A Pocket Full of Treasures
July always arrives with open hands.
Long days.
Bare feet.
Salt on the skin.
Children floating in the ocean.
Laughter carried by the wind.
Evening light that seems unwilling to leave.
Summer reminds me that abundance is not something we possess.
It is something we learn to notice.
The 9 Ways around the Well do not offer one answer or a single North Star.
They offer a living constellation.
A galaxy of pathways.
Every practice becomes another doorway.
Every doorway leads us a little closer to ourselves.
This month my pockets have been full of treasures.
Some arrived through family.
Some through friendship.
Some through long walks and quiet mornings.
Some through singing.
Some through remembering.
And many through water.
Twenty years ago, in July, my mother took her last breath in the water.
Ever since then, every exhale has carried a quiet invitation to shape-shift. To let go. To become someone new while remaining deeply connected to everyone who came before.
This July also marks another threshold.
Forty years ago, in July of 1986, I first sailed into Nantucket.
Forty years. Forty years of becoming.
Sophia is now the same age I was when I first arrived. Dale, the King of the Unicycle, brought me there. My first Nantucket friend, Melissa, had also sailed there from Tortola. Looking back, I see that art has quietly woven every chapter of my life together. Street performers, painters, musicians, dancers, makers. Public expressions of wonder have always reminded me that beauty belongs to everyone.
Perhaps that is why this season feels so full.
The sailing winds.
The familiar rhythm of the outrigger.
Long walks.
Gathering around beautiful meals.
Afternoon naps on the beach.
Life moving with life.
And alongside all this outer movement, another movement has quietly been unfolding
within me.
For many years, titles arrived as seeds for visual works.
Now they arrive as blessings.
Stories become poetry.
Poetry becomes a song.
Words find melody.
Melody becomes frequency.
I feel deeply supported by the field that continues to inform me.
Almost as if the blessings are already present,
simply waiting for someone to give them a voice.
Everything begins the same way.
As a spark.
As a seed.
As a single point of light.
That is why the First Way around the Well begins with Intention, Meditation,
and Invocation.
Before we create, we listen.
Before we act, we receive.
Before we speak, we remember.
There are moments on the path that ask only one thing of us:
To receive.
This month, I was deeply honored to sit in the presence of His Holiness the 34th Menri Trizin, Abbot and Spiritual Leader of the Bon tradition, together with Chongtul Rinpoche, a beloved friend and teacher, for a special blessing and teaching.
Some gifts cannot be measured by what is said.
They arrive quietly.
They remind us that we never walk alone.
As I searched for words to express my gratitude, one blessing continued to echo in my heart:
Tashi Delek.
May all that you perceive be blessed.
May what is true come into fullness.
May your path unfold in harmony.
May love and compassion accompany every step.
This is the blessing I received.
This is the blessing I now offer onward.
Because blessings are never ours to keep.
They ask to be lived.
Embodied.
Shared.
Passed gently from heart to heart.
This month I have been recording and singing a new invocation for WellWork. It has
become both a personal practice and an offering for our community.
Perhaps you would like to sing it with me.
Come to the Well
Come, come to the Well Come as you are Come with your longing Come in your heart There is a Well within you There is a song you know There is a blessing waiting For your voice to let it flow We call to the Earth beneath us We call to the Sky above We call to the breath within us We call to the field of Love May what is ready awaken May what is hidden be heard May what is true find rhythm May what is living find words Come, come to the Well Listen deep within Your voice is an offering Your blessing begins Speak what you love into being Sing what you came here to give Bless this beautiful world With the way that you live The world is listening To the blessing you bring Come, come to the Well Come as you are Come with your longing Come in your heart There is a Well within you There is a song you know Come to the Well Come to the Well And let your blessing flow. |
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