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TOGETHERNESS – WHEN LOVE WINS

I’ve been truly touched by all the messages of support and connection from my friends over this past week. The displays of togetherness, simple kindness within community and courageous acts of support for others, from everyday people that I know, have deeply moved me.

It’s clear that many of us see the cracks in the system and society and are determined not just to paper them over, but to dig deeper and understand the roots of these issues within ourselves and society.

There are no easy answers and we may have different perspectives on what the causes and solutions are. Displays of togetherness and connection are what many of us need now more than ever. Loneliness and orchestrated separation are prevalent worldwide.

But let’s be clear: togetherness isn’t about agreement, sameness or the saccharine sweetness of an easily said ‘love and light’. It’s not about avoiding tough conversations or pretending everything is perfect.

True togetherness allows for differences, embraces the messy, and acknowledges the real challenges we face. It’s about standing side by side, even when we don’t see eye to eye.

This has been the theme of this year for me and many of the people that I know. I’ve been actively holding spaces for deep loving connection with myself, loved ones, family, friends, colleagues, students and clients and the world around us.

One of the most powerful examples of working with the themes of togetherness and connection was the final retreat and ordination ceremony for the Class of 2024 OneSpirit Interfaith Ministers.

These newly ordained ministers are the beautiful people who I am pictured with alongside this post. These courageous souls, from different cultures, countries, faith paths, spiritual traditions, religions and backgrounds all came together despite their differences in service of their personal vow and the communities that they will serve.

I was ordained as a OneSpirit Minister in 2015 making a commitment to hold ceremony, ritual and spiritual counselling for people of any faith or none. This is integrated into my life and work in The Wild Wisdom with Monica Douglas and The Wild Wisdom Oracle with Monica Douglas.

This year I had the challenge and privilege of being a tutor for this class alongside my dear friend and fellow tutor Nicola Coombe this year. It was not easy. At all. This was hard work for everyone over the two years of training.

As well as the ecstasy of the Ordination there were breakdowns in communication, separation and distance as part of the journey. Yet, those who could hold on to the higher purpose of loving connection and togetherness reached their destination. We experienced loving togetherness and connection in a deep and profound way by including the differences as part of the tapestry.

I believe that if we open ourselves up to connection, it creates a space for us to make this world a better place one relationship at a time. It requires discernment and right timing and sometimes our conscious absence or silence is what is required to allow there to be meaningful connection, or for us to be able to see the fullness of our similarities and differences.

In order to experience connection I often go into nature. The teaching of our interconnectedness is very clear in the natural world. As an act of self-love and to foster a sense of togetherness, I’m committing to spending more time in nature with my loved ones, and I encourage you to do the same.

I am going to dive into the Peak District in Derbyshire before I go back to Barbados, with walking, ceremony, dancing and simple acts of being together.

Let’s continue to be in connection and make this world a better place, together.

Image: Group of OneSpirit Interfaith Foundation Ministers in bright clothes with arms outstretched. Photographer credit: Emma Stoner, @emmastonerphotos. With thanks to Reverend Samantha Moyo for commissioning Emma as her photographer for the Ordination @mysticmoyo.

At the time of the full Harvest moon and a few days before the Autumn Equinox, whilst the energies of Lammas still swirled in the air, I stood on a beach near my home and held ceremony.

A solitary raven flew overhead and cronked in an inquisitive song at me.

This was an auspicious moment.

The intention for this ceremony had been brewing for a few weeks, and I’d like to say I had planned the timings but it was all coincidental and the main factor was a nice, sunny morning calling me to the beach and announcing that “now” was the time.

As I stood between tides and times, between sea and land and between earth and sky, I also stood at a transition point in my OneSpirit journey – halfway through my training as an Interfaith Minister. This ceremony was to mark that pivot point – giving thanks for all I had harvested over year 1 and declaring myself ready to cross the threshold into year 2.

It was a time of reflection and gratitude for the amazing, nourishing, soulful journey I had taken so far as part of Aspen class, the lessons I had learnt and skills developed as well as a reflection on the whole of my life’s journey that had brought me to this point.

It’s fitting that one of the major, personal gifts of year 1 that I expressed gratitude for, has been a developing love and gift for creating, crafting and holding ceremony, for others as part of my ministry but also purely for myself.

Ceremony in small ways as a means of recognising and marking the “Sacred ordinary” of my everyday life such as preparing a meal or lighting the fire.

Ceremony as a way of celebrating and honouring milestones in life such as moving from year 1 into year 2 and ceremony as part of the celebration of the turning seasons of our sacred Earth.

Another gift from year 1 has been my deepening relationship with the Earth, but in a particular way – this bit of Earth, this beach by my home. She is an integral part of my ministry and has held me through so much over this past year. She has witnessed and been the site of a lot of my ceremonies, she has heard my prayers, my laughter and my tears. She is the place of pilgrimage, of meditation and contemplation, being both my temple and the face of The Divine.

So, as I sit here sipping my cacao, shaking my ceremonial rattle and whispering prayers to the wind, I wonder what raven thinks!