Connecting the Dots…
Inspiration + Film/TV + Photography + Tapping + Teaching…. and The Spirit of Paying It Forward
What do these things have in common with The Spring Energy Event and the meaning of community?
To connect those dots, I have to look backwards to appreciate how the Universe lined up the perfect set of events that would make the creation of S.E.E. inevitable.
Here’s what I mean: Inspiration comes to us all the time. And sometimes, if we’re ready to see it, we do….and then put it to good use in the world. I like to think the Spring Energy Event is one of those times.
Once upon time in New York City… I was a Film & TV producer. During one of the worst jobs of my life, I met an extraordinary person who would unknowingly set this adventure into motion. Together with his beautiful assistant Virginia, that seemed to take care of everything, they worked with me to document the first-ever television venture for children, with the USSR, still in the ‘Cold War’ remnants.
Like me, these two fellow production pros were pretty fed up with the common delays and ridiculous demands and conditions of those at the top. We bonded. And within just a few months I was seated in an old Borsch Belt hotel in the Catskills, part of an intrepid team that would create the only merit-driven photojournalist mentoring workshop in the world.
Now in its 35th year, I’m recalling how that passionate community had come about. Disgusted by the hard-sell commercial ‘workshops’ that didn’t deliver on their promises to actually teach and mentor would-be photojournalists for the future, the husband and wife team of Eddie Adams and Alyssa Atkins had a radical idea: the only way to defeat them was to beat them at their own game, by building a better model, and making it …FREE! And so it was. The Eddie Adams Workshop became the collective pride & joy and catalyst for… the future of creating fearless, committed photojournalists. I was blessed to be included, and spent several happy years helping it grow and producing the documentary of its birth.
Skip to another lifetime, or so it seems, as a mom in CT struggling with an allergy to suburbs and a sweet, sensitive child who’d suddenly gone silent and remote. That was me, growing more desperate by the day to find out what ailed my child and what I could possibly do to fix it. Desperation had led me through my own talented Acupuncturist and Chiropractor to a variety of new, holistic techniques called ‘energy work.’ My favorite among them would be collectively called Tapping. And it would lay the foundation for my future.
Escaping back to NYC, I had all but worn out the CDs of one Gary Craig, who’d reverse-engineered an elegant ‘Energy’ protocol he named EFT, Emotional Freedom Techniques. I couldn’t get enough of his effortless style and rapid results, that helped people with everything from feeling worry, fear or guilt…all the way to all manner of physical issues. While those videos were in circulation, it was estimated over 8 million people heard his holistic healing message. And he gave it away to the world for free.
I was hooked, and profoundly grateful to finally find an in-person teacher for my new passion, CJ Puotinen. She conducted weekend workshops we quickly named ‘wizard camp,’ for her amazing ability to teach us how to transform almost any obstacle with EFT and other energy work. And she did it all for donations to her visiting pets program foundation in the Nyack area of NY. I was lucky enough to get the real gift of it – I had become a part of a thing called community, and Tapping just happened to be our common denominator.
My passion for continuing education soon led me to one of the original EFT Masters, Gwyneth Moss, of northern England. A Cambridge-educated physicist, the only one in EFT!, hailed from a family of instructors, and taught me even deeper levels of understanding EFT, and over the years, how to effectively teach others, too. And then she taught me by example, to create community. She called her group The EFT Gathering, an annual, low-cost event in Yorkshire, that continues to this day, online.
And then one day, it all came together – I connected the dots…to ME… to what was MINE TO DO. : ) From a long line of blessings, serendipity, generous and talented friends like Gray, CJ and Gwyneth, and the inspiring events I had been privileged to witness, and invited to belong, the spirit of Pay It Forward dawned on me. It was my turn to create events that would create sustainable, inspired community. And 11 years later, the Spring Energy Event still opens its doors each April, for an urban retreat weekend that convenes, creates and sustains a CONNECTED COMMUNITY of talent, skills, experiential wisdom, inspiration, and support.
And now it’s your turn to take up the opportunity before you: You are personally invited to join us and feel the power of real community, through our time together this April. There’s a Reserve Your Place button, right here, and because we’ve had to create the online version through these last difficult years for in-person events, we offer it again this year. And you’re even encouraged to create your very own small community, in your home or area, by inviting others to come and experience the weekend with you! We call it a HouseParty. : ) And we look forward to meeting you and yours, this April 22 & 23.
Grab your (still ridiculously priced) ticket here:
I’ll see you soon,
Jondi
Host, The Spring Energy Event 