It's an exciting one where I'm sharing Human Earth Awakening with you and our global family.
I'll never forget the sense of awe I felt one summer night as a child standing all alone at the ocean's edge -- the enveloping darkness, the rhythmic sound of the surf, the immense sky overhead filled with stars and a yellow moon just above the horizon. I sensed the life energy connecting all things. As my small feet squished into the soft wet sand, I felt happy and excited to be alive and I felt like I was one with a beautiful, loving universe.
Since then I have been searching for stories about the awe-inspiring world I glimpsed that night. I looked for stories that would help me answer the age-old questions: Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here?
Ever since I can remember, I have always loved stories: compelling stories with fascinating characters who take me on new adventures and teach me something along the way, stories that reconnect me with that feeling of love and awe I felt at the beach that night.
Thinking about the very first stories I heard as a small child at home, in school and at church, I remember wanting to believe in them but there was a part of me who knew they were not telling me the whole truth about the world and my place in it. In Sunday school class, listening to the Creation story, I wondered how a Father God could give birth to the whole universe by himself. Where was the Mother Goddess? I knew that women had incredible powers including the power to give birth to new life. Where were their voices? Where was their perspective?
The world of the Bible seemed filled with stories of conflict and punishment. In school, the stories I learned in my history class were filled with war and domination. On TV and in the movies, there were more stories of good guys versus bad guys. Women were always the minor characters in the drama.
These fear-based stories filled my young body with anxiety. They didn’t help me understand the world I saw that night when I was at the ocean.
I found that being outside in nature was healing for me. There I could feel confident and free. Mother Earth nourished me with her steady presence and reassured me that the goddess did exist. Her changing seasons, her plants and animals all around me taught me lifelong lessons I would always remember.
I came of age in the 1960's and like many others of my generation, I began to question the stories I had grown up with. It dawned on me that almost all the stories I had learned were written about men, by men and for men. They were stories that made the world a more dangerous place.
I was encouraged to see new stories by people who were working to create a world based on love and compassion. These stories of human rights and peace and justice opened my eyes and reminded me of the world I saw that night on the beach. I decided to devote my life’s work to making these stories a reality.
I studied to become a teacher so that I could create a safe environment for children where they could explore and learn in a loving community.
Concord Children’s Center
When I got married, and became a young working mother, I experienced firsthand how our society fails to put the well-being of families and children first.
I saw many families struggling to meet the conflicting demands of parenting and work. Collaborating with another working mother, I co-founded the Concord Children's Center, a nonprofit school devoted to caring for young children.
We focused on educating the whole child. We emphasized the importance of creative play and spending time in nature. We read stories that had life-affirming messages of love, respect, curiosity and connection. We gathered together each day in a circle for a "Golden Moment" of meditation followed by sharing our own stories. The Concord Children's Center filled an unmet need and forty years later, it has three locations and serves over 200 children and their families.
I joined Educators for Social Responsibility and TRUCE (Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment) to teach workshops on social and emotional learning, conflict resolution, and the influence of the media's stories on young children.
Meeting Robert and finding a new story
My professional life was fulfilling, yet I was suffering emotionally. In my 30's, I finally admitted to myself that my marriage was not a healthy one. I wanted my children to grow up in a loving home so I found the courage to face life on my own as a single mom.
The following year I met Robert and my whole life changed. For the first time, I experienced the healing power of love. Robert treated me as his equal and saw me as a goddess and his life’s partner. He helped me re-write my personal story so that I was no longer a victim but a heroine.
Robert and I shared what we were learning about love by teaching personal growth and relationship workshops. Using the approach Robert outlined in his book, Finding Serenity in the Age of Anxiety, I joined him when he counseled couples. I became a life coach and helped women find their own authentic voices.
Our lovers journey has been joyful and ecstatic, yet not exempt from conflict, pain and sickness. Even when I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and could barely walk or hold my toothbrush, I trusted in the healing power of love. I made lifestyle changes and learned how to release the fear and tension that I had carried in my body since childhood. With Robert's help and that of other holistic practitioners my body healed itself and I felt more fit that I had in years.
After we had been together for a few years and had a child of our own, Robert had a vision that he shared with me. That was the beginning of hearing a new story unlike any that we had ever heard before. It is a story that deepened my connection to Mother Earth. This was the story that I had been searching for all my life about that beautiful universe I saw as a child. In this story, women’s voices sing out powerfully. This new story eventually grew into Human Earth Awakening.
This planetary love story began with our personal love story. I knew that if two human beings with traumatic backgrounds could create a new world of love together, then the same was possible for a traumatized humanity.
Human Earth Awakening is a new story about meeting the very real challenges we face as a species where men and women together create the kind of happy, healthy planet we all dream of. Robert's love changed me and this story transformed both of us. It gives us the chance to share the good news that the power of love and truth can change our world.
Connecting the personal and the planetary
The connection between the personal and planetary came home to me in a dramatic way recently. While we were writing our story, the climate crisis came to our town.
White Pond is a beautiful and beloved pond located near its more famous sister, Walden Pond. Thoreau called White Pond the "gem of the woods." During the summer of 2015, White Pond suffered an outbreak of toxic algae that made it unsafe for swimming for the first time in its history. Global warming and human misuse are the two biggest factors in the alarming rise of toxic algae in bodies of water all over the planet.
While we were "thinking globally," we felt called to "act locally." As citizen activists we created a Preserve White Pondwebsite and Facebook page, raised awareness, attended town meetings, met with town officials, wrote articles for the local paper and collaborated with others to develop an action plan to help heal the pond.
I learned that change is not simple or easy, but it is always possible. I was surprised what a big impact this local climate crisis had on me emotionally. I experienced once again how connected my well-being is to the well-being of Mother Earth. I felt even more compassion for all the people around the world whose lives are being affected far more catastrophically by climate change every day. I learned that in real life, as well as in the story of Human Earth Awakening, the path to creative change is using our personal power to tell the truth with love.
Living the new story
Writing this new story with Robert helps me answer those questions I first asked on the beach that night long ago. This past summer in Maine, sitting on rocks along the ocean’s edge with Robert and our son, Gabe, I experienced that same feeling of awe and excitement I had as a child. I watched the endless sea and sky in brilliant shades of blue and green, the waves crashing onto rocks as old as the earth herself. I understand now more than ever that my feeling of being one with the world is true. We are all one being. There is no “other.” It is all life energy and it is in us and all around us.
I am living the story of Human Earth Awakening every day. Now I have a story about my origin and destiny which restores my faith in humanity and includes women’s voices. It clears my mind of the old stories of Empire and heals my heart from the despair of living in a world of fear and anxiety. This story embodies my values and guides me. It breathes life into the vision we all share of peace on earth.
I am looking forward to the next chapter in my life. It's an exciting one where I'm sharing Human Earth Awakening with you and our global family.