This past weekend I went to a retreat with many people and appreciated a soulful gathering of many different bodies but one collective soul.
The vibrance of each person was so lovely, unique and I learned so much just by listening and being in the presence with so many.
There was a planned spiritual wedding in the middle of the retreat, children playing always, meals together, workshops to deepen, space to be with myself and others, and a whole new outlook for what is possible. Renewal in the best sense of the word.
What I most enjoyed though, was the way I felt while listening to other’s personal stories. The way that people connected with their emotions, their stories and presented it in the most self-honoring way of presenting it as their own experience. There was something so freeing in listening with such an open heart.
And because the stories are personal to the individual, and they are their own experiences, I watched my heart travel with each person into their worlds and listen with them as what was meant for me to hear would resound within my own being, awakening, polishing and connecting some facet of myself that I did not know would expand and lift in those moments, pleasantly surprising myself and also deepening the connection between both the other and myself.
Deepening in honor and reverence for the jewels that were gifted of the spirit in myself, with each person knowing that without them, those gifts would not have been given.
What was most remarkable to me was how many people I met that felt to me so incredibly transparent and vulnerable to their own humanity. When I would listen to them, I would feel the subtleties of emotions arise and fall and I would feel myself emoting with them within my listening, completely surrendered to their journey and where it was leading me and also fully present to myself that was also fully there, enjoying the communion.
I continue to deeply recognize how safe I feel in another’s vulnerability, when one is in touch with the fullness of their feelings, emotions and allow themselves to touch the vastness of their purity of being true to all of their bodies in that moment while they are in their own holding of themselves yet still open to the experience of themselves too; no judgment of right/wrong and no hiding from what is arising within.
It is a stark contrast to when I am in presence with those who are mainly speaking from their minds, or in their stories holding onto past bringing it present. And it is in the contrast that I learn more and can anchor more into what is real for me, for we are where we are.
There is something so holy and sacred being in this transparency with another. Nothing to hide, no shame/guilt, only the arising of what is within allowing our own self to experience the vulnerability of ourselves, asking nothing of another. And yet in this supreme detachment and witnessing, the togetherness as the experiencer of the other and the knower of ones own self within the experience is exquisite.
We are walking ourselves home in this moment, holding onto ourselves with such a compassionate love for that which arises within and is being experienced so sweetly before our own eyes, loving the sensitive one. And being with the sensitive one begets the sensitive one in the other; an opening, a portal into the divine heart of togetherness.
