Your People

There is a beautiful poem by Rumi that popped up during a circle last week - 'There are Some People" is the title and it is written:

There are some people in this world who are like beacons for your lost soul, sunshine for your dark days, and bandages for your deepest wounds.

Look for them. Find the people who pour light into the shadows they didn't create. The people who help heal the parts of you they didn't break and who shelter you from storms they didn't summon.

Look for them. Because there are people in your world who will do all of this. Quietly. Unassumingly. Sometims without even realizsing.

Look for them. Find them. Let them. And then do the same for them. Because these are your people.

Yesterday was a day that allowed for reflection, meditation, contemplation for about six and a half hours on the road. It was a holiday for some - Veterans Day - and the roads were clear, weather was warm, and long stretches on Hwy 5 made for open space to be still and in motion, all at once.

Farming seems to have slowed - lots of orchards with trees that are no longer being cared for as evidenced by the random branches sticking out of the tops and sides, and visible dryness from lack of water. No people tending to the land anymore. It made me wonder about how we will manage what is coming next. Will people be able to live in less anxiety and fear? How will healing happen after such struggle and pain? What will be our collective anchoring values as we move into a new opportunity to shape futures and reach new agreements with one another? Who are your people?

I have been blessed with finding my people along the way. The time, energy, and effort now seems like nothing - the blink of an eye. They emerged and came in all shapes and sizes and under very different conditions. Often, we were called into service or there was some reason for meeting one another. Some of those people I still see and am happy to engage with them very regularly. Others are in my heart/mind and are less present because of distances in time and space. Still others are now ancestors and the only way to be with them is through dreaming and prayer. Many were the people that lived as the Rumi poem described - quietly, unassumingly being in our world to provide light in times of hardship and darkness.

Such people possess a quality of clarity about their purpose in life. As one wise teacher and healer has said, "Perhaps the true purpose of life is to grow in wisdom and learn more about how to love better." We don't grow in wisdom or our capacity to understand love by doing everything correctly – mistakes are part of the experience in life and if you never err, then the chances are you will have very little fuel to take you into deeper reflection. Without mistakes, it is hard to imagine how a person can know what it feels like to fail at being the person you want to be, to be hurt and know that you hurt others, to understand the need for compassion, for self as well as others. We don't like these experiences, but we have them whether we want them or not and this is where we sharpen our instincts about finding our people - the ones who give us inspiration, faith in humanity, the chance to know whether we can people someone else's source of light.