Year after year, through each of the seasons, the Sun continually demonstrates and reveals that this sweet life is a journey. And today as we once again witness the Sun standing in stillness, and prepare for the longest night of the year, may we feel the fear of death and the promise of returning light and birth of a new year that this sacred pause and darkness hold.
This is such good work we get to do, and it is a privilege to do work you love and that you feel serves the greater good. Then add to this the blessing that there is a whole community of people supporting you, and that the work includes sitting in circle with good hearted people, in absolutely wildly beautiful places, speaking to what it means to show and live fully. Yes, it is good, and it is a good practice to take the time to reflect on the many gifts life offers us. And one must call in the ever shifting balance and dance of light and dark, for this showing up, this meeting of life is also painful, deeply confusing, and the need to grieve, and grieve really big, is all a part of it. We at the school know this in our bones, as we know you do.
Our Board meeting this year was deeply rich. The reverence and appreciation for our history and our present work and relationships was palatable and many times brought us all to tears and laughter. And there were those sweet mysterious moments when you simply look around the circle, and in some way, that you can never find words for, you feel fully at home and there is a deep sense of "rightness" in the field. All of this was there in our days together, and still, and even because of this rich mystery, we had to ask again, as we have so many times before: Will there be a next generation for the school, or is it meant to die with us, with this present community of guides and teachers?
And of course there was no final answer to this, but as we ask each person who comes to us to do, we must live the edge of the question of our own death. And in a very real way, living this practice as fully as we are able is the best way we have to express our love, gratitude and commitment to this work and you, our community.
We are deeply grateful that you are part of our community and want to simply say 'Thank You' for all the ways in which you are feeding the ceremony.
With Heart,
From all of us
at the School of Lost Borders
