New Horizons wishes you a joyous holiday season

If I could be in Camelot ---and not need to leave the earth plane, do you know where I’d be?  (Read Anastasia The Storyteller tales from "Camelot.")

I’d be, this very minute, in Vernon, B.C. – and – consider myself home for the holidays, being with my Kebzeh family.

Murat Yagan,
New Horizons' Beloved Mentor

With our “prince,” Murat Yagan.

Murat is the man who has brought a simple group of dedicated students, from around the world, together to become a model of healthy family/community living, even when we are thousands of miles apart.

Murat has brought us together  and taught us, just a bit, of what “awe” can be like when people build community/family and learn to live just this side of unity – and -- love.

In honor of Murat’s birthday, a few days belated, please do take a moment, as the holiday season begins to unfold (or sometime early next year) to find out why we are telling you this.

Discover Murat’s newest book, Ahmsta Kebzeh: The Science of Universal Awe, Volume II. 

This precious book, built on community/family devotion and perseverance, includes the how and the why of New Horizons’ choosing this dearest man to be our community development mentor.

Makes a nice Christmas gift for someone special, too!

You can order your copy here.

Even if this Christmas wish of mine seems a bit much, along with all the other holiday “to do” stuff, sometime soon, at least, check out the article contribution Sue and I made to this book that came out several months ago.

Murat’s mentorship and the ancient community traditions and teachings of  his native Akbkhazia were added to  Sue’s Quakerism, her almost countless years as Quaker camp counselor and, eventually, Camp Director, my tikkun olam and clinical treatment and therapeutic community background to become the key elements of  the “new” New  Horizons Small “Zones of Peace” Project.  Circa 1999 – 2006.

Follow our lead and, then, imagine yourself becoming an example of the “possible human” leading the way to the “possible society,” once you check out all we are and have for you!

Make room in your life for our huge package of community healing potions; let us become an integral part of your new year’s hope for a “best” possible society in motion.

On this blog site, alone, if you search, you will find more guidelines than you could ever hope to access of how to proceed in that direction.

Check out our Cultural Mediation Paradigm and Murat’s Bus Ride Story Adventure for starters.

You could stuff many a stocking with hopes and dreams, helpful hints and tools for a better tomorrow, if you look around here on this site.  

The fine print, however, is that most of what we have is interactional.

You will have to provide the people! That’s where family, friends and community come in.

Still stuck for giving New Horizons’ Small “Zones of Peace” Project as a gift?

Contact me, Anastasia, personally, at zonesofpeacenh@aol.com.

I’m here for hire as your personal Santa, with elves, to help you make an “awesome” year ahead , just for the asking.

Wishing you a joyous holiday season!

With gratitude for your continued support 

From New Horizons' Board of Directors

Spotlighting the legacy of leaning in

Nelson Mandela was an exceptional leader. Despite his failings of which he had his fair share, no doubt, yesterday’s memorial on his behalf will long be remembered as a testimony to his leadership’s greatness.  Few are those, presently alive or deceased, to rival this acclaim; the Dali Lama and Desmond Tutu, among the few living, we may recall.

Choosing to “lean in” towards reconciliation rather than pursuing a path of revenge, Mandela’s leadership brought new hope, along with the end of apartheid to South Africa. Listed among the top ten-fifteen in the “Watkins Spiritual 1oo Lists” for 2011, 2012 and 2013, Mandela takes his place among world leaders, having made a unique and spiritual contribution on a world-wide level.

Today, as I am reflecting on the passing of Nelson Mandela and the legacy he left behind, my mind is called, also, to reflecting that today is the anniversary of the “Overcoming Polarization” event, New Horizons co-sponsored, last year on this date (original date changed due to Hurricane Sandy), and at which I was the concluding speaker. (You can read the full transcript of my talk here.)

The event, held at Hood College, Frederick, Maryland, featured a roundtable discussion with a panel of local leaders, representing various community groups; a representative Republican and Democrat, a Maryland State Senator as well as the President of the Frederick County Women’s Commission, were among these.

