Hi Friend,

"Working with you is akin to going into a forest and finding you standing next to this sweetly bubbling cauldron over a nice warm fire that you've been stirring for a really long time. As we sit together by the fire, there is magic that is coming out of that cauldron, and we get to share in it together."  

- that's an approximation of what someone who currently works with me said during a focus group I hosted for a few of my 1-1 clients last month. 

I'll get to why I was hosting this focus group, but I first want to highlight a few of the recent sparkles that have come out of some recent "Cauldron Conversations" I've had this week (every day there's new "sparkles"! This is part of why I love this work so much!) 

- "You too have revelations... and we also have prophecies. We can trust them."  It's not just the current rise of the conservative Christian New Apostalic Movement/Army of God.

I come from a tradition (Quakers) and a lineage (Earth-loving spiritualities) that has what Quakers call "continual revelation." There are many prophecies amongst the peoples today - not least, of coming together across differences, which point to many of the signs of our times - including the revitalization of traditional foodways, songs, dances, and lifeways. Let us stand in our own Ways of Knowing.

- "Death is a natural part of life. And so too are the tears that arise from it."   Recently, an important person in my life passed. It was entirely expected (he was just about 97) and I was able to say goodbye - which is more than we often get in these situations. It's still hard. This week, I had the opportunity to go and sit with an elder in my community who knew both of us (which was rather akin to me going and sitting by her Cauldron, to use this metaphor). She held my hand - and even more importantly, my spirit -  while I cried. She said these words to me. I am fortunate to have such elders (to have several of them!)  

To all of you who are doing such holding, eldering, and tending to the people in your communities, lineages, and (chosen) family: thank you. 

"The Doctrine of Discovery -the Domination Code - is not the only story (or its corallary, the resistance to that Domination). There is also the story of the Two Row Wampum: a story of diplomacy, mutual respect, friendship, and the possibility of peace. Which enables people who are very different from one another to learn alongside one another. That is also part of our inheritance." - This came up during my ReMembering Course (which is its own little fire around and through which we gather together and share sustenance).  It's a critical and often underappreciated story - part of a longer origin story of the United States, of democracy, and of what it means for us to live together well (though not necessarily easily) on this planet. 

- Most of what's happening now has some real deep histories.  Don't forget that the Haudenosaunee word for the (U.S.) president translates to "Town Destroyer".... a title first given to then-President George Washington after the infamous Sullivan campaign in 1779 that aimed to destroy indigenous Haudenosaunee villages/land/communities as part of larger aims of the young country. This happened just a few years after Washington and many other of America's founding fathers thanked speakers, diplomats, and their friends in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy for their encouragement and practical support in developing the structure of what becomes the United States.  This keeps coming up - it has for the last few years.  

For those of you who are Americans - Happy President's Day, y'all. 

Back to that focus group. 

I called together these two focus groups at the suggestions of one of my clients (I work with such brilliant people) when I realized that I want to share more about the 1-1 work I do with people.... but I'm not always sure how to describe it. The focus groups were to help me understand what I'm doing a little bit better.  We can't always see ourselves that well without the help of one another! 

Not only were people really excited about joining in (which itself says something important), but folks came up with some really great creative metaphors for our work, including the "Cauldron Conversations" metaphor above. :-)

I was also really humbled/rendered speechless (and distinctly awkward) at the level of "you make such a huge difference in my life" that I received from people. I mean, people do tell me this on a regular basis, but hearing it from a group is a whole 'nother thing. It was kinda overwhelming. In a good way.  

Other metaphors people mentioned for this work included... going on a magic carpet ride (with the magic carpet from Aladdin being the image of choice there - I gotta admit, I love that carpet. It might be my favorite cartoon carpet ever!). The flying carpet image was in stark contrast to the staid carpet in between two people sitting down in two chairs facing one another for a 'classic' spiritual direction conversation (which I've also done); the image of going on journeys through storms and forests and oceans; of spiraling through the universe together; of midwifery; of weaving; of dwelling at the bottom of the ocean, where the bubbles of the lava of underground volcanoes are spewing forth, creating new land masses and, sometimes, shifting tectonic plates. 

None of this work is actually, about me. Or, really, you. 

Sure, I've been practicing with and experimenting with this for a while now. I've had lots of training/education, both formal and informal. I hae experience, practices, elders, ancestors,  traditions, guides, spiritual friends/companions, communities, and more-than-human beings who help me. etc etc.  All of that matters. 

And what shows up isn't really about me and all those things. It's more about what I often think of as Spirit, the Gracious One. It's about being in Service to Life.  And the insights, those sparkles, don't come just to me. They come to us.

Because there is something between us that's much grander than either of us alone. We are being held and called forth and summoned by this bigger force that dances between us, this Unnameable, Mysterious Movement.

Here, its tempting to talk about Love (agape, at least).

I often veer away from talking about Love. It's already talked about a lot: packaged and repackaged by corporations and activists groups alike. Laced with experiences of betrayal and misuse and grief and plastic hearts on plastic baloons in that big garbage pile in the middle of the ocean. Sometimes I want to write an article on "When Love Isn't Enough."  And not just to be provocative (though that too).   

But then there is the deeper truth. The river beneath the river. The song upholding the Song. 

I'm sure you've heard it, at least a few times, in the stirrings of your own knowing.

And yeah, that's about something that we don't have words for, not really, but "Love" isn't that far afield. Of course its about Love. 

Might all of this be enough to make you curious about your own knowings, and if working with me might make sense for you in this tumultuous season of change that we are all in?

If so, you might want to come to my (first) Spiritual Direction Informational webinar.

Or the next ReMembering Course Informational Webinar.   

Or  to just reach out, and tell me a story of your own, about what is sparkling around the fires you tend. 

Or all of the above.

I hope to see you soon! 

Blessings - Sara Jolena