Steve Kramer, president
As 2018 approaches, we would like to take the time to thank you for your participation in a resoundingly successful 2017 and offer some highlights from the passing year. In 2016, we aptly titled our year-end review “It’s a Sign,” as we finally put in place an official Spirit Fire welcome sign in the front lawn of our retreat center in Leyden, Massachusetts. Well, this year we thought it befitting to title our year-end review “Paving The Way” as we resurfaced the once-terribly-bumpy long driveway from the road to the retreat center, which has been on our wish list for quite some time. You can rest assured that any way we can make the path toward inner-peace smoother for you, we will! Cheekiness aside, once again, our meditative retreat center saw more guests come through the door than any other year. This translates to more individuals generating awareness in their lives and adding to group consciousness on the planet… something we can all be grateful for these days.
Mindfulness training is finding its way into people’s hearts, minds, homes, professions, and lives in ways we could not have imagined. This year, our center hosted a tremendous number of mindfulness-based retreats and teacher-trainings which had attendees from all over the world. And we have even more on our calendar for next year. This is wonderful news. Mindfulness meditation is scientifically proven to benefit the regulation of emotions, the regulation of attention, and body awareness: this translates to more self-awareness which leads to greater facility in creating an inner-alignment which leads to more peaceful experiences and well-being for practitioners and those around them.
At Spirit Fire, mindfulness plays its part in our meditation practice, the Practice of Living Awareness. The first half of our meditation practice is dedicated to establishing samatha, or mindful inner-alignment, it then moves on to support vipassana, or insight. In a way unique to the Practice of Living Awareness, mindfulness and insight work together to produce a living awareness in one’s life. There are wonderful opportunities to meditate with us in 2018. A new round of our 14-week online meditation program begins on January 8th and will be offered twice more, in May and September. A Living Awareness Retreat is another fine way to experience the practice, group meditation and our meditation center. We’ve designed this year’s retreats to reflect the structure of the practice itself: January’s retreat, Intention, sets the tone for 2018; March’s retreat, Foundations, explores the fundamentals of meditation and the Practice of Living Awareness; June’s retreat, Silence, offers peaceful alignment (samatha); and September’s retreat, Deepening, allows for expansive sittings (vipassana). Our Living Awareness blog continues to grow and meet the needs of meditators with a variety of guided meditation podcasts.
We had the opportunity to utilize our Rai$e It Forward scholarship in 2017. This program allowed for Makeda McKenzie, a meditation student from Trinidad, to attend a teacher-training in August. She writes in her review of the experience, “I recently attended a 5-day silent meditation retreat at this wonderful facility. I am so grateful to have received funding from the Rai$e It Forward scholarship committee to attend the retreat. Without this funding, I would not have been able to attend, and I would have missed out on this transformational experience. My entire time there was like a hug for my soul, and I felt my jagged edges smooth over.” We are so pleased to have this in funding in place and to see the benefits in action.
In 2017, Spirit Fire Radio continued its presence on the airwaves. For our 2nd season, we collaborated with the School for Esoteric Studies to explore universal spiritual principles that guide us toward purposeful living. Finding ways to bring compassion and tolerance to the forefront of human endeavors is important to both of our educational non-profits and so necessary in today’s world. Each month on Spirit Fire Radio, my co-host, Dr. Dorothy Riddle, and I explore a new aspect of conscious living. Our weekly shows have covered topics such as hope, goodwill, harmlessness, discernment, and forgiveness. Our exciting collaboration will continue for another season in which we will explore the Wisdom Teachings and offer insights into ways to make ageless spiritual principles a part of everyday life. Here’s a lovely note from one of our listeners: “I want to take a moment to let you know how much I appreciate Spirit Fire Radio! I travel a great deal for my job and I listen to the archives whenever I'm on a trip for an hour or so. I feel it has supported my overall outlook and approach on my soul journey! You make my day. Love and blessings to each of you for sharing your knowledge, love, wisdom, and authentic selves with the larger community!” We hope you’ve made Spirit Fire Radio a part of your day as well!
Personally, I appreciate that our year-end letter offers me the wonderful opportunity to reflect on the year that has passed. I began writing this letter on December 1, which is World AIDS Day. It took my mind back well beyond 2017. This day has an impact on me every year as I have known so many people whose lives have been touched by this relentless epidemic. After graduating from college, I moved to New York City; the year was 1989, it was the height of the AIDS crisis and NYC was the epicenter. I was determined to create a space where the gay community could feel welcomed and safe; where they could find solace and relief from the tremendous challenges of the times; where they could build upon and take refuge in community; and furthermore, I wanted to contribute to a creative and empowering environment. This vision took the form of a West Village pub which I ran for 20 years. In that time, I witnessed the gay community rise from the trenches of a horrible plague with a reverence for life and a passion to secure basic human and civil rights. In ways that I could not have imagined, the LGBT community has become an integral and dynamic part of the human community.
As a result, I learned the true meaning of this word: community. I learned of its value and role and acquired wisdom that I draw upon daily as president of Spirit Fire. When people who are visiting our non-profit's retreat center ask what I did before running Spirit Fire, they look perplexed when I say that I ran a pub in NYC for 20 years... and the expression gets more exaggerated when I say that there's not so much difference between the two! I explain that people need to feel met, that's the bottom line.
Coming to know and see ourselves as a part of something greater, something beyond ourselves, is fundamental to a meaningful life and spiritual awakening. In my lifetime, I experienced the blossoming of a minority community as they turned to embrace and be embraced by the human community. Within that greater human whole lies the exact same need for solace, relief, creativity, and community. Enter Spirit Fire... an organization dedicated to generating goodwill, fostering interconnection, and creating space for self-exploration, contemplation, and compassionate living. I may have traded mugs for meditation, but my passion for seeing another “come home” to themselves remains unchanged.
These are challenging times in new and provocative ways. Spirit Fire endeavors educate people on the importance of spirituality in everyday life... in other words, the importance of seeing ourselves in one another and building a peaceful and creative world in which our human family can flourish. I am so pleased to be president of this organization and so proud of the work we do.
Our annual fund drive began on Nov 28th, #GivingTuesday, a global giving-day which endeavors to raise money for causes around the world. We were pleased to participate and grateful for your contributions. Our fund drive is still underway. Your giving ensures that Spirit Fire is able to provide people with the opportunity to “come home” to themselves through meditation, our retreat center, and classes on conscious living. Through donations, we are able to maintain our online presence with free meditations and educational programming throughout the year; to keep our broadcasting technology current; and to extend our message through Spirit Fire Radio and social media. Your contributions also support us in providing optimal learning environments and funding scholarships through Spirit Fire's Rai$e It Forward program. Most of all, your giving inspires us to keep Spirit Fire's mission at the forefront of all we do: cultivating consciousness in everyday life.
Thank you for your support!
