Carried by a Promise

read­ing

We had a warm, com­mu­nity gath­er­ing yes­ter­day at the Ashram dur­ing the Fes­ti­val of Light. About 55 guests, res­i­dents and karma yogis gath­ered in the Radha Room at Man­dala House, and for the first time I read from the actual bound book. It felt solid to hold it my hands, and I appre­ci­ated how much had gone into its pro­duc­tion from many tal­ented people.

In the read­ing I chose sec­tions from the win­ter of five years at the Ashram – from 1990 when I first arrived on the sol­stice, through 1995, the year of Swami Radha’s pass­ing into Light. The expe­ri­ence of read­ing brings the past for­ward to the present, and also assures me of the future. If there has been this much sup­port and Light on my path so far, I can­not doubt that it will be there as we move forward.…

sign­ing Erica’s book

I was touched to see peo­ple of all ages and with all dif­fer­ent lev­els of expe­ri­ence at the Ashram com­ing together to share their per­sonal reflec­tions. The learn­ing goes on; the unfold­ing evolves. I am grate­ful for this amaz­ing place.

Lots of Light to every­one over the hol­i­days and as we approach another new year!

open­ing the first box

wel­com­ing the new book

Around noon today, about 20 cases of Car­ried by a Promise arrived (the long way through Cre­ston to Cran­brook then back – but they’re here now, safe and sound!) We had an “open­ing the box” cel­e­bra­tion in the book­store with sup­port­ers on hand. The book looks beau­ti­ful — thanks to Clea McDougall for art direc­tion and Todd Stew­art for design. I’m heart­ened that the inte­rior paper is 100% post con­sumer waste and that our printer, Hem­lock,  is carbon-neutral.

It’s aston­ish­ing and won­der­ful to see my jour­nals as a book! Every­one on hand opened their copies  spon­ta­neously and received a mes­sage that seemed just right for them.

More to come…

It’s com­ing.… soon! The book is on its way, but where is it now? Shipped from Van­cou­ver yes­ter­day and set to arrive in Cre­ston today, we’ve just dis­cov­ered that the weigh-bill has been dropped off but the books aren’t with it! Did the trucker for­get to unload? Are they on another truck? Just one of those moments! But we do know the books are com­ing soon!  Stay tuned.…

In the mean­time, you can hear how Eileen Pear­kes, a local author and fre­quent vis­i­tor to Yasod­hara Ashram, responded to Car­ried by a Promise. Her review was just pub­lished  on the blog, Light­waves. read here.…

Eileen Dele­hanty Pear­kes is the author of The Glass Seed, The Geog­ra­phy of Mem­ory, co-author of The Inner Green, and a major con­trib­u­tor to River of Mem­ory. She lives in Nel­son, BC and is a guest reviewer for  Lightwaves.

The lat­est news from the printer is that Car­ried by a Promise is now printed and will be folded and bound and shipped on Decem­ber 21 or 22. So we’re expect­ing the book  just in time for Christmas!

Roseanne Har­vey, yoga blogger

I was pleased to receive notice of this review from Roseanne Har­vey — a for­mer Ascent mag­a­zine edi­tor, friend, stu­dent, teacher — who has a pop­u­lar blog called “it’s all yoga, baby.” Thank you Roseanne.….

Roseanne’s book review

“Car­ried By A Promise is the story of Swami Rad­hananda, the pres­i­dent and spir­i­tual direc­tor of Yasod­hara Ashram, and her rela­tion­ship with her teacher, Swami Sivananda Radha. Yasod­hara Ashram is a thriv­ing spir­i­tual com­mu­nity in South­east­ern British Colum­bia…” con­tinue read­ing the review here

from itsallyogababy.com –all things yoga & the yoga in all things

Swami Radha touched the lives of many thou­sands of peo­ple. Car­ried by a Promise is an extra­or­di­nary account that brings us close to her vision and great heart through her pro­found rela­tion­ship with Swami Rad­hananda, the author of this inspir­ing book. May the teach­ings of both these women nour­ish the world.

Roshi Joan Halifax,

Found­ing Abbot, Upaya Zen Center

Santa Fe, New Mexico

upaya.org

While the man­u­script proofs are being final­ized and the book lined up for print­ing, I’ve been reflect­ing back on some of the sig­nif­i­cant times I had with Swami Radha.

One of them was when we opened the teach­ing cen­tre in my home at Leth­bridge on Sep­tem­ber 14, 1984. With the Ashram very involved in archiv­ing old taped mate­ri­als, we were able to eas­ily find the record­ing of Swami Radha’s talk at the Open­ing. What was later called  “Radha Cen­tre” was orig­i­nally known as “Shamb­hala House.” You will hear Swami Radha refer to it in this short audio excerpt. And I, (at the time Mary-Ann McDougall), was asked to say a few words of wel­come, too.

I find hav­ing these reminders in dif­fer­ent media brings it all back to me — the joy in the moment, the com­mit­ment, the desire to serve.

Click on the play but­ton to hear the audio record­ing:
F39-09_14_84-Lethbridge