Wisdom Received From The Fall Gathering

Integrative Wisdom held its annual Fall Gathering on September 22^nd and 23^rd this year.  While there is space in the retreat center for ten women, only two were able to make it.  As is with most businesses, you might think this event would be cancelled due to “poor attendance”.  But Integrative Wisdom is not most businesses.  It was clear to me early on that my work was to serve, not to necessarily be financially successful.  And I adopted the mantra, “just one is enough”.  I figured that if only two women could make it this time, then there was a reason that only these two women would be here together.

And I was not wrong.  Our topic for our gathering was simply “Fall” and we gathered to create an intention for the next three months of our lives, based on where our summer had led us.  I had spent some time reading and listening to music in order to find just the right poems or quotes or songs to supplement this goal.  Here’s the first selection:

“Each moment is a place you’ve never been.”  Mark Strand

“Each act is virgin, even the repeated one.” Rene Char

“Your duty is to be; and not to be this or that.” Ramana Maharshi

As you might imagine, we had quite a robust conversation around these ideas.  And, we agreed that most of the time, we don’t follow any of these words of wisdom.  As the dialogue progressed, we opened to the possibility that we might adopt these words of wisdom as we moved into this season of “fall time”.  There was special resonance with the idea of giving ourselves permission to simply be, without having to fit into some kind of box or expectation.

I hope you will think about that for a moment before reading further.  What if you showed up to the next moment of your life as if you have never seen or experienced anything like it before?  How might your commute, your business meeting, your time with family be transformed?  I hope you try it.  Stop yourself when you say, I know what they are thinking, or I know you won’t care, or whatever other thing you say when you’ve already closed your mind to the possibilities inherent in the now.  Give another person the gift of blank slate, possibility, and wonder.  And, if in that moment, they do exactly what you thought they would do, the very act of you not expecting it will be new enough.  No need to say, I told you so.  Cause it will be different because you showed up differently.

OK, back to our gathering.  As we continued to breathe in and breathe out and as we sat in the expansiveness of peace, our hearts were open to share deeply.  And then the flow of communication intensified.  Here were two women who knew each other for years, and yet a dialogue began that was “a place they’d never been”.  One woman, a widow, sharing this journey back to wholeness and living in the now.  The other woman, sharing a cancer journey with her beloved, allowing herself to share that journey with us.  While you think one might be able to offer suggestions and advice given she has travelled that road, the consensus was:  What if this is approached from that idea “each act is a virgin act”? 

While it was acknowledged that having others who have walked a similar path share some of their experience in order to support someone else’s path, we also realized that if we believe in the idea presented in our opening quotes, there is a newness of possibility that presents itself.  This newness might have more juiciness and give more life to each day rather than waking up and saying to oneself, oh now I know what comes next. 

This was powerful to be sure.  We then moved to our next set of quotes:

“Meditate on the markings on your heart.” Mark Nepo.

“Lend yourself to others but give yourself to yourself.” Michel de Montaigne

“If you want to hold the beautiful one, hold yourself to yourself.” Rumi

Oh, now we really got into the meat of it.  So much of this journey is about others; what they need, what they want, what they expect….usually from us.  And to imagine turning inward to be as generous to one’s self?  These quotes led to some pretty deep silence and meditation.  While the wisdom contained within the quotes was recognized, it was also clear that these would take some practice to actually live day to day.  We were in agreement that this was a practice worthy of our Fall time.

We completed the day by creating a sand mandala.  The process was calming and allowed us to integrate our newfound wisdom into our souls.  We went forward, looking forward to the next few months of living in and for the NOW.

I hope you enjoyed this brief description of the Integrative Wisdom Fall Gathering.  What follows is information I passed on to our group from the book, “The Medicine Woman’s Guide To Being In Business For Yourself”, by Carol Bridges.  This book has helpful to be over the last 20 years and I still enjoy the wisdom within the pages today.

Take stock of your routine.  The average day is the harvest of thousands of thoughts, desires, longings, repression, or expressions over your lifetime.  Is the harvest good?  Are you experiencing joy in these average days that are passing you by?

Are you noticing the simple pleasures?  The way the light is streaming in the window?  The smell of your flowers in the garden?  Do you pay attention to those nudgings that encourage you to pick up the phone and make a call to a friend, or the one that says, Stop and just take a breath, or are you muttering over the list of to dos that aren’t getting done or frowning with frustration at the world?

It is important to recognize our responsibility in harvesting our best life.  Let us be sure we are taking small steps to create our best day, in spite of things we have no control over. 

Direction:  West.  It’s time for a “Time Out”.  Fall into your comfortable chair and look over what you have done so far.  Look over what you have placed your attention on in the summer.  Is it coming to fruition?  Is it worth your continued time and efforts?  Are you proud of what you are doing with this one precious life?

Do you see this in relationship to your connection to the Divine?  Give your life to that which is greater than yourself.  Time is all we have.  Let us use it well.