Esalen� Massage News

Dear Friends,

I write to you from my desk in Big Sur, where I've managed to spend less than 30 days over the last six months. I have been on The Moving Path indeed, traveling, teaching, dancing, and serving in Indonesia, Japan, Greece, Italy, England, California, and Hawaii. I've just spent a moving and inspiring weekend at Esalen Institute, where this phase of my life's work began in 1984.

I'm currently listening to and learning from Bill Clinton's book, Giving. Do you know there are over two million service organizations in the world, all dedicated to serving the public good in some way? That service and citizenship are first cousins? That each of us is now being called to become citizens of the republic in which we live? Service among young people in this country is up an astounding 30 percent since 2000! This comes as great good news to me.

In this spirit, I am sending out a request for funds to build a room for the teaching of Esalen� Massage at a school high in the mountains of Bandung, in central Java, Indonesia. This school, Kubca Samakta, offers housing and education to the disabled youth of Bandung. For more information, please see the attached proposal from Kubca Samakta School, which includes a detailed budget. See proposal here.

With the generous support of The Betsy Gordon Foundation, the students of TKN School of Psychology in Osaka, Japan, and other contributors, MovingVentures School to date has provided scholarships to seven hearing/speech impaired youth, ages 14 to 25, to complete the basic certification in Esalen� Massage.

The minimum wage in Indonesia equals $1.30 USD a day and many people are paid half that. This training, provided at no cost to the student, allows youth with disabilities to make a living wage by providing massage to the tourists who come to the area. The students spend one year learning, practicing and interning, and then are ready to begin earning a sustainable livelihood. Their income can increase tenfold with this education.

We are proud of the work we are doing in Indonesia, and believe the service we offer to the disabled of Bali and Indonesia is unique to our trainings. We are now accepting donations to cover the educational expenses for Indonesian students who will join our 2008 trainings on scholarship.

Please join us in helping these youth, in supporting the struggling economy in Indonesia, and in reducing the number of people living in poverty.

If you can help, you may donate through the MovingVentures Boutique.

MovingVentures School is a 501c3, not for profit educational organization, and we will put to good use any contribution you make. You can read more on our ongoing work in Indonesia below.

In other news, Sue Dormanen and Susie Seflin have joined MVS as writer/fundraiser & CFO/legal counsel respectively, and are helping me in the founding of The Dream Center and establishing a new "world headquarters" for MovingVentures School, please see below for more details. Welcome to both and my thanks for supporting this work.

During this season of gratitude I wish to express my deepest appreciation to each of you, my wonderful fellow seekers and students who make this important work possible. I always look forward to sharing time with you, and I encourage you to join me in some of the many inspiring locations where we offer retreats, workshops, and continuing education for body workers, nurses, yoga teachers, and mfcc's. Please see the sidebar for our upcoming events and trainings around the world.

With heartfelt thanks, Ellen

Moving Ventures School Update

This summer, MovingVentures School offered a month-long Esalen� Massage Certification Training and Karma Camp in Bali, Indonesia. We had 25 students, ten Indonesians on full scholarship, and three translators providing translation into three languages and sign language for our three hearing/speech impaired youth from central Java.

Our training included Hindus, Muslims, Shintos, Buddhists, Agnostics, Christians, Jews, and New Agers. We created community that transcends fundamentalism, learned each other's chants and songs, and prayed together. The group included 8three young Indonesian women who work for a U.S. sponsored nonprofit, Bumi Sehat, or "Gentle Birthing". The death rate for mothers during childbirth in Indonesia is among the highest in the world. These young women aid the women of rural Bali in surviving childbirth, working particularly in Aceh, the epicenter of the earthquake/tsunami, where most people still live under tarps in very difficult circumstances.

Our Karma Camp is a project of love that reaches out to the community while providing our students opportunity to apply newly-learned skills. We took our students to Senang Hati, a community center for disabled Balinese, where we practiced the "laying on of hands" that is such an integral part of Esalen� Massage. In Bali, being disabled is thought of as being cursed by the Gods, so many of the people at Senang Hati had never before experienced loving, healing touch.

We've begun registering students for the Spring 2008 certification training. We are actively looking for a professional photographer interested in becoming certified in Esalen� Massage to keep both a still and moving record of this training. This important position on our team gives the qualified applicant a $1,500 reduction in fees. Interested? Write a note to elllen@movingventures.org; send no photos yet.

Also, beginning in 2008, in conjunction with the first Bali Spirit Festival of yoga, dance, sacred music, retreat, and ceremony, MovingVentures School will offer new week-long retreat workshops in the beautiful flowering jungles of Ubud. I invite you to join us - please see alongside for details.

To learn more about MovingVentures School, view the new Video Presentation on our work: http://www.movingventures.org/about_us/about_us_video.html

The Gift
You've no idea how hard I've looked for a gift to bring You.
Nothing seemed right.

What's the point of bringing gold to the gold mine,
or water to the Ocean.
Everything I came up with was like taking spices to the Orient.

It's no good giving my heart and my soul because
you already have these.

So- I've brought you a mirror.
Look at yourself and remember me.

~Rumi
translated by Coleman Barks

Those Who Don't Feel This Love

Those who don't feel this love
pulling them like a river
those who don't drink dawn
like a cup of spring water
or take sunset like supper
those who don't want to change

let them sleep.

This Love is beyond the study of theology
that old trickery and hypocrisy
If you want to improve your mind that way

sleep on.

I've given up on my brain
I've torn the cloth to shreds
and thrown it away.

If you're not completely naked
wrap your beautiful robe of words around you

and sleep.

~Rumi
translated by Coleman Barks

Come, Dance with Me

Every child has known God
Not the God of right and wrong,
Not the God of laws and rules,
Nor the God who has ever done anything weird,
But the God who knows only four words,
And keeps repeating them, saying,
" Come, Dance with Me. Come, Dance with Me."
~Hafiz
translated by Daniel Ladinsky

Moving Ventures School is a 501(c)3 nonprofit founded by Ellen Watson. Your contributions are tax deductible.
For more information, please visit http://www.movingventures.org, or contact us at info@movingventures.org, 831.667.0477