Happy 40th Anniversary !

 
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Welcome

A Story and an Invitation from Paul :

Sometimes I have the least perspective of all on the scope and history of our work at The Whole Health Center, and how it has touched people.

 A few years ago I walked into a lumber yard and gardening warehouse in order to buy several bags of lime to treat my lawn.  I was looking for pelletized lime, but saw only the powder stacked before me.

I saw a man, a stranger to me, working a forklift, and asked if they had pelletized lime as well.  He said, yes, but it was still stacked on the upper shelf, about twenty feet up or so.  I was just about to say "That's all right, I can use this,"  when the man said "No problem, Paul, I can get it down for you."

I was surprised, and asked, "Do we know each other?"  And he said, "Well I've recently returned from being out of state for the last twenty-five years.  But back in the nineties, I took one of your weekend Intensives.  It was the only time I ever saw the person sitting in front of me explode into a star.  It changed my life!

 That startled me into awareness of how little I really understood about the impact of our work over the last forty years.  So many people have passed through and on; and I have so little perspective on who they are and where they are now, and what they took with them.

 I happened to recount the above story last week in casual conversation with two people, who I had just introduced.  It wasn't on my mind that each had taken the True Heart, True Mind Intensive before.  I happened to say, "Well I can't say he literally saw someone explode into a star."  And they both looked at each other and started laughing together, and each said, "Oh, yes, he did.  I've seen it myself.  In fact, I exploded into a star once, too."

 So what do I know?

Whether we ever see you again or not, your past association with the Whole Health Center has blessed us.  And this little celebration is a celebration of you.

We also invite you to add your words to these pages.

Paul

Above is a slide show of Famous Flyers from Past Whole Health Center events. Please use the pause and scroll buttons to create the appropriate viewing speed for you.

 

Join the Celebration:

Music Please enjoy this music from SHUSH while you explore our celebration. The first selection is a poem of Paul’s, called “I will be what I am”, set to music by Sepp Huber and performed and recorded in concert by SHUSH (Sheila Unvala and Sepp Huber)

Thank you Shelia and Sepp for sharing your music with us.

Slideshow Forty years of workshops, retreats, and special guests.

Please enjoy this slideshow of some of the program flyers over the years.

Community Member Interviews As part of our celebration and reflection on 40 years of The Whole Health Center, some of our beloved community members are sharing how meaningful their relationship with The Whole Health Center and Paul has been to them.

View current videos and check back for over the next month as more community members share their stories

Offer a story or blessing  We want to hear your stories and memories.

Participate in our 40th Anniversary Blessing Ceremony

Offering from Sherene Learn more about Sherene

Download Sherene’s Cultivating Connection assessment tool.

Offering from Paul Every Saturday morning Paul offers a Meditation Lab where anyone can explore meditation practices with support and community. The link below is to two recordings from this program, one of which was to have been our in-person 40th Anniversary Celebration.

Recording of Befriending Experience and Entering the Temple

Portrait of The Whole Health Center, contributed 10 years ago by a longtime participant:

When you enter the Whole Health Center, you become aware of an atmosphere, more specifically, an energy of inclusiveness and interconnection that touches you in a very intimate way. You intuitively know that you have come into a safe and sacred space. I say sacred because you can “feel” the 30 years of spiritual and emotional healing that the space that is the Center holds. You can feel the energy of 30 years of clients and retreat/workshop participants all seeking their own unique path to spiritual and emotional growth. Many are, I think, looking for that switch that turns on the internal light that dispels the darkness of feelings of separateness and feeling less than whole.

That is the energy of the Whole Health Center. It is an energetic atmosphere that fosters the painful honesty and trust needed for true emotional and spiritual transformation to take place. 

Community Interviews

As part of our celebration and reflection on 40 years of The Whole Health Center, some of our beloved community members are sharing how meaningful their relationship with The Whole Health Center and Paul has been to them.

