Contact Anne
I’m more likely to answer requests from this page since they may involve time considerations such as requests for an appearance or permission to use published material. For less urgent requests, you may also write me at anne@annehillman.net
I personally read all your messages and though an email may take me some time to respond, I greatly appreciate the time you’ve taken to contact me.
I will answer most of your questions here so that other readers can share in the discussion, and will amplify them as necessary in an email. I also welcome other kinds of inquiries and comments and look forward to hearing from you.
I respect your privacy. Your email address will never be made available to anyone.
~ Anne ~
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Comments on Contact Anne
Cathie Kernaghan @ 4:01 pm
@Anne Hillman:
admin @ 2:17 pm
Dear Nadine, I rarely get long messages like yours on the contact page of my website and I find myself deeply moved by what you have written. I’m very grateful that you’ve taken the time to read AEL several times — each time discovering something new. Please feel free to email me when you have a question. I’d be very happy to dialogue with you.
Warmly,
Anne
nadine @ 12:17 pm
Anne,
I want you to know how much I appreciate your book “Awakening the Energies of Love” 2nd edition.
I believe it was 2018 when I purchased my copy (which is now well worn with much underlining and margin notes and a few loose pages).
I have referenced it often – for my own self and to share with others in my spiritual circles.
I re-read it completely, for a second time, in 2020.
Recently I felt the call to return to it yet again. . . currently reading slowly, on purpose and with a deeper presence.
Each time I discover something new.
sending you much love with great gratitude,
nadine
admin @ 1:24 pm
Hi Andy, Regarding your request: I’m delighted to give you permission to reprint! Please credit Anne Hillman, The Dancing Animal Woman, 3rd printing. Bramble Books, 1994
admin @ 1:23 pm
Hi Andy, Regarding your request: I’m delighted to give you permission to reprint! Please credit Anne Hillman, The Dancing Animal Woman, 3rd printing. Bramble Books, 1994
Andrew Justus Fritz @ 8:05 pm
Hello Anne,
Thank you for making a request available. I’d like to request permission to use “We Look with Uncertainty” for a booklet my non-profit organization, Renewal in the Wilderness, is creating. The poem will be used alongside original writings. The booklet is not for sale.
Thank you for your willingness to consider! We are indeed very grateful.
Andrew Justus Fritz @ 6:00 pm
Hello Anne,
I’d like to request the use of the following poems for reprint in a booklet for a dissolving non-profit organization as a gift to friends and supporters. Your poem will be used alongside original content to support, lift, and inspire others.
With your permission, we would like to request the poem “We Look with Uncertainty”.
I would be happy to provide more details if requested. Thank you so much for your willingness to consider.
Anne Hillman @ 1:09 pm
@Cathie Kernaghan:
Cathie, I would be delighted to have you perform “We Look with Uncertainty” in an upcoming speech arts exam. I’m sorry I didn’t see this until now. It wold help to have had your email on this request to be sure that you received this permission.
admin @ 6:34 pm
Thank you Nancy! I’ve written you an email and I’m just delighted you are using this quotation. Warmly, Anne
Nancy O. Arnold @ 4:26 pm
Dear Anne,
I love your poem that begins with “We are all on a journey together…” and would like to
include it in a multi-platform worship service I’m leading next Sunday. Because we livestream the service from the sanctuary, and record it for the church (UU Church of Peterborough, NH) web page, I would like your permission to include it in the service. A lot of your writings speak to me, but I’ve included this particular one in services (in-person only) for several years now.
May I have your permission to use it? Thank you for your consideration. And thank you for sharing your own inner journey with us. Blessings, Nancy
Cathie Kernaghan @ 4:09 pm
@:
Dear Anne,
I would appreciate your permission to perform “We Look with Uncertainty” in an upcoming speech arts exam that I am completing for the Toronto Conservatory. Your work deeply resonates with and within me.
admin @ 8:12 pm
Thank you. I’ve sent you an email.
Carrie Lee Bland-Kendall @ 6:58 am
Hi Anne,
I am contacting you to ask permission to record a vo of your poem, We Look With Uncertainty. I am an actor and storyteller, and I love to share poems that move me on my YT.
