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Let Go - Let Be - Let Come
Wander into the center of the circle of wonder.
Chan Master Hongzhi
Arrive & Settle: optional questions for reflection
Gather & Begin: Today we arrive at the next threshold, at our next Yes.
We re-enter (and enter newly) our theme of LET GO - LET BE - LET COME, this time on the filling side of the light. We affirm our presence here, from the arc of our first Yes to right here and now.
In the midst of the bright lights and busy insistence of our culture, we gather, build, and amplify our participation within the wider embrace and cycles of the Living World. Here, we are nourished and we nourish. We are invited into new dimensions and we invite. We are sustained and we sustain. We are known through the spectrum of senses and we become newly-known in the turning towards.
Thank you for being here. Thank you for all that you are willing to encounter and embody (and all that you are not). Gravity & space, ground & breath, heartbeat & all our hearts say, "There is a place for you, and it is here."
POEM: My Courageous Life by David Whyte (see Preparation Invitation page)
POUR - POOL - GATHER - RETURN
REFLECT: Reflect on the arc of the past 11 weeks. What nuggets of sights-sounds-sensations-images and more come to you? Note -- they don't have to be directly EIF related; it all belongs inside this Emptying into Fullness season.
SHARING: see below....
SHARING:
These are portions of your fuller shares
(partly bc I can't read my own notes🙃).
May they be a portal and a gift!
I am enough
(and the many resources of EIF as reminders)
Excessively Gentle; the Bigness of my being, letting that take up its happy space; Calming the urgency to get smaller as a way of fitting in
Feasting and all that makes up feasting: cooking as feasting, invoking family & ancestors as feasting, ingredients themselves, the smells that come & change, everyone gathered. The exhaustion and nourishment that comes from the entire process.
Intention, moving from Belief to Knowing. Story of the sage bundle. This feels a little like knowing and continues beyond the EIF umbrella.
This is my third year in EIF. The winter is hard for me. I get depressed and sad. Some weeks I hate EIF; I shut down; I stomp out of the room; and then I return each week. Having a way to say this makes all the difference.
Feeling very blurry from recent events in the personal and collective. My intention is to open my heart to feel more, both love and sadness. Today's opening questions brought up initial disappointment in my capacity to feel and then I recognized how much I do feel and appreciating that forgiveness.
Asking for help is not weakness; it is coordination. Flowing...
Freedom from polarities; there is no "other"
Intention: Allow
Allow myself to be here (even while somewhere other than home); Allow myself to join; Allow myself to choose what to experience and explore through the week, allowing and releasing the rest.
Resist the urge to turn EIF into something productive. Integrate however I integrate.
Haptic Touch - touch from both directions. “Here I am” love this
Looking back through the weeks, I found this -- "As I affirm my presence and well being I signal to my biology that I have the capacity to hold multiple possibilities simultaneously." That was so helpful.
Intention was clarified to: Stay noticing connections. Haptic touch was an introduction; Pour/Pool/Gather/Return as the exchange, centered around what is giving/receiving. Notice the exchange.
In a previous EIF year, I was working a lot with my inner. This year working with the outer. My inner is doing very well. In my outer world, I am in the same location for work as for EIF and was having trouble connecting. I changed my location from at my desk to outside (breeze, trees, warmth) and that made a big difference. I can get so focused on one thing that I become an island. Maintain connections with outer.
Approaching your heart after first spending time thinking of a person or being you love and noticing the things about them that light you up. Then from that place approaching your heart. I love that. Thank you for all you shared with us. It was so full and I'll be using it still.
The space and silence between things. The tenderness of truly touching the aliveness of a body and allowing that aliveness to stir my heart.
Friends, THANK YOU.
If I've missed anything that you'd like to see here, please send a shorthand version my way this week. I will happily add it in!
POUR-POOL-GATHER-RETURN, with variations:
POUR-POOL-GATHER-RETURN, with variations:
Go slower than you’ve gone to this point, in the interest of noticing more of what is already here with you;
As you Pool on one side, turn your attention to the space where you will go. Feel yourself in the turning-towards what you have yet to know. Gather and Return. Begin again and repeat this variation of turning-towards to other side.
POEM: When Your Life Looks Back by Jane Hirshfield (continuing the above through and beyond the poem)
When Your Life Looks Back
When your life looks back —
as it will, at itself, at you —what will it say?
Inch of colored ribbon cut from the spool.
Flame curl, blue-consuming the log it flares from.
Bay leaf. Oak leaf. Cricket. One among many.
Your life will carry you as it did always,
with ten fingers and both palms,
with horizontal ribs and upright spine,
with its filling and emptying heart,
that wanted only your own heart, emptying,
filled, in return.
You gave it. What else could do?
Immersed in air or in water.
Immersed in hunger or anger.
Curious even when bored.
Longing even when running away.
“What will happen next?” —
the question hinged in your knees, your ankles,
in the in-breaths even of weeping.
Strongest of magnets, the future impartial drew you in.
Whatever direction you turned toward was face to face.
No back of the world existed,
no unseen corner, no test. No other earth to prepare for.
This, your life had said, its only pronoun.
Here, your life had said, its only house.
Let, your life had said, its only order.
And did you have a choice in this? You did —
Sleeping and waking,
the horses around you, the mountains around you,
the buildings with their tall, hydraulic shafts.
Those of your own kind around you —
A few times, you stood on your head.
A few times, you chose not to be frightened.
A few times, you held another beyond any measure.
A few times, you found yourself held beyond any
measure.
Mortal, your life will say,
as if tasting something delicious, as if in envy.
Your immortal life will say this, as it is leaving.
~ Jane Hirshfield
As we wind our way towards closing...
Thread of Yes began Emptying into Fullness
Thread of Intention carried us deeper
Threads of experience & sharing wove us into and through all
Thread of what we're taking with us, as we leave the rest
And here, today, is the Thread of what's Arriving
SENSE INTO THE THREAD OF WHAT'S ARRIVING:
Stone - rainbows through mist - tenderness - permission - okayness - space - for giving, forgiving, and formgiving - my teacher - feminine energy - breath of fresh air through my perception -
CEREMONY FOR COMPLETING A POETRY READING
[Ceremony for Completing Emptying into Fullness]*
GROUP INTENTIONS:
It's time to return to my body and engage my life
Wholesomeness
I receive completely, with reverence and glee, all the fruit and blessings of being a creative being. The banks of this river overflow with nourishment and love.
Cultivating the soil of new life
Knowing
Endure until planted seeds grow
I notice and rest in my connections to the natural world during this season of colder shorter days
I reconnect myself with the world around me, and hopefully find, in the process, a direction and purpose that carry meaning for me
Surrender in Presence
Listening
Establish a voice
To recognize when it's appropriate to enter into the dance with the sacred, follow instructions, and ward off fear
Softening
I live a life rich in health, financial independence, creativity, artistic expression, and time wealth with my loved ones
Allow
The Middle Path
I allow my heart to open to feeling love and sadness, knowing I can handle it all
Shimmering Presence: Make of Myself a Wonderous Place
Thank you for your Presence Here!
Thank you for your Presence Here!
My hands are Empty
My heart is Full
In-Joy!
Jeni
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