Soul Awakening

I'm thinking about the soul deadening that so many of us endure or accept in our daily lives in so many ways, through the media, through our jobs, through the norms of our contemporary culture and so on. I'm thinking how essential it is for us to find a way to awaken those deadened parts of ourselves, to prevent this process and reverse this process, to be the selves we dream of, can be, are, that we have to do this for the survival of ourselves and our world.

But what do we do? I don't have answers, though I find all kinds of lifestreams that are essential for me to keep connecting to: the arts, both taking them in and participating in creativity, dance and the joy of the body and connecting with others in this way, social activities that lead to depth in relating, laughter and play, spiritual inspiration, being in nature. But it seems hard to create the kind of adequate time for these activities to really keep the heart and soul alive, to not begin to sink into various forms of despair, depression or simply resignation. I keep having to look at how I "do" my life to see where I am going astray, where I am wasting time I could be spending on things that feed me, where I can make changes that will result in substantive benefit to myself and others.

About six months ago I started hosting monthly community fire circles at my home. We sit outside around a fire bowl, whoever feels like gathering, and we tell stories and jokes, talk from the heart about our lives, sing songs, read poems. Every month it's different: different people show up, the tone is different. There are always surprises. But always it is so beautiful what comes from this simple act of reconnecting to one another without distractions and with the presence of fire to warm us and help us feel our hearts, our joy, our laughter. Always it's amazing to see who responds to my email invitation that goes out to more than 75 people locally, to see who is hungry for this connection, curious about what it might give to their lives. And it is amazing, heartening and wonderful to hear about the gifts people receive in their lives after being at the fire--the peace, the healing, the insights, the blessings that miraculously show up.

One thing seems clear: Each step we take towards our hearts may seem like a drop in the bucket, but it is a drop in a vast ocean of blessing.