Thank you for your consideration,
Carrie Lee
https://www.carrieleebland-kendall.com/poetry
Coqui Conkey @ 6:06 pm
I would like to have your permission to use “We Look with Uncertainty” as part of the worship service at Associated Church in Owatonna, MN on 9/12/21. We live stream our service to Facebook and archive them on our website (associatedchurch.org) as well as Facebook. Our recorded service is broadcast on our local cable station later in the week.
I would greatly appreciate this permission.
Rev. Coqui Conkey
Rev. Karen G. Johnston @ 7:38 pm
@: THANK YOU!
admin @ 7:16 pm
Karen, I’d be delighted for you to use it! You have my permission with many blessings
Rev. Karen G. Johnston @ 7:41 pm
Dear Anne,
I am seeking permission to include your poem, “We Look with Uncertainty” in a curriculum called, “Date with Death Club: exploring mortality in community.” It would be included in an appendix of readings to use when lighting a candle at the start of a session. It would be a wonderful addition. Thank you for considering this request. ~ Karen
admin @ 3:22 pm
Sheila, thank you for your request. I’d be delighted to give you permission and will follow up with an email to you.
Sheila Wathen @ 6:41 am
Dear Anne,
I just re-emailed you a request originally sent 12/28/20, requesting permission to use some excerpts from you book for a Congregation reflection booklet being published soon for use by Adrian Dominican Sisters. If possible, please respond as soon as you can.
Many thanks!
admin @ 8:19 am
Sara please see new comment: We’re trying to store it in a different place. Please try again in a week!
admin @ 8:18 am
I’m so sorry. We’re trying to store it in a different place. Please try again n a week!
Therese Tappouni @ 6:02 am
I tried to download the link on stress and was told the page was not active. I would love to view this video, as our work is on stress. Thank you for your beautiful words.
admin @ 5:01 pm
Hi Sara, Thank you for writing and alerting me! I had no idea. I’ve got my web helper working on it and it may be a few days. I’ll also send this as an email to you to be sure you have a response. I’m so glad you’re enjoying Awakening the Energies of Love!
Warmly,
Anne
Sara Gates @ 10:02 am
Hi. I would very much like to see your video The Evolution of Stress. Today when I submitted the request via your website I got sent to a page that said the email list was not active.
Could you please send me a link for the video?
I just got your book this week and am enjoying it. Thank you for writing it and sharing your journey.
Sara
admin @ 11:21 am
Thank you Laurel, I would be delighted to be your guest a little later——I’m offering a 3-day retreat in Washington state just a few days after the date you requested. Perhaps you might be hosting again in July or August—preferably the latter! I’ll send a copy of this reply to you and continue to respond to you from now on by email.
Warmly,
Anne
Laurel Trujillo @ 3:33 pm
Dear Anne,
I am the Producer and regular guest host of a podcast called The Yoga Hour, which was created by Ellen Grace O’Brian, whom I believe you know. We are interested in having you as a guest on the show, which records on Thursday mornings from 8-9 AM Pacific Time, and then is available as a podcast on iTunes and other platforms. We would like to feature your book, Awakening the Energies of Love. The show is currently averaging 10,000 downloads per month. We have an opening on June 15, when I will be hosting the program. Would that date work in your calendar? If not, we can look at some future dates. Please let me know of any questions. Regards, Laurel Trujillo MD, Producer and regular guest host of The Yoga Hour
admin @ 9:44 am
Dear Tom, Thank you for your inquiry. I am happy to give you permission to use the poem, “We Look With Uncertainty,” if you would please note its source on any printed material: Anne Hillman, The Dancing Animal Woman—A Celebration of Life. I am grateful for your work in these meetings on “Healing Democracy.” I’m about to design an experiential 3-day weekend with a similar focus for a gathering in Bellingham, WA on June 23-25 2017, and would be very grateful for anything you’d like to share with me about your process. I’ll also send this response to you by email.
