I’m writing you tonight from the recently reopened community room at Wilbur Hot Springs. I hear some guests cooking their meals in the nearby kitchen and others chatting over their dinner by the fireplace. In the library, folks are reading and napping on overstuffed sofas. The atmosphere is warm and nurturing and familiar, which is quite poignant for me.
You may remember that there was a devastating fire in the historic Wilbur lodge this past March. For seventeen years, Wilbur had served as my reliable, unwavering spiritual home (and sometimes actual home), and my place of greatest nurturing, inspiration, rejuvenation, and solace. So to have my most sacred place in ashes and rubble left me without a longstanding safety net.
Once I couldn’t rely on Wilbur to restore my heart when I was world-weary, I was invited to find new sources of support to sustain me in staying present to life’s continuous flow of joys and sorrows.
In September, I attended a nonviolence training with Kit Miller and Dominic Barter, both of whom offer powerful social justice work in the world. The primary message I took away from my time with them was that if you want to live nonviolence, you need warm, nurturing, regular emotional support. Everything they contribute to the world, they insisted, is in direct relation to how much support they receive. More support equals more love, more contribution, more alignment with your values.
Whenever I hear resonant truth, I align and I act. So over the next month I did the vulnerable work of establishing a daily support system for myself, with a combination of professional supporters, peers in nonviolence and healing work, and close friends with shared values.
Two weeks in, I found myself joyfully beginning a new writing project that flowed through me with perhaps the most joy and ease I’ve ever experienced while writing. The support—almost none of which directly related to my writing—has provided the fuel for easeful creativity.
I’m also noticing more capacity in my relationships, even less reactivity in moments of high tension, and just an overall sense of hope, even amidst one of the most violent years I’ve witnessed in our culture during my lifetime. All of this, I attribute to increasing my levels of support. More support equals more capacity.
What would you do in your life if you had more support?
To whom would you be able to offer more love?
What vision would you bring into reality?
What tone would you use when speaking to yourself?
How would your life have more meaning and purpose, contribution and connection, love and warmth?
I can see now that Wilbur left me on my own just long enough to build new, beautiful channels of support. Now Wilbur has returned to me, changed and yet alive, and I am filled with gratitude, trust, and rejoicing.
If you’re ready to see how your life will blossom and unfold with more dedicated, loving support, reach out to schedule an exploratory session.
With love and empathy,
Angela