Diabetes: How To Be Helpful Without Becoming the 'Food Police'”

Our warm, winter sessions continue on February 2 when the topic will be "Diabetes: How To Be Helpful Without Becoming the 'Food Police'” Join Melissa Melum, registered nurse and certified diabetes educator, for a discussion of diabetes intended to provide a basic understanding that will allow people to provide knowledgeable and appropriate support for friends and family members with this illness.  Although not intended as a diabetes education session for people with diabetes or pre-diabetes, some pointers for meaningful monitoring and lifestyle intervention will be presented. Diabetes is a complex and multi-faceted illness, with no two patients identical with regard to needs and management approaches. However, with a board understanding of the issues, people can provide appropriate support without interfering with patients’ lives or providing misinformation.

 Melissa became a Certified Diabetes Eductor seven years ago. Before partial retirement to North Carolina, she worked as an RN, CDE at Kaiser Permanente in Maryland and at a Joslin Center affiliate at University of Maryland.

"The Gift – A Sound Mind For Life"

On January 19 "The Gift – A Sound Mind For Life" will show how to improve memory, increase focus, and prevent or delay Alzheimer’s. Our returning   presenter, Dr. Suka Chapel-Horst, is an author and wellness educator. She is also the developer of Primary Brain Repair, the First Response for Optimal Health and Wellness.

On January 26 there'll be "A Forum On Forums" led by the O'Keefes, who'd like attendees' suggestions for future programs – topics to discuss, ideas for presentations, potential speakers, etc. Would YOU be willing to present or lead a Forum discussion? How can we increase attendance at forums? Do you have any other suggestions for the forum? Your ideas will help us continue to having interesting and informative forums. Please come, bring friends and ideas!

"Consciousness, Death and Rebirth."

On January 12 Jim Nourse will present "Consciousness, Death and Rebirth."  Fifty years of research in transpersonal psychology, including studies of the near-death-experience, make a compelling case that the materialist position that consciousness is the product of brain chemistry is untrue. We are on the verge of a revolution in the collective awareness of humanity that will establish eternal life and paranormal phenomena, not as articles of faith, but as experiential facts. Jim Nourse, Ph.D. has devoted his 40 year professional career to the study and application of ancient spiritual and healing practices in the modern clinical setting. His work at the Center for Integrated Health and Healing in Brevard combines his training and experience as a clinical psychologist, acupuncturist and time spent with Native American and Hawaiian teachers. He is the author of Simple Spirituality: Finding Your Own Way, and the newly released Opening the Aloha Mind: Healing Self, Healing the World with Ho’oponopono.

"A White Stone Ceremony To Start the New Year,"

Forum's new year begins this Sunday, Jan. 5 at 9:15 when the topic will be "A White Stone Ceremony To Start the New Year," What’s  in a name? The start of a new year is a time of beginnings. Join the O'Keefes for a special ceremony and gift to inaugurate a new you in 2014. Based on Revelations 2:17, “To everyone who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give a white stone on which is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it.” Come join us, receive a white stone from the Holy Land and find your New You!  

"End of Year Spiritual Celebrations"

This Sunday, December 29, in "End of Year Spiritual Celebrations" led by Romella Hart-O’Keefe and Ed O’Keefe, Forum coordinators, two of the most popular end-of-year rituals and spiritual practices (Bowl Burning and World Healing Meditation) will be explained and experienced. Bowl Burning is a ritual cleansing whereby we are guided to privately write on a sheet of paper events and actions that we have done or that have happened to  us or loved ones during the past year that we  would like to erase, overcome, or have disappear from our experience. These papers are then collected and ceremoniously burned. The World Healing Prayer, first produced and spread worldwide by writer/lecturer John Randolph Price and the Quartus Foundation in 1986, is recited by millions of people in many countries at the same time each year, on December 31. We will be celebrating the prayer early on December 29. This will be the 28^thyear for this celebrated prayer.

"Feng Shui – The Bagua Map"

This Sunday, December 8, Judith Nourse, RN will discuss "Feng Shui – The Bagua  Map." Feng Shui is a language of symbols, a philosophy that tells us how our surroundings are affecting every aspect of our lives – our relationships, our spiritual connection, our finances, even the quality of our sleep, our health and wellbeing. The bagua map is a diagram that is superimposed over a floor plan to reveal how Nourishing Ch’i, the life force or energy field that we live in, flows through a home, a building, and even individual rooms. Judith returns to explain the use of this tool. Be prepared for ‘aha moments’ as you begin to associate the bagua with what’s happening in your life. Judith became interested in Feng Shui when she learned that, at its core, it’s all about health and wellbeing. She is a graduate of the Western School of Feng Shui, and combines this school of philosophy with the Tibetan Buddhist approach in her consulting practice.

"WHICH SIDE OF THE HILL DO YOU LIVE ON?"

Advent forums begin this Sunday, December 1 at 9:15 with Luther Dowdy leading"WHICH SIDE OF THE HILL DO YOU LIVE ON?"  One can live on the mean side of the hill and be threatened by  those who have shadows, but have chosen to celebrate the light. Another person may choose to live on the kind side of the hill with their shadows, but have chosen to celebrate the darkness. The souls of both need food and have a right to be wherever they  find themselves. Prayer is an essential food for both. You are invited to explore motives in choosing to live on either the mean or kind side of the hill. The goal in this Forum is self-renewal and food for the soul of those in attendance.

 

Luther Dowdy graduated from Shaw University in Raleigh and had the honor of having Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as his college advisor. He is also a graduate of Colgate Rochester Divinity School in Rochester, NY. Before his retirement in 2000, he was a Student Development Specialist at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, Illinois. A certified Gestalt and Transactional Analyst Therapist, he also studied at the School of Psychodrama in Beacon, NY, studying with Zerka Moreno.  Mr. Dowdy now lives in Snellville, Georgia. He has two sons “and one glorious granddaughter, Taylor," whom he describes as “a peach”.  .