The Gathering

It occurs at random, so there is no way to know exactly what time of year this most auspicious day falls on.  The truth is, knowing the time is just as irrelevant to those in attendance as knowing the place. For the ones who wait a lifetime trying to attend this gathering are not concerned with asking any questions or hearing any answers.  It is but a feeling that compels everyone to attend.

Naturally, that feeling can only be expressed by those in its presence. But ever so often, the wind might carry a word a far distance away.  Or the water might carry it down stream to someone awaiting an invitation. It is said that those in attendance never speak word of the gathering, so, like folk lore, it is the canonization of these events that draws  inquiring minds to await the invitation.

It is said that once you have attended this gathering of souls, you achieve a oneness with everyone present. From that moment on, the intertwining of your energy with everyone else’s is what provides all future invitations.  Souls begin to draw one another out. Then and there is what becomes the new time and place. The irrelevance of everything else takes a  back seat in tis adventure.  It is as if everything else ceases to exist when that first tug is felt. The journey can be days or weeks, and for some, even years. All that is present is a gravitational energy pulling what is in its field back to itself.

Today, as I follow this internal pull, I make my way to this open space.  From the distance, all I see is this wooden apparatus sitting at the center of this vast landscape of nothing.  As I come closer to this point, I begin to make out a gathering.  There are no sounds to be heard or any sights to be seen.  As I draw closer to this place, I see something standing at what appears to be a gateway to the energy that draws me here. 

‘Welcome!  Please take a seat.’ Is what it seems to say, but I do not hear a single sound nor see a single gesture.  However, I can still understand what is communicated.  Everything in that moment becomes clear to me.  Nothing needs to be said. Nothing needs to be heard.  For in this silence, my heart is open. I now, have come to realize what called me to this place all along; a feeling.  And in that feeling I have now grasped why no one talks about this in the first person; there is no space left for any after thoughts.