Personally inspired by the words of author and social researcher,  Mary Pipher, in her book, Writing To Change The World, I called attention, in my talk, to Pipher’s statement that “The two most radical things you can do in America are to slow down and talk to one another.” (Which, I assume means, also listening to one another.)

Based on this quote, I noted that we had been somewhat radical with the evening’s program; taking the time to slow down enough to be present and attentive to the voices that spoke throughout.

I was aware, also,  at the time that, if we had made any difference, at all, with this program, it was only a drop in the bucket, needing to be filled to make the “overcoming of polarization” a genuinely, valued experience, to any extent; “talking was not walking.”

And, New Horizons had, by this time, already made enough headway in its Possible Human, Possible Society Study data collecting to know that swimming just below the water’s surface of “talk,” most people, along with most communities, throughout our fifty states, have a long ways to go, in real time, where and when community unity is sought.

However, prompted by what we had experienced at this event; the positive as well as the problematic, New Horizons redoubled its commitment, following the occasion, to taking an active part in helping to create the changes for which we were yearning, based on our core principles. Thus our Possible Society In Motion Radio Show was born, a few short weeks later, to provide an ongoing forum for discussion on the factors and advantageous elements to consider that contribute to the social change that can help us get out of the many messes polarization can breed.

What we are contributing, through this show and our various other projects and programs, is only a small drop in that bucket that needs filling. But with almost one year of on-air time, continued data gathering for our Possible Human, Possible Society Study, countless discussion hours geared toward collective considerations on how we can overcome our national epidemic of alienation and conflict, we do seem to be finding and joining with others of like-mind to build “a lean in legacy.”

With the support and, thoughtful input of my Possible Society In Motion Radio Show co-host, Jack Slattery, and, occasional, regular guest, retired social worker, Gloria Livingston, we have already, to date, offered stimulating discussion on numerous topics, geared toward the hoped-for “overcoming of polarization” in our society and politics.

Over the coming holiday season and into the New Year, it is our intent, here on this site, to revisit some of the highlights from these radio shows, with links so you can, readily, hear them on podcast and related commentary on these that will enable you, as our audience, to expand your own, personal thinking on how we, all, can best help build a more unified U.S.A.. That "Possible Society In Motion" for which we are yearning.

Above all, we, at New Horizons, are wishing that some of the limitations identified by our data gathering and in our “Press Release” of October 24 will be turned to the good as we leave behind 2013, a year that saw far too much, unhelpful, U.S. polarization, sadly, leaving our country functioning far beneath its capabilities for the exceptional endeavors of a more humane society.

The leaning in with love for one’s neighbor, the leaning in, always, toward healing and reconciliation rather than that of alienation, as Nelson Mandela exemplified in the legacy he left behind.

The Lean In Legacy

Bravo!! Guess what????

Out of last month’s leaky roof and the vision, love, loyalty and stubbornness of board member and Remodeling Project Chairperson, Sue deVeer – it ain’t gonna leak no more.

Sue was gonna install that roof herself, if no other way showed up.

Look what her stubbornness hath brought instead.

Who knows the ways of Magic, Mystery, Fairy Dust and Love.

And, there was a chill in
the air as that roof went on.

The roof is almost done and it’s only Wednesday!!!

There will be no Roof Raising Community Building Event this coming Sunday!!

This week so far --

• Monday, Allen Beckett, contractor, called Sue, taking the initiative to respond to our greatest hopes for a ROOF!
• Tuesday, Allen sent us materials and a roofer that installed most of it.
• Wednesday, Allen called/texted Sue. Sue called Anastasia and excitedly shared that most of the rest of the roofing will be completed on Thursday as per Allen, again, and his loyal and talented roofing team.

Now how did that happen? You tell me!

All I can see is Magic,Mystery, Fairy Dust and LOVE!! 

And the Lean-in Legacy!

Much gratitude to Allen Beckett, contractor and his steady team of helpers.

And to Guy Burkett whose early generous donation to this project helped the dream start to become reality when it was only a wish!

More to come.

Raising the roof on our small “zone of peace”

Fewer than 10% of our study interviewees “walk their talk” each and every day in every way.

New Horizons is proud to be one of these!

So what are we up to next?