Warmly,
Anne
Thomas Beech @ 9:19 am
Dear Ms. Hillman, I’m facilitating a series of meetings here in Kalamazoo on “Healing Democracy.” We are using Parker Palmer’s 5 Habits of the Heart from his most recent book as a framework for this series. Next Tuesday, we will be exploring the 3rd Habit, “Holding Tension in Life-giving Ways.” We would like to share your wonderful poem, “We Look With Uncertainty,” with participants as a way to delve more deeply into this subject. Can you give us permission to copy and share this with the 50-60 people who will be in this session?
Thanks very much.
admin @ 9:22 am
Hi Andy, Your project sounds wonderful and I’d be delighted to talk with you further. I’ll send you an email, but in the meantime, I suggest you order a copy of Awakening the Energies of Love through the link on this website and I’ll have some page numbers for you to read as a starter. (Please consider the hard work of authors and publishers and choose a new copy: Amazon’s used book practice has made it pretty difficult for us!) Love your elephant title with the double meaning!!
Warmly,
Anne
Andy Horning @ 6:53 am
Hi Anne,
About 4 years ago I was struggling in my marriage when I came across your poem Uncertainty.
Wow…it broke my heart and gave me hope at the same time. At the time I had been a couples therapist for years and so my struggles felt even more acute…I could help others but couldn’t help my own marriage.
We have worked incredibly hard since then to right the ship, improve our relationship through a commitment to this third entity, our marriage. Thank-you for your work on moving into this “softer more malleable place that is at once more alive…”. Wow. Change is hard and this describes so well my experience as a husband trying to move into different behaviors and ways of being with my wife.
This part below is a request:
I’ve also been developing a podcast and platform to normalize and change the culture about how we talk about relationships. We are set for a late January release. We are talking about all things relationship by interviewing experts, recording couples having courageous conversations with one another, and going out on the street and hearing from individuals. Its called Elephant Talk because of both naming the elephant in the room AND the elephant parable about blind men describing the same thing, an elephant, in very different ways because they were holding different parts.
Anyway! I would so love to interview you and get your wisdom on love and opening to that edge in ourselves in our partner where growth can really happen. Would you be willing? Our website is a work in progress and so is being redone…
Thanks for your time Anne. And for your work in the world. Beautiful!
Andy
Creator and Host
Elephant Talk
January 26 release
admin @ 4:22 pm
Michelle, Thank you for your request. Yes bookstores do this all the time. I’ll respond to you in more detail by email.
Michelle Allison @ 11:30 am
Is there a way to order books at wholesale for my store?
admin @ 12:57 pm
Laura, Thank you for your request. I’ve sent you an email. Please let me know if you have not received it.
Laura @ 12:17 pm
Hi Anne,
I am interested in reprinting your poem “We look with uncertainty” in a volume of prayers, poems, and hymns to celebrate vocation that will be published by Wipf & Stock. Would it be possible to get an email address for you so that I could communicate the details of this request to you?
Thank you so much,
Laura
admin @ 3:49 pm
Dear Sister Bonnie, Thank you for your inquiry. I’m happy to consider your request and will respond by email.
Warmly, Anne
Sister Bonnie MacLellan @ 11:37 am
Good afternoon Anne. I am currently serving as General Superior (aka Elected president) of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Sault St. Marie. Our congregation will be having our General Chapter (meeting of the congregation to review the past four years and set priorities for the following four years) April 13-21, 2018.
We are wondering if you might be available and interested in providing two days of input on April 14/15, 2018 on the new consciousness our universe and our Church is moving towards. If you would consider this invitation, could you please indicate your speaker’s fee?
Thank you in advance for your kind consideration of this request.
Sister Bonnie MacLellan
admin @ 8:26 pm
Dear Mary,
You absolutely have my permission to use my poem. A typical attribution has been: “All rights reserved. Printed by kind permission of the poet. Awakening the Energies of Love; The Dancing of Animal Woman, http://www.annehillman.net.” I am so glad that you found it helpful, and I’m touched that you are considering reprinting it.
