Last fall, the day the stock market first tanked, I woke up and went on line to do my daily check-in with the rest of the world. Reading the news I could feel the part of me that worries about my financial well being wake up and prepare to be anxious. I was going to see a counselor I work with that afternoon and figured that this was a good set up to clear more old fear and re-task the part of me that worries about not being supported by the universe. As we start I’ve learned to always check in with myself to see what is actually present in the moment, even though I “knew” what was up. So I closed my eyes, grounded, and checked in, expecting to find anxiety.
Whoa! where did all this joy and excitement come from? Leaning into it I could feel that there was a huge positive field of energy that I was tapping into. I felt it more than once last fall, especially around the election, it is always there for us, the background love that is Spirit fed by all those who resonate with joy and hope. We just need to align and open to it. Try it now.
Last weekend I was helping a friend with a fund raiser for amazing work he does connecting kids with healthy food and experiences of growing, harvesting, preparing and eating it. Many people contributed a great deal of time and energy to creating this wonderful event: fun, filled with the Spirit my friend always works with, and centered around a positive community oriented project. It was a long evening, especially clean-up and tear-down, and I stayed late supporting my friend and moving boxes. Well after midnight someone asked why I didn’t go home? I realized that I wasn’t tired, I was full of energy, even though I had been doing things that normally would tire me or aggravate physical stress points, none of this had showed up.
Other people that night were also feeling connected to something larger and feeling Spirit supporting them. The community was working under the spiritual energy of this wonderful project, we were feeding that field, which in turn was supporting us as we worked late under a frosty moon. Joyful service nurtures itself.
The next night I was in a different community, supporting women graduating from a year of deep ceremonial work. I was part of a ring of masculine energy holding space for the ladies to do their last piece of work for the year. As we walked in the snow outside I could feel the energy of those physically present, of all the men who had walked that circle in other years, supporting other women, and of the spiritual forces that held the space for all of us, men and women. Even though the night was cold this energy warmed us, and we felt our place in the larger web.
When those on the inside later expressed thanks for our service, my thought was that it was not only an honor, but something that fed and nurtured us. Service to a community acting in tune with Spirit in this way is not a hardship but a blessing. Whether the service is explicitly spiritual or more mundane, there are spiritual energies that support community and collective endeavor, that make the “work” lighter, the night warmer, the day cooler.
In past times communities had barn raisings, which must have had the same feeling. Serving community with an awareness that you are aligning with Spirit, connects you to the spiritual energy of that community, and the fields of joy and nourishing support that are woven about this world. So in these holy days, if you are feeling at all disconnected, find an event or a project to contribute to, to co-create, or to serve. Coming together with family or friends, remember that it is the coming together itself that is the source of the joy and excitement that feeds our souls and sustains our bodies.
May you experience deeply the weaving of the fabric of community that invites Spirit to enter into your life.
(© 12/2009)
