This Week’s Quotation:

As I listened to the personal stories and looked at the faces around the room, I saw more tears. First, just one or two. As the session continued, I realized that I was in the middle of a full-scale meltdown of the heart. It had become an impromptu community of deep love, and, in the middle of that love, their hearts were exposed, and they were healing. They were loving one another into wholeness, and they were letting me in. I was a part of that community. I was not a foreigner. I was on the inside of the community looking out, even as I was looking out of the glass windows at the wet snow. Not only that. I had played a part in creating that crucible of love. I had brought the fire of that love, and they had trusted it. My own heart warmed and melted a little more as I listened to each of their stories.

~ Becoming a Sun p. 27

Newly Forming Community

This was one of the most profound experiences of my life. Looking back, it astounds me that I found myself in the middle of it.

I won’t try to tell the whole story. (If you like, you can find it in my book.) The short of it is that I found myself offering a weekend seminar in Nagano, Japan. And while, at first, it seemed like I was an outsider leading a group of stoic Japanese, the seminar transformed into one of the deepest experiences of community I have ever had.

I believe in community. I’ve lived most of my adult life in intentional communities of one kind or another. And I’ve committed myself to building an experience of community. It can be challenging and frustrating. But often filled with a deep knowing of what it means to be a member of the human family.

Last night, I led a newly forming community in British Columbia, Canada. We were watching it weave together before our eyes. One person after another—each in their own way—offered their gifts and proclaimed to the group that they were committing themselves to the project. A woman announced that her fiancé is joining her in the community, and they will get married here. A man declared himself a doer and spoke of all his ideas for what the community could create. A young mother said this place feels like home for her and her daughter.

Magic filled the air. And Love entered the collective heart.

I thought, I get to be a part of this! We are building a sun.

What does it mean to become a sun?

Every human being is already a sun on the inside—a being of intense love and light. The difference is that some people have the vision and courage to become a sun on the outside. This difference is our human destiny.