As many of you who follow my programs know, "The Living Spiritual Elders Project" has been a phenomenal success in the areas where it has been offered. In its first years in Maine, each of the 8-week sessions drew at least 25 participants. Its first incarnation in Sarasota drew more than 60 interested people! It has been an exciting journey to watch ordinary women and men start the program out of some semblance of spiritual curiosity and discover, somewhere en route to the end, that this is a program designed not just to introduce them to spiritual elders from many traditions, cultures and races, but also designed to quietly awaken the elder within each of them.

This Spring, "The Living Spiritual Elders Project" met at South Church in Kennebunkport, Maine, for its (I have to pause for a head count) 8th session. For the first time, we met as a group of women-only, not particularly planned that way but accepting that each session calls to those with ears to hear. And though I have never before assigned "favorites" to any of these groups because they are filled with amazing individuals with such truly wonderful life stories to share, I have to acknowledge this group of women for their spiritual intelligence, their hunger for others with whom to share meaningful conversations, their insatiable love of the elders, and their depth of authenticity and openness. In this group, there was no hiding, nor even any desire to do so. Every woman came prepared to awaken the elder within her.

Their conversations were rich, friendships soon developed, and it was sometimes hard to find a reasonable balance between time for the elders to speak (on film) and time for the women to have their say. All of this was delightful and most of us left most sessions feeling fed and filled. Perhaps most significant, we watched in amazement and joy as woman after woman in the group came awake to her place in the world as a wise elder.

There was the educator who taught teachers to be teachers, who traveled to France during our session to visit her own spiritual elder-mentor and returned with tender stories, who spent the last night of our session in a group of five year-olds applauding their graduation from pre-school and falling in love with each precious child. There was the woman who comes from a lineage of Women Who Love Horses, from her grandmother still riding in her last years of life to her 15 year old granddaughter taking on the love and care of her own first mare. She told us a story of wandering down to a pond late at night to reflect in the stillness of the blackened skies. As she sat there, she felt a warm breath on her neck: her beautiful mare had somehow found her in the dark woods and come up to stand with her in silent companionship. There was the woman who took on a fund-raising project for an Iraqi child being brought to Maine for surgery to repair injuries received in the war we exported to her country; the woman who is trying to fund a television series for spiritual seekers; the woman who came to the humbling awareness that her passion for peace-making had actually grown into a war of its own. Every one of them a sustantive presence in this circle of awakening elders.

I want to introduce you to just one of them---Rachel Krawcyzk---because there is a way you can directly help Rachel to stand as an elder in the world. Rachel is a hospice social worker and, this July for 3 weeks, is going to Kenya to work with children who have been orphaned by AIDS. Sponsored by Friend of Kakamega, the American partner to the Kakamega Orphan Project, Rachel and other volunteers will gather to assist these children and adults caregivers in healing from the violence that erupted in Kenya this winter. Rachel has committed to raising $500 for the children of The Kakamega Orphan Project. No donation, she promises, is too small to be put to use to ease the hardships these small citizens of our planet must endure.

Please make out a check today in honor of Rachel Krawcyzk, elder-in-the-becoming, to Friends of Kakamega and send it before July 15th to:

Rachel Krawcyzk
66 Hills Beach Road
Biddeford, ME 04005

If "The Living Spiritual Elders Project" invites more women and men like Rachel to step off the safe edge into the unknown with the intention of bringing their life experience and wisdom to others in desperate need, we will all---person by person---feel the effects of peace building throughout our world-in-turmoil.

Blessings to Rachel on her courageous journey, and to all of you who take one moment out of your own busy lives to support her efforts to bring hope and love to the hearts of the children of Kakamega.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Meredith Jordan,