Aging, Service, Community and Commitment Every Single Day in Bangor...

"On call 24 hours a day for the past five years, a group of senior citizens has made history by greeting over 900,000 American troops at a tiny airport in Bangor, Maine. The Way We Get By is an intimate look at three of these greeters as they confront the universal losses that come with aging and rediscover their reason for living. Bill Knight, Jerry Mundy and Joan Gaudet find the strength to overcome their personal battles and transform their lives through service. This inspirational and surprising story shatters the stereotypes of today's senior citizens as the greeters redefine the meaning of community."

The 2 plus minute trailer is heart warming and inspirational...

The Healing of America

Foreign correspondent for The Washington Post, T.R. Reid, traveled around the world trying to find an affordable health care system for the United States. In his book, The Healing of America, Reid convincingly argues that an effective universal health care system in the United States is possible. The above video is a brief interview with Reid.



To learn more, check out the following:

5 Myths About Health Care Around the World

Excerpt from The Healing of America

The Healing of America on Fora Tv

Frontline: Sick Around the World (Can the US learn anything from the rest of the world about how to run a health care system?)

Teen Art Tuesdays at the Lewiston Public Library

A wonderful new program is being offered at the Lewiston Public library called Teen Art Tuesday. "...a free informal weekly arts and crafts program designed to provide teens with an opportunity to exercise their creative right-brains!This new program will provide youth between the ages of 13 and 18 with the materials, instructions and assistance to make fun and creative projects.

Teen Art Tuesday will allow teens to explore various styles of art and to work with many different media. The projects act as foundations which youth can build upon to create their own personalized masterpieces. Projects ideas include advanced bean mosaics, bookmaking from everyday items, collage art, 3-D photo illusions, t-shirt alterations, and jewelry making. Teens are encouraged to recommend other project ideas as well.

The program runs from 3-6 p.m. in the Teen Room every Tuesday. For more information, stop by the Reference Desk or contact Molly at 513-3004 x 3521 or mladd@ci.lewiston.me.us."

We Are All One

Women's Wisdom Group in Lewiston

This past Sunday I participated in a guiding circle for the Women’s Institute of Maine, a very special community of women run strictly by volunteers which currently offers a monthly women’s circle, women’s circle trainings, and a number of online resources “to amplify women’s wisdom and voice.” From my very first experience sitting in a circle of women, I have been nurtured, inspired, taught, and touched. Last Sunday, surrounded by deeply caring and committed women was no exception.

In Circle of Stones: Woman's Journey to Herself, Judith Duerk wrote, “How might your life have been different if there had been a place for you? A place for you to go… a place of women, to help you learn the ways of woman… a place where you were nurtured from an ancient flow sustaining you and steadying you as you sought to become yourself. A place of women to help you find and trust the ancient flow already there within yourself… waiting to be released… A place of women… How might your life be different?”

When women regularly experience the wisdom, warmth, and acceptance of other women who came together to offer support and to honor one another’s voices through deep listening - the kind of listening that creates “containers of emergence,”[i] lives are eventually transformed.

It’s in a circle of women that we very often come closest to ourselves, discover aspects of our own sacred story mirrored in the story of another; claim our gifts and strengths very often for the first time, and learn to trust the darkness as we fully experience our pain while being held in the hearts of our sisters.

If you are a woman and live within a commutable distance to Lewiston/Auburn, I would like to warmly invite you to join us at the Center for Wisdom’s Women on Tuesday, October 6^th from 1:00 to 2:30 for our first wisdom circle. The center is located at 97 Blake Street in Lewiston and is committed to helping women discover their inner resources, pursue life affirming relationships, and develop their potential. Participation in the Wisdom Circle is free.

Rainer Maria Rilke observed, “there is nothing as wise as a circle.” Following are some helpful resources regarding forming and maintaining circles.

The Women’s Institute of Maine Wisdom Circle Page

The Wisdom Circles Homepage

Becoming: Women’s Circles Women’s Lives

[i] Anderson, Sherry Ruth, and Patricia Hopkins, The Feminine Face of God: The Unfolding of the Sacred in Women (Bantam, 1992.)