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In honor of the April 19 – 24 BD101 Training for Trainers, 2015


POEM TO MY FELLOW TRAVELERS in the journey to wholeness

Ah, you – Ah, you – Ah, you 2015 BD101 TfT folk.  You brought

every season,
                                                every color,
                                                                                    every prayer.
You never let us get complacent.  No stagnant waters….you kept the trouble in the waters,
moving stillness, yes ~ but an ever changing stillness.
Carried us Home
            Home to remember all our relations – and we wanted to run from the fire of their touch.
                        Too hot sometimes, easier to cool off elsewhere.
Cause, we didn’t want to be mis-taken for such as those, unruly and wounded creatures. 
Oh, my arms longed to wrap them in a forever, long-overdue embrace.  But then, I wanted to slap some sense into ‘em first – how dare you set us on this path?!
Oh you, most precious and most raw 2015 bunch – how you niggled at the tit, begging to be fed by the mother.  She, full of love and longing for her own healing. 
            Oh how you fed me, circles within circles.  You nurtured the empty crevices.
I am now wet in places I feared dried up for this lifetime.
            You brought Staying Power to the fire-dance.  Every time that I thought you might have run off – said, “Enough is enough,” you stepped back into the ring and softened your fists. 
I saw you touch the back of that one who had disregarded you.  Some part of you knew that his dis came from a life-attempt-to-prove-worthiness.  Knew that your heart and his were inseparably intertwined.  (I know….you still don’t like that fact.)
                        And, we were willing to let that other one go.  Well, if she really wanted to.  But, we kept our noses poised to catch the sweet fragrance of the flower trying to unfold within her.           It can only unfold when her body, so close to reclaiming peace, will give permission and allow           Well-being.
We were seeing and knowing together, more and more each time and we chose to stay – to stand our ground. 
Yes, to speak the best we could,
mis-take                    and                          still
                                                                                                       return to righter relationship.
            Ah, the courage, as children following the heart into a cave that warns of danger – and therein, holding each other tightly, bearing down, each in its own way and bearing down again to bring forth this creation – this new, this old expression of deep, dark, life-affirming truth.
            You, We – we brought it – dancing to Santana’s demand to:
“Give me your heart, make it real or else forget about it.”
                        We twirled
and twirled
            and twirled each other gently and then, not so. 
Tears flowing, we extended a hand to help each other climb up from the waters – troubled, healing waters.  As we looked around the gathered circle, we are able to reply to Santana’s refrain, with full-bodied conviction:
“We gave our hearts, made it real,….yes, we’re re-membering!”
                                                            Ashe and So it is!!! ~ Niyonu

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