17 Aug 20 Year Anniversary Reflection Note
It all began in 2001!
Yes, The Wisdom WAY was birthed into a (W)hole Shop just two weeks after 9-11!
Let me back up a bit:
During the year 2000, this wondrous perspective and deep “hands and feet” approach to clearing the dust off our glorious diamond selves were being birthed within me.
THEN 9-11 tore a (w)HOLE in our world! The first (W)hole Shop (WS) was already planned for two weeks later! Honestly, I came very close to canceling as I thought to myself: “Who am I to teach about (w)HOLES when there are gigantic (w)Holes in our hearts and in the towers?”
However, after heartfelt consideration, I realized that “I had to teach it!” The world was calling out for help. So was I, and so were those in that first (W)hole Shop.
Now 20 years later, there are 8 levels of The Wisdom WAY, three generations of teachers, two generations of (W)hole Life Coaches, and have just completed the first Master class for established coaches to add The Wisdom WAY to their toolbox! There are paths carved out of the woods, a labyrinth to walk, the Gate of Grace, the Radiance Garden, the Medicine circle, and even Stumble Stones ETC ETC…..This land has come alive just as The Wisdom WAY has come alive.
We have lived in a Pandemic, quarantined, masked, and well exploring an entirely new way of being in this world.
Over 1000 lives were touched directly and much more indirectly. YES, a great deal has occurred both on the land, within The Wisdom WAY, and in all the Hearts involved.
So, what is the point of this reflection note?
One could say it is summarized in a question: WHAT is the POINT of it all???
Accomplishments of any sort – dry up after a time.
Money comes and goes – yet in the end, it is a means to an end of gathering stuff or traveling or or or ….
Stuff of any sort (i.e., cars, furniture, houses, clothes, etc.) essentially is something we must tend and manage until it wears out or is given away or…
Friends, so very precious, may move away, become engaged in others’ activities, and finally may even die – as this year has shown us.
Health is ours and then may suddenly be in doubt.
WHAT is the point of a life? My life, your life, anyone’s life, if all the things we gather ultimately dissolve?
Here is my reflection: I am suggesting that the essence of TRUE treasures that may gather in a life is about gathering sensorial experiences. This can only occur when we are fully present in the moment that we’re in.
Consider this: when was the last moment that you can bring to the surface of your awareness in which you can smell the smells, see the myriad of colors, feel the texture of the wind against your skin, feel your eyes’ responses to the scene before you????
None of these things are possible unless you are actually present! Yet who is it that is invited to come into presence? Who is this YOU that I am speaking about?
I would suggest that the you that’s most essential is that which is the animating factor within your physical form. IT IS THE YOU WHO CHOSE TO BE IN A BODY TO EXPERIENCE PHYSICALITY.
However, for this to not remain a cognition but rather to be a lived truth – what are we invited to set open up to?
When we are present – meaning awake – our mind is not busy with some other thoughts or wonderings. Nothing is distracting us from the full embodied sensorial experience of all of our five senses online at the same time.
So, what’s the point? I would suggest that the point the whole point is not all the accomplishments that I could write pages and pages about. It is not all the adventures and experiences that we’ve had over the last 20 years that we’ve shared in groups, perhaps at bonfires perhaps, in whole shops perhaps one on one intensives the contexts do not matter!
THE point is to have come to a place or state of continuous ripening. This is a place-state in which we can choose to be present from the inside out with each moment, for that’s all there truly is this moment.
I could go on and on, and yet all of these words are empty. Only those of us who have remained devoted to this engagement, to the communion, to the exploration of the moment will have an authentic response to What is the (W)hole Point??
20th Anniversary! The actual cause of celebration for ME is that I now walk the land called Sanctuary feeling the wind, hearing the leaves dancing with the sounds of the birds, touching the rocks and earth with awake fingers — only occasionally noticing stray thoughts sneaking into my inner Sanctuary of my senses. It has only taken 20+years! (Really nearly 70!)
This does not make me better or more than anyone reading this reflection. Rather, I am pointing to that if one remains devoted with a single focus on awakening, it sneaks up on you in ever-increasing forms and surprising expressions. But what I want to really do in this reflection of 20 years is I want to celebrate each and every one of us for all manner of discovery. I want to celebrate and elevate those reading this for each of you in your own way have contributed to this anniversary, this celebration moment, and you have done this by simply being you. I offer my most humble gratitude, appreciation, and recognition to each of you, and I willingly humbly invite you, whether in your mind’s eye or physical form, to walk this land called Sanctuary and let all that it has to offer to awaken your sensorial present presence.
With love and gratitude
ALAYA
September 2021