(NJASERVIC is an affiliate of the New Jersey Counseling Association
President Michael Lazarchick will facilitate this all day spiritual retreat designed to explore a variety of spiritual concepts. Workshop includes meditation, swimming, energy work, drumming, journal writing, exploring organic gardening, the pond, the river, and pathwork on a 3 1/3 acre place called Sanctuary at the edge of the Southern New Jersey Pine Barrens.
Participants will share insights and better understand how the spiritual journey deepens our lives as individuals, affects our personal relationships, our work with clients and our roles in our communities. Plan to attend this regional workshop in Weymouth, New Jersey, just off Route 322, approximately half-way between Philadelphia and Atlantic City.
No cost for NJASERVIC members! RSVP by July 14, 2001, by e-mail to mlazarch@dol.state.nj.us or by daytime telephone (609-729-0997) or any other way you are able to locate him! He will give you exact directions!
We are nearing the end of my first year as your current president. It was a year and a few months ago that I wrote asking if anybody was interested in saving NJASERVIC. We did it. Thanks.
Traditionally, at this time, the president talks about accomplishments and new goals. But, it’s golf season. All I want to do is play golf. To keep this professional, I can argue the experience is filled with lessons for life. The challenge is extraordinary. Developing skill or having natural talent, perhaps a few lessons, certainly practice, are prerequisites for playing the game. Enjoying the game, however, has a lot to do with what is in the head.
On a good day, golf can be a spiritual experience. Playing seems effortless, with little thought about the process. The game seems easy. Thoughts about being in tune with the universe occasionally float through my head. Maslow used “peak experience” to describe those momentary gifts of greater enlightenment, when we transcend the ego, enjoy a better sense of individual purpose and universal integration. Certainly you can recall a special moment, perhaps, during prayer, meditation, jogging, sailing, or some other non-cognitive expression of life. I’ve had Golf moments. I saw baby alligators in Florida, a cloud of fluttering butterflies in California, and looking at the ocean off Mahogany Run in the Virgin Islands is just breathtaking. Sometimes I just stop and thank the universe for being alive.
I represented NJASERVIC at the ACA World Conference. The theme of my presentation, Experiencing Spirituality, was about daily awareness. But just like life in general, some days are average and less than average. Yesterday, I just did not play well. Maybe it was biorhythms? Maybe I needed to play bad so I can appreciate it more when I am playing really good? Maybe it was because I did not properly visualize my swing or clearly pick out targets? Maybe it was my hip or left elbow? Wow, did my mind get messed up with stuff. Eventually I surrendered. Some days you just have to get by with what you have and accept that whatever happens is okay.
At our last meeting, the NJASERVIC board voted to accept the role of NJCA Ethics committee. So, I will be thinking about Ethics this summer. I’ll play golf. Golf seduces the average player with ample opportunity to cheat. On really bad holes the mind may try to block out a stroke or two. The most violated rule has got to be moving the ball with something other than the golf club to make it easier to hit! Golf courses can be really big and often the player is fairly alone. There are a lot of rules to bend and golf will tempt. Ultimately, we use the honor system a lot. Integrity will be challenged. Actions will define true values in relationship to personal honesty.
In closing, please visit our web site. All our accomplishments are recorded history and our goals are added as they come into our collective consciousness. Send me an e-mail if you have something to say: Michael Lazarchick . If you really need to see me in person, I’ll be on a golf course somewhere in southern New Jersey.
Board meetings were held in San Antonio, Texas, in March. It was reported that membership is down in all national divisions and ideas were exchanged to increase membership in state divisions and nationally. The meetings were led by outgoing president, Virginia Sykes, in a relaxed manner, and the business at hand was accomplished. New board members will be elected, and Dr. Allen Weber will take over as president. I have completed my service of our years dealing with national membership and will now devote more of my energies to NJASERVIC. Michael Lazarchick represented us at the President’s Luncheon. We all expected warm and balmy weather and were disappointed when the cold and rain struck with a vengeance, which did not at all dampen our spirits! Next year, ACA will convene in New Orleans and all are welcome to attend.
The NJ Self-Help Group Clearinghouse is providing a free Mini-Guide to Self-Help Groups for Mental Illness in New Jersey. The Clearinghouse staff indicates that a number of the anonymous groups listed in the brochure are on the rise (e.g., Manic-Depressives Anonymous and Schizophrenics Anonymous groups). These groups utilize non-religious, but spiritual, approaches based upon the 12 steps used in AA groups. for a free copy of the mini-guide, call the clearinghouse any time at 1-800-367-6274 and leave your name and address. The Clearinghouse also has information on well over a hundred different types of 12-step groups in New Jersey, as well as contacts for over 250 no-fee New Jersey support groups just for bereavement. In addition to contacts for over 4500 groups in New Jersey, the Clearinghouse (www.njgroups.org) also provides free consultative help to those interested in starting a new group.
“The human spirit remains one of the amazing aspects of life. Just like trick candles on a birthday cake, the unfairness of life temporarily blows out the flame; in spite of this, the fire refuses to be extinguished. I have unlimited gratitude for the courageous men and women in 12-step groups who have displayed that inextinguishable fire known as the human spirit.” - James S., in his forward to The Step Study Workshop for Depressed Anonymous, copyright 1999.
With all the hype, and deservedly so, about the veterans of World War II going on, I have been pondering over my memories of that war which took place when I was a very small girl. I was only five when my older brothers returned from THE WAR. One brother, Bernard, in the Army, returned from seeing heavy battle in Europe, and my other brother, Herb, served in the Navy and was never sent overseas. I recall Bernard’s return from Europe and it was a monumental night, my parents letting me stay up LATE.... It was probably around ten p.m. when he walked in the door. My mother fainted and my father fell down the stairs running to the front door to greet him. My older cousin carried me downstairs while I watched and waited my turn for the longed-for hug from my ‘big brother.’
Oh my, the years have flown; and just recently, my nephew, Bernard’s second (of five sons) told me that my brother finally related some of the horrors of his wartime experience, something horrific and painful, which he had tucked away among his memories for all those years. How could I, as an adult, a sensitive being, not have realized the trauma that he experienced as an eighteen year old boy? He had masked his wounds in letters home, making up stories of a motorcycle accident while on leave, and he purposefully failed to mention seeing his close buddies blown away right in front of and next to him. He was wounded in more ways than one.
Why am I thinking of all of this? Well, we are thankfully not engaged in a worldwide battle. But the violence continues in small pockets: schools, inner city and suburban neighborhoods, and in larger territories (Israel-MidEast-Iran etc.). It saddens me to think that we humans STILL resort to guns and killing and the waste of human life. For what end? So I continue to be as kind as I can to my fellow human beings....to strive for understanding, acceptance and compassion; and to pray for peace. I guess I am appealing to all of you to do the same. In a time of high technology and increased information - increased media - more drugs, more guns,and let’s remember that we are all in this human experience together and that there is the hope that we can exist in peace.
Read it! You will not be disappointed!
