I remember an old retreat....follows
Feb 18, 2020 10:47:16 GMT -5
Marshall, patrick, and 2 more like this
Post by t-bob on Feb 18, 2020 10:47:16 GMT -5
Recently I was leading a weekend mountain retreat. As I waited for guests to arrive for orientation on the first night, my emotions pin-balled back and forth between expectancy and abject terror. Like all hosts of events or parties, I held both the jubilation of what was coming—and the dread that people might not show up, and I'd end up sitting there alone like a jilted prom date. First gradually and then rapidly the room began to fill, crackling with the energy of new stories intersecting and the beautiful noise of warm introductions.
Suddenly a woman burst through the door and stopped abruptly, pulling the attention of the room to her. She exhaled deeply, threw her hands out, lifted back her head and yelled, “My people!”
I quickly replied in deadpan fashion, “I’m sorry ma’am, you’re in the wrong room.” and we all exploded in laughter and fierce hugs. Most of the people in that room were strangers, and yet because they’d all found the writing, they knew enough about the gathering and the group to know they’d be welcomed. They knew they could breathe again.
There is something magically transformative found in belonging. When we are received as we are, we can exhale deeply and know that we don’t have to earn or deserve a place. We’re simply welcomed as-is without caveat or condition. Most of us know what it is to be excluded from that kind of community and how freeing it is when we find it. This kind of belonging is what the world is starved for and what we’re able to give them. In a world where disconnection and exclusion leave people feeling uneasy and fearful—give people a space to be exhale and be home
