We gathered at a house by a creek with an underground stream and journeyed to the ocean and back sharing poetry, walking labyrinths on the sand, building sacred altars, calling in the ancestors, and singing songs from Europe, India, Native North America, Brazil, Africa, and Japan. We descended into the well together to drink from the secret waters that run clear in our hearts. We cried together, laughed together, danced, drummed, rested, and feasted together. We remembered how to carry each other through the dark, and how to guide each other back into the light. We sang for the healing of the waters, giving thanks to the rivers, streams, creeks, lakes, and sending blessings to the sea. We made a village.
Drinking from the Well: The Sacred Work of Grief
Residential Retreat, Coos Bay, OR
August 24-26, 2018
.:.
What Sustains by Mark Nepo
The more I am hollowed
by the fire, the more my ribs
spread like the tree of life.
The more I am washed
by the tears of others, the more
my heart rounds like an ocean shell.
The more stories I tell
of how one picks up another,
the more my hands open
like scoops for grain.
To be what others drink,
to be what others stand on
to reach what they love -
we should be so lucky
to be worn like this.
.:.
With gratitude to Denny Dyke for creating a Baltic Wheel Labyrinth
and Field of Dreams labyrinth at Bastendorff Beach on the Oregon Coast.
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