Anne
Mary Gandour @ 1:32 pm
Dear Anne,
Thank you so much for your work which I have been drawn to through my search for permission and the proper way to reference your deeply meaningful poem, “We look with uncertainty”. I hope to use it as part of a book section about living with questions. I am down to Notes for this story about my family’s pilgrimage after my younger daughter suggested that we had a lot more work to do on her older sister’s death from leukemia almost 16 years earlier.
With gratitude for your work,
Mary
admin @ 1:49 pm
Dear Sr Barbara, I’d be delighted to talk with you about making a presentation in Providence in June 2018. I’ll send you an email so you may reach me directly. I’m also wondering if you received my iContact mailing about the brand new 2nd Edition of Awakening the Energies of Love? I’m so excited about it!
Warmly,
Anne
Barbara McMullen @ 11:26 am
Anne,
I am wondering if you ever do presentations for non-profit groups, like a federation of Sisters of Providence. I am the Executive Director and would love to have a conversation with you about this matter. We are looking to have another Providence Event in June of 2018. Previous presenters for us have been: 2008-Brian Swimme; 2012-Ron Rolheiser, OMI; 2015-Ilia Delio, OSF. It appears to me that you might be a next choice to take us further in the journey! Please contact me at your earliest convenience.
Thanks,
Sr. Barbara
Doris Wedige @ 6:00 pm
I would love to send you a copy. The email I received did not include your address. Will you send it again? I appreciate all of your support and enthusiasm. Thank you.
admin @ 5:04 pm
Doris by now you and I have had emails back-and-forth and your book should have been published! I’ll send you an email with my address and would be honored to have a copy.
admin @ 5:02 pm
Thank you Bob. I’m very grateful for your response and more than apologetic that mine has come so late to you!
Warmly,
Anne
admin @ 5:00 pm
Chrisie, thank you! I love stories like this! I trust our deep connectedness with all the beings.
Warmly,
Anne
admin @ 4:55 pm
Steve, Thank you for your very thoughtful message. Several people have written very moving letters and emails to tell me that after they’ve finished reading Awakening the Energies of Love, they’ve kept it by their bedside or reading table and open it at random as a prompt for their daily contemplation or meditation. Congratulations on your new book! Thank you also for your kind offer to help me. Actually, the book is not out of print. There have been some complexities with its distribution which has affected Amazon’s automated messages. But a second, beautifully edited edition with some new material is coming out hopefully, by December. I’ll put you on my mailing list to let you know.
Gratefully,
Anne
admin @ 4:42 pm
Sydney, Thank you for this beautiful message. I’m sorry it’s taken so long for me to respond to you. It didn’t come through to my email which usually happens automatically. I’d be delighted to give you permission to republish “We Look with Uncertainty.” Please add the quotation’s source, Anne Hillman, The Dancing Animal Woman — A Celebration of Life
Warmly,
Anne
Steve Donoso @ 7:20 am
Hello Anne. Thank you for the gift (to all of us) of Awakening the Energies of Love. I am currently reading it as my morning book. I read a couple of pages each morning and live with the book for a longer period of 3-6 months. I am sorry to see that the book is out-of-print and feel that its life needs to be renewed, either as a paperback, an eBook or both. Having recently self-published a book, Returning the Gift, through Amazon in both physical and e-book form, I would gladly refer you to a wonderful and reasonable woman who could professionally format your book for both physical and electronic publication.
Warmly,
Steve
Sydney @ 3:57 pm
Dear Anne,
I hope this note finds you well.
My boss Trudy Goodman has used a quote from one of your poems in her blog:
This is 70
Posted on June 15, 2015 by bookclub
“We look with uncertainty
beyond the old seeking of
clear-cut answers
to a softer, more permeable aliveness
which is every moment
at the brink of death;
for something new is being born in us
if we but let it.
We stand at a new doorway,
awaiting that which comes…
daring to be human creatures,
vulnerable to the beauty of existence.”
— Anne Hillman
My cousin Myra sent me a video of their three dogs whom I haven’t seen for six months. Henry is no longer a cuddly little puppy; Oscar has matured and grown to love him, and elder Jack is much thinner; friendly and frail, he lies still, observing Henry and Oscar play. They are a tableau of life — playing, nosing around, and inevitably, changing. Growing older, and finally, old.
