WINGS Seminars
Part of CHAPTER 9 Living Healthy and Whole from my book Life’s Mountains explains the importance of WINGS to me.
Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went. I prayed to God that I would be alive to celebrate the next holiday season with my family. Often during the winter dark season, people look deep inside themselves. Then on New Year’s Day, set new goals for themselves for the coming year. In the past, I’d always wished for things like losing weight, saving for a new car, or a vacation to Hawaii. Now my life was different. My New Year’s goal for 2001 was just to be alive.
Dark winter anxieties and stress erupted in Matt’s daily life as a husband to a cancer patient and a wildlife biologist battling with foresters about timber harvest. After observing him in a state of anger at work, his supervisor realized he was a time bomb ready to explode. He needed to be defused. Matt was required to go to a weeklong workshop called Personal Effectiveness Seminar (PES) at WINGS, the innovative learning group in Eugene, Oregon. It was not as a suggestion, but an order.
He was angry about being forced to attend the workshop. As a manly man, he couldn’t stand the thought of going to a place called WINGS. “WINGS—I’m probably going to run into fairies fluttering around,” Matt fumed, his face red in anger as he filled his suitcase.
Sitting on the bed next to him, packing, I laughed. “Are you scared of fairies?”
Matt stomped out of the room and headed to Eugene. He came back another person. His changed demeanor shocked me. Matt was actually smiling. He even looked different. The muscles in his face were relaxed. The frustrated wrinkled forehead was gone.
Some winged fairy must have sprinkled some magic dust on him. “Matt, what happened at WINGS? What did you learn?” I asked, along with a million other questions.
All he would say was, “You have to find out for yourself.” I wasn’t going to argue with that. I wanted some magical dust too. Soon afterward, I packed my bag and headed to Eugene.
What I experienced in PES was amazing. We all learned techniques that showed us the goodness and love within ourselves and how to access them. Each of us went in as one person and came out as another. We all walked out with an afterglow, our eyes shining, smiles sparkling, and skin glowing. We were happy new people.
This was different from the happiness and glow you get when you visit Disneyland or take a trip to Hawaii. This was a glow that comes from within and can last forever, not like a tan that fades over time. Our WINGS instructor took a picture of each of us, to bring home, because she wanted everyone to remember it.
The most significant thought that came back repeatedly when I got home was something my instructor told me, “You are what you think you are.” She had taken my hands one day and pulled me aside and said, “If you think you’re sick, you will be. If you think you’re healthy, you will be. Your mind has strength.”