Spring in Santa Fe / photo by Maia

“Freedom Friday” is a monthly list of my  favorite resources for a liberated life. This one includes three fantastic opportunities for writers, teachers, and visionaries (I know  many of my readers fall into at least one of those categories) as well as two live events.

The Alice Hayes Writing Fellowship
This fellowship honors Alice Hayes, who created the Ragdale Foundation. The fellowship offers a residency of up to 25 days at Ragdale, a non-profit artists’ community near Chicago, and a $500 stipend for a writer who is working on a project designed to bring awareness to a contemporary issue having to do with peace, social justice, education, or the environment. Application deadline is May 15, 2014. For more info, visit the Ragdale Foundation website.

Contemplative Practice in Higher Education Scholarships
The Omega Institute in New York is offering scholarships for teachers, educators, and school administrators who want to cultivate their own mindfulness practice and learn own to apply these skills in a classroom setting. The scholarship will support them to attend a retreat on contemplative practice in higher education in August, 2014, in Rhinebeck, NY. Deadline to apply is June 15, 2014. For more info visit this page. 

Funding for Your World-Changing Idea
The Pollination Project encourage applications from “practical dreamers” who can envision and lead projects that will grow, blossom and truly change the world. They fund the infrastructure, outreach and other tangible things needed to get your project started. In their words, “We seek game-changing visionaries who are at the precipice of launching a new social change effort and need some seed capital to get started.” Applications are reviewed on a continual basis. Learn more on the Pollination Project website.

And… I am delighted to invite you to these two events here in Santa Fe, NM. If you are anywhere near the area, I’d love to see you!

Sunday, May 4
Threads of Awakening: Finding (impeccable) Beauty and Meaning One (imperfect) Stitch at a Time
An evening with Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo at Upaya Zen Center (5:30 pm)
Leslie is a longtime friend of the Liberated Life Project. During this evening, she will speak about the rare Buddhist art of silk applique thangkas, as well as about her own creative process. Two of Leslie’s thangkas — Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara) and White Tara — will be on display in Upaya’s zendo from May 1 through May 4. For more info, see this page.  Free; donations to support Leslie’s work are warmly welcomed.

Wednesday, May 7
Dharma Talk given by yours truly!
I’ll be speaking at Upaya Zen Center at 5:30 pm, giving a talk titled, “Practice Makes Imperfect.” This is a free event; donations are welcome.