Fall 2012, Issue #69: Editor’s Note

Whether you are a parent, an organizational leader, some one looking to improve your health, your diet, or your emotional life, this issue has something for you! As our publisher Claus Sproll discusses in his annual fall letter, (p. 3) “electing LILIPOH” means saying yes to a holistic outlook, and to taking the needs of all beings into consideration when we make our choices. If we over-intellectualize the idea that everything is connected, every decision can become overwhelming, and such altruism can feel like too much responsibility. But the fact of the matter is that it’s true, and the sooner we embrace a holistic outlook, the more quickly we will begin to see healing take place in the environment, in our relationships, and in our bodies.

The authors in our issue focus section (pp. 11-25) show the connectedness between our brains, bodies, thinking, feeling, and the outcomes which become our day to day realties. How can we understand the relationship between the body and that place where from where our insights come? Manfred Klett provides a poetic answer: “The earthly realm should be understood as a mantle of the spiritual beings through which one has to penetrate to come to a new understanding of the creative beings.” Working with meditation, for example, and other forms of therapy known as energy medicine, support us as we try and break out of old patterns that no longer serve us. As Rudolf Steiner said, we must create new habits of thought. We may not realize how our repeated thoughts become so ingrained, that our own habits are unrecognizable to us. Thus the value of meditation, where we become the observer of our own thoughts, begin to notice how we perpetuate undesirable ways of being that cause us stress, anxiety, fear, and pain, and have the experience that we are not that. We are put back in touch with our creative potential, which is free and liberating. Medical science is offering evidence confirming the role stress plays as a cause of illness, so, beyond cultivating a more joyful outlook, there is a health-inducing component to releasing ourselves from stress-based patterns of thought. It's an ongoing human cycle to try, to grow, and improve ourselves with the intention of better serving others. The physical world sometimes appears fixed or stuck, but the good news is that we can change it.

There is so much that we don't know and don't understand, it can make life seem so complicated! This is why I love Ruby and Amber's farm sign on page 48, it speaks to the beauty and simplicity of our farms as remarkable centers of soul and social renewal.

I hope this issue brings you plenty to ponder on until the next quarter.

-Christy Korrow, Editor