Together building our small
"zone of peace"

Our next community building event –

Raising The Roof

Harpers Ferry Retreat Remodeling Project

Chairperson: Susan deVeer, cell: 240.409.5347, email: suedeveer@juno.com

Date: Saturday, November 16 (rain date, Sunday, November 17)

Time: 9:00 a.m. to sundown

What we’ve got

• The land!!!!!
• The vision!!!!!
• The spirit!!!!
• Our own unique Cultural Mediation Community Development model!
•  Growing participants and supporters
•  Roof building materials
• Volunteers for roof raising (have some, need more still)

What we need

• More volunteers (roof builders, food committee for roof builders care   and feeding, painters, if you would prefer to do that).
• Donations of food for volunteers
• Cash donations 
• (Yes, we are a 501 C (3), tax deductible organization).
• Materials, volunteers and cash donations for next remodeling  project – remodeling our meeting room and efficiency apartment to provide a wonderful new home and living opportunity for ---

Someone Special

Contact Anastasia for “Searching For Someone Special” Project

Cell: 240.409.5347. email: zonesofpeacenh@aol.com

Possible Society in Motion Project Suggests Potential for Reversible U.S. Trends

Press Release

Contact: Anastasia Rosen-Jones Phone: (240)409.5347

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE      October 25, 2013

Possible Society in Motion Project Suggests Potential for Reversible U.S. Trends

The Possible Society in Motion Project, today, disclosed preliminary findings from its four year, in-depth study. The study was created to assess the values, attitudes and activities of individuals in the evolving social and political climate of the U.S.A. Launched January 1, 2012, the study is due for data collection wrap up December 31, 2015. (Extended to December 31, 2016.)

The study has identified the following five U.S. trends thus far:

1.   Better than 90% of interviewees have no significant relationships beyond their like-minded groups.

2.   Better than 90% of interviewees are unmotivated to interact with others beyond these groups.

3.   Better than 70% of those interviewed spend more than two hours per day as arm chair coaches, reading about, listening to, contemplating and criticizing our national leaders.

4.   Better than 70% of those interviewed believe they are powerless or lack the skills or other resources to impact our national social and political crises. (Upgraded to 90% per Anastasia, June, 2014.)

5.   Better than 65% of those interviewed believe that internet conversations can affect national politics though they are uncertain as to how.

“These trends could be reversed by the simplest, most direct efforts. How citizens “elect” to treat one another, personally, is the key issue here,” states Anastasia Rosen-Jones, lead researcher of the study. Based on these findings, New Horizons Support Network, Inc., sponsors of the Possible Society in Motion Project, will next seek to investigate how citizens perceive that they might take steps to alter personal, daily patterns to counter those that separate citizens rather than unify them.

Anastasia Rosen-Jones, New Horizons’ Executive Director, the stepdaughter of a Holocaust survivor, stated, “I am continually aware that my “mom” survived the Holocaust because ordinary people acted in remarkable ways during tragic times. If lives were saved out of the Holocaust by ordinary people doing extraordinary things, we ought to be able to do even more, in the U.S.A. To our way of thinking, at New Horizons, even this one example, of a personal nature, is illustrative that if people choose to give conscientious consideration, even to unknown others, we can be the change we are after, without making it all about our elected officials.”

In light of these preliminary findings, New Horizons and the Possible Society in Motion Project are asking citizens to consider offsetting the dysfunction of our elected leaders. The key action of New Horizons’ Possible Society in Motion Project is to encourage people to “lean in” to others with a central question that asks:

What is the one something you can do today on a grassroots level to make a difference in your neighborhood or elsewhere on your local level?

To participate in the study or find out details and information about it, please visit the New Horizons Small “Zones of Peace” Project blog site: zonesofpeacenh.blogspot.com. Also tune in to New Horizons’ Possible Society in Motion Radio Show: www.blogtalkradio.com/smallzonesofpeace. 

Ms. Rosen-Jones can be reached at: 240.409.5347 or zonesofpeacenh@aol.com.

-End-           

Are you “really” walking your talk?

Watch for tomorrow’s press release announcement!

