COMMUNITY OF COMPASSION
-
Let's talk about Compassionate Community. Let's talk about community that creates a very strong sense of compassion -- not only for the ones that are in it and belong to it, but for everyone who is effected by that community. I see so much rainbow energy when I think about the idea of a compassionate community. That everyone's bringing their unique colors and flavors and ways of communicating healing and ways of communicating creativity, but they're all contributing to something very very beautiful, like a rainbow. I think that it's really really important for us, as much as we needed the month of January and the energy around Potential in Nothingness, it's really really important for us to begin to gather together and to come together. You know, we may have gotten a little bit too used to being in our respective caves and staying hidden and it's maybe turned us into being a bit shy -- more shy than we have ever expected ourselves to be -- it's maybe given us a bit of social anxiety, but I really want to just bring forward the energy of courage, and even if you are feeling that social anxiety, and you are feeling anxious and like you're going to say all the wrong things and do all the wrong things and maybe even leave any given social situation feeling very embarrassed, that you still gather together anyways. That you come together anyways. This is especially true for spiritual communities. You know, it's always so amazing in a spiritual community when there's one person who's like the -- you know -- the pragmatic sounding board, and you know, the person who wants to grow spiritually, but they're very much in this place of, "if I can't feel it, if I haven't experienced it, then it's not real for me," as a way to help kind of ground the group. And then, it's also important in spiritual communities to have that really far out, like wild-eyed dreamer, and the one who brings in a bunch of imagination, and then the creators and the organizers and everybody contributing their unique energy to a group. Community is so important. A witch without her coven or a wolf without her pack is going to have a very hard time surviving. We need each other. We need to learn from in person, human experiences. We need to grow together. And one of the things I want to encourage the most for this month, as least initiating it this month, is that you get together and you sing together. And you feel that sense of the human voice and human voices in harmony together. Better yet, if you can get together with at least two other people and begin to sing outside in the wild. Notice how you feel after that. You know -- notice how you feel. Even if you're not doing it in a spiritual way, right, like even if you're getting together with your friends and you're doing like a wild karaoke jam, which if that's what you're doing, all power to you! That's awesome! But, notice how you feel when you get together with people and you sing with people. It's a beautiful way of relieving stress, anxiety, tension -- you know -- we get so attached to our image. We get so focused on, "what will people think about me? What will people think about me? Are they going to judge me? What will people think about what I'm wearing? What will people think about my past or what I'm bringing into this situation or what I do for work?" and all of these things, right. And yes, people will absolutely judge you, and you know what, you will also have the burden of judging other people at times too, but the work is to try not to let that judgement prevent you from having that sense of connection. Try not to let that judgement prevent you from just allowing yourself to be loved and to love others. So, gather together. Sing. Play. Have fun. You know, don't wait for somebody else to invite you to gather. You be the one to invite other people. If they say no, it's okay! You know, if they say that they're going to come and then they cancel at that last minute -- okay, that's fine -- but keep doing it. Don't give up. Keep doing it. Keep focusing on gathering together, creating your coven, creating your community. You know -- there used to be a saying "Community is Immunity". I think we should bring that back. I think our community protects us and I think it's really really important and that friendship recession, that loneliness crisis that we're all feeling and that we're all facing -- it's time to be the one to actually do something about it. So courage in community, too. Not just communities in compassion, but also the courage to create and recreate and continuously create your community.
