Connections of the Heart

Tonight I had the absolute joy to bump into some treasured friends.  I first met Lisa Ferraro and Erika Luckett at the Circle of Love last year.  Together Lisa and Erika come together as Ruby.  I was so deeply touched by their music at the time.  However, tonight my soul was reminded of something more.

But perhaps I should step back.  In August last year I had the opportunity to go on a spiritual retreat called the Circle of Love.  This celebration and discovery of love is inspired by the poems of Rumi.  During this retreat of self-enquiry we were guided to step from the circle of time into the circle of love.  For me this retreat will forever be treasured.  It was perhaps the defining moment for me, where I begun a most deep transformation.  Any doubt in my mind of a life of service melted away in the consciousness that took up my heart and cast my awareness like ashes across an ocean of love.  And yet, such words do hollow justice to what transpired.  I arose from the fires of the circle of love like the Phoenix, the ashes I'd come from the shedding of old ideas and the feathers the flight of evolution.

One of the most significant transformations for me was the discovery of the poetry within.  I had the pleasure to hear Lisa and Erika play their songs with a Sufi Shiekh called Kabir Kaminski (also a member of Ruby although sadly not playing tonight).  I was so touched by their performance that I wrote a poem on the spot.  And so enthused with energy I went up to them and shared my poetry.  They were touched and so began a friendship.

And then tonight we met again.  It was wonderful to see them.  Although we'd not physically met since those 4 days on retreat it was clear the love and delight was in the air as we rushed to hug each other.  At the end I had a chance to talk with them for a while.  I was particularly touched by a comment from Erika, about how open and loving I had been.  And yet as I think on her wonderful words I cannot help but remember how they had both touched my heart.  How treasured these meetings are, where like orbiting satellites we find ourselves meeting other planets.  And for a while meet in orbit, gravity and magnitism helping us to share space for a while.  Our orbits then resume, but with gravity the way it is, the Universe is never quite the same.