Our Tribe

Our Tribe February 7 2010


We wander through our lives,

Nomads on the path of love.

We start with a small family,

Then one by one, we meet those

Who share our destiny,

Our spirits, our vibrations –

The ones who teach us how we’re one with all.

Like a gathering convoy, we

Fall in step and walk together –

A few, then dozens, then hundreds strong or more,

Sharing glowing cords of love to light the way.

Our hearts swelling into glorious harmony,

We sing together –ineffable canticles –

And rise to grander vistas of delight.



Reflection

Attending my brother-in-law’s memorial service and seeing the hundreds who joined together to celebrate his life and accompany him and his loved ones to the edge of eternity made me reflect on all the people we influence on our life path – often without realizing.

I’ve also been reading this week about the experiences of medical personnel who responded to the earthquake emergency in Haiti. They described a people – tens of thousands of them – who had suffered through enormous pain, loss, and suffering. Yet these same people were reaching out to each other in love. They were standing on a hillside beneath a full moon, sheltered only by God’s dome of star-covered sky, singing hymns together – a powerful and inspiring example of trust and acceptance and love, an unforgettable scene for those who had gone there in a spirit of loving service. We are accustomed to thinking about Haiti, a country noted for material deprivation, as “poor.” Yet, in their shared spirit of love, they are awesomely “rich.”

I have been reflecting on the people I’ve known – those who have been dear and special to me – throughout my life. Everyone I’ve loved has enriched me with wonderful examples of goodness and inspiring experiences of love and support. Everyone I’ve loved has brought me into the circle of his or her many friends, who have also become my friends – my “tribe” – those in whose company I follow my journey toward release into the life of loving spirit, those with whom my heart sings and weeps, and my soul grows ever more enlightened – radiating and experiencing stronger light.

I’m reminded of a pilgrimage in which I and a group of my friends participated many years ago, when I was in my early 20s. We walked together for two and a half days, sleeping together on the ground for two nights, starting in Nancy, France and processing toward the shrine of Notre-Dame de Sion, in Vaudemont, eastern France. We were several hundred students strong. The distance was only about 35 hilly kilometers – about 24 miles -- but we were not trained hikers – so we were not very speedy. It was late spring – very hot in the brilliant sun. Evening and night provided enormous relief from thirst and heat fatigue. There were no modern conveniences such as water wagons or refreshments – we had as provisions only what we could carry, so we ended up weakened by dehydration and hunger. Our best physical relief came from a slice of lemon held in the mouth as we forged ahead. As we walked, we learned and sang dozens of hymns. There was something hypnotic and inspiring in sharing a challenging journey so intensely with a large group of fellow humans. We changed, we transcended, we were as one – no longer hundreds of isolated individuals with our petty pains, complaints, and egos. Like geese who are helped in their migrations by the energy generated by the group, we were empowered by our shared motion and vision to overcome blisters, sore feet, sunburn, gasping thirst, and cramping muscles. We were walking to Zion together, bonded by our intent to celebrate faith and our shared vision of the Gothic spire of the ancient shrine rising against the horizon in the early morning haze as together we rounded the last bend in the road and knew together the sweet feeling of arriving at our beautiful destination.

I’m glad I experienced that bonding of pilgrimage, that time of unity and transcendence. As I get older, I see how beautifully it exemplified the pilgrimage of life, and the joy of sharing the way with so many wonderful, creative, intriguing, loving companions – and how wonderfully the act of moving and singing together bonded us into one glorious expression of love.