Hello fellow WBF’ers,
I wrote what came about the ‘we’ in August 2017, and I’d like to share it here:
Hello dear friends,
When I awoke last Tuesday–after having had a meaningful conversation about the “WE” with Kevin the day before–I found the following words wanting to be expressed, and I wrote them down. Now I wish to share them with you, knowing that what I’ve written is only a beginning, not all of it, and that it may change, it may disagree with itself later, it might give lots more that I didn’t know. And it might give it through someone else.
I welcome hearing what comes for each of us about this and about related topics on heartfelt connection. I am always seeking that with everyone–sometimes feeling I’ve failed, or worse: that I’ve forgotten about it completely. And sometimes the connection appears with a great sense of love and satisfaction.
Here’s what came for me to write last Tuesday morning:
In a ‘we,’ we are now able to take in so much more.
In ‘small self,’ we know very little. In ‘small self,’ we are aware mostly of our own personal concerns and barely aware of the concerns of others. Others are largely unknown. When we sense the presence of other, we still miss most of what they are, what they think, what they experience; instead, when we think we ‘see’ the other, we are often simply seeing what we think of them.
When we begin to notice and realize that the other has experiences, views, thoughts, separate from our own, and surprising to us, we begin to open up to knowing much more than previously.
When we begin to be aware of a “We,” we are opened up to knowing infinitely more.
That “We” can take the form of me-alone-by-myself-in-connection-to-my-spiritual-guidance. I am no longer the ‘small self,’ I am now ‘with’ an ‘other’ that lives beyond me, that doesn’t rely on my breath or my mind to exist. It is a living-something that is independent of me and which I can become aware of. Can we call it Body Wisdom? Spirit?
The”We” can also come about between me and another person. That kind of “We” takes form when I become aware of the presence and existence of another person as they become aware of me; in other words, where both I and the other person can sense that the ‘other’ has experiences/thoughts/senses that are different than my own and are valuable, precious, and worthy of my careful attention. And a further component: that in some way, we are both aware of that-which-is-beyond-us; maybe we call that Body Wisdom, maybe we have other terms to describe it. And the resulting conversation has a flow to it that doesn’t happen without this alive “We”.
Love to all from Elizabeth Morana
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The quality of my sessions with a partner are more powerful when I can be fully aware of the presence of the other and hold that space consistently. It is in those occasions true transformation usually happens. Experiencing my partner’s shifts moves something in me of which I might not even had any awareness. That forward movement doesn’t stop when the session stops. It can continue for days, even weeks. This is the power of partnership.
I want to respond to what Elizabeth wrote on August 14, 2017 the Presence of THE WE.
Actually she says it all in the first sentence: “in a ‘we’ we are now able to take in so much more.”
We have moved beyond our experience of what we call “small self” to what we now experience is something very different and it is essentially an experience rather than something that we can describe easily with words, “the higher self”.
She gives us three situations and she points to what seems to happen when we are prepared to make room for the experience of others as separate from our own experience of life. In her words she says, “we are aware of a ‘we’ that has a quality of knowing infinitely more.” That word ‘infinitely’ touches me deeply as a direct experience of the yet unknown that is coming now that has has a vast dept to it that as a direct experience, almost pre-verbal, is so physical and holistic that seems beyond words.
In the first event Elizabeth explores the form of ‘a me alone by myself in connection to my spiritual guidance.’ Some of us point to that as the presence of body wisdom or spirit. Others might simply called it ‘prayer’. Again, words cannot describe that experience that comes for me but I can point to it. I can point to specific situations where I invite a higher power to help me know how to be with something; what to say or what to do in a specific situation that is challenging me. What often comes arrives totally out of the blue. I find myself at the very centre of the challenging situation itself in a way where my inner wisdom seems to be expressing itself just right and so supportive to the situation involved. I suddenly realize that I am engaged with the whole situation in a way that I couldn’t have possibly imagined me doing or thinking or knowing how to. And yet I am.
The second event that Elizabeth explores is what we might call ‘heartfelt connection’ and conversation with another person. Simple words but sometimes something happens in me that is so over powering that it seems to take on a life of its own.It is like a vast chamber of knowing far beyond me. And it is all there, all at once in all its complexity, and all I can do is make room for it as it reveals itself bit by bit in some form of expression which I struggle to put words to. The words that do come feel like some form of ‘information’ or insight between me as though our two worlds are engaging with one another. Sometimes Elizabeth describes this as “that kind of information that is happening within me that is so much more than I know”.
The third event she describes or points to is the knowing that emerges out of this kind of engagement with another person as she says “we are both aware of that which is beyond us.” It is a conversation that has a flow to it that doesn’t happen without this ‘we’.
I feel this as a new beginning place of exploration for all of us, that which is being created between us in these kinds of experiences with one another. I am humbled by this awareness and all I can say is that that is something that I want to explore more. It feels like it has a life of its own beyond me and you. It seems like it can stand alone like an art piece that has now been created. It is like a living art piece that has the resources within itself to make its mark in the world, something that would not have happened unless we did this work together. And there it is, it has come alive!So what does that look like? How can I describe it?
A foot note:I I felt I needed to let it percolate a bit more before posting. What came the next morning where the words, “This is the presence of a WE THREE!” It feels like a recognition of something new here than what we haven’t given voice to before. There is the presence of me, there is a that presence of you, and then there is a presence of who? What we seem to have in common is a quality of consciousness that is both individual and separate and yet holds an experience of whole, a sense oneness, all at the same time. “It all just is.”
Another foot note: The next morning! Further expansion of what Elizabeth has explore in the Presence of a WE. What would make this whole thing a heartfelt conversation? What came was something that Elizabeth has added as well as one of the steps in the HFC steps process, a back to ME TOO!
Elizabeth has put out these Three Events. I reflected and then responded in what has come for me. Now maybe she could take that all in and enjoy what more comes from her in this shared conversation. And so the conversation can continue and develop into something even more creative. Kevin
Dec. 23, 2017
Thank you, Kevin. There is so much there to respond to. This afternoon, I feel most drawn to this, which you wrote:
“….The third event…..is the knowing that emerges out of this kind of engagement with another person…we are both aware of that which is beyond us…..I feel this as a new beginning place of exploration for all of us, that which is being created between us in these kinds of experiences with one another…..It feels like it has a life of its own beyond me and you…it can stand alone like an art piece that has now been created…a living art piece that has the resources within itself to make its mark in the world, something that would not have happened unless we did this work together. And there it is, it has come alive!…..”
The word ‘mystery’ comes for me, as I sit with this living ‘art piece’ that emerges when two are aware of that which is beyond us. Is that being with the not-knowing, I wonder. Far from the bereft feeling of resisting ambiguity, the ‘not-knowing’ is a willing entry into the mystery of things—accepting that there is always more than I/we can know, and welcoming the coming of what’s needed now, or next. And having the privilege of sharing that moment of mystery with another–in our “WE.” As you say it, our “WE THREE.”
And I now want to say, this “WE,” embracing the mystery, can and does happen in groups-larger-than-three.
Just hearing those words warms my heart once more to the truth of how we are not alone, not just us. We are a We and that seems to make all the difference. Somehow it is a relief to feel that and to know that. We are not totally responsible for one another either, the Presence of a We Three is here now! Kevin