When I tell people I turn 70 this month, the spontaneous reaction is usually a surprised, “Oh! I didn’t know you were that OLD!” It’s a funny mirror held up to my own sense of being young thanks to the blessing of good health and energy. Then the question: “How does it feel?” The felt sense is exactly the same – moment by moment, life unfolding in the form of this birdsong, this rug under my feet, this stillness, these fingers writing thoughts on this computer right now. Only THIS.
Where is 70? Where is young, or old? These are thoughts, concepts, and as the dogs and our mirrors vividly illustrate, they have a certain reality. But our LIVED experience, fresh and alive, is inconceivable, can’t be captured in concepts or words.
It is inconceivable to be any age, but especially this one.
What I mean is that THIS is 70. Sharing the wisdom teachings, swimming in the ocean, falling in love over and over. Life in the form of THIS moment, this body, this heart, this identity, this being.
I vow to create and play and meditate and swim in the ocean and love each day of the next decades with the same full heart and timeless spirit that I learned from the Dharma. My birthday wish: Practice with me, and open the gates to a heartful life!
Love,
Trudy
We are going to reproduce this and wanted to have your permission to do so.
Please let us know how to proceed if more is needed than your name.
Warmest Wishes,
Sydney
sydney@insightla.org
admin @ 11:12 am
Isn’t it strange and wonderful, Chrisie, how we can know in our hearts that everything is connected, and yet are so surprised when these things happen! Keep paying attention and you’ll see it everywhere.
With many blessings,
Anne
admin @ 11:09 am
Hi Elizabeth, I’d be delighted to have you use that excerpt from The Dancing Animal Woman ~ A Celebration of Life. It would be helpful if you’d credit credit the book title in your program. I’ll also confirm this permission in an email.
Warmly,
Anne
elizabeth @ 10:47 am
Hello, Anne,
We were hoping to be able to use your work, “We Look with Uncertainty” in a bulletin for Easter services at two locations in upstate New York this coming Easter holiday. Would you be able to grant us this permission?
Best,
Liz
Chrisie Jennings @ 7:39 am
Morning Anne! (I can’t find your email address?) Thank you again so much! It was so wonderful meeting you!!!
I just HAVE to share this with you…..so I was on the plane from San Francisco to LA (on my way to head back to Texas- on Monday) and I was reading the bit about 11:50 a.m. I looked down at my phone (they still keep time even in airplane mode), and it was 11:50 a.m.when I was reading the story!!!!! Is that not just wonderful!?! Still gives me the chills. Anyway, talk to later!
Chrisie 🙂
admin @ 1:53 pm
Dear Sue, I am deeply moved by your message. It means a lot to me to hear such realness about you and your journey.Thank you. In time, you will be a “lifesaver” to others. You can be sure of that.
About Australia: I was very grateful to be asked to come to Australia right after The Dancing Animal Woman was published in 1994 to lecture and give an all-day workshop at the University in Sydney and to speak and give several workshops at a week-long summer institute at the University in Perth. I also had the opportunity to talk with a gathering at the home of one of a group of readers in Melbourne. Since then, I’ve been to Australia twice more for personal trips. I love your country and its people!
While it is unlikely I’ll be traveling there again, I’ve begun to make connections with small groups of readers on Skype or on a free conference call (the latter is easier for me). My only condition is this: The second had book market has devastated small publishers like mine. So if you would like to gather a reading group of 8 people including yourself, I’d be glad to have a conversation with you and your group, so as long as your companions buy a brand new copy of Awakening the Energies of Love on Amazon, or order a copy through their bookstores. Second-hand books or “new” books from 3rd party sellers on Amazon or anywhere else don’t count! I look forward to that possibility with you, Sue.
