We've Changed

The closing of the two-weeks in Paradise was as magnificent as I imagined it would be. Someday I may share the closing ritual I do with Level III, complete with three boxes of tissues ready to pass around as needed. But for now I’ll  just say that the whole course closing ceremony, including the Level III graduation, delivered its promise. The final canon sung in a spiral was the soul-stirring closure it always us, the ringing of the gongs that signaled the beginning of the course returned again at the end, but we all heard them with our new selves. I returned to the cocoon metaphor and acknowledged how we indeed reorganized our insides to emerge as butterflies flying back into the known world. As described in James Harding’s brilliant little canon in his From Wibbleton to Wobbleton book (substituting “we” for “you” as the pronoun): 

 

We’ve changed, we’ve changed. We’re somehow not the same.

We’re somewhat wiser, somewhat bolder, 

Somewhat kinder, somewhat older,

Somehow re-arranged, we’ve changed!

 

After the hugs and tears and heart-felt goodbyes with the 90 plus students, the staff gathered for the ritual final lunch at the Corkscrew Café and I read my cards of appreciations for each one while passing out the checks. What a fine crew of people we have assembled, each unique and authentic in our particular genius while sharing the same overall practice and values and appreciation for each other. More goodbyes and off we went to our separate homes— Barcelona, Munich, New York, Seattle (via Brazil), Chicago, San Francisco (with a detour to a folk-dance camp in France), Michigan for a family gathering. The goodbyes continued on through WhatsApp (“I’m at the airport!” “Just arrived home!” etc.) before they’ll fade out like a tide going out and we’ll return to our other lives. 

 

For staff and students alike, the echoes will continue to ripple out and cross each other. We are all forever in each other’s hearts. And what a rare and precious gift that is.