Exchanges, Gifts and offerings

Over the past 2 days (the first weekend in March 2015), 20 women gathered for conscious conversation at two locations—a living room and a yoga studio—in different parts of Maryland. There is something energetic about authentic sharing. People are willing to not only be vulnerable but to take emotional responsibility for their journeys—their losses, their learnings, their Living. Its a rich environment for anything from tears to laughter to emerge. We did both!

In the present, each voice finds it way to the exchange. In the moment, I am listening, sharing, absorbing, drinking tea and eating cookies. But later, even two days later, I feel fed, and nourished by these soul exchanges. I pay tribute to each individual’s offerings and our gifts to each other. Thank you all. Here are some of the morsels that stayed with me.

• Our stories are not what happen to us. They are not the events of our lives. They are what happen inside of us.
• We are here because of the people that came before us. We carry them forward.
• Karmically, you cannot be a victim without having been a perpetrator. I could see myself from the position of an Observer in the moment of being a victim and my heart opened from the point of view of the perpetrator.
• As an adult, you can choose never to be a victim. At the same time, you have to discern and remember to take care of the inner children who went through the experience.
• I didn’t know. 
• All losses that occur, be it a death, a move, …we carry the loss in our whole body system and something will happen to release it.
• That is one of the powers of writing, of deep exploration of ourselves, is to learn where we shut down the natural essence of ourselves.
• I remember the moment—walking into the hospital room where my (baby) son lay after his second open heart surgery. My parents were having a conversation about the loss of their son. It was the first time they had shared their feelings. He enabled that space of healing for them.
• That sense of loss is something I carried through my lifetime. I wasn’t able to reclaim what I had lost of myself until after she was gone.
• And that is universal. When we do have loss of a person, a relationship, we lose a part of ourselves. Its just the journey of life to reconnect with that in a new and beautiful way.
• Today I know peace begins with being true and honest with myself.
• My mentor tells me I don’t yet fully honor what my inner child went through.
• I had done a lot of inner work but its so surprising to me, just last week there was another layer. I had to be present and nourish my inner little girl. Its work, but we have to do it!
• What happens after the release..after the deep intense crying or grieving? A shift, an opening occurs for discovery, for something new.
• This community, this connection to each other, gives us support to do the hard work. From past experience, I know the release, I know the freedom that comes with letting go.

Can you hear the souls singing as each women speaks her truth? I sure can. The exchanges, gifts and offerings went on in conversations afterwards and beyond the weekend. There were many more morsels. These are just a few. Thank you to all who came.