COURSE CORRECTION!
Hello All Spirit Lovers!

It is with immense joy, and after much soul searching, that I share the news with you that Spirit of the Valley will be returning to a Quarterly Publication.

As editor, publisher, and owner of Spirit of the Valley, I have always strived to operate under a concious business model of the future – one with a core vision as the driving force behind operations, and one in which those serving Spirit were also being served by Spirit.

In the Western cultural model, success is measured by growth and bottom line alone, and we find that we too have been operating under this same narrow idea. Success, in a conscious business model, would include the financial bottom line, but also other ideals such as environmental friendliness, quality, health, wellness, and level of positivity. In a conscious business model, a question included in the bottom line would be: Is it a joy on every level? If it wasn’t, then those areas of stress and discomfort would need to be looked at, altered, modified, or done away with in service to the vision.

We have found ourselves facing this exact issue. We found that our workloads were becoming overwhelming, our family lives were suffering, and our outside activities that made us complete and creative human beings were being crammed in between items on our to-do lists. We found ourselves faced with the ultimate question: Were we still aligned with our vision? We found that the answer was that, though we were in service to that vision, we were doing so in such a way that was unhealthy – though it may have appeared to the world to be highly successful.

After much soul searching, we have come to the conclusion that producing more issues per year of Spirit is not aligned with its core vision. While we at one time looked to Spirit to be our primary source of income, we have come to realize that when we try to adjust it to meet our expectations of what it should be, we cease to operate in the flow, and find ourselves pushing and frustrated. If we are feeling these things, and as its creators, we must also be imbuing each issue with this energy, which is most obviously contrary to our goals. We have decided to let Spirit determine what it would like to be, and to once again allow the space for joy and vibrancy back into all of our lives.

We, above all, do not want to be operating a business in a certain way due to our reluctance to change for fear of what others will think about us, whether or not we are conforming to cultural ideals, or whatever our egos tell us. After all, when I started Spirit in October of 2003, it was to allow the space for people to think outside these parameters. In reflection, we see our spiritual journey through the pages of our publication as similar to the spiritual journey of everyone. It is all a learning process, all a growing process. When we began to think about going back to quarterly, all I can say is that great joy and relief filled our hearts and souls. We knew we would be moving back into the ease that we had once operated within.

As for all of the freed up energy that we will now have available to us. I, for one, am excited about this year’s Sun Valley Wellness Festival with Spirit’s Advertising Goddess Heera Sazevich as its Assistant Director, infused with and informed by this consciousness of health and vitality and soul. I am also incredibly excited at my new teaching endeavors, and the progress on the two books I have been working on in the wee hours of the morning, that can now receive more of my full attention. I am also most especially looking forward to being able to devote more time and energy to each and every article and issue.