Chenrezig, how when I walked in I felt at home, and how we work
together to think of what we can do for each other. In the beginning,
it's like a game, where you're always asking yourself, "what can I do
for someone else?" and then you wait to see if they notice, and you
see how you feel when they don't. Would you do it again?
Now that we're more comfortable with each other, unafraid of public
farting and sharing massages and personal fears, making fun of smelly
feet and talking about detoxing (seems like everyone's doing it!), the
energy has shifted. It takes a conscious effort to maintain a caring,
generous environment, it doesn't just happen. The things I'm learning
are that it takes many people and actions to maintain the sharing,
open energy that we've cultivated at the Family Center (the house us
vollies share). It takes seeing that the tea towels need washing, and
doing it, or mopping the floor, or noticing that someone is unusually
quiet and putting out that effort to provide a listening ear or even
just sharing a caring touch.
I don't know how I feel about all this maintenance work. It's so... constant!
Just kidding! This is something I'm really enjoying being aware of,
and contributing to - being a part of the massage circles, receiving
reiki and heart readings from our Spiritual Director who also happens
to be a gorgeous babe, being aware when someone doesn't feel good and
being in a space myself where I can offer a caring touch or the space
to listen. It's really cool - it's community! The thing is, this
community changes rapidly - we get new people every couple of weeks,
kind of in waves, and welcoming them into our close-knit group takes a
special effort because we're already so close. It's easy to stay in
the same circles, but so interesting to add new blood to the pool. I'm
sure the mozzies love it too :)
This last week Woody (Mancunian from Manchester, England, and the
person most would say keeps us together through his own openness and
vulnerability) devised a Happy Hour, loosely based on Plum Village's
Happiness Meetings, which we learned about from a very short-term
volley who'd spent three months there. Everyone gathers in a circle,
we ring a bell and do a short meditation on the last week - what
happened, if someone said something nice or helped us out, what we
appreciated about it - and then as each person has something to say,
you ring the bell and say it. Mainly it's about acknowledging the
kindness of others in a public setting. We did ours, using a
dish-drain as our bell (don't ask), and it felt a bit formal. After
the bell disappeared is when more people were able to share - saying
thank you, or I noticed that you're opening up.
I'm finding that my journey is lengthening itself. I decided to
surrender and changed my ticket to October, the same month I arrived
last year. It's a spacious feeling, not knowing what's next.
