Supportive Community

Video Blog Transcription:

(00:00):

So I want to start with a story. So the spiritual tradition that I've been a part of for most of my life always had summer solstice gatherings. We used to do spring Equinox gatherings as well. Initially, we used to have circles in different cities- one in Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Dallas, and Santa Barbara.

The Summer Solstice was a time when all those circles gathered together to do high ceremony, and we would do various ceremonies. Those have continued, and they've changed forms. My teacher passed away in 2007, and then some of the other elders and I have continued this tradition, and it happens every year.

(00:57):

So last year I was at this gathering, and my role at the gathering is usually around doing sharing circles. Part of my medicine or gift is helping people see possibilities in themselves and helping them see the things that might be getting in their way, and providing insight to people.

And so that's what I'm pretty focused on, right? So I'm there, and I'm doing my sharing circles, and this is a four-day gathering. But what I started realizing is that the real magic of these gatherings is really about the community and the sense of community that it provided everyone who was there.

(01:49):

Sure, the insight work was great, and the ceremonies were great, but between the ceremonies and between the sharing circles, all of those things we did together created this community. We cooked together, ate together, woke up in the morning and had coffee together, did ceremony together, and gathered things to do our ceremonies together.

I had forgotten that that's where the magic really was, because that's such a missing component in our culture. And it's only, of course, gotten worse during COVID, but I think the community really started deteriorating long before COVID.

(02:48):

And it's also changed, right? It's no longer a local neighborhood. Way back, it used to be your clan, of a hundred people. Anthropologically, they found out that about a hundred people in a clan were perfect for a community. And then that was your world. There were like a hundred people, and that was community, that was your clan.

And then of course it expanded, we had small towns, and then we had community there. Now, of course, community has changed. Some of it's online, it's a worldwide community, which brings things that are kind of cool. It's more global.

But we've to some extent lost a lot of that active community piece, the support, and the magic that happens in community. Now we have like fenced yards, and I think the loss of this community is putting extra stress on the family because now our family has to be both family and community, you know?

(03:52):

And I think that that's an undue stress, and so it really causes a lot of challenges. In the work that I do, I see the costs of that, because people don't have that unconditional support, and they don't have that sense that they're a part of something.

And so one of my missions or quests, if you will, forthcoming is, “How do we create community?” I mean, I know how to do it for five days when we turn off our cell phones and live together, but how do we do it on an ongoing basis is one of my quests that I really want to put some time into.

(04:45):

And the part of community that I really want to just spend some time on today is the supportive nature of community. The part of what I think we get from community is we get a sense that my people, if you will, support me exactly as I am, and I can be myself.

I can be kind of my freaky self. I can have my quirks, spiritual stuff, my eccentricities, and my habits. And of course these gatherings, we do are perfect for that because we're sharing and being honest and real which provides a foundation for community because we're there to be real and connect with ourselves.

(05:36):

Between ceremonies, between sharing circles, you get to know each other in a different way while we're cooking together or something. And so how do we create that? This supportive part is so important, so how do we find our people that can support us exactly the way we are, you know?

Hopefully, our family can do that, but a lot of people watching this video might have some spiritual things going on, and you may not see the world the same way that the rest of your family sees it. And so, how do you get people who can support your spiritual gifts, your beliefs, your truths, and the way you are?