Emerald Coast Meditation Society events Sept. 23 and 25

Join us this special week at a Thursday night meeting and/or Saturday All-Day Silent Meditation sponsored by the Emerald Coast Meditation Society. September 21 is World Peace Day with global meditations. Sept. 22 at 10:09 p.m. CDT is the equinox, a time to balance, when day and night are equal in length. Jupiter is in opposition and bright, near the moon, which is full on Sept. 23 at 4:18 a.m. further enhancing the equinox effect. Full moon on Sept. equinox every 19 years.

What Does 2012 Mean for Us?? will be the topic at the Sept. 23 meeting of the Emerald Coast Meditation Society (ECMS). It will start with 30 minutes of meditation at 6:30 p.m. at 480 N. Co. Hwy. 393, Santa Rosa Beach, one-half mile north of Hwy. 98.
Caroling Geary will present some perspectives to the year 2012. The year after next has inspired a wide range of beliefs about cataclysmic or transformative events building to a climax on Dec. 21, 2012. That is said to be the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the ancient Mayan calendar. Astronomical alignments related to this date have been put forth. Various New Age or evolutionary interpretations posit that during this time Earth and its inhabitants are undergoing positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era. Others suggest that the 2012 date marks the end of the world or some other catastrophe.

Caroling asks people who attend her presentation to bring their own information and questions about 2012. An artist, she has worked in the computer industry as a technician and tech writer, and retired in 1996 to do web art. A lover of the outdoors, she is a Friend of Deer Lake State Park, hikes, photographs, makes videos for the Florida Trail Association, and is becoming an expert on deer lichen. Her website is Wholeo.net.

The following meeting of the ECMS will be on Oct. 7, and from then through December will occur on the first and third Thursdays. If you have questions contact Nancy James, nancyjames@embarqmail.com.

A day of silent meditation and quiet activities will be sponsored by the Emerald Coast Meditation Society as a way to honor the equinox that takes place Sept. 22. It is open without charge to anyone who meditates, but registration is required.

The day will include eight 30-minute meditation periods interspersed with breakfast, lunch, tea, two outdoor walks, yoga and other activities. The day will go from 6:15 a.m. to... 5:15 p.m. Participants can take part in the whole day or any part of it.

If interested contact Nancy James at nancyjames@embarqmail.com or 231-1498 for a schedule of the day?s events. Space is limited, so please register by Sept. 23.

James and Caroling Geary, who will lead the day?s events, have been meditating since the 1970s. Geary has done yoga since 1974 and meditative art since 1954. Her website can be found at wholeo.net.

James was a founding member of the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in 1972 and helped start the Emerald Coast Meditation Society in 2009. The ECMS, which meets twice monthly September through June, is non-sectarian, and includes practitioners of many forms of meditation.