New Dimensions Café hosts Moore podcast

For a New Dimensions Café podcast, Michael Toms presents "A Promising Time with Thomas Moore". Scroll down on the linked page to listen to the 18:34 minutes audio file of Moore's views about leadership, young people, and ways to create a better world. The New Dimensions site also offers earlier programs with Thomas Moore.

The paradox of losing your life to find your life

Nina Frost asks, "Who are you, really?" for MarbleTalks, a blog published by Marble Collegiate Church in New York City. Thomas Moore will be at Marble Collegiate Church on Saturday 10 May, and Frost’s post provides a registration link. She says,

"I believe paradox is at the heart of the spiritual life. Lose your life to find it, says Jesus, and my own life and that of many folks I know attest to this unwelcome yet exhilarating truth.
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Moore has written of the "antithetical" self, something so different from our normal sense of ourselves that we often "feel both conflict and resource" in relation to this thing that makes us feel passionate. He explains: "We may each have an idea of who we should be, knowing the seeds of a self for many years. But our idea of who we are and the direction we ought to go may be entirely thwarted by circumstances and fate. We may discover that we are most ourselves when we are furthest from the self we think we ought to be."

Let that sink in. What might the implications be for your life? Is there some way you surprise yourself, do things that are not "like you" that move you deeply?"

The Barque sidebar gives a registration link for Moore's May 10 event.

Meet Moore in St. Louis on Saturday 3 May

Join environmentalist, thinker, writer and peace campaigner Satish Kumar and other speakers as they discuss solutions for global ecological and economic problems. Speakers include Kumar, Webster University’s 2008 E. Desmond Lee Visiting Professor in Global Awareness; Wes Jackson, president of The Land Institute; Frances Moore Lappé, author or co-author of 16 books, including Diet for a Small Planet; Thomas Moore, author of popular spiritual books including Care of the Soul; and Madhu Suri Prakash, Penn State professor and a specialist in ecological literacy and ecofeminism.

Webster University’s Global Ecology: A Creative Opportunity to Design a Sustainable Future conference is on Saturday May 3, 2008, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., in the Webster University Winifred Moore Auditorium, 470 E. Lockwood Ave. Cocktails and dinner will follow the conference with Congressman Dennis Kucinich, former Democratic presidential candidate and environmentalist, as the featured speaker.

The Global Ecology conference, including lunch, costs $25 for the general public and $15 for students. The cost for the dinner is $25. All meals will feature organic, vegetarian, locally grown food.

Please complete the registration form by April 24 or call
314 968-7135 for more information.

Barre Opera House hosts Moore this Saturday

According to Vermont’s Barre Montpelier Times Argus today, Thomas Moore will participate in a program at the Barre Opera House on Saturday, April 19, 2008 with author Wendy Stofan Halley and vocalist Abby Jenne.

"Moore will explore how people deal with depression, betrayal and the loss of meaning in their lives, and will talk about how to create a "soulful" life in modern America...

The trio has been assembled by Amy Miller, a psychiatric nurse practitioner in private practice and host of the CVTV show "Connect With Amy Miller."

Jenne will perform at 6 p.m., followed by author discussions from 7 to 9 p.m. For tickets ($15 in advance and $20 on Saturday) call 802 476-8188 or visit the Barre Opera House site. This is a benefit program for the Vermont chapter of the American Cancer Society.

Practice independence within your marriage

Thomas Moore responds to a question about marital fidelity for Beliefnet. A female reader wonders what may be wrong with her since she married two men who may have become involved with other women after marriage.

Moore recommends,

"... get in touch with any feelings you have for freedom: not necessarily freedom to be with other men, but freedom to have some life experience that is not associated with your husband. You can live a monogamous lifestyle within your marriage, but practice freedom in another area of your life. Ask your husband to do the same – to imagine an area of his life outside of the marriage where he wants to feel a sense of dedication and "monogamy."

From this exercise, you will probably discover that the desire to be monogamous and the desire for freedom, from too tight a coupling, can exist in each member of a relationship. It can even be an aspect of the relationship itself. Then these two polar emotions influence each other, keeping the relationship from being too cramping and at the same time allowing livable limits. If you are moralistic about monogamy, feeling righteous in your purity and judgmental about your partner, then you risk sending him off into the extremes of "freedom," which to him means cheating."

He concludes,

"I think it's also important for you to listen to your thoughts and honestly ask yourself if there is anything you are doing to contribute to a stifling or jealousy-based feeling [in] the relationship.

The desire to have one faithful lover and the longing to experiment and explore are two natural emotions that any good person might feel. You don't have to push either to extremes. You can tweak each one, allowing a little room in the definition of commitment and allowing some limits on the need to explore. Keep each feeling subtle, interesting, flexible, complex, and forgiving."

Moore comments about creating a fulfilling life

Today, Seacoast Online publishes an interview with Thomas Moore by Dan Lorenz about A Life at Work. Three excerpts from the piece show Moore’s stress on satisfying work, the need to imagine beyond a job or career, and his personal approach.

"A job is key," Moore said. "If you're unhappy, everything else is going to fall apart. It's the happiness that holds it all together." The father of two stresses that the book is not about finding the right job; rather it speaks to the process of finding your life's work, and discovering what makes life worthwhile.
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Commonly, Moore will find that a person is stuck in job that is unsatisfying, yet the person is too attached to it to move on. Change, he says, is key to moving on to bigger and better things. "Finding a satisfying job is a lifelong thing," Moore said. "It takes a long time to find. Some people can't give up that security that ties them down. You need to experiment and experience failures to do it. As long as you're on your way, you can find satisfying work."
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The author feels that the work he does now is both self-fulfilling and satisfying. "I didn't become a writer until I was 50," Moore said. "I can't think of a job I'd rather do. I do keep myself open, because you never know what's going to happen next."

Moore mentions that while home schooling his daughter, he tries "to stay sensitive to her interests and talent."

April 8, 2008, Moore reads in Portsmouth NH

On Tuesday, April 8 at 7 p.m., Thomas Moore will be at RiverRun Bookstore to read from and sign copies of his latest book, A Life at Work: The Joy of Discovering What You Were Born to Do. Martin Sheen says of the new book, "Thomas Moore provides another extraordinary work of inspiration and insight that helps us unite the will of the spirit with the work of the flesh."

RiverRun Bookstore
20 Congress St.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
603 431-2100

Barque celebrates the start of its fourth year

Today, Barque starts its fourth year reporting Thomas Moore’s events, writings, and work. Since its inception, the Barque blog has developed into four separate areas and this past year, the Barque Forum has attracted thirty-five registered members. We’ll celebrate our anniversary with the online course Opus, based on Moore’s latest book, A Life at Work. Visit the Barque Forum for updates about this special offering.