Integrative Wisdom held its annual Fall Gathering on September 22nd
and 23rd 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.
