Idiosyncrasies

Another light grey morning by the sea; the sky will open to blue later and the temperature sits at 65 degrees fahrenheit. Today is Friday.

There is a spirit that sits in a healing circle with us every other Thursday - the origin of her life starts in Russia and the trajectory into the circle was a baby that became the center of dispute with her partner. They're trying to be "spiritual" in trying to unwind complexities in life. It is such an affirmation that the instinct for wanting to develop self-awareness is what brings us to a healing circle. When life delivers shit, it helps to remember that you can always wash that stuff away, with the magical solution called, "water.". And it might be useful to remember that we clean up a lot of that stuff for babies because they don't have any awareness at all that other people might not appreciate the act, the smell, the messiness - and humans produce a lot of it, constantly - all through life.

Not sure why this idea has come to mind this morning. Maybe it is all the news in the air. It could be that it feels like events in both the personal and social space are very smelly and messy.

There is something about being in real and virtual circles that in itself is healing. It is the fact of other human beings who make the choice to be in a space where deep sharing can happen, held in the spirit of generosity and kindness - without judgment and without risking becoming the one reduced to a person who needs guidance, advice, or fixing. There's something quite decent about being a person who chooses to take time out a very full existence, to simply sit and listen to another person's story. It's a kind of medicine that those who choose to engage in such acts might discover that silence and deep listening might just be more powerful than drugs. It must be because when you receive another person's sadness, struggle in life, or random share about what a day has held for them - you are in service to something beyond the self. And the experience of that is (sadly) unusual these days. We live in a time of tremendous self-serving behaviors and thoughts.

Mostly we have come to believe it is essential to engage in taking care of ourselves and our immediate (mostly) biological families in material ways. We forget about the other ways. It is an experience to expand the lens to create relationships that are intimate and deep with strangers - who then might transform into a new relation for which we have no name these days. In healing circles, we embrace the idiosyncrasies and fears that others carry - just for a moment. Yes, it's momentary, and yes that moment often dissolves. It is like water for the spirit and soul being cleansed by the simple act of being present. Wow.