November 22, 2009

Letter 9: Completions and Beginnings

The short version regarding Japan is that I have been invited to develop plans for a Pathwork Transformation Program in Tokyo which would being in October 2010.  Whether or not that will happen is up the Japanese.  I will return twice in 2010 to promote the course, once in February/March and again in June/July.  There could easily be 30 students; I started with 29 in Australia in 2002, with a population base of only 20 million.  In Tokyo, we could draw from all over Japan (127 million) as well as Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China.

My tentative plans will be to include an open weekend workshop after each of the Pathwork Transformation Program modules (each will last 4 days, 4 times a year) for those who choose not to join the program, and to generate interest for a following year’s class.

So for the past few weeks have been drawing up drafts -- plans and policies, budgets and proposals.  I have also put together two new websites:
 http://www.janrigsby.com/pathworkinjapan/ and
http://www.janrigsby.com/pathworkinchina/

These will serve for a while, I hope that there will be so much interest in Pathwork that separate sites will be worthwhile.  But for the moment, tying these together allows me to piggyback onto my primary websites for materials and hosting costs.

It’s not that there’s no fun left.  I drink several pots of green tea a day.  I bought a rice cooker and make sticky rice and sushi almost every day.  China and Japan are on my walls, in my thoughts, and in my heart.  To me, this IS the fun part. All the other stuff – the other 22 pages of this blog – were an Over the Rainbow fantasy.  Writing all of this down helped keep it real, helped me remember, and helped me to believe in it.

My birthday horoscope in September said:

“People need you lately, and you have risen to the occasion to take care of them. So it will be a welcome break to be on the receiving end of lovely attention over the next 10 weeks. An investment pays in October. You'll celebrate happy news in December.”

I’ve never before felt that a horoscope made such an accurate prediction.  It was truly unique in my experience to be on the receiving end of lovely attention for such a long period of time.  And the investment of time, money and heart that I made in this adventure surely did pay off.

I wonder what the happy news in December will be…

I have also committed to becoming a professional writer, after having written stories since I was 11 years old.  I knew this was coming, have felt it for several years, and my friends and family have become more and more aggressive about encouraging me.  What pushed me over the edge was realizing that the teleconferences I have been doing for the past 18 months need to be transferred into written format.  I hope to start drafting a Pathwork companion book now that the websites are up.

I have enjoyed sharing this adventure.  I hope that others follow.  Dr. Zhihe Wang’s website, www.postmoderntour.com, is one way to start, and I hope that my stories encourage more travel to China.  But for now, I’m done with writing and sharing.  Going to make another pot of tea.

Blessings upon your own journeys, Jan