Expanding, Deepening, and Responding … in Community
Getting to Here, Now
With awareness of environmental, social, political, and technological events occurring throughout the world, MBMS in 2022, expanded their focus on “Being Aware and Being Kind,” into “Cultivating Conscious Response and Relationship in a Changing World.” Deliberate decision was made to meet and engage the increasing personal and collective distress (sourced in isolation and polarization) and the escalating harm (resulting from this pervasive myth of separation) to Earth and all her beings.
Our dedication to offering inspiration and practice of embodying wisdom, compassion, and community grew and diversified into an ever-emerging Constellation of teachers, facilitators, and creatives.
Putting It into Words
from one of our MBMS community members, MarthaElin Mountain, LMFT …
I stand at the beginning
and, also,
the end
Where the water
meets the land.
In the currents of
present sufferings
the promise of
something fresh
laps at my feet.
Putting It to Music
In acknowledgement that we -- together, as a species, a culture, and a planet -- are currently living in and as in-between, Monterey Bay Meditation Studio now has a playlist, curated by MBMS Co-catalysts Cliff Berrien and Marianne Rowe (with suggestions from members and our global kin): "Liminaling." Sometimes it helps to just hear "it" put into music.
Just for fun, say "liminaling" out-loud – really fast – 3 times (like all hard stuff, it gets easier with practice). … It’s like honey bees humming ... or maybe the sound of something underneath the surface, beginning to coalesce. Anyway, the word seems to fit what's happening now in so many ways.
Here’s an appetizer: “Tending the Spark,” Heather Houston
At the time of this first newsletter of 2025, we stand ready to meet the challenges, confusion, and heartbreak of living in transformation and to be a foundation of support, inspiration, and collaboration for you, our community, and all Earth-beings. In this spirit, we invite you to meet us – the initial Constellation of Co-catalysts, Orbs, and Liminaria of MBMS.
Co-catalysts
Several years ago, Marianne Rowe entered into a deep, conscious relationship with Earth and all her beings. Not long afterwards, she experienced her "climate awakening," realizing that the world of outdoors as-we-have-known-it is dying. At that time, she made a vow to dedicate the rest of her life to doing whatever she could, to the best of her ability, from whatever platforms she had access-to, to catalyzing and cultivating relationship of reverence and reciprocity with Life in all their forms ... in herself and anyone who would listen and/or was also so-inclined. This vow is the offering of MBMS as it lives today.
Cliff Berrien is a lifelong learner dedicated to learning about drumming, creativity and contemplation, and how to honor life and the Council of All Beings in a good way. He’s had the honor to work with Dr. Barbara A. Holmes, focusing on the liberatory and powerful somatic contributions of music, movement and art emerging from the African Diaspora. He’s here to joyfully share wondrous things that he’s learned and experienced.
Rebecca Genauer keeps busy working in both education and animal welfare. However, she's grateful, always, for the companionship, delight, and wonder that our more-than-human (and especially canine) friends provide. She's currently enjoying the company of a foster dog named Iris whose gift is demonstrating the value of naps, snuggles, and sniffing the outside air.
Orbs
Mark Skelding is as inspired as he is heartbroken by our predicament, and the invitation it offers to live more fully. His inspiration comes from the joy of exploring with others how this possibility speaks uniquely in us all. He lives amongst the trees in the Pacific North-West, and finds that they are keen to communicate, reminding that there is something valuable in every moment. And there is almost always laughter.
Hello, Shadi Mogadime here. I've spent much of my life and career relying heavily on the expertise I developed from my avocation of spiritual and personal growth studies and my vocation of marketing and fundraising in the non-profit sector. I now find myself at a standstill - disengaged and low in energy. I know this stems in part from my knowledge that these ways of being and doing will not serve me fully in this more volatile, uncertain and divided world. So, I'm in an exploration to uncover what will now bring peace, joy and deep connection. I would like to share the journey and new ways of being with coaching clients and participants in my courses
Gerardo López Amaro joins us from Mexico where he engages in activist scholarship around Buen Vivir, ecopedagogies and practices of re-existence. He explores ways to highlight the experiments to co-create viable alternatives to the current system and address the global challenges of our times.
Liminaria
Molly McGettigan Arthur is a native San Franciscan. She is a lay sister associate with the Society of the Sacred Heart and is a great, great grand-daughter of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, "California Patron," and General Patrick Edward Connor, "Father of Mining" of Utah. She works on projects of reparation with Indigenous people because of her brutal colonist/conqueror ancestral lineage and violent Catholic spiritual legacy; she calls this Decolonizing our Hearts.
Grandmother Ejna Fleury serves as a spiritual activist and counselor, meditation and consciousness facilitator and healer, mystic, visionary, and ceremonialist. She is a member of the Miniconjou, Oglala, Hunkpapa, & Ihanktonwan peoples of the Great Sioux Nation, and serves as First Peace Ambassador of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe of South Dakota.
If you’re not already a member of our online community through Mighty Networks, you are invited to join us for sharings, resources, and inspirations HERE …
… or join-in one of our upcoming online or in-person offerings …
“Participation—that’s what’s gonna save the human race.”
– Pete Seeger (US, Folk Revival, Labor & Civil Rights Activist)
We look forward to seeing, being, and/or hearing from you soon.
With warmth and dedication … in-and-to community,
Marianne, Cliff, Rebecca, Shadi, Amaro, and Mark (the MBMS Orbs)
