Greater Community

(Items can be listed for up to 3 weeks)

Coastal Youth Orchestra Winter Concert, Monday, December 13th, 7:00 PM,

Orion Performing Arts Center, Topsham

~Free to the public~Donations gratefully accepted

~Works of Tchaikovsky, Rossini, Charpentier
Holiday Classics including Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride"
~Reception following concert
~A great opportunity for MWS string students to see other children performing wonderful music on string instruments. The Coastal Youth Orchestra is conducted by MWS's string teacher Nancy Roderick and Karla Kelley who conducts the Nutcracker each year.
~MWS students&alumni who will perform include Hallie Ojala-Barrett, Renault Haible, Willa Purcell and Adams Carney
~Auditions for next semester for strings of all levels on December 14th.

Portland Ballet's Victorian Nutcracker: If you are looking for something wonderful to do during the first week of winter vacation, consider attending Portland Ballet's Victorian Nutcracker. The ballet will be held at Merrill Auditorium on Thursday, December 23 at 2:00 and 7:30 pm.
You will see Merriconeag students Joshua Dow as Frank and Caroline Odlin-Brewer as Captain of the Cavalry, and teacher John Saccone as The Eccentric.  Tickets are on sale at Porttix.  You may purchase tickets online, or buy them in person at the Merrill box office to avoid an internet/phone fee.

Camp Sew & Sew: A weekly ‘creativity retreat’ for your busy life!
Learn to sew or just join us to create and play at ‘Camp Sew and Sew!’ this winter at Cottonweeds Quilt Shop’s new (huge) classroom, in Freeport (across from Buck’s Naked BBQ) on Rt. One. Camp Sew & Sew! will offer many fun projects and activities to try if you are looking for a new project or bring a project of your choosing and we will guide you! No project is “wrong”; if you prefer to knit or quilt then you should still join us to share your passion! It’s a wonderful place to restore your creative juices and/or just visit!
Camp Sew & Sew! is in session Tuesday mornings from 9:00 to 11:30 beginning Jan 25th to Mar 15th. The cost is $85 for the 8 week session but you can get a 20% discount off that price if you sign up by the 16th of January at Cottonweeds. Call your Camp Councelor, Susan Pennoyer (MWS High School parent) at 207-807-1815 FMI.
Please see attached flyer.

Join us for a Celebration of Winter w/Down East Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators!
Wednesday, December 29th from 2:00 - 4:00pm at the Freeport Community Library. Book readings, signings and fun activities for children of all ages. Featuring:
Robin Hansen, author and Jamie Hogan, illustrator of Ice Harbor Mittens
Karel Hayes, author and illustrator of Snowflake Comes to Stay
Katie Clark, author and Amy Huntington, illustrator of Grandma Drove the Snowplow
Lynn Plourde, author of The Blizzard Wizard

Click here to view flyer.

laceypots tiles and buttons, pamela bosco wrap jewelry, dietlind vander schaff, heather abt, rickie bogle, ed lutjens and kevin daley at merrill street studios annual holiday sale and gathering, thursday, december 9th, 5 to 9 p.m. - music, chair massage, food and wine, 70 merrill street on munjoy hill, take left at blue spoon. please call 450-5767 with questions or email me at lacey@laceypots.com

The First Parish in Portland, Unitarian Universalist, will present the 84rd Annual Pageant of the Nativity, Sunday, December 12, 2010 at 4:45 p.m.in the historic Meeting House at 425 Congress Street, just off Monument Square in downtown Portland. First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church has been staging its Pageant of the Nativity for 84 years now. The Pageant sports a cast of nearly 80 people, most of whom are adults, and many of whom have been in this pageant, in one role or another, for nearly all of their lives. There are no words spoken by the actors in this pageant. Indeed, the actors are never named. Rather the story of the Nativity is told in music and scripture while the actors, one by one, create a tableau in the candlelit sanctuary that is sculpted to replicate a Fra Angelico painting. Light bulbs in the 30 odd sconces in the church are replaced by candles and the scriptural "story" of the birth of Jesus is read by the minister who is hidden off to the side and unseen by most of the audience. In addition, history is honored by the fact that some of the costumes have been created from fabrics brought back from Palestine by nieces of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Non-denominational in nature, this event makes no political or religious statement. Rather it uses a combination of music, historic text, and tradition to honor the birth of one of history’s great prophets. In short, it is a truly magical 60 minutes in which we stop, quiet our hearts, and remember the reason that this holiday exists. Please plan to join us this year on December 12 and see for yourselves! (11/23)

The Dzogchen Buddhist Meditation Center Presents:

On Knowing Reality: The View and Practice of Buddhist Meditation
Buddhist meditation is simply looking directly at our conscious awareness. From the Buddhist yogi’s point of view, our mind’s true nature is also the nature of all phenomena.

“Everything that arises is merely the play of the mind…” Trungpa Rinpoche

This is called ’resolving our true nature”. The first step on this path is to see thoughts as the dynamic expression of awareness rather than being caught in the storyline of discursive thinking. Once we are able to be aware of ’thinking’ without being caught in its discursive web, we are able to recognize conscious awareness itself and study its nature. This is the path of meditation. The nature of this awareness is actually the experience of ’sacredness.’ Hence the path of spiritual training in meditation is the highest expression of our human nature -- “Unborn, unceasing, with a nature like the sky”
This will be a weekend retreat December 11th and 12 at our center in West Bath
Saturday 9-12 Dzogchen Meditation
12-12:30 Oryoki Lunch in the Shrine Room
1-4 Dzogchen Meditation
Sunday 9-12 Dzogchen Meditation and Closing Chants
The Program is free, a vegetarian lunch will be served on
Saturday for $10.00.
The Dzogchen Buddhist Meditation Center
4 Armstrong Way, West Bath, ME
(207) 443-3842 nmrc@comcast.net
Tashi Armstrong is a ngakpa or lay practitioner/ yogi of the Dzogchen and Mahamudra schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Tashi was a student of Trungpa Rinpoche in the 1980’s, attending Vajrayana Seminary in 1986 and living in residence for 4 years at Karme-Choling and Rocky Mountain Dharma Center. Tashi is also a student of Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, a Dzogchen and Kagyu master and abbot of Ka-Nying Shedrup Ling monastery in Boudhnath, Nepal. (11/23)