Sacred Elixir

In the soft sunlight of Sunday morning circle, an amazing sense of calm and peace continues to descend through today as the tiny million pieces of self realign with true purpose. I felt completely compelled to honor my dear friend Simon Goland Sunday morning in circle and again here in the immortality of cyberspace. I am just really overcome with the urge to give voice to how absolutely grateful that I am for his invaluable support as I harvest the courage to live the life I deserve. I laid down my dagger of destruction and brandished a new sword, shiny and glistening, to not behead my opponent, rather to slay my own demons. A shadow was lifted off of my heart through my connection with him, after all I do think of him as the Chosen One. And after some wee bit of polishing off of my heart with intention, I was able to transform the dull surface into a glistening jewel of valor and love, the authenticity of our collective community practice seeking out internal peace and fierce right lively hood. It is second nature for us to feel the pulse of social justice and transformational consciousness spike through our veins, a fabulous competitive factor of the program. Faculty and students alike come together at Bainbrige Graduate Institute, ferverently rewriting the next act in the hero's journey. Initiation has proven to be wicked hard and often dark and scary.

" To be human is to become visible while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others." -Wythe

After my first year with time to reflect, I have such a rich deep understanding of the power of BGI. Such a profound feeling like floating on the air giddy with the possibilities in the face of rapidly approaching death tolls and the worst darkness and fear the world has ever known. And to even compound the profundity of the self discovery is the realization of the powerful significance of relationship and love infused into the ecosystem of humanity of the best sustainable MBA program. Ever. Wanting to feel connected I surfed Simon's blog and was struck by the timeliness of an old post written in February 2009 feels like it was written just for me months later, I love how words endure What to remember when waking. The dia de los muertos theme to the weekend literally and metaphorically was transmuted by an amazing sacred elixir of true deep love and appreciation for each other. After a week of celebration in their honor, the ancestors left behind a parting gift, a deep experience of connectedness as One consciousness. Sunday morning as the ancestors retreated back across the mirror back into the Invisible they were sure to bid us farewell in morning circle with the protagonist brotherly love center stage and so intoxicating. consciousness evolution in progress...

In that first
hardly noticed
moment
to which you wake,
coming back
to this life
from the other
more secret,
moveable
and frighteningly
honest
world
where everything
began,
there is a small
opening
into the new day
which closes
the moment
you begin
your plans.

What you can plan
is too small
for you to live.

What you can live
wholeheartedly
will make plans
enough
for the vitality
hidden in your sleep.

To be human
is to become visible
while carrying
what is hidden
as a gift to others.

To remember
the other world
in this world
is to live in your
true inheritance.

You are not
a troubled guest
on this earth,
you are not
an accident
amidst other accidents
you were invited
from another and greater
night
than the one
from which
you have just emerged.

Now, looking through
the slanting light
of the morning
window toward
the mountain
presence
of everything
that can be,
what urgency
calls you to your
one love? What shape
waits in the seed
of you to grow
and spread
its branches
against a future sky?

Is it waiting
in the fertile sea?
In the trees
beyond the house?
In the life
you can imagine
for yourself?
In the open
and lovely
white page
on the waiting desk?

- David Whyte