"Possible Society in Motion Project Reveals Potential for Reversible U.S. Trends"

Find out how “attitude” scores points as well as “action” with New Horizons!

For starters, though, think of it mathematically.

Ask Anastasia,
Super Sleuth.

•  If more than 100 people have been interviewed, thus far, through the Possible Society In Motion Project. 
• And fewer than 10% were found to be actively “walking the walk,” across the board, no holds barred, best possible humans in all they say and do, working to build the best possible society, could you really be one of the “good guys”?
• Or, are there, perhaps, some flies in your ointment, visible, at least, to the professional, "Super Sleuth" eye?

Check yourself out –

Are you someone who:

1. believes yourself to be worthwhile;
2. is committed to treating others with caring and compassion;
3. is willing to examine and learn from mistakes;
4. invests in truth and seeks out the higher levels of consciousness;
5. has the commitment to set achievable goals and the  energy to carry them out;
6. believes yourself to have an integral place in the universal order;
7. has faith and trust in a Higher Power?

Or, are you someone who:
  8. hides your true identity;

2.     9. believes others are enemies or that some people are okay and others are not;
10. blames, criticizes  or judges others and/or yourself and/or is an elitist

11. isolates yourself and/or limits your potential;

12. is controlling, resistant and/or defensive to feedback from others;

13. discounts the opinions and emotions of others;

14.  leaves relationships when conflict arises?

Give yourself plus points for items #1 -- #7. Take off points for items #8 -- #14.

Interested in a personal analysis of the significance of your answers as they relate to building the Possible Society In Motion?

Ask Anastasia, Super Sleuth. 

To participate in the study or find out details and information about it, Anastasia can be reached at: 240.409.5347 or zonesofpeacenh@aol.com.

Also tune in to New Horizons’ Possible Society in Motion Radio Show: www.blogtalkradio.com/smallzonesofpeace.

Preliminary study findings will be the topic of this Thursday’s show. 

Dial in: Thursday evening, October 24 6:30 p.m. 347.237.5351.

Be a part of the Possible Society In Motion unfolding.

YOU breaking the congressional deadlock

Possible Society In Motion report

Five trends our study has revealed.

1.       Close to 95% of interviewees have no significant relationships beyond their own likeminded pods;

2.      Close to 95% of interviewees are almost completely disinterested in interacting with others who are outside their likeminded pods (i.e. there goes the bridge building);

3.      Almost 100% of those interviewed spend better than two hours per day as arm chair coaches, reading about, listening to, contemplating and criticizing our national congressional leaders;
 

What to do?What
to do?

4.      Better than 80% of our interviewees believe they are powerless or lack the skills or other capabilities to impact our national political crises;

5.      Better than 65% of those interviewed believe that internet conversations can affect national politics.

Well we certainly are in a national political and societal mess, aren’t we? With much of it beyond the range of individual impact.

Still, given that a whole lot of human effort and attention is relentlessly focused, these days, on the changes we need, are there not some daily patterns YOU could, personally, alter?

Or is this way ample for you as your basic entertainment and/or manner of connecting?

To our way of thinking, at New Horizons, this means that if choose to use our time and energies most effectively, we can be the change we are after.

The truth is that we are a nation founded on the principle that we are –

“Of the people, by the people and for the people.”

We need not be a nation that operates instead of the people, like puppets on the congressional string.

As the stepdaughter of a Holocaust survivor, I am always realizing that my “mom” survived because ordinary people acted in remarkable ways during unfortunate times.

So can we!

Think about it –

What is the “one” something expansive that you can do today, on a grassroots level, to make a difference?

Bypassing Washington

This posting is an edited version of the same posted yesterday so that the perspectives and principles could be clarified as follows.

Read on, if you are interested in discovering my gist here, based on the community development principles of New Horizons and some of the most recent findings of our Possible Human, Possible Society Study, soon to be posted.

For now, though, the key point I want to make here is this ---

.. if you are in the game of the president (as well as other leaders and celebs) being your Savior, you are, potentially, in the, sometimes deadly, game, I call the GAME of mass dysfunction.

