018 - Seraphim Blueprint Newsletter

I rarely get to be a "Drama Queen", but many things that could go wrong this past month did go wrong. With hindsight, the list is comical, and that is the main reason I'm sharing.

After what my wonderful eye surgeon said was a successful cataract eye surgery on June 11, I was blind in my left eye for 10 days. Considering this was my second do-over surgery, this temporary blindness was likely the result of a more complicated surgery.

Three days later, the day before my students were to arrive from overseas, Enterprise Car Rental canceled our confirmed order for a 15-passenger van to bring students here and back from Atlanta Airport. I couldn't use my own car to help my husband with transportation because I was blind in my left eye. We scrambled that Friday, June 14, to find another driver, and a local airport service saved the day.

On June 19, in the middle of Teacher-Training, for my one-week follow-up with my eye surgeon, my internal eye pressure was 59! Way off the charts! That pressure could impinge on the optic nerve causing permanent blindness. Right in the office the doctor aspirated the eye of extra liquid and immediately brought the pressure down. (I had been nauseous the previous night, but thought I was experiencing food poisoning and made no connection to my recent surgery). The doctor then put me on very strong medication to keep the eye pressure down.

I taught the final two-days of the Teacher Training Course with side effects from the drug that made me dizzy and impaired my eyesight even in my good eye. Somehow I made it through.

Then my husband's pickup truck broke down. So he used my small Honda to get some of my students back to Atlanta, with the local private airport service carrying the rest.

But right before my husband left for Atlanta with the new Teachers, somehow my rabbit escaped from the house, and I only found him because our puppy started barking, and since I was alone on the property, I eventually went down to see what the dog was barking at. He was hovering over a terrified Raiyne (bunny's name) on our front veranda. I brought the rabbit in, but 5 hours later noticed he hadn't moved from the position I had placed him in. I realized I had another emergency on my hands, and it was Saturday night and all area vets were closed for the weekend. Monday was not much better as our rabbit vet was off that day. Meanwhile, I was force-feeding the rabbit which was really the best thing I could do. I found a rabbit vet that Monday in Asheville near my eye surgeon's office which was good because I had an eye appointment that day. The rabbit vet told me that the reason the rabbit wasn't eating was because his two front teeth had been knocked out! No idea how that happened! But the good news is that rabbits grow their teeth back within two weeks!

As June ended, things began to normalize. The rabbit started chewing his food again, as his teeth grew in, and my vision improved daily.

I hope that was my Drama Queen experience for the year, and everything is now on the mend. I can see clearly out of my left eye and the rabbit is behaving more like his old self.

And the good news is that we have five new American Teachers-- Claudia Kroll, Beth Rule, Gayla Malcolm, Carleen Ozturkmen, Cindy Waite; four new Level 6 Japanese Teachers (Kentaro Kineko, Miki Miyaura, Junko Kadoya, Aya Okubo; one new Level 6 Swedish Teacher--Dilsat Pinar, and one new Level 6 Turkish Teacher--Burcin Taranoglu. Here are most of the June Teacher-Training graduates on their day off near Highlands, North Carolina:

Japan Festival News:

The Festival dates have been moved up a week in order to avoid the U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday. Now the official Seraphim Blueprint Festival will be on November 14 and 15, 2020 in Yokohama (near Tokyo). Registration fees for the Festival will be similar to previous festivals in the U.S. with early bird discounts, making it easier to attend. We will be renting a facility in Yokohama that will allow for about 100 people. Miho Ohira, the National Leader of Japan, will start taking registration fees this coming November. There will be more details about that in the September newsletter.

Planning now for Three Modules:

In order to attend any of the module tours before and after the Festival, you will first need to register for Module B--the actual two-day Seraphim Blueprint Festival in Yokohama. All Seraphim Blueprint Level 1 graduates and above can attend the Festival, only limited by the room size of the Yokohama facility. Module A is currently limited to overseas participants, and Module C will be open to overseas visitors, and some Japanese participants.

Module A: Tokyo → Kanazawa & Toyama → Kyoto → Tokyo Beginning on Saturday, November 8, and returning to Yokohama/Tokyo on Friday, November 13. (Expensive tour, limited to 20 people) This tour will emphasize ancient and more traditional Japan and will use bullet train travel. (Contact me for details)

Module B: Seraphim Blueprint Festival (Saturday and Sunday, 14/15 November. Required attendance for also doing Module A and/or C) Theme will likely be "The Medical Model & Seraphim Blueprint" (Contact Miho Ohira--subaru_ren@yahoo.co.jp for registration details)

Module C: One Day tours around Tokyo, Mt. Fuji, Kamakura areas.(Economic day tours using public transport, unlimited numbers can attend) Contact Alex Brandin (alex@inspriredalternatives.com) for details.

By the way, nothing prevents you from creating your own tours before and after the official Festival. Most signage in Japan is in English and Japanese, and it is a very safe country to travel in, so please feel free to create your own itinerary.

I will handle the Module A tour reservations and expenses beginning next January, and Miho Ohira (subaru_ren@yahoo.jp.co) will handle the weekend hotel and Festival expenses, associated with attending the Seraphim Blueprint 2020 Festival. The following survey is still helpful for us to know of your interest in attending.

Survey for 2020 Seraphim Blueprint Festival in Japan

Note that the rationale for these triennial Seraphim Blueprint festivals is to create new friendships among our far-flung membership. The logic for have a medical model theme for this coming festival is because we have several doctors, nurses and vetinarians who are now teaching Seraphim Blueprint courses. We hope that some of these Teachers will come forward to speak at the festival about their experiences with teaching from a medical perspective.

Enjoy the Summer Sun

Ruth Rendely, Chairperson

Bodhi, our new puppy born January 7, is a rescue and resembles the English Shepherd breed,

The 2020 Short Story Seraphic Prize