The women were there, in the new lush green-blue place, getting their camps set up, and I hadn’t planned the opening ritual. I had no drum or drummer, no firewood for the fire, and no idea what I was going to say, and no time to plan it…
It’s been a good long time since I had a dream like this about Wild Woman Fest. Like the actor who dreams of being on stage without their lines or pants, I’ve had so many dreams of being ill prepared for FEST over the 6 years we’ve held it.
Dreams of running out of chocolate (gasp!), or no one being able to hear me over the noise, or needing to kindly asking Jim Carey to vacate premises. I welcome these kinds of dreams now, because for the last year and a half they’ve been absent. The enormous pressure of crafting, organizing, and facilitating the gathering gone, but in its place, a void. The smell of mud, the cackles of my sisters, the crystal clear connection with spiritual guidance, the moments of discomfort that offer growth, the space to be naked around a fire and flow, this life-giving, imperfect, transformational, and majestic gathering is rising in my consciousness once again.
Now, having decided to move the festival to my home land here in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the spirit of WILD WOMAN FEST is with me again, like a dear old friend, calling me up to figure out what we’re going to do next.
This time, this particular dream is guiding me into the question: how will we begin, the next time we gather, in 2022, in a new sacred place, after all that has unfolded, after all the ways we’ve changed, after all that has been uncovered, after all the expressions of rage and grief, after all of the myriad of independent, yet interconnected experiences that we have had.
How will we begin to be together again? This, of course, is a broader question that is on a lot of people’s minds and hearts in this moment as more of the world reopens and as we are presented with the opportunity to come together again.
How will we begin to be together again?
At this point, my inner guidance is urging me to turn away from any and all engagement with enemy-making, gross or subtle. No “us vs. them”, “purple vs. green”, “anti-this vs. pro-that.” Guidance is taking me by the shoulders and pointing me toward we.
There is only we.
We, here together on this tiny planet, barreling around the sun at 67,000 miles an hour, ice caps melting, sunflowers rising, babies being born, birds dying. We who make art, we who are traumatized, we who are too proud, we who are subject to bias, we who care. We who pray, we who are forced to participate in systems we did not create, we who are lost, we who are coming home. We who are dreaming and planning, we who are letting go, we who are helping, we who are hanging on by a thread, we who, no matter what, are here, together for an unknown amount of days, an unknown amount of moments.
How will we spend them? Where will we place our precious and powerful attention?
For the past year, we have spent more time in the digital world than ever before. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, Youtube, and so forth are part of the “digital world” that resembles a massive shopping mall with more stores than one could ever walk into, where users are both consumer and product, created by multinational corporations who sell our thoughts and behaviors to ad companies so that they can better manipulate our thoughts and behaviors in the direction of staying in the digital world as much as possible and buying what they are selling – products, services, dreams, illusions & ideologies.
That, my friends is the “world” we’ve been gathering in for the last year and some.
I don’t know about you, but I am inspired to engage with the we in a different way and on new ground. I’m figuring out what that means, day by day, experience by experience, gathering by gathering. I get the sense there is a new counter culture emerging, an In Real Life movement where we meet each other eye to eye, phones off, perhaps amongst the trees, where we can remember how truly beautiful human beings are and how good it feels to actually connect, especially across difference.
There is so much opportunity in the here and now for goodness and change. It is my deepest hope that we make the most of it and grow love everywhere.
As we step into reopening, and reemergence, and as I turn my heart toward the re-creation of Wild Woman Fest, as a woman transformed, I will slow down and ask guidance over and over again:
How
will
we
begin
to be
together
again?
How do I bring the magic of communal living into my daily life?
Yes, Tammi ✨
Can I really trust the messages and gifts I receive? Can I really leave room in my heart for the unimaginable? I believe the answer is yes.
Yes ♥️
This was beautiful, as always. Thank you so much – it nourishes me to read your words and gives me strength and hope <3
So glad to hear that, Stephanie ♥️
How will we begin to be together again? This is the question that hai to me. I am an extreme introvert, and while I admit online community it’s has been difficult at times to navigate, (I have found a tribe of lifegiving, amazing groups full of powerful women online), but in person meetings are tough for me. Especially when they require extended stays and being in constant close proximity with others. I love being with like minded women…the “how” is always what’s tough for me. I’m sitting with this and calling in my most courageous self…so I don’t lose out on the goodness that comes from InReal Life community.
With you, Paula 🙏🏽
How far can this all go before we wake en masse?
People keep talking about “going back to normalcy,” or “the new normal,” but nothing feels normal to me these days.
I hear you, Nina ♥️
How will I and we use this energy to shape the future of our planet and those to still come? I pray it is for the betterment of our communal nature and awakening to what it means to be alive on this wondrous Earth. I embrace the unknown because that is all there really is. I am embracing the unknown because it offers so much opportunity to shape what we want it to be. What do we want the world to be? How does it look like If? How does it feel like? How would we interact? If I could have it any way, how would I imagine it?
So many great questions, Megan ♥️