Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor

Joy Caffrey of Joyful Healing Center in Fayetteville

One-On-One Yoga

To the editor:

I was excited to read the Nov. 8 article “Yogis of NWA.” It’s true — we’re quite rich in yoga in our region. I want to add one piece to the discussion that I didn’t see covered. One-on-one yoga instruction can work magic on the participant. I’ve had the good fortune of working privately with yoga teacher Joy Caffrey, who also teaches group classes. The personal focus of the sessions is profound. My body’s specific needs and challenges are addressed with precision, and Joy is also an energy healer, so we are able to work on deeper issues along with physical ones. I’ve experienced changes in these individual sessions that are like what can emerge from great therapy, but with the exhilarating addition of directly and immediately integrating emotional work into the body. I imagine a number of the other local teachers profiled in your story offer one-on-one sessions, and I want to encourage readers to give this approach a shot. It’s changing my life!

Happy holidays,
Gabrielle Idlet

 

Abel Noah Tomlinson during a protest of Occupy NWA last November.

 

Last Day of Freedom

Dear Editor and Beloved Friends:

Today [Nov. 21] is my last day of freedom. I have been sentenced to 20 years with 12 suspended for providing plant medicines [marijuana and LSD] to my community (this means at least two years with good behavior and a good possibility of a three to four month boot camp if accepted later).

Judge me if you like, but I did not think I was doing anything wrong. We live in an extremely unjust society where we go to war for peace, we fight terrorism with terrorism, we provide poisonous pills to people for sicknesses caused by poisonous food and poisonous ideas, we imprison peaceful people while war criminals rule our nation and world. Our world appears to be filled with hate and fear.

However, please know I have dedicated thousands of hours of my time over the past decade working hard to bring peace, justice and environmental sanity to this world using every avenue and talent at my disposal. I do all this because I have an intense and growing Divine Love for everyone and everything, and this Divine Love began its intense growth because I had a profound mystical experience while ingesting magic mushrooms.

I do believe everyone and everything is made of an extremely powerful Love Mind (call it God, Great Spirit or whatever you like), and this Love within All wants us to be happy and at peace. This Love must be realized within everyone and we will have individual and collective peace and justice. I do believe Love is the One Law that matters and governs everything. The more we wake up and follow this Law in each Eternal Moment, the more peace and happiness we will see.

The pain I am undergoing has purpose and meaning, and I have become mostly positive and fearless about it. I believe great pain can lead to the greatest growth, and subsequently higher capacities for Joy. Once I become liberated, I am fairly certain I will be filled with more bliss than ever.

An awesome woman from Eureka Springs said that she believes we have been on the cusp of the Age of Pisces and the Age of Aquarius. We have been a mixture of the two eras since the 1960s. Half of our Group Mind has been filled with the fear-based order and half is being filled with a Love-based order. She suggests the Love-based order will be fully implemented December 21.

Do I know this is absolutely true…no, but it is a nice thing to imagine. I have grown to enjoy imagining the best case scenarios of personal and collective evolution for myself and all others for some time, but always continually accepting things as they come and as they are.

Please know I love all my friends very, very dearly, and to anyone that reads this and doesn’t know me, I am certain I will love you as well once we meet again.

In peace,

Abel Noah Tomlinson

Categories: Commentary