Five or six years ago, we planted a flag: “Whatever it takes, we need to get reading books that are relevant to the lives of our students in Kantolomba.” Armed with that clarity, we eagerly set out on an internet search, to no avail. Yes, there are plenty of folks who have written a book or two, but we could not find exactly what we wanted. As Life is wont to do, it suggested simply: “Write them.”
And thus has unfolded a perfect microcosm of the same process that seems so generously to offer itself again and yet again, each time further polishing the mirror, revealing ego for what it is and allowing Life to shine!
The perennial insight of the workshop is that this idea is Life’s. There is no “I” required to take it on, to make it happen, to control it.
Here is the sequence of the process, using the book as an example:
- Very simply, quietly, undemandingly the idea presents: “We could write the books we’re looking for.”
- Now arises delight, perhaps the joy of Intelligence knowing itself, Life sparking to infinite possibility.
- If we’re not right Here, what follows is the proverbial legs on a painted snake: And we could… and then it will be so great because…. And, we could also!… (We could each plug in a particular karmic flavor here. For example: I can get everyone I’ve ever known involved and it will be so great and we’re all going to be happy and live well together…. aka: make it so complicated it will never get off the ground.)
- Enter the other side of the duality: But what about… that’s way too hard…. It will never work because… and they will never… (This is the land of not enough time, money, energy, enthusiasm…)
- The delightful Life possibility has now turned into the ever-popular two bad choices: Push through, get stressed out, push everyone involved and make this happen, OR give up, feel deflated, defeated and disappointed.
- Most possibilities languish in that Ping-Pong match until/unless…
- Practice enters.
- Here begins the “we must encounter what we need to transcend.” As Awareness Practitioners, we roll up our sleeves and smile as that all-important remembering emerges: “It’s not about the book!”
- There is a giant letting go, a joyful realization that we are the honored witness-participant of this process. The two bad choices are now transformed into there-are-no-mistakes and the delightful idea is returned to Life. From ego’s lose-lose to Life’s win-win with a moment of Awareness: It’s all a playground of transformation. What Now, Life?
- On the level of content, sometimes the book gets written and other times not.
This time it did!
1,100 copies of Playtime in Kantolomba, written by Theresa Kapenda and illustrated by Toni Carlucci, will be hot off Mission Press (a state-of-the-art local printer in Ndola!) in time for each of the 1,032 Kantolomba students and each cooperative member to receive her or his own copy for the holidays. For almost all of them, it will be the first book they have ever owned. And it is about them! Goosebumps.
One of the beautiful watercolor illustrations from Playtime in Kantolomba
We promise to feature the book on Good News and make a pdf available so you, too, can delight in Life’s creation!
In Gasshō,
Jen
PS. If Life so chooses, we are on board with publishing more of these beauties! Think of all the transformation ahead….