Inner Remodeling

One of the New Years traditions I experienced in Italy that left an incredible mark on me - almost literally, and you'll soon understand why I say that - was that of getting rid of old "stuff" all during the day and night of New Years Eve. This tradition is especially visible and dramatic in Naples, where I had the great fortune to experience one such heralding of the New Year, which is actually renowned in all of Italy for how wildly dramatic the Neapolitans are on this holiday. They take it very seriously indeed, with literally everyone doing some fireworks themselves, to the point where the whole city is a-crackle with everything from sparklers to bombs for hours on end. It is quite a sight to see, and the smog that is created afterward from the smoke of so many pyrotechnics can linger in the hills of the city and over the bay well into the morning! The national papers also carry the news the next day on how many people were injured during the festivities - the tally is usually quite high - but that never seems to deter anyone!

But one of their most unique traditions is that of how they actually get rid of the old. 

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The Greatest Gift

I have been thinking a lot these last few weeks about what I would like the Holiday Season to feel like this year.

In the past, it has always brought me a mixture of pleasure and stress, the pleasure being in entering into the spirit of giving and the time spent with family and friends, and the stress being in figuring out how to spread out my time, energy and money in ways that feel right for me and don't leave me too depleted.

I have been pondering a lot about how to keep the stress levels at a minimum this year, because I feel that I am at a place where this is very important to me. For anyone who has ever worked with me or had any kind of contact with what I truly believe to be most important in our lives, the phrase "the most important thing is to love yourself" is familiar .... but what does that really mean? And how does that apply during these particular holidays, when giving to others is central to the festivities?

I know the first shock for anyone that hears the words "you must love yourself before anyone else" has to do with the fact that it's a complete turnaround from what we've always heard (perhaps especially women, but I know men get this message too, although in different ways), that we must learn to love others and put ourselves in second place. And there is no question that this kind of message is important as well, because it is human nature for us to be rather egotistical and want everything in our lives to be "all about us".... so it's good to be encouraged to look at how we affect other people with our words and deeds, and become more sensitive to that, and more truly caring about not only those others who are closest to us, our family and friends, but also "all" others. This type of sensitivity and "goodness" is a basic requirement for any healthy kind of human community, and it is something that we all are challenged to work on for all of our lives.

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Inauguration Ceremony

New Studio at

314 South Street, Waukesha, WI 53186

The Center for the Development of the Person LLC now has its own home!!

The inauguration ceremony scheduled for January 8th has been cancelled for now. We will definitely be doing one within the year 2011, so stay tuned for further information!

 

Per gli amici italiani - pagine in italiano !!!

Sto lavorando per tradurre le mie pagine in italiano!

Vai a http://personcenteritaliano.blogspot.com/ .... commenti sono benvenuti!

When Stars are Born

When Stars are Born

Summer 2010

" One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star."

Friedrich Nietzsche

You may have noticed that I like to use pictures from the cosmos - and that I like to change them!

The one I have included above is a Hubble Space Telescope image of a star cluster - an area where new stars are forming - named NGC 602 in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The Small Magellanic Cloud is a dwarf galaxy that is a close neighbor to our Milky Way, at "only" about 200,000 light years away!

I chose this image because June marked nine months since I registered the Center for the Development of the Person as an LLC.

As one friend pointed out, June for me was "birthing time" - since nine months after conception is when humans are ready to leave the womb and begin to survive as individuals separate from the mother, it seems only appropriate to think in these terms for any kind of project.

For stars to be created in the universe, it obviously takes a whole different quantity of "time", but I have always loved the analogy that Antonio Mercurio found years ago between the creation of stars and the birth of individual human beings as "Persons - capable of freely and responsibly loving themselves, loving others and receiving love" (as well as the process that occurs within a group of Existential Personalistic Anthropology).

Stars form when a great cloud of unorganized matter begins to condense and heat up until it finally collapses, eventually reaching a point where the hydrogen atoms begin to fuse and the thermonuclear process begins. Radiation, heat and light are emitted - and we have a new star!

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News

I have the pleasure to announce that a new book is available for download right here on my blog, on the right hand side bar. It is entitled "Antonio Mercurio's Cosmoartistic Anthropology", written by Emanuele Chimienti, Director of the Institute "Gli Ulissidi" (The Ulysseans) in Lecce, Italy. As you can see, I have also uploaded Antonio Mercurio's Book "Hypotheses on Ulysses" so you can download that as well from here!

Also, I have decided to offer a new type of service, which you will find described on the page "Pathways to Authentic Living".

Another bit of news is that I am currently working on my website at http://www.centerperson.com/. I hope to have that up and running soon, with special pages dedicated to members where we can share ideas, information and especially our stories along our journeys of discovery of Self.

"From Kronos to Kairos - the Opportunity of the New Power Paradigm"

Check out my new article, which offers some Anthropo-Astrological insights on the powerful planetary configurations that are currently affecting many of us. Entitled "From Kronos to Kairos - the Opportunity of the New Power Paradigm", you can read it in English on this blog site on the "Articles" page, or in Italian on the IPAE website at http://www.ipae.it/blog/io-e-le-stelle/.

Existential Personalistic Anthropology - Antonio Mercurio's book Hypotheses on Ulysses Available for free download!

Existential Personalistic Anthropology is a theoretical framework developed by Prof. Antonio Mercurio and his collaborators and students at the Sophia University of Rome (SUR) in Rome, Italy, and in the various Institutes and Centers affiliated with it throughout Italy, Europe, Russia and now in the United States of America.

For over 40 years, Prof. Mercurio and his associates have explored the validity of the theories and methodological approaches proposed, and have created a wonderful network of people from all backgrounds who together are committed to becoming Persons, to creating their own lives as Works of Art, and to contributing to the creation of the Life of the Cosmos as a Work of Art as well.

Prof. Mercurio has recently made his book "Hypotheses On Ulysses" available for free download at

http://www.free-ebooks.net/ebook/-Hypotheses-On-Ulysses

This is an ebook version of a work originally published in Italian, recently translated by Martha S. Bache-Wiig. It offers a unique and insightful way of looking at Homer's Odyssey as an ancient book of wisdom, which can offer precious guidance to contemporary humanity in their struggles to transform their traumas and conditioning into opportunities for growth, which is essential to the ability to create "glorious concordance" in the couple relationship. Seen through the lens offered by Prof. Mercurio, who has decades of experience helping people move past the temptation to remain Victims of their trauma and instead become Artists of their own Lives and of the Life of the Cosmos, the Odyssey takes on a completely new meaning and purpose, that can't help but touch profound chords of recognition and inspiration in the hearts and minds of people throughout the world.