Almostice: Good Grief
A celebration of everything
(Hit play above to hear an audio version of this post)
I wrote a little something the day after a celebration I called Almostice. It was a gathering of friends and family on a farm in Marengo. We listened to great music, ate delicious food, played like free-range humans, and watched “The History of Future Folk” on the side of a barn (a movie I wrote about last winter)
I did some laughing, a bit of crying, and plenty of talking. That’s the short version (for details, please engage me in conversation and I’ll tell you about what made the day so magic). Mostly, it was the humans. Gathering for no particular reason. Enjoying time and space together. It was medicine.
Here’s a little something I wrote afterwards. I hope it’s a tincture of the magic of the day:
Once Upon a Time…
Some people knew each other, and some didn’t. So, they gathered.
Around food and fire — they talked, listened to music, and shared stories.
Humans — wandering around their home planet, Earth — came together.
Sharing common ground. Combining their tribes.
It had been a while.
An epidemic of loneliness, a pandemic of diseases, had kept them apart for far too long.
In that time, rifts had grown. Gaps in care. Cracks in systems.
Through those cracks,
some
folks
fell.Others above brought ladders and lowered them to help.
Ladders with rungs of
—love—
—compassion—
—kindness—
Through the cracks
shone
a
LIGHT
And the light wrapped an ever-loving embrace around everyone.
A soul boom?
It spread up and out, like tendrils of hope across the sky.
Even as flames dimmed to embers, the warmth carried on.
As folks departed, they carried forth the light.
may it last.
As the longest day leads to the shortest, darkest, dullest…
We go towards the warmth.
We seek light.
We welcome joy.
Sorrow? Grief? Despair? — All are welcome at the fire of compassionate love.
Chopped, browned, charred — the ingredients of a stew take many paths to the pot.
Almostice brought together a beautiful stew of human experience, over a fire of love, in the embrace of friendship.
A light that shines through the universe.
Science tells us that photons (light particles) behave differently when observed.
Then…
What of the human spirit? What of Love?
In what ways are we changed — by the company we keep!?
And how are others changed having known us?
Almostice tells me — I am better for knowing you.
And for that, I am eternally grateful.
It really is a big ol’ goofy world.
Love,
Jessie