With many blessings on your journey, and with Love,
Anne
sue mcgovern @ 1:26 am
Dear Anne, I have read both your books and have been moved profoundly by each. My own journey of the universe started and has continued to be about learning to love myself, others, life and the universe that i feel so drawn to. Although new to the language and writings on the subject of mystery and the inner journey i am finding that i am less able to live in the world of superficiality and am drawn to live at greater and greater depth. Your journeyings resound and reverberate within me as I struggle with the who i am and what is God and what do i do? I have recently given up work, study and way of life to immerse myself in eco spirituality, inner work and the mystery of life. I have a story to tell and I’m finding that I’m not alone thanks to your writings and that my story is part of the universe story which i must learn to be more attentive to and listen with an open mind, heart and soul. So thank you Anne you’re a bit of a lifesaver to me and many others i can imagine. I wonder if you’ll ever be in Australia, if so I’d love to speak with you. yours Sue
Bob Schoenecker @ 9:05 am
Dear Anne,
I just read your poem “We Look with Uncertainty” on the gratefulness.org website. It stirred me to go to your website which will now become a permanent visitation place for me. Thank you for pursuing Teilhard de Chardin’s wisdom in a way that helps us discover fire for the second time.
Blessings to you.
– Bob
Saoirse McClory @ 9:06 am
@:
Dear Anne,
We are delighted to receive your permission to post your poem on our website and also uplifted to hear that you are familiar with and appreciate Br. David Stendl-Rast’s work and gratefulness.org.
Your writing is powerful and touches me deeply. I just read your essay in Kosmos and some of your exchanges on the forum. I’m drawn to taking a deeper dive and plan to create some time in the coming days to do so. Thank you for sharing your gift of articulating the subtle, rich, and mysterious reality that we are waking to and for guiding us in intimacy and engagement.
With a deep bow,
Saoirse
admin @ 10:37 am
Dear Saorise, Thank you for your request. I would be honored to have you post “We Look with Uncertainty” on the Gratefulness.org website, for which I have great respect. If you would please acknowledge the source,I would greatly appreciate it. Anne Hillman, The Dancing Animal Woman ~ A Celebration of Life I’ll be responding to your kind email soon. In the meantime you may want to know that the most recent book Awakening the Energies of Love ~ Discovering Fire for the Second Time was written for people who are truly committed to working a spiritual path and I will be offering a series of 3 free Webinars in February.
Saoirse McClory @ 8:05 am
Dear Anne,
We love your poem “We Look with Uncertainty” and I’m writing to request your permission to post it on our website – http://www.gratefulness.org.
With warm thanks for the powerful work you are doing.
With deep gratitude,
Saoirse
admin @ 4:29 pm
Hi Corinna, Thank you for your inquiry. Yes I’ll be doing a few things this year. There is usually a Soul Work group beginning in September that runs every other week for 10 gatherings. For a description, see the Events page on this website towards the bottom of the page. In addition I’m looking forward to offering a book group to discuss chapters and themes from The Dancing Animal Woman and how they relate to our lives. After that I’ll do a year-long monthly study of Awakening the Energies of Love for people who are truly committed to working a spiritual path.
Corinna @ 9:08 pm
Hello Anne,
I live in the Bay Area and am wondering
whether you are planning a retreat/workshop
in the near future?
With kind regards,
Corinna
annehill @ 1:57 am
@Doris Wedige: Dear Doris, I apologize for the delay in responding to your request. You can send a PDF to me from this same page and I’ll be happy to give you permission: http://www.annehillman.net/contact/
Doris Wedige @ 7:17 pm
Dear Anne:
I am writing to ask for your permission to quote you in my book, Live Beautifully: A Book To Sit With. It is a daybook that is a collection of reflections that offer guidance and inspiration for those who are on the journey of awakening.
If you have authored a publication that would be of interest to my readers, I would consider including a by-line such as:
Anne Hillman
Author of…
This inclusion will depend on space availability and whether I deem the work to be of a common nature.
Please advise me as to how to send you a paper copy of the permission request form or a .pdf file.
With warm regards and gratitude,
Doris Wedige
N3684 Petrie Road
Lake Geneva, WI 53147
Phone: 262-215-4630
Fax: 262-723-4177
admin @ 2:20 pm
Dear Louise, Thank you for letting me know about your response to The Dancing Animal Woman and for describing your experiences afterwards, when you were driving and on the beach. I sometimes think we are so involved in our thoughts, our feelings and our activities, that we don’t notice the presence of our companions on this beautiful planet. Who is to say if such events are truly linked? What matters is that we pay attention and that we make meaning in our lives.
