A "Toast Heard 'Round the World"

New Years Eve 2014

"A Toast Heard 'Round the World"

On New Year’s Eve, we invite all Pacifica Alumni to join in “A Toast Heard ‘Round the World” – a celebration honoring Pacifica, its alumni and our Alumni Association. This celebration will expand beyond our campus and reach out to our global community. Raise a toast with us this New Year’s Eve. Tweet, Facebook or Instagram your dreams for the Association! To join the toast or for more information, click here:

www.toastpacifica2015.com

Gratitude and Unhappiness Cannot Coexist!

As we prepare for our Annual Toast Heard ‘Round the World and our upcoming Annual Meeting: Coming Home 2015, we wanted to pause to briefly chat with you about gratitude – it floods our souls this year!

Gratitude is simply “the quality of being thankful.” To get in touch with what this feels like, remember the last time you narrowly avoided a bad consequence: braked just in time to avoid a car accident; got an “all clear” on an important medical test; caught yourself before taking a very bad fall. You feel a wash of adrenaline, and then a heartfelt Thank god (even if you’re not religious). You have an immediate, crystal clear sense of how fortunate you are – not to have crashed your car, not to have a disease, not to have broken your neck. All at once, you appreciate being alive and whole as the gift that it is, a fragile and wonderful state of affairs, something for which you are profoundly grateful.

When you’re in a situation like that, you realize that ordinary life is more than worthy of your full appreciation and thankfulness. You know, suddenly, that all the things you usually think are necessary in order for you to feel fulfilled and satisfied (wealth, power, true love, more stuff, and world peace) are truly icing on the cake. That would all be great, but – oh my goodness: We are alive!

One of the marvelous things about gratitude – it has no upper limit, as far as I can tell. You can be as grateful as you want to be. What better time to start than this today? (How Feeling Grateful Can Make You More Successful Forbes, 2013)

When you log-in to offer a Toast this year, please share one (or more) reasons for your gratitude! Then, kindly offer a Toast for our Alumni Association – a personal memory from 2014 or a wish for the New Year!

Here are just a few of the people and/or reasons we gratefully celebrate you:

Dr. Steve Aizenstat and the Board of Trustees, Pacifica Graduate Institute – your unwavering support continues to be the ‘wind beneath our wings’. We are sincerely grateful for your support and guidance. We raise our toast of gratitude to you.
Our Volunteers – where oh where would we find such devotion and caring? Your contributions are invaluable. We raise our toast of deep appreciation to you.
Gregory Baisden (2012 PhD Myth) and Rebekah Lovejoy (2012 PhD Myth) embarked on a journey of sizeable proportions - reimagining and redeveloping the PGIAA website! Thanks to their unwavering dedication, our site launched in early November. Over the past nine months, they worked diligently to design, build and transfer historical data from the Association’s previous site. If you have not visited, www.pgiaa.org, please do so. Site development will continue in 2015. Your professionalism, work ethic and dedication are much appreciated as well as your countless volunteer hours. On this very special day, we raise our toast of gratitude to Rebekah and Gregory.
Jo Todd, (2006 PhD Depth) Champion for Regional Coordination continued her leadership of our tireless and fearless Regional Coordinator team! The group has grown by ‘leaps and bounds’, serving as a life-line for the Association’s communications. We raise our toast of appreciation to you Jo.
Regional Coordinators (see attached roster), thank you for keeping the home lights burning. You empower us to tend the souls of our alumni! We raise our toast of sincere gratitude to you.
PGIAA Board of Directors (Tom Lyon, President/Charles Caldwell, Vice President/Beth Boardman, Secretary/Holly Reusing, and Treasurer) and members, John Michael O’Neil, Kay Todd, Patricia Taylor, and Suzanne Cremen Davidson) – we thank you for countless volunteer hours and your leadership of the Association. We raise our toast to the Pacifica Graduate Institute (PGIAA) Board of Directors)
Linda Coleman, our Accountant extraordinaire - thank you for the financial acumen you generously provide! We raise our toast of gratitude to you.
Rebecca Eggeman, our esteemed Legal Counsel – thank your untiring support and legal leadership! We raise our toast of appreciation to you.
Pacific support network (e.g., Bookstore, Library, Business Office, Public Programs, Faculty and Administration and Rincon Catering) - for the many times you answer our calls for assistance and support, we raise our toast to you.
George Thurlow and Team UCSB Alumni Association) – when the going gets rough, we call George. For the countless times you have given us support and encouragement, thank you. For always seeing the light at the end of a tunnel, we raise a toast of deep gratitude to you.
OUR ALUMS. We do appreciate your patience, support, encouragement, excitement, collaboration as we have endeavored to grow our Association. We honor your enthusiasm and look forward to seeing you at our 2015 Coming Home celebration. We raise our toast to you, Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni/ae.
To the ‘soul of the world’, we raise our toast in gratitude and with hope that the New Year brings us all many blessings!

HAPPY, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

COMING HOME:
Three days YOU will not want to miss!

Pacifica Graduate Institute's Annual Alumni Meeting is a 3-day feast packed with workshops, lectures, poster sessions, a film premiere, Pacifica Authors book-signing, Mythic art displays, reunions, awards, receptions, tours, and a community day honoring the dreams and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.! 
Join us for a celebration of the works of our very own Alumni!

Contribute your ideas about how to steer our association, develop scholarship funds and community service projects.

Continue our mandate of tending soul in the world!
For additional information, click here: www.cominghometopacifica.com