January, 2020

In This Issue

• Revisiting the Gift of Emptiness
• Upcoming Workshops

Revisiting The Gift of Emptiness

We join spokes together in a wheel,
But it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move.
We shape clay in a pot,
But it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.
We hammer wood for a house,
But it is the inner space
that makes it livable.
We work with being,
But non-being is what we use.

~ Lao Tzu (translated by Stephen Mitchell)

This is the poem I opened my 4th newsletter with in December of 2011. That newsletter focused on inviting emptiness, and I find myself reflecting again now on the gifts that emptiness – or perhaps recognizing emptiness – brings us.

Lao Tzu reminds us in his poem that we are, fundamentally, containers, shaped by our genes and our experience, and also by our day to day choices about what we will be and do; how we will fill up that space.

We make those choices consciously and unconsciously, but mostly unconsciously. Sometimes a poem, an experience, or a question will bring me to a place of noticing again that I am choosing how to spend what Mary Oliver calls my “one precious life” every moment. I am grateful for those reminders, those invitations to pay attention to the emptiness that is present, and to consciously choose how I want to fill it.

I invite you to take this moment to do that. Notice the quiet underneath the noise, the emptiness that is fundamental to your nature, and then think about what choices you want to make, today, this week, this year, about how you will fill that space. (If you want a more detailed exercise for this, you’ll find it in that old newsletter.)

If you would like support exploring what you want to draw into – or up from – your own emptiness, I am offering a three workshop series with Jenny Leis, and two workshops at PCC winter term that will provide that support. Details are below.

. . . . .

Growing into Ourselves: Embrace the Process of Becoming

This is a new workshop series for people who identify as women or non-binary, offered by Jenny Leis and Tasha Harmon. Join us this winter for facilitated reflection dedicated to listening to our own hearts and wisdom in service to transformation. We will use interactive facilitated exercises, writing, art, and gentle movement to explore where you are now, and what you want to create in your life going forward.

We will gather on three Sundays: February 2nd, March 1st and April 5th from 10:00 to 5:00 in the beautiful community yurt at Tryon Life Community Farm in SW Portland. The cost for the full series is on sliding scale from $350 to $650. You may take part in all three workshops, or chose to do just one or two.

The registration deadline is January 15th. Much more information can be found on the dedicated page on this website.

. . . . .

Winter and Spring Workshops at PCC

I am teaching two workshops at PCC this winter term, I am also teaching during the spring term.  You will find all the details on my Workshops page.

What People Say About My Groups and Workshops

“Emotional, rewarding and life changing.”

“The group was inspiring, stimulating, helped me shift out of negativity toward optimistic ideas. I love your style – welcoming, supportive.”

“This workshop has changed how I think about my life.”

“I now have LOTS of tools to help me make shifts in my life that I’ve wanted.”

. . . . .

Are you reaching for some kind of transformation in your life, work, or relationship?

Whether you are clear about what you want to be different, or just clear that something needs to change, coaching can help you move through the process of identifying and letting go of what’s in your way, getting a clearer, more useful sense of what you want, and developing new frameworks, tools and habits that will get you there.

We will focus in on what is most alive for you, most stuck, most confusing, and discover ways for you to access your own deep wisdom and to release old patterns that have stopped serving you and are preventing you from making the changes you want to make. Coaching is practical — learning and action are integrated, so you are actually taking the steps you want to be taking while getting more clarity about what makes these changes challenging and how to make it easy. The cost for three months of individual coaching is $585. The three-month package for relationship coaching is $915. You’ll find lots of information about these types of coaching on the pages linked above.

. . . . .

I wish you a lovely beginning of this new year.

Tasha

PS: Pass it on

If you know someone who’d benefit from this newsletter, please pass it on to them. Thanks for helping me connect with the people who want what I’ve got to offer.