Alright then,
I invite you now to take a moment of time and space and just clear your heart,
Clear your mind,
And settle in.
And if you have something in your hands,
You can put that down,
Or if you have glasses on,
You can take those off and just give yourself the opportunity to arrive in yourself and in this place and time.
And in this place and time.
And bring your awareness first to the thoughts,
Whatever has brought you here,
Whatever thought,
Activity,
Person,
Just let your awareness be there for just a moment,
Perhaps with appreciation for whatever part that's played in your day,
In your life.
And then just as easily let that go and turn your attention to your breath.
And feel this next inhale.
Feel the air that it flows in and out.
And feel how your chest,
Your rib cage expands and contracts and your body perhaps moves gently with the rhythm of your breathing.
And notice that there's no force,
There's no effort involved,
Just the ease and effortlessness of breathing.
That you do participate,
But you are being breathed and lean into that not doing.
And allow your awareness then to expand to the rest of your body and notice where you go first in your awareness.
When you feel into body,
Where do you go in your experience of that?
And spend a moment of appreciation here for the service your body gives you every day,
Known or unknown.
And allow that awareness,
That appreciation to develop your entire physical being.
You and your entity,
Your wholeness,
Just with appreciation for being.
And let that volume,
That weight of you just sink into the ground,
Into the earth and be carried.
There is nothing for you to do.
Just be.
Allow yourself to be carried.
And imagine yourself now somewhere in nature in a beautiful place.
Place you enjoy,
That calls you home.
And as you take in your environment and feel that peace and ease,
You can feel a prickle in the air,
A stirring of the wind.
And as you look into the skies,
You see the clouds darkening and recognize a storm is brewing.
And you feel the energy increase,
That all powerful energy when this earth unleashes what it can in its natural rhythm of things.
And before the rains begin,
You seek a place of safety.
Perhaps it's a building,
Perhaps it's a cave,
Perhaps it's a shaded tree that will protect you from any torrent.
And just as you're reaching this place of comfort,
Safety,
The first drops splat on your skin.
And you see them splat on the ground and you hear them splat on the leaves.
And the thunder rolls in the distance and the wind picks up.
And you find your way into your safe space,
Into this cove of comfort.
And you nestle in warm and dry.
And from this place,
You have the opportunity of enjoying the majesty of the storm.
And it increases slowly as the rain begins to come and the winds whip.
And there's a flash of lightning that accompanies the thunder.
And you feel your safety.
And you feel secure knowing that nothing can touch you and that even in this storm,
You are cared for.
And you can feel the trust in not only the earth of withstanding and being bathed in the storm,
But trust in the storm itself.
That this is the natural order of things.
That there are calm days and calm winds.
And then the gale forces blow.
And as the wind picks up and the rain begins to come in sheets and you are warm and comfortable.
And you feel that energy outside,
Recognize how the calm is within you.
And be with that seeming contrast of experiences.
That there's turbulence and seeming disruption around you,
Outside of you.
And you can observe it and experience it.
And yet within you are comfortable and calm.
And you find an anchor in this storm,
A ground of your being that trusts that this storm is not necessary just to pass,
But it's necessary to be here.
There's a rightness to the storm.
Just as there was a rightness in the calm before it came.
And there's a rightness in the calm that will come after it passes.
So breathe into the experience of this duality.
The comfort of your cave,
Of your space.
And the power and the force of the winds and the rain,
The thunder and the lightning.
The shaking of the very air.
And your safety and your peace in the presence of that very storm.
And you notice then that the wind begins to calm.
And the rain does not drive in sheets anymore.
It falls smoothly now.
And as all storms do,
You recognize that it begins to pass.
And the thunder rolls away.
And the lightning has ceased.
And there's a gentle rain now.
Almost a sigh of relief and of appreciation for what has just come and cleaned,
Cleared the air and purified the ground.
And even that rain ceases and there's a calm,
A quiet after the storm.
And if you so choose to come out of your comfort cave,
The safety,
You can step into the fresh dew,
The cool water on the ground,
The dripping leaves,
And the sunshine that peaks through the clouds that are just moving on.
And feel this energy,
This air of renewal.
And recognize that this is also within you.
And that these storms that come,
They come for a reason.
And they're part of the whole.
And we can lean in and trust that life has its cycles,
Both within and without.
And as you feel that sense of renewal,
Allow your awareness to come back to your breath.
And with that next inhale,
Breathe in that fresh air,
That clean energy,
That new life.
And with the exhale,
You lean into that trust,
Knowing the wholeness of it all.
And so with your awareness back on the intake in the exhale of your breath,
Allow your awareness to settle back into your body in this time and this space.
And within the next breath or two,
You can gently open your eyes and allow yourself to return back and welcome.
The name of this gathering has been unshakable in uncertainty.
And it sounds like the uncertainty is a passing thing.
And it's the state of being.
We never know.
And so the practice is to find that part in ourselves and in the world,
That interplay in Cree,
It's kakissimoin,
Dancing with the universe.
How we can be with all of those uncertainties and movements and dynamics and feel that sense of being unshakable within ourselves.
And it's not easy.
And even that's not consistent,
That unshakableness.
It's also in movement and a dynamic.
And so it's a gift to ourselves,
I believe,
Especially in circumstances that feel so extreme at times to come back to that knowing of that alignment of that deep rootedness that we have in this earth physically and also in spirit.
And from that place to move forward and to live this life in all of its colors and all of its storms and all of its calm.
We were talking about John Trudell's sharings about tribal genocide and current circumstances and breaking down of systems.
And the question came up is,
So what can we do?
Like what do we do now?
And the thing that occurs to me,
We can go on the streets and protest and all the things that we've always done historically.
And yet I find that this here,
What we're doing here and with the depth and the authenticity of sharing and bringing our hearts this way to one another and with one another is the greatest thing that we can quote unquote do.
It's the being of ourselves in this way.
And in all of our experiences,
I think that that's the most powerful thing that we can contribute.
So the question came is where is the refuge really?
And what I'm hearing again and again is it's in the care,
Right?
Yes in connection,
But it's in the,
In order to connect there's that intention to care,
To be in that place of caring.
And so I would wish that for all of us,
A refuge in the caring.
And I'd like to share this with you.
It is from James Hwilt.
Here in the deep tangled forest,
All is quiet and still.
While far to the West,
The thunder re-echoes from hill to hill and the lightnings flash ever vivid in gray gashes knives the air.
The rain comes down in torrents,
A deluge everywhere bathing the heat sick flowers that they may bloom once more painting the grass a greener hue that grows by our cabin door making the pastures fresher for the cows and shepherd's herds making the pools by the roadside bathtubs for the birds.
Then the thunder peals louder and louder firing its shrapnel of rain.
The clouds charge after each other and the drought is defeated again.
Then through a rent in the clouds,
The sun's searchlight casts its ray and the rain God looks over the valley and sees the results of the fray.
And as he sees the conquest,
His victory's flag is unfurled in a beautiful colored rainbow.
He's telling all the world what a victory it is this rain,
What a triumph it's flashed down the Milky Way.
Then the sentinel stars dot the heavens and the dew drops sound taps for the day.
So that's my sharing for you all with you all.
Thank you for your care.
Thank you for connecting and being.
Take that with you.
Be well.
Love to you all.