 

Joe Scozzafava, Maine

Richard Cegelis, Florida

Laura Klain, New Hampshire

Joseph Rubano, California

Megyn Craine, Connecticut

Susie Maxwell, Maine

Holly Winters

President, The Whole Health Center Board of Directors

  • A message from Missy Hatch, our longtime cook at our True Heart/True Mind Intensives.

    To the participants of the True Heart True Mind Intensives:

    I have provided many of your meals over the past 27 years. I know what a wonderful break a meal is from the hard work of diving into your core. I loved putting food on your plate that was colorful to look at as well as nurturing on the tongue, tapping into your senses.  I knew the kitchen was a haven for you, as well as for me. 

    While you were on your cushions, I had my own "Intensive" retreat experience that I looked forward to. I loved the weekend of silence, Being, actions, facial expressions, tears and laughter were our communications. Quite enough.

    I loved seeing familiar faces year after year, even if I forgot your names. Heart connections don't need names.

    My gratitude to Paul for taking a chance on a new cook in 1994, to the staff I was fortunate to work the most with over the years - Bettina, Joseph, Barbara, Joe, and to you, the participants, the only reason these Intensives exist.

    The world is topsy turvey right now. Never has there been a better time to hold to your True Heart and your True Mind.

    With love, Missy

  • A Blessing

    I first met Paul 23 years ago when I attended a course he led on “Stress Management for Therapists”.  It was a transformative experience, leading me to participate in many classes, retreats, two intensives, and many other opportunities for learning and growth offered by Paul and the WHC over the years.  From being surrounded by saints at an intensive to reciting the Our Father in Aramaic, Paul and the WHC have been a touchstone for divine connection and community . I pray that Paul, and all whose lives have been touched by him and his teaching, will feel the joy of our  shared connection as we navigate this messy thing called life.

    With love and gratitude,

    Patty Engdahl

  • Expression of Deep Appreciation

    Dear Paul,

    I want to express my deep appreciation for all that I received from you and The Whole Health Center through the many retreats and programs I attended. What stands out for me were the zen and the taoist retreats, Tonglen, True Heart True Mind and the retreat at the Huber cabin beside Hay Pond. I also really appreciated your outreach with the teaching of qigong at the H.D. Moore Library. For many years I considered the Center my spiritual home. If it were closer to me I would certainly have participated more.

    The greatest gift from you was introducing me to Qigong. I took to that like a fish in water. Doing the moves to music heightened the experience. During the first year of the pandemic I went on utube to see what was offered for qigong. The Master in the first qigong video I watched used the same Chinese music I fell in love with at the Whole Health Center. I looked no further. I learned two of the 18 movement sequences of the Shibashi form and practiced them daily. You gave me that music as a special gift.

    Last Spring I discovered Wisdom Healing Qigong with Master Mingtong Gu, who has put qigong and the qi energy central to healing and integration of the body, heart, mind and spirit. This path has been amazing in helping me to see what I want to work on toward greater health and oneness, such as developing healthier habits, expanding my capacity to love myself and others, facing my fears, and trusting I can handle the challenges I am given. I am learning to feel the qi energy, wholeness and love more often.

    You have been a strong influence in my life. I wish you the best as you wind down your role in what you created—The whole Health Center, which is a wonderful and growing resource for spiritual seekers in downeast Maine. With all my heart I thank you.

    With love and deep gratitude,

    Donna

  • Reflection on The Whole Health Center

    When this soul had accumulated enough weariness from the physical, emotional and spiritual toxins of this world; when this psyche was being sucked into the abyss of despair; when this heart was bruised, blackened and threatening to shatter; this person summoned the courage to reach out for help from The Whole Health Center. The Enlightenment Intensives (5 of them!), Monday Night Group, and meditation retreats, all meticulously and lovingly prepared and conducted by Paul (with the support of Bettina and many others!) helped to guide me back into a reality where I awakened to compassion, hope and love for myself and another. I started to learn that I was worthy of love and could offer love to others. Love that was unconditional: non-judgemental, non-critical, without a selfish agenda. I felt the dark shroud covering my heart break apart and witnessed the emergence of a rainbow-colored, butterflied-winging, blood-pumping connection to The Source of All That There Is. There was no "good me" or "bad me", there was just.....a Miracle.....

