This post is comin' atcha from Saltspring Island, where nine radiant women are ushering our dear friend Sarah Olson through the right of passage of pre-marital feminine communion....aka The Stagette. Here at Beams, in the coming weeks we'll be embarking on a bit of a community theme. As your Sacred Sunday Girl, I'd like to invite you into our sacred little community for a moment.

It's ten o'clock on Saturday night, the wind is gentle and cool out here on the deck. A chorus of frogs overlay the chatter of voices and pumping music that's coming from inside the cottage. We just finished a meal that we all cooked together from ingredients we grew together.  We are here to celebrate and how we choose to do this is by being conscious to the sacred art of communing, connecting and caring as women. Sure, we'll do some tequila shots, but the promise is to return nourished. We're dancing, we're sharing wine and stories and laughter and intention. We are open, we are full. We are grateful and supported. We are allowed to be naked. We are not allowed to feel bad...for anything. Our bride feels fulfilled and full and supported and prepared. Jasmine just brought me more wine and chocolate and it really doesn't get more sacred than that.

So we have a gift for you. While watching that sacred hockey game earlier, being the multitaskers that we are, we were also reading some Rumi. We've plucked out favorite pieces...words that moved us closer together and further into ourselves....words that celebrate Love, Intimacy and the divine pleasure of being together.

--

Watch the dust grains moving
In the light near the window

Their dance is our dance

We rarely hear the inward music
But we're all dancing to it none the less

Directed by the one who teaches us,
The pure joy of the sun,
Our music teacher

Don't unstring the bow
I'm your four feathered arrow
That hasn't been used yet

I am sunlight slicing the dark
Who made this night?
A forge deep in the earth-mud

Come walk with me in the meadow

Notice how each particle moves
Notice how everyone has just arrived here from a journey
Notice how each wants a different food
Notice how the stars vanish as the sun comes up
And how all streams stream towards the ocean

But who can stand in this strong wind
And remember those things?

When the night sky pours by,
It's really a crowd of beggars
And they all want some of this

But that shadow has been serving you
What hurts you blesses you
Darkness is your candle
Your boundaries are your guest

There is a community of the spirit
Join it and feel delight of waking in the noisy street
And being the noise

The sun is love
The lover a speck circling the sun

This we have now is not imagination
This is not grief or joy
Not a judging state or an elation or sadness
Those come and go

This is the presence that doesn't

Open your hands if you want to be held
Sit down in this circle

Dance when you're broken open
Dance if you've torn the bandage off
Dance in the middle of fighting
Dance in your blood
Dance when you're perfectly free

-Rumi