Last night, we held our Circle down by the River. I was hesitant to do this as last time we held the Circle there, it was challenging. Two neighborhood boys were fishing in the exact place we wanted to sit. A large, raucous, dance-music blaring, rented wedding party paddleboat slowly made its way directly in front of us, disturbing our peace for a good twenty minutes or so, as it went by us and then turned around and came back.
There was a loud excavator doing construction directly across the river. And to top it off, multiple wet bikes came screaming up and down.
It was quite hard to get that ‘zen’ feeling. We also have some zealous neighbors who live right by our boat basin who make it a point to know what is going on. This is fine as it certainly keeps the basin quiet, but one of the times that we held a Circle down there, one of these neighbors walked all the way over to the small peninsula where we were as we were listening to a meditation and just stood there with his two small dogs.
Hello, care to join us? Okay if not, please scram. 😉
But it was so gorgeous out yesterday and the Summer Solstice as well.
In general, I take this as a challenge to find peace among chaos.
And it paid off. Wow.
One of the women in our circle was dropped off by boat by her partner as they live just a bit down river. He asked her if we just do this right out there in the open?
Do what? I get that there is curiosity of what exactly is a Women’s Circle, but what we did was open the Circle with a poem by Starhawk:
We are the power in everyone
We are the dance of the moon and the sun
We are the hope that will not hide
We are the turning of the tide
We took some deep breaths and let go of negativity no longer serving us, watching it drift away in the beautiful night along with the smoke from the burning sage. We honored all the different directions (components) of this Life and finished asking that we be able to balance them and live from our center.
We sang a song, talked, did a meditation, talked some more, did a small ceremony asking for one of us to be able to accept and cherish her chosen path of birthing a business and not children, we wrote down some intentions and we passed around our talking bowl taking a few minutes to each ‘speak our truth’ uninterrupted and completely accepted.
One of the women mentioned that the Circles are one of the only social events in her life that she feels peace among others and is not dealing with any social anxiety.
I so understand that. I wonder what I ever did before. How I ever made it. These Circles fill my Soul.
And then we waited. Our Circle was supposed to end at 9pm, but it was a late moonrise. We had to wait around a long time for her to Rise, over an hour.
It was well worth it.
- While I was writing this, “Peace in the Valley” by Elvis Presley kept popping into my head. I used to live outside of Tupelo, Mississippi and visited Elvis’s childhood home there. What a talented, beautiful but troubled soul he was. Yet another example that money and fame do not solve anything. Our Women’s Circles are interfaith. Last night, we sang a Pagan song, but we’ve done Christian songs before. And one woman spoke of leading a Buddhist chant. Find whichever means best reaches the Divinity within yourself. Find your Peace in the Valley. And do it in a Women’s Circle … Find A Womens Circle .Com …
the divine feminine app: Find a Women's Circle 