Happy Holidays! As we approach the end of 2014, here are some headlines in the OWL community:

• Kay Sandberg, one of our founding members, and founder & president of Global Force for Healing, invites you to join her now in supporting the UN Millennium Goals to dramatically reduce — in global communities with limited access to care — the number of mamas & babies dying needlessly in childbirth.
• Invitations to ServiceSpace events during the holiday season:
  • Awakin Circle in Silicon Valley: Dec. 24 & 31
  • Global Awakin Call on Dec. 27
  • Karma Kitchen in Berkeley on Dec. 28
• Silence with the Condor, one of the most unique and unusual wisdom circles you’ll ever experience, on Dec. 28.
• The first 2015 gathering of our global video-circle, OWL Wisdom Circle 1, on January 13, will feature Deidre Combs as first speaker. Deidre will discuss her 20-year journey resolving cross-cultural conflict, including her current assignment as trainer and coach with the U.S. State Department.
• Highlights from our January Calendar of Wisdom Circles.

If you’ve got any news, updates or events (see guidelines in the OWL Wisdom Circle Calendar) that you’d like to share with the OWL community, please let me know.

Wishing you a joyful holiday season and a happy new year!

In gratitude.

Aryae

An invite from Kay Sandberg

Dear Owl Friends,

I’m a fellow OWL and founder/president of Global Force for Healing, a grassroots social-profit organization based in Ashland, OR.

I invite you to join us in supporting the UN Millennium Goals to dramatically reduce the number of mamas & babies dying needlessly in childbirth in global communities with limited access to care by 12/31/15. 90% of these deaths could easily be prevented.

To learn more, and find out how you can get involved and help, please see Kay’s post on the OWL Blog.
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Dec. 24, 31: Silicon Valley Awakin Circle

Awakin Circles are a project of ServiceSpace, which is guided by the vision:

Change Yourself, Change the World
We believe in the inherent generosity of others and aim to ignite that spirit of service. Through our small, collective acts, we aim to transform ourselves and the world.

Awakin Silicon Valley is held every Wednesday, 7 – 10 PM. The agenda:

Find out more.

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Dec. 27: Global Awakin Call

Global Awakin Calls are also a project of ServiceSpace.

They’re held every Saturday, 9:00 – 10:30 AM Pacific Time, by dial-in teleconference, to share insights and inspiration with like-minded people from around the world.

Find out more.

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Dec. 28: Silence with the Condor

Wildlife Associates offers an amazing and rare opportunity to sit in silence with an Andean Condor who has an impressive eight-foot wingspan.

Afterwards you will have time to share and ask questions with Wildlife Associates Founder Steve Karlin. This is a technology-free experience.

Find out more.

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Dec. 28: Karma Kitchen

Karma Kitchen first opened in Berkeley on March 31st 2007, by several volunteers inspired to seed the value of a “gift economy”. It has now spread around the globe.

Run by volunteers, our meals are cooked and served with love, and offered to the guest as a genuine gift. To complete the full circle of giving and sustain this experiment, guests make contributions in the spirit of pay-it-forward to those who will come after them. In keeping this chain going, the generosity of both guests and volunteers helps to create a future that moves from transaction to trust, from self-oriented isolation to shared commitment, and from fear of scarcity to celebration of abundance.

Karma kitchen in Berkeley is held the last Sunday of every month

Find out more.

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January 8: Coastside Community Circle

Neighbors and friends in the Half Moon Bay area sharing time for silence and reflection, connecting with ourselves, each other, our community, and the world. The inspiration comes from Awakin Circles. We share the vision of changing ourselves / changing the world.

Held in El Granada on the 2nd Thursday most months at 6:30 PM, at the home of Aryae and Wendy.

Find out more.

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January 13: OWL Wisdom Circle 1

The founding wisdom circle of the OWL community, and an incubator for wisdom circles around the world. Our purpose: to support a course change for humanity by supporting each other.

This is a monthly global video conference. Our first speaker in January is Deidre Combs, an author, consultant, teacher, adjunct faculty member at Columbia University and an assistant professor at Montana State University. Over the past 20 years she has been facilitating dialogue and providing cross-cultural conflict resolution training after writing three books on that topic. She provides leadership training and coaching for State Department sponsored international activists, teachers, and government and university student leaders.


Deidre will share her story, vision, challenges that she’s engaged with — and offer a question to the group for reflection.

Find out more.

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January Wisdom Circle Calendar

You can find all the information you need to sign up for any of our January events at the January Wisdom Circle Calendar.