witnessed_and_held

Gratitude - Like Minded People

I've always had an appreciation and yearning to be with people that were able to see in between the lines. People that could sense the gray, trusting their instinct - knowing that there was something more than what they could SEE or the promise of, "if you do this, you'll get that."  I guess it's just that I'm finding that I have a preference to be with people who desire to seek and deepen into being more  conscious.  People who get that we're all interconnected with everything, and that we are energy with a particular heartbeat that resonates with the universe.

Sometimes, I find myself in the mixed company of people who speak with anger, resentment, disappointment and bitterness in their tone.  I feel sadness at these times, knowing that the energy emitted from this tone permeates all that are present and flows right out onto the street.  I want to turn and flee, afraid that the residue will spill onto my way of being.  But then I stop and close my eyes, trusting that my feelings of love, compassion and kindness can meet the forces of bitterness and sadness.  And it got me to thinking, what if I could do this everytime, what if I could emit this loving kindness every time, I faced this wounded, hurting energy.  And then I started thinking about how much of this do I encounter every week, every day!

Sometimes - a lot.  And it all depends on where I find myself from moment to moment, where I choose to show up.

This is one of the many reasons why I have chosen to show up in so many circles.  I love to be held in a Circle space.  As I enter my twelve year in circle space, I can count on one hand the number of times I've felt this kind of negative bitterness from an individual and/or from the collective.  I've come to trust that the women and men that come to circle, come because they sense the sacred space deep within the well of their being. They know that so much will not have to be explained, because their is a belief system built around values of what it means to be a human being at this time of our existence. That it matters what we emit to another.

It's not that we all agree on everything while in circle, sometimes we don't.  And we know that we can come with our hopes, dreams, experiences, expressions - ready to listen, ready to be influenced.  In the end we may agree to disagree, but its with a certain sense of well being that is quite noticeable.  There is no anger, no fear, no resentment, no competition, or bitterness.  Just a place for "like minded people" to come and be present with each other.  It just feels good and I believe that we need more places in our lives to nourish feeling good about ourself and each other.

Do you have this kind of place in your life? 

Africa

Two days after Thanksgiving, I left for Kenya and Tanzania.  Having previously visited Egypt and South Africa before, I was all ready to be engulfed by the sites that have attracted us as tourist.  What I was to find however, was a totally different story.  Unlike visits from the past, I had an opportunity to sit up close and personal with the women, men and children of Africa.  The experience left me humbled, appreciative and grateful for my life.

Each day we awoke to a phoned wake-up calls, ate a hearty breakfast and began our journey.  Our transportation was considered elite for the people of these two countries - well used and older model passenger vans and school buses.  The roads were often dirt - rich red dirt that melted beneath the drops of rain that sometimes showered us in drenches and created craters of holes large enough to swallow Land Rover tires.

Our meals, that were often prepared in the communities and villages we visited were rich in eggs, wheat, rice, potatoes and strange green vegetables that tasted liked collard greens.  We never went a day without, so that our bellies would not growl.  Everywhere we went, we didn't have to worry about the water, for bottled water sat comfortably in our purses and knapsacks.