Warmly,
Anne
Louise @ 6:46 am
Dear Anne
Thank you so much for your incredible contribution by way of Dancing Animal Woman. I have just put it down and it was such a beautifully timed read. I particularly wanted to share that an hour after I read the part in which you miraculously encountered deer, I drove past a very unexpected large field full of deer, quite where I wouldn’t expect to see them. I finished the book this morning and went for a run along the beach in Melbourne, where I live, and shortly after reading about your experience of being surrounded by seagulls, I noticed that, while sitting on the beach, I was surrounded by, you guessed it, seagulls on the beach, in a circle.
You have given me such courage in believing in the support I have been suspecting, but not quite daring to fully embrace, and this is such an exquisite gift.
Thank you so much and many blessings to you, may you have a beautiful day
Louise x
admin @ 6:08 pm
Dear Sandra,Thank you for your message. You’ve made some very important comments. I agree with you that we don’t change our minds in the sense that we then understand truth, wisdom, Love, intellectually. Transformation isn’t an intellectual process; it is pure Grace. Love is a Mystery. We cannot explain or describe it, even to ourselves. But we need to do more than go inside and be still:
We are mightily defended, and most of our behavior is unconsciously motivated. So we need to see and to become willing to do our part to prepare for a Gift that is transrational. We will never make it happen by any action of ours, and that includes how we meditate. What we can do is described in part on pages 142-143 in the section titled: “How Can We Contribute to a Change of Mind?” I’ve quoted it below:
“Those who see or hear differently begin the awakening process. Today, as yesterday, most people tend to see the collisions of old and new outside themselves, and then try to resolve those conflicts ‘out there’—between countries, religious persuasions, political parties, race or sexual orientation, ‘haves’ and ‘have nots.’ But when we trust enough to begin to look more deeply into the roots of these issues inside, we discover the same collisions in our own hearts. They may be conflicts between how we want to be with those we love and how we actually behave. Or our deeply held values of peace and non-violence may conflict with a desperate need to protect our families from terrorists, at any cost. Our stated principles of religious freedom may conflict with our criticism of beliefs that others hold. Or our trust in democracy may coincide with hatred for a politician who represents a value we decry. We may pride ourselves on being open-minded, and then discover we’re terrified by others’ sexual behavior. It is easy to understand why most of us would rather not look in this mirror.
“We have seen that transformation can carry with it both blessing and curse, but as fairy tales and myths remind us, no curse can be transformed until it is faced head-on. The frog be kissed; the dangerous task completed; the buried feeling felt.
“Then suffering becomes Love.”
Sandra, in a way, these are only hints, and as you know, hints don’t tell the whole story. But if you look, there are more of these kinds of hints throughout the book . . . The best I can suggest is that you read again from the beginning, and as you read, take note of what strikes you, then sit with it in contemplation for a while–I often spend weeks, even months contemplating one single phrase that’s jumped out at me in a book–and see what happens.
Warmly,
Anne
sandra clapham @ 7:43 pm
I bought your book over three or four years ago on a carnival cruise to Alaska. This morning I re-read Appendix two and wondered where you were now in your understanding of Love. You speak of the great transformations that occur when the people “change their mind”. Can we now change our mind, literally, and understand that the MIND will never ever understand what truth is, what wisdom is, what love is?. It cannot as the mind protects the ego. We change by going within ourselves to the spiritual reality that is innate within us all. This is where we connect with the feelings of love ,and that sense experienced , naturally leads us to the Truth or Wisdom within. Is not man now ready for this leap of faith into the unknown mystery of the spiritual reality that resides within us all to bring peace to mankind? Nothing to do, just be still and go inside self. No intellect involved. I really would appreciate your comments, and hopefully it will not be intellectual. With gratitude, Sandra Clapham
admin @ 6:30 pm
Dear Theresa, I will respond to you directly by email. However, I can assure you that the retreat will offer no platitudes and no band-aids; rather it will be an opportunity to inquire even more deeply into your self. I truly believe that all spiritual life is about surrender.