    Walking up the staircase at The Center represents, for me,  ascending into Heaven. It is a Sacred Place where God dwells and awaits those who care to discover their True Selves. It is a place where Love manifests moment after moment, day after day, year after year and always will until it's timbers rot into the ground and even then the vibration will persist and Bless the Earth.

    With Gratitude and Love for Paul and all of those who have supported and maintained The Whole Health Center for these past 40 years, many Blessings and Thanks,

    Bruce Becque

  • Offer a Story or Blessing

    Would you like to share a special memory or blessing with The Whole Health Center? Please submit your messages below and Sherene will share them to this page. At a later date we will print these words and plant them the earth ceremonially so we can tend our blessings and watch them grow together over time.

 

The Human Body is Designed For Worship  -Joseph Rubano, with Paul in Joshua Tree 2014

 

I am so happy for his big love

Whatever love I cannot accomplish

He can

Together we have it covered.

 

He bows to bushes, to trees, to rocks

He bows to a small tree

growing out of a rock

on the wind swept edge

of the great expanse.

He bows to the great expanse.

 

It is not he that is bowing.

There is a natural current,

a natural intimacy

that moves his human body into gestures

of adoration, gratitude, devotion, humility, praise

That moves him into bowing.

And then he speaks:

 

“The human body is designed for worship.”

 

I sometimes wonder

If he is creating reality with his words

If reality was a thin as words

as light, as rootless

But his words do not come from on high

any more than a flower floats on thin air

Everything real has a root

The root calls us home

It is our home

His words are rooted

in the geometry of rocks that call to him

in the great expanse just over there

in the tree and the wind

in the great expanse right here between us

His words create reality

they are birthed from reality

A mutual creating:

Perception giving rise to words

words, like seeds, holding without holding

what is beyond grasping but so intimately known,

touch and enkindle a further rejoicing

His wording is a rejoicing

a giving birth to that which

is birthing him.

Without him, no words

Without words?

He bows. 

 

Dear Whole Health Center Community,

I’ve been associate director at The Whole Health Center for a little over a year now, and participating in programs for only about 2 years. I’ve gotten to know many of you and can’t wait until I know you all. The pandemic has limited our ability to be together in person and move in our familiar ways. But, I want you to know how much this community means to me, even if I do not yet know you all as individuals. I want to share more about me. 

My deepest values are Love, Connection, and Home. 

I define Love as the recognition and acceptance of Truth. I seek and find Connection in everything I do, and I embrace the ways that details fit into the larger picture and the big picture influences those details. Home, for me, means my heart & my body, my family & spaces, the communities I am a part of, Land I am intimate with, our human family, our planet, the universe. These are the values that guide me in all I do. 

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I hope so much we get the chance to touch hands and meet eye to eye very soon. Until then, I will keep you in my heart. 

With Love and Gratitude, 

Sherene

Learn More About Sherene

As a Health & Wellness Coach, Sherene often creates tools and self-assessments to deepen awareness of personal patterns and cultivate healthful behaviors. Below is a tool she created to foster a deeper sense of connection in every day life.

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“Entering the Temple”

For most of the last year and a half, Paul has been offering user-friendly talks and guided meditations on Saturday mornings. (And they will resume soon.) Here are two meditation talks – from July 24 and August 28 – in that series. In the first, Befriending Experience, Paul follows some very deep threads as he gently and humorously lays the foundations for embracing our experience both in meditation and out. And in The Temple (offered on the morning of our covid-cancelled live 40th anniversary celebration), he speaks of the simple attitude of surrender and presence that allows us to enter the temple of each moment of experience; and to enter "the temple of the sitting body" as a profound meditation practice

thank you.

— Paul, Sherene, and The Whole Health Center Board of Directors

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