The Applegater

Applegater Winter 2014 1 WINTER 2014 Volume 7, No. 4 Serving Jackson and Josephine Counties — Circulation: 10,500 Applegate Valley Community Newsmagazine Beth Green: Guided by intuition by DIANA COOGLE Photo by Liz Butler www.applegater.org Applegate Valley Community Newspaper, Inc. P.O. Box 14 Jacksonville, OR 97530 The art of people: Local photographers love their work by HALEy MAy See LOCAL PHOTOGRAPHERS, page 23 James Maynard and Beth Williams recently relocated to Williams where they conduct spirituality workshops and trainings in intuitive counseling, among a myriad of other pursuits. Come one, come all! High-school students, that is! Announcing the Applegater's First Annual Student Essay Contest $100 prize for winning entry! See page 4 for details. Sponsored by "If you want to know more about me," Beth Green says, "listen to my music." at might be surprising, since Beth, who lives with her husband James Maynard (also a musician) in Williams, is best known as a counselor and spiritual teacher. She conducts "sex and spirituality" workshops and trainings in intuitive counseling, runs Beth Green Radio and TV, and has published five books, including the massive Living with Reality: Who We Are, What We Could Be, How We Get ere (available as a free download on her website) and the fictional Autobiography of Mary Magdalene. And, of course, there are the three CDs of original compositions. The thread connecting these many components of a career in spiritual practices is intuition. About her compositions, she says, "Sometimes I just put my hands on the keyboard and melodies come out." About her fiction: "I don't know what the story is till it's over." About teaching and counseling: "I am lucky because I never have to prepare. It's very intuitive. I am guided like a puppet. e knowing comes from a level of consciousness bigger than my own." at level of consciousness is at the heart of Beth's work. She doesn't believe we create reality but that consciousness can be taught. She doesn't rely on platitudes but on counseling to help others. "People are too distraught," she says. "ey are damaged and traumatized. Healing is crucial to being able to lead a better life." Beth's first CD came about in response to 9/11: to give energy of peace to people to stop manipulation by fear. is orchestral piece depicts the soul's journey through darkness to light. One should not be deceived by Beth's wide smile, cheerful demeanor, and spiritual career into thinking she has not known darkness. Rheumatic fever in her childhood left her disabled and in chronic pain. Trained as a classical musician but unable to perform, she discovered, in her fifties, that electronic instruments would enable her to compose. Last April Beth and James moved from San Diego to the house in Williams. ey were ecstatic to find so perfect a house. e arched angles of the windows create an abbey-like atmosphere. e large trees imbue peace. A shed, built by the original owners as an exercise room, has a beautiful rustic interior and is now used as a "hermit hut" for guests' private meditations. e RV garage with its wooden ceiling became a community room for registration and meals while the attached room, once a workshop with machinery, now carpeted and equipped with heating and air conditioning, became the seminar room. An apartment upstairs houses people seeking retreats, either alone or as a family. Even the creek or river that Beth had thought essential was provided in the large rock-and-concrete series of pools and waterfalls in the backyard. Best of all, the upstairs room of the house, which Beth accesses with an electric chair that slides along the banister, has become her personal sanctuary. She can look over a railing at the living room downstairs and through its arched windows onto the garden and a Buddha statue. "How can you stay petty, vindictive, and ridiculous in such a place?" she asks with a wide grin. On December 6 Beth and James will be at the Pacifica Music and Arts Festival in Williams. James will play his trumpet and sing self-composed works, and Beth will sing, chant, and do energy work to some of her compositions. Components of Beth's amazing career include InsideOut Radio on VoiceAmerica.com; InsideOut TV; a mind-body-spirit exercise program called LifeForce: e Inner Workout; the music group called Consciousness Rocks; the Stream Center for the New Spirituality; Consciousness Boot Camp, available as seminars or via video-conferencing; the Beth Green School of Intuitive Counseling; various healing and spiritual retreats; and, of course, her blog. On November 11 she sponsored a two-hour climate change panel discussion on VoiceAmerica.com. e podcast is available at http://www. voiceamerica.com/episode/81048. It's a lot to keep up with, yet she does it with intuitive ease. You can keep up with her activities through her website, www.bethgreen.org. Diana Coogle dcoogle@laughdogpress.com Celebrating Years Anyone with a smart phone or a digital camera can take a photo today and trust it will turn out. Hey, if it doesn't, there's always Photoshop; you can edit away your imperfections, alter the light, restore old photos that have deteriorated, even add people into your photo who were never there to begin with. With the ease and availability of taking and creating great photos, the art of photography has never been more accessible. But photography is not just about technology and accessibility. It's also about the people who have chosen it as a profession, the strengths and passions that set them apart, and the individuality and beauty of their subjects. Despite the speedy onset of affordable, easy-to-use tools, there is a realm of competency and skill reserved for those who strive to go above and beyond. Here are a few local photographers who have taken their art to the professional level. Nonprofit Org US Postage PAID Permit #125 Medford OR ECRWSS Local Postal Customer

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