Here is the basic principle of that GAME, as I learned it from my mentor, Martin G. Groder, M.D. (paraphrased)—

“Especially in peacetime, most citizens of a democracy, insofar as related to key leaders, particularly the elected president, function out of an operational system that holds that our constitutional rights are --

“Of the people, by the people, for the people and instead of the people (YOU).” (Original thinking of my mentor.)

The translation of this principle means that if you paid your taxes and voted, you may, erroneously, believe that you, personally, are off the hook of further responsibilities to this nation, other than your own personal interests. You have paid your dues, so to speak, delegated national management to others and can now go play at whatever suits you.

The benefit: You have done your part to join our national dysfunctional co-dependency GAME.

What you get, as per our government shutdown and other catastrophes, is that you are, unbeknownst to your world view, quite possibly, not really being a fully, living, breathing grown-up, participating in this life you might be calling your own.

But it’s not your fault. After all, beyond your self-interests, others are responsible.

To carry my point further, ask yourself,

1.    How much time did I spend, today, living my life by the internet, drinking coffee at Starbucks or just, simply, complaining?

Tricky Dick: An American Anti-hero

1.       Or, conversely, I hope for you and I, ask yourself, how much time did I, actively, spend, today, in being the best possible human, helping to build the best possible society for you and me?

Give yourself points for #2. Take off points for #1.

Here’s how to get the losing points side of our GAME; the GAME of not growing up and playing the game of life with a full deck!

An example of growing up, or not:

When kids let go of whining and complaining that the grown-ups aren’t accommodating their needs and just don’t understand, we, typically, say they are, at last, growing up. They are being more realistic, taking responsibility for themselves instead of blaming parents, teachers and other authority figures for their lot in life. Parents hope for this transition, lamenting the converse until the new state emerges; the adverse is the baby-faker way (a term I learned from my daughter).

Though it is not my wont to take much of a superior, super-knowing role, since Watergate I’ve been watching and wondering when Americans, as a group, were going to move themselves, individually and collectively, beyond adolescence.

In other words, when are, we, as citizens, going to grow up? How about now?

Now, mind you, I didn’t know for a long time, almost a decade, what lay behind the problems as I saw them in them Watergate fiasco, especially the one about how –

The president of the United States of America could lie to the American people – and – they, at least seemingly, believe him (or at least act like they did).

So I stressed and strained, trying as hard as I could, to understand this that was bothering me for a good long time. To add to the burden I, personally, absorbed from my consternation about this one question:

How can the president of the United States of America lie to the American people – and – they believe him?

… another episode, Spiro Agnew’s corruption, which, as chance may be, found its way into my very own living room, due to close association, added another whole layer of dismay. The latter, further prompting me to ponder the problem of the big shot, the power game players and liars, added to Nixon and Watergate.

Many years have passed since Watergate, Nixon and Agnew. And, I am most comfortably assured, thanks to Marty (and me), that I have all the answers I will ever need for analyzing the problems so painfully part of my maturing.

Many others have, also, been pondering the same puzzlement. And, many have analyzed the problems, as well as offering astute solutions that could/would make a difference, if  anyone, especially our leaders, care enough to make the necessary changes.

One solution, above all, however, has topped my “do things differently” list of priorities; the necessity of gathering local folks together to help one another foster our individual and collective maturing, as we develop skill in being the change we are after.  

This,I hold, is the turning lead into gold in the U.S.A. way. I know it.

Not about it because I have had wise elders to guide me, especially Marty and Murat. Do you? Elders make the difference.

What I have learned is that the turning lead into gold way; a participatory, hands-on GAME, folks, requiring face time.

Jack and I spoke of this, at length, last night on our Possible Society In Motion Show.

Our topic drew upon my article, “Putting First Things First,” built upon one of the most hopeful commentaries I have read in a long time, “Bypass Washington, Save America” by Eric Liu .

Thus, the answer to my question

“How can the president of the United States of America lie to the American people – and – they believe him?”

… might be phrased this way, folks, if you are not an active part of the solution, point your finger back at yourself and take a good luck in the mirror.

YOU are a part of the problem!

Jack and I hope you will join us, for each and every one of our programs; our on the air “grown-ups forum.”

Your president need not be instead of YOU!