Thanksgiving Day always reminds me of how our lives are connected to so many others and to the innumerable conditions that sustain us: our loved ones and our societies, as well as the impersonal forces of life. Different spiritual traditions use different phrases for this.
Years ago, I was fortunate to attend the sweat lodges of Fred Wahpepah, a Native American elder of the Kickapoo and Sac-and-Fox tribes. Fred shared his great-hearted presence along with some of his sacred Native American traditions, including the Lakota phrase, Mitakuye Oyasin, which commonly translates as “all my relations.” This includes all of life: the life of humans, of all animals, the life of all plants, the life of water and earth and rocks and soil, the life of planets and stars.
Today, my thanks go also to our contributors and subscribers and donors. Thank you all. Our contributors inspire us with their diverse talents and dedicated contemplative practices which bring alive the deepest human aspirations for wisdom and beauty, compassion and truth. Our subscribers energize us with their enthusiasm and comments. Our donors sustain Leaping Clear with their open-hearted generosity.
I’d especially like to thank our Editors, Alyson Bloom and Margery Cantor, and our Webmaster, Dick Walvis, for their voluntary service to the magazine in the midst of their busy lives, as well as for their ideas and perseverance in finding the best ways to create each issue.
I also want to thank our Web Designer, Joe Hall, whose artistic sensibility and technical knowledge guided us to the web design that best highlights our contributors’ works in a welcoming and beautiful space.
Leaping Clear began as an idea, one that is now a flourishing reality, with the support of many individuals with many talents and dedication. To mention all would mean a long, long list, but our former editors, Diana Deering and Walt Opie, gave essential guidance and support for the first issues. And our gratitude continues to the Advisory Board who from the earliest, exploratory conversations have been generous with encouragement and contributions.
And thanks to the unknown stones
that reflect the moon in my mind
so I see how I have finished and
must begin again.
Thank you all,
Carolyn Dille
Founding Editor