I’ll Meet You in the Field

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field.  I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn’t make any sense. — Rumi

This morning, I attended via Zoom a celebration at Circle of Miracles, which is a spiritual community I have called home since 2001. What had me there today in particular was that my longtime friend Michael London was in the role of what we call Speaker/Spark. A fusion of mystic, musician, academic, and lover of poetry (married to a divine poet Lisa DeVuono), he merges the poetry of Rumi with his own music.

I initially met Michael maybe 20 years ago, and was invited to a CD release concert around that time by a friend named Harmony who was the photographer who took his promo photos. My review remains true to this day. “I heard Michael’s music for the first time on WXPN (Gene Shay’s show) and was blown away by the ways in which he wove the exquisite poetry of Rumi with his own inspired musical creations. Hearing him in concert less than a week later, the intensity of the passion and magic increased 100-fold. Sitting in the audience, surrounded by souls listening with rapt attention, I was moved with a certainty that the poet himself was whispering in Michael’s ear throughout the performance. At turns, deeply peaceful and vibrantly energetic. What a gift! Thank you for sharing it with us.”

Today, I was already in a peaceful mood as I sat in my atrium surrounded by beautiful plants and blooming flowers, colorful tapestries and prayer flags. A budding collection of meditating Buddhas and a newly gifted prayer faerie joined me in my spiritual exercise. She was a birthday present from another dear friend, Janet Berkowitz. Gazing out the window on a finally feels like Fall day in mid October, I beheld a puffy cloud, cerulean sun drenched sky. An invitation to a sigh.

Being in community, albeit virtually, felt comforting in the midst of the changing fortunes of this human existence. Each day, I immerse in prayers of gratitude for the blessings in my life, fully aware of the people in the world who are struggling and suffering with no certainty that they will find solace or resolution. I never take my life for granted when once I did.

Michael offered a song called The Field, he had written that included the words of Rumi, beckoning us to see the field as a place where we can find equanimity among the differences we face as human beings. If we see those with differing world views as ‘other,’ will we ever live on a peaceful planet?

One of the experiences of the service is a meditation, and I found a sense of surrender as Annabella Wood who calls herself “a unified physics musing, award winning singing/songwriting, life-coaching, interfaith minister, Truck Driving Mama, led us through a guided visualization. Her soothing voice called us to our ship of dreams on which we would journey. My immediate reactions was, “The last time I was on a ship, I was seasick for the first two days.”  My thoughts turned to a the seafaring ship piloted by Maona. I figured I could manage to remain stable with her at the helm. We landed on an island with a green field on which we were invited to lie. A person approached us, wanting to engage in conversation. In my case it was someone who has long since passed; going on 23 years…my husband. We had a loving and paradoxical relationship with dynamics I would never have consciously asked for, but arrive they did, to test everything I believed about marriage. All these years later, I have residual anger and resentment, regret and sorrow over what was and what never was able to be because of who and how we were in our 40s before he died. In our conversation today, I said ”thank you and f-you!” I told him that I have evolved into someone I was not able to be back then. I let him know that our son grew into a man he would be proud of and is now a loving father to my precious grandson. I wanted to hear from him that he took responsibility for his actions as I did for mine. It then occurred to me that whether or not he did, I was no longer going to allow my left over emotions to limit me now and rob me of my joy. As he walked away and I returned to waking consciousness, I felt lighter.

In that field I was able to find peace.

—

This post is republished on Medium.

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