The feeling I get after a workshop

This fall we had twenty three women in the studio for our fall landscape course. Darla, Mary, Khush and I looked after everyone, which included picking up a batch of donuts from the Dog Pound Hotdog Stand next door. And oatcakes, and steamed milk for lattes. Coming to the studio is an experience for the participants and for us. After everyone left and we cleaned up we were all lifted a little. There was a sense of having done something beautiful. 

On the day of a workshop like this, there is so much spirit in the room. You see people making connections and you feel them renewing old ones. I saw two people who used to live in the same town hug each other and say "I love you." Two people who carry each others goodness around with them in their lives but only get to see each other once in a while. I love that they got to be together at the studio. 

And so today I am in the quiet Sunday Morning of my home. There is no chatter and laughter. No donuts, no tea, just me, alone in the house. And my reflection. I am basking in the memory of the sweetness of those fall workshops I hosted this year. The new people I met and really got to spend time with. The things I taught them, and what I learned from them. And I feel like I did something good.

It is important that we get together. It lifts our souls and enlightens us. I feel lighter today for having been together yesterday. And I always do. Deepening connection deepens the meaning of our lives and guides us. It gives us something to look forward to, something to remember, and something beautiful to do in the present. Even the introvert in me needs people, even if it is to just sit quietly side by side and hook. There is something about the spirit beside you that is life sustaining and life giving. 

When we have each other we can learn to forgive our foibles, our mistakes. We can begin to laugh at ourselves. Company helps settle the harsh critic that many of us have inside ourselves. That miserly, slightly nasty and unforgiving bit of us that is harder on ourselves than others. If they were physically real people we would bar the door on them. Instead many of us entertain them off and on all day. Sometimes I tell my real friends the stories I tell myself about myself and they either laugh or think I am ridiculous. It is good to have friends to talk to, to help you keep it in perspective, to help you find the joy in your soul, and make light of our inner nonsense. For though we come into the world alone, and leave alone, while we are here we have the beauty of each others spirit. We are here indeed to be good to each other. And to do that we must show up in small and big ways.

And I know I have wrote to you about this before. And I will probably tell you again. I just know that when I watch women gather to hook rugs I see and feel something beautiful happen. I see people widen their circle to include each other and that is beautiful to watch.