A message from one of our members

I've been coming to Celebration of Life for nearly as long as it has been running. I guess that is a testimony in itself to what it is, but after today's wonderful gathering I felt that I wanted to express my gratitude in writing.

I am so pleased that those who had the vision for what we do together had the courage, the talents and the determination to turn what was a good idea into the reality that it has become, and continues to become As a facilitator and organiser myself, I know what an enormous amount of dedication it takes to keep something going, to keep it alive and to do the sheer donkey-work involved – I thank you all. I also give my thanks to the people who turn up month after month and respond to what is put before us with such openness and vulnerability. In that safe space that we have come to trust, we have the opportunity to reveal who we truly are without the need for the masks that society as a whole so often requires of us - that is a gift indeed.

As someone who has been involved in religious groups over the years with such firm ways of doing things, and usually with an equally firmly set bureaucratic structure behind it, it is a joy indeed to come to something that is so simple (in the nicest possible sense!) Without the strangle-hold of an established institution (however benign) we have the pleasure of coming together without any expectations or great responsibility – that freedom is like a breath of fresh air.

Another joy is to share in deeply meaningful songs, dances, activities, prayers etc. that come from all sorts of spiritual traditions, excluding no one and building understanding across the ether and the world. How much how world needs that now, and how marvellous it is that we can all be a part of it.

From such a coming together, we do indeed sow seeds of love (as the dance today was worded) both in the interactions that we have within the gatherings themselves and as a result of them. New friendships are forming and they are of significance, started in that depth of sharing together spiritually. I have the sense that as time goes on great things will grow forth from these connections.

Once more, I thank you all and look forward to our next time together.

with love

Judy Clinton

Meeting 12th June

Today's theme was Hope.

We began with a short body prayer, and a reading by Neesa of a Rumi poem, The Guest House.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Then we sang two songs; Door of my Heart and Into His Presence;

Door of my heart, open wide I keep for thee.
Wilt thou come, wilt thou come, in this moment come to me?
Night and day, night and day, I look for you night and day.

Into His Presence would I enter now.
Into Her Presence would I enter now.
Into The Presence would I enter now.


Peter read a poem on hope.

No-one Is An Island

In the back of my mind there are people drowning and crying for help
And people dying of thirst:
I try not to hear them.
My comfortable world is built on denial:
So my joys are bordered with sorrow
And my security is undermined by fear.
Joy is shallow and brittle
And comes only from great determination
Or from climbing paradoxes in a mystical way.
But if I accept the catastrophes behind me
My fear feels validated and safe
And agrees to behave in public:
It becomes a horse saddled with hope
That I ride into the future.
Let’s ride together, you and I
Like Indians and cowboys, together and equal
Righting wrongs, repairing the world, preventing disasters;
There’s really nothing else worth doing.


Then we did an activity where we got in touch with our despair and offered each other hope.  We each wrote or drew a representation of our despair, either personal or on a global theme.  Then we went around the circle either voicing our despair or just placing our drawing in the centre of the room, and responded to each person's sharing by reading out the words of hope we had been given.

Then we did two dances;

Between darkness and light I will always walk
And in every place that I walk
I will open a window of light
And plant a seed of love
I will open a window of light
And plant a seed of love

where we walked around and met with each other to share the "window of light" and "seed of love". 
Then we did a more joyful and energetic song about the love between Krishna (Govinda) and Radhe;

Radhe, Radhe, Radhe Govinda Bolo
Radhe, Radhe, Radhe Govinda Bolo
Govinda, Govinda, Govinda
Govinda, Govinda, Govinda
Radhe Bo, Radhe Bo, Radhe Bo, Radhe Bo
Radhe, Radhe
Radhe Bo, Radhe Bo, Radhe Bo, Radhe Bo

We finished by gathering around the centre and singing "This little Heart of mine".