{"id":87812,"date":"2016-12-22T16:18:31","date_gmt":"2016-12-23T00:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/?p=87812"},"modified":"2016-12-22T16:19:19","modified_gmt":"2016-12-23T00:19:19","slug":"msia-autumn-gathering-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/archives\/87812-msia-autumn-gathering-peace","title":{"rendered":"An MSIA Autumn Gathering of Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018The Gathering\u2019 photo by Kenneth McIntosh
\n(this all looks very calm but what you don\u2019t see is Kenneth sprinting across the grass after setting the timer \u2018:0)
\nFront row seated : Isabel, Margaret. L to R: AJ, Paget, Eleni, Carl, Louise, Sam, Lily, Amanda, Colin, Joyce, Kenneth.<\/p>\n

Hot on the heels of the London Traveller events in September, we had another MSIA \u2018Happening\u2019 here in England which was thoroughly well organised by Sam Westmacott, Andrewjohn and Eleni Clarke, all spurred on by the Traveller visit and also by something J-R had said on a tape about \u2018the importance of coming together.\u2019<\/p>\n

And so it came to pass that on that day, Rememberence Sunday 13th November 2016, thirteen MSIA disciples: Andrewjohn & Eleni Clarke, Sam Westmacott, Carl King, Kenneth McIntosh, Paget Aishling, Colin & Amanda Bean, Joyce Jenkin, Louise Lautman, Isabel & Margaret New and moi aussi, Lily Waterstone \u2013 did meet at Borde Hill Gardens which is AJ and Eleni\u2019s home, for an MSIA Autumn Gathering of Peace.<\/p>\n

Borde Hill House is situated in West Sussex, England. It is something to behold and has the loveliest of gardens (worth a browse online). This day was a bright, cool autumnal day and the gardens, as always, looked stunning.<\/p>\n

We were welcomed by the warmth of AJ & Eleni and found ourselves seated in front of a real log fire burning (that\u2019s a personal favourite thing of mine). Kenneth had brought in a few of his amazing paintings to share with us and they were on display in the room.<\/p>\n

AJ chaired seamlessly and our schedule looked a little like this:<\/p>\n

Welcome and chanting.<\/p>\n

We all contributed a short sentence beginning with the word, \u2018Remember \u2026 \u2018<\/p>\n

We watched a J-R DVD seminar \u201cWhere do you go for Peace\u201d which was chosen as it was Remembrance Sunday.<\/p>\n

We had time for sharing. During the seminar and sharings, there were rainbows all over the room as the light shone through the crystal glass ceiling light and sent vibrant illuminated colour onto faces, hair, the room walls and even in the fire grate!<\/p>\n

Then we gathered together outside in the cool air for group photo mayhem before lunch.<\/p>\n

We had lunch. This had been superbly organised in advance by AJ & Eleni as we were offered a carefully considered menu with a vegetarian option and gluten free, etc. At some point, I found myself drinking the most amazing beetroot juice I\u2019ve ever had!<\/p>\n

There was more warmth and laughter at that table ~ a natural enjoyment of being in each other\u2019s company. I pondered upon the fact that there were 13 of us gathered together around a long table. A gathering in fellowship.<\/p>\n

After lunch, I took the opportunity to go for a walk around the gardens with Whiskey, AJ\u2019s adorable dog, whose enthusiasm for sticks almost makes you want one.
\n\u2018A Walk with Whiskey\u2019 photo by Lily Waterstone
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m always struck by the sound of birdsong in these gardens. There is such a quiet backdrop that you get to really hear them, it\u2019s wonderful.
\nBack at the house and there was an optional discussion on Volunteering and Next Steps for MSIA in the UK.<\/p>\n

This was an opportunity to share, open up some ideas, give feedback, etc. There was a discussion re: practical ways to get information out to the community and on general communication. We agreed for the group to trial a \u2018dummy run\u2019 on some ideas to see how well it works.<\/p>\n

So, all in all, a treasure of a day nestled in our hearts ~ an MSIA Autumn Gathering of Peace, rich in all that was shared. Thank you to each and every one. We got to remember, share, eat, drink, laugh, cry and relax.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Sam, AJ and Eleni for reaching out to the community in this way, for AJ and Eleni\u2019s warm hospitality, for making us all feel so welcome and at ease in their beautiful home and for the way in which they served us. I heard Eleni say, \u2018We should do this more often\u2019 and the happy outcome is that they have offered to host this three times a year ~ in autumn, spring and summer \u2013 this is great news for our community!!!!<\/p>\n

It does us such good.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re right J-R, there is an importance of coming together.<\/p>\n

With Love from Us All in England to You Wherever You May Be,
\nWith Love to our Traveller,
\nMay God Bless Us All xxx<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018The Gathering\u2019 photo by Kenneth McIntosh (this all looks very calm but what you don\u2019t see is Kenneth sprinting across the grass after setting the timer \u2018:0) Front row seated : Isabel, Margaret. L to R: AJ, Paget, Eleni, Carl, Louise, Sam, Lily, Amanda, Colin, Joyce, Kenneth. Hot on the heels of the London Traveller […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":87813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,257],"tags":[89,102],"class_list":["post-87812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-spotlight","category-ndh-archives","tag-msia","tag-peace"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}