With great blessing,
Anne
Theresa @ 5:16 pm
[NOTE: I have edited the more personal details of this beautiful message — AH]
Anne, I am considering attending the Guelph conference in April, but I am still not sure what it is about. I know I need to retreat and have time to reflect, because I am struggling with 2 issues and wonder if the weekend may help. I am moving from active employment to retirement and am looking at volunteer work, or I may just let go of ALL work and bake bread and sew quilts. I struggle with my future. I also have a heartbreaking family situation. I don’t know if I could stand to hear that a new kind of love will “conquer all” . I am looking at surrender more than trying to find a loving response.
Would the April retreat have any relevance to me? Theresa
admin @ 2:35 am
Sandy it’s now working, thanks so much!
Warmly,
Anne
admin @ 2:34 am
Nick it’s been working a while. Hope you found it.
Warmly,
Anne
Melinda Gladstone @ 2:39 pm
I want to tell you how much I appreciate your writing; the fact that you can actually find the precise words to weave together your multi-dimensional experiences – when an experience is so sensual, spiritual, emotional, intellectual – how you find words that expertly articulate all the layers of your humanness! A fabulous gift. I have your two books, “Dancing…” and “Awakening…”, and absolutely feel gratitude for your ability to weave and inspire. Thank you. . . And thank you for your radiant photographs . . . We resonate together!
Anne Hillman @ 3:24 pm
Dear Anne, Thank you for your kind note. It’s a delight to hear from another musician! No, no relation to Elsie. . .
Warmly,
Anne
Anne Bright @ 12:55 pm
Good morning Anne! I just ordered 2 book by you from Amazon. i really am into spirituality. I notice you were into Classical Music. I am a graduate of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ. Are you related to Elsie Hillman by any chance? I graduated 53 years ago. Anne Bright
Sandy Jay @ 6:42 pm
Hi,
I am new to your work but am finding it has great synchronicity to my life now. I would love to watch the video, however, it seems to have been disabled. I use a Mac and I’m wondering if it is not compatible with the Mac operating system.
Anne Hillman @ 3:48 pm
Thanks Nick, Thanks to your note, we’ve fixed the free video on my website: The Evolution of Stress. There was a glitch I wasn’t aware of. Nick, I greatly appreciate your feedback and I’d be delighted to spend some time with your group on Long Island. However,I don’t market so can only come to a location by invitation. Groups often join together to sponsor a retreat. If that’s not possible, I’d love to have you join me in Toronto or Madison in April 2013!
Warmly,
Anne
Nick Rutherford @ 3:24 am
I have had no success opening your Evolution of Stress email. No links work – code comes up saying it is disabled.
I wish Anne that you would also do workshops on the east coast. A good place for you to connect with would be Diane Berke at the One Spirit Learning Alliance in NYC; http://onespiritinterfaith.org.
I greatly enjoy your ideas, clarity and writing style in Kosmos 2012. I am co-founder of a group in Southampton NY, the New Thought Spiritual Center of Eastern Long Island ( http://www.godasme.com )
that has given us this rich and joyful experience of community. We don’t have a minister but rather invite guest speakers. I also experience the ‘One Mind’ aspect of group sharing in the vibrant recovery community on Eastern Long Island.
Bless you for the work you do,
Nick Rutherford.
Anne Hillman @ 6:56 pm
Dear Richard, Thank you for your message, It means a lot to me to hear that you are joining so many others who are doing what Thomas Berry called the Great Work of our time.
Warmly,
Anne
Richard Siebels @ 5:03 pm
Hi Anne,
I got your book a couple of years ago and thought/felt it was absolutely wonderful! I find that I go back to it regularly for inspiration. That quote from Teilhard has been very meaningful to me for many years and I thought you did a great job of building around it. In fact that quote is one I use in a presentation I put together titled “Evolutionary Spirituality.”
I truly feel that amazing things are unfolding and it is a great blessing to feel a part of it all.
Thank you for your wonderful book.
Blessings & Peace,
Richard