Desert Rain Community – Chaparral, New Mexico, 9th April

Today I fulfilled one of my dreams – to partake in a Native American Sweat Lodge Ceremony (in the South East Desert of New Mexico!) As we gathered near the entrance, we prayed to the Four Directions, acknowledging the various aspects of creation with each turn…reminding us of the Great Chain of Being that both holds us and surrounds us (of which we are mostly unaware).  We entered the Sweat Lodge on our hands and knees, moving in a circular direction until we each took our place. Going into the Sweat Lodge is symbolic of a kind of reentering the womb… and it sure has its similarities!!! The ceremony itself was profoundly centering – each taking turns to share, first simply expressing what we feel we are being taught or becoming more conscious of us at this point in our lives. Secondly, offering the prayers of our hearts in that moment. We also burned some sage and along with the incense, allowed our burdens as well as our gratitudes be swept up by the Great Spirit. Each time we began with a Native American song, accompanied by the native drum. Amidst this somewhat ‘outer’ expression, something deeper was taking place. In fact, I discovered a place where everything belongs. Once you enter the lodge, the smoke and heat encircles every part of you, filling every inch of your body as you inhale…every cell…all the ‘in-between’ places – there is just no way around it. No part of any of us could be hidden from this ‘cleansing’. In this space, as I adopted the physical challenge of the extreme heat and my breathing struggled, every part of me was drawn into the encounter, slowly surrendering to a heightened state of being. A seeming cloudiness disguised a rising awareness (a cellular awareness) of my very essence: my ‘whole-ness’…. our ‘holy-ness’.

El Paso, Texas, USA 2nd April.

Today I met Sophia, a woman who works at the women’s cooperative in Juarez, just across the border into Mexico … but in another world. She told me that her husband was shot and killed in the little convenience store they own, just 4 weeks ago. It sounds like such a common story, a daily occurrence now with the drug war going on here in Juarez, innocent people getting killed…Sofia says she feels like God has forgotten her. We tried to talk but without someone interpreting it was almost impossible. So we just sat in silence. But we were together. We exchanged our stories through loving silence…I’ve never experienced anything like it. When she was about to leave she told me that she loves me and that I am part of her family now.