The DESERT MONASTERY & RETREAT CENTER is closing for business at the end of this season. After operating as a short-term getaway and respite retreat for dozens of guests over the past 7 years, we have decided as a Board [of Divine Tools, Unlimited, the parent organization behind DM&RC] to adjust and re-arrange our service programs to better fit our outlook and intentions. It is with a gentle sadness that I see this phase of our work draw to a close... this was a cherished calling and our means of providing spiritual succor to those who found their way to us during a pivotal time in Mankind's history. Despite our very small tangible impact, the mission carried with it great heart and a sincere desire to demonstrate our vision of unity/Oneness that contained the multiplicity/diversity – of all the world's religions, cultures, philosophies and identities. Along the way, we increased our knowledge of and sensitivity to living in closer harmony with the Earth and all Her/Its creatures and aspects, and now we are maturing that experience into our next projects. But I wanted to pause here, and say 'good-bye' to this dear friend that has been our vehicle for an amazing seven years. Thank you to all our guests and visitors, all those who have held awareness of us and support for us in their hearts and minds during that time, and especially to FindTheDivine/SeekARetreat websites for their complimentary listing that brought so many to our gate.

In its place we are developing the following:

• World Peace Ashram – a very small and not-very-Hindu community that is focused on living simply and in harmony with each other and with Nature, upon the Earth, in our arid climate and remote location. If you are familiar with the writings about Anastasia in the Ringing Cedars Serie, you will understand when I say that we have been creating our 'spaces of love' or kin-domains for the past year, and that it will be upon the foundations we are currently developing that our community will be offering future services and outreach programs to share what we've learned and what we believe.
• High Desert Sustainability Institute – utilizing the information and experience gained in creating our passive solar applications, and attempting to reduce all external 'utilities' to a minimum while creating an abundant and comfortable lifestyle, we have realized that we are now able to teach what we have learned to those who have not yet tried living close to the land. By creating and developing the HDSI, we are envisioning a profit-making arm for the non-profit (which DM&RC never was) which will draw the 'next wave' of persons interested to gain experience living in harmony with the Earth, with nature, and themselves. We are developing courses that will gather progressive-minded folks for weekends or week-long opportunities for hands-on learning and practice with solar and sustainable methods of building, planting & gardening, and living. I encourage you to check www.highdesertinstitute.com for coming events, and to visit us in 2011 for our inaugural season – it promises to be a fun way to learn and make friendships that may last a lifetime.

We are also scaling back our participation in WWOOF, World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, which has brought many wonderful volunteers to stay with us over the years, from all over our planet. We have observed that we continue to operate on such a small scale as organic farmers that we have little to teach in that area, and we certainly can't keep more than one volunteer at a time occupied with our little garden. Our greenhouse is likewise small, and more instructive through the HDSI formats than for long-stay volunteers. Again, our deep gratitude to all of our dedicated and joyous volunteers during the past seven years – your legacy lives on in what you worked on and created here, and we hope you will return to see what has grown from your efforts along the way.

One way to express our new directions is that we are no longer open to the public on a daily basis, but only for planned and scheduled events in the years to come. Dropping-by will no longer be an option, and we hope those who find themselves desiring a brief tour-visit will contact us well in advance of their intended date, and accept that we might say a kind 'No, thanks' to your offer to come. We have found that living in close quarters with guests and volunteers for weeks on end requires more attention and energy than we have to consistently offer – I am speaking mostly of myself, believe me! So, Kevin has been building my retreat cabin – the Abode of the Divine Feminine – and the Main House evolves to be the ClubHouse for the Ashram community members. I find myself longing for the solitude and silence that will come from living 'apart from;' it is as if a deep well within me that was filled from a period of contemplation and meditation has run rather dry, and requires a period of refilling in order for me to regain my composure and sense of right livelihood.

There has been much pleasure and satisfaction in creating a way and means to bring spiritual seekers and contemplatives to share in our space for these years, and I wonder what will come next. But my heart tells me that the Divine, the Universe itself, is taking care of that little matter. So, so much has evolved within the vibrations and make-up of Man's thoughts, yearnings and capacities that truly a New Day is dawning. As a follower of the prophetic teachings of several indigenous peoples and faith traditions, I know we have been on the cusp of shifts and developments that mankind has never successfully passed through before, at least not on this planet, not in our collective memory. I like to think of what we are experiencing as an acceleration out of 3-D life into 4^th [wherein our thoughts become actually transparent and known to all, and we all have 'gifts' of clairaudience, clairvoyance, and kinetic powers] and through to 5^th [wherein we no longer have a dense material form but are light-beings, ascended out of density into a celestial 'realm' which has not been lived on Earth before now].

Odd or impossible ideas? Perhaps, but – as John Lennon wrote – 'I'm not the only one' who feels this. Far from it - we are numbering in the millions, and it may be the sheer preponderance of us that carries the rest of mankind along with us into a Time beyond time that required no Armageddon, no nuclear holocaust to Become. Perhaps what we are experiencing is just the upheaval of all that we were attached to about greed & desire, to make room for allowing & acceptance... for Love, and Compassion for all as for ourselves. It is this and much more that I intend to contemplate and facilitate, in my own very small and insignificant ways. For what I have learned is that the most insignificant gesture or act can move mountains, as a raindrop carves great canyons, when combined with millions of others.

I hope you are living the life you imagined... are taking the steps necessary to be in a good place and with loving people, doing what you love. I hope you are making room in your thoughts for things to change from what they have been – that don't any longer work for the whole – to what they are becoming, which are a fulfillment of the Oneness of all Life in every life, in every place, in every act.

I hope your heart is open, and your mind unbound against large, sweeping changes and shifts that will take all of us into realms and ways that we can only barely perceive at the edges of our awareness, ways that we have been kept from seeing and believing in and living. Ways that serve all at the expense of none. Think of Gene Roddenberry's vision in Star Trek – all persons have all they require and much they desire, and they get to do what they want as soon as they know how to do so, and they learn and serve willingly in exchange for what they are provided with. Or as it was put to me recently: yours is the only planet where the people who are born on it are required to pay to live on it, and who suffer often in the inequity between those who control and those whom they control. Think about it: perhaps it is time for a revolution – a quiet one, but the most powerful one in human memory – to reclaim our sovereignty over our food, and water, and energy sources, and our needs & desires... and ultimately over our spiritual natures, and our natural beliefs drawn from experience.

Namaste, all my Brothers & Sisters. Be well, 'live long & prosper' – and may the Force be with you!