Seven Women Holding Community

Seven women wrapped in blankets around a circle of fire. 

Promised rain not yet falling. 

Garden beyond the patio fragrantly alive with spring. 

Tenacious tomato volunteer sprouts in an otherwise empty pot. 

Sour grass gathers its lemon yellow blossoms into tight cylinders, warding off the chill of night. 

Stately redwoods receive the last birds coming home after their work of song and pooping seeds.

Silently, we seven connect with the natural world through all our senses.

As our host tends the fire, globes of light, cleverly powered by the sun, flick on one by one. Daylight yawns, swallowing itself. 

Pastel beach-ball sized globs of light, strings of blue pearl lights, hanging off the shade roof, three-inch balls of light stuck in flower pots - all conspire to soften the darkness.

Stories emerge. Experiences understood yield wisdom. Cultural differences peak our curiosity as each sister present recalls distinct and delicious family rituals practiced at gatherings in her original home. Turkey, Syria, Brazil, various states of the U.S. - all represented at this gathering of colleagues. 

Each of these sister colleagues is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. Each is schooled to sit by people with “terrible knowledge,” as Anguin St. Just calls trauma. Life happens. When it happens so fast and unexpectedly, as it did so recently in Nepal, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, it can imprint us with horror. What sense are we to make of the tallest mountains on earth skipping like lambs? Terra-not-so-firma shaking stimulates our survival energies, and terra keeps skipping! Gonna take a while to heal these folks, their homes, and communities.

Reclaiming our vibrancy, aliveness, and connection to life can feel impossibly unattainable in the midst of an impact of this magnitude.

Sitting with, while folks unload their back-log of un-composted experiences is a privilege. Witnessing the ordinary miracle of healing affirms the aliveness in us all.

Great Spirit seems to be the greatest animator. 

Nature, the generous, genius artist.

No Computer Generation required.

May Peace Prevail in Baltimore and all cities. May kindness and compassion proliferate more rapidly than anger, frustration, and terror. May our communion with Nature, and our intention to build inclusive communities,  expand the circle 'til it enfolds all Earth's creatures.