The Circle of Love (Part 1)

Today I returned from spiritual retreat at the Circle of Love Gathering 2010.  Words cannot describe such an event.  However, I feel inspired to throw words onto the screen just in case they manage to evoke a pale shadow of what was, and what is.

I am still trying to place the pieces in my mind.  The many beautiful servants of the Divine, the teachers, the structured program, the content, the sharing, the atmosphere, the beauty...but most of all, the love.  There was a spectrum of love and in the circle we entered there was indeed much of the deepest sharing through the heart.

As you might know I actively tweet as @KnowTheFlow.  I kept my iPhone with me and would tweet as something came up that needed to be captured.  This was a wonderful opportunity to broadcast nuggets and at this point provides a sweet way to share these moments.  Below are the Tweets I made during the retreat.  Each came to me through a mixture of inspiration and insight.  But above all, the more I opened to spiritual love the clearer my sight became.  As Rumi would say, these tweets were seen through the eyes of the heart:

• As I surrendered, like a wave to the ocean and a leaf to the wind, I could feel my heartbeat beating me.
• As I show up in silence and immerse myself in the moment I realize that the greatest service is to quietly be the Truth of who I am.
• Love is this annihilating force that devours itself. You can be afraid or you can surrender knowing the source of that love.
• What if we are not here to change the world? What if the world is here to change us?
• Today is that day of realizing that presence, of making that presence real.
• I bring my noble, great need to the Beloved, to the One that loves to satisfy that need.
• If you want to know God fall in live with we.
• I am content, nay delighted, to be the shade of the tree of love.
• Spirit loves the self. It's only through the self that it can be expressed.
• What has to die was never real anyway.
• We are here to express and build our knowledge of spiritual love.
• Entwined within acceptance and openness is that which created the need within us that desires to satisfy our yearning need.
• Without disappointment how could we treasure ecstasy?
• I don't engage in conflict. I stand in my power (of spiritual love)
• We don't create the effects on our life, but we participate in the cause.

I am inspired to call out two tweets in particular though.  I have had a purpose statement that captures why I am alive.  It is central to my devotion to service.  I made a subtle change, replacing 'consciousness' to 'knowing love' at the end.  It now reads:

• My purpose is to inspire and support the transformation of knowing Love.

Any progress to simplify an understanding always feels closer to the Divine.  And yet the next tweet also deserves a mention.  I had forgotten this affirmation but was reminded of it during a conversation.  I now speak this when I am in child's pose during my morning meditation.  There is something powerful in placing your forehead upon the floor in surrender and saying, "May I be allowed to be of service this day."

And now I must close this post with a promise to complete and present a poem that has begun to write itself.  I shall share this in part 2.