Day 24: Murmurations

"Murmuration is the term used to describe the fascinating phenomenon of very large groups of birds, fish or insects moving together, including changing direction together…. Murmuration seems roughly synonymous with flock, school, and shoal, except that murmuration is more about what the agglomerations of birds and fishes do, and, as it turns out, there is more to it than meets the eye."

- From Eat Blue

It's all about our relationship in community: How we move together in never-before-seen creativity. How we learn together to quickly change and escape predators…and so much more.

This week's SoulFire Murmuration retreat, which I co-host with Jade, is a rare opportunity for deep individual soul work that cannot be done alone. In these retreats, we become a murmuration of our own.

It’s the first evening. The birds have flocked in today. A migration from Canada and California, from Eastern states, the Northwest, and local foothills. One weary body arriving jet-lagged from France. They flopped into tents and the indoor beds with cheeps and twitters and raucous greetings. Many arrived in pairs: Mothers and daughters, sisters, work colleagues, and old friends. One trio from Stowell Lake Farm, an established community on Salt Spring Island, BC. All are women who already know the power of connection and relationship, and long for expansive solitude in the wilderness, and to be together with like minds and hearts.

We’re followers of Jesus, of Buddha and Gaia; trailing doctorates, boardroom attire, and herbal incense. There’s clay still caked in some of our fingernails. We range in age from 32 to 82. Our hearts and bodies tattooed by Love. Empty nesters seeking what comes next. Mothers whose nipples still feel the suck of babes.

Our opening ceremony leads us across a threshold of pine boughs, dried grasses and flowers.

Wrinkled skin and unblemished, naked longing – how I wish I could portray what we experience today as our multi-generational flock are led in song by two precious songbirds with their melodic murmurs that arise spontaneously from their hearts.

My wheelchair creaks on the zendō floor as I take my place in our waiting silent circle. It’s weird to be perched up higher than most who sit on the floor, padded with zafus and yoga blankets. It’s both scary and exciting to feel the responsibility of serving as soul-guide, to get straight to the heart of the matter in offering Touchstones for a trustworthy space.

A Circle of Trust has begun.

I sense my missionary mother’s presence with me, as my best- friend Allie cheers me on from the other side.

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Circle of Firelight

by Cristina Baldwin

It has always been scary

to step into the circle of firelight,

to show up in the company of strangers,

to ask for entrance or to offer it. Our hearts race --

Will we have the courage to see each other?

Will we have the courage to see the world?

The risks we take in the twenty-first century

are based on risks human beings took

thousands of years ago.

We are not different from our ancestors,

they are still here, coded inside us.

They are, I believe,

cheering us on.

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Take a few minutes to watch the following remarkable murmuration video from Tom McAfee, the father of one of our ‘songbirds.’ It deserves some meditative moments.

What feelings, thoughts, and memories do you notice arising in you?

Let the allure of this amazing dance lead you to follow your longing more intentionally in seeking your soul path, your unique and precious dance-in-community.

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Consider entering some of the embedded websites on my post today – who knows what you might discover!

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