Lifeways | Around the Fire

A Circle Within a Circle: Human Life and Community

Posted by Around the Fire Editor | May 8, 2018 | Event Landing Page, Fire Stories, June 2019, Social Media post |

During my recent experience of Sacred Fire’s Life Cycle Living program, ably facilitated by Prema Sheerin and Lisa Lichtig, I was introduced to the natural flow of human life through eight important stages. It was compelling to see how each stage organically feeds into the next, and how each has its particular work, gifts, and associated emotions. It felt good to begin to understand these stages and to see with fresh eyes how I may have moved or failed to move naturally through each of them. I saw the possibility of revisiting each stage, fully grieving opportunities that had been missed, honoring the lessons that had been learned, and claiming healing forward movement. In particular, I saw the beauty of looking at life as a circle rather than as a line, recognizing how elders are meant to contribute their earned wisdom to the youngest members of a community.

All of us present expressed our ideas and feelings and there was room for it all: excitement, grief and hope. Most of all, we came away with a knowing that we cannot do this alone. It is the connecting warmth of the fire, the community of people and the divine natural world that will gracefully carry us through these beautiful cycles of life.

Maturing Gracefully and with Meaning

Posted by Bill Sutton | May 1, 2018 | Event Landing Page, Life Cycle Living, May 2018 |

As I witness my own mother aging, my heart longs for something that our modern culture doesn’t seem to offer: a clear way to mature gracefully, mature with meaning, and come of age in different stages of life with support of community.

I find myself wondering a few things:

Who will take care of me when I’m a senior (and will they like it)?
What is my role in this stage of my life in relation to the old and the young around me (and to my family and community, in general)?
What qualities of eldership have been traditionally valued by community, and how can I become someone who cultivates those qualities as I age?

These questions about the stages of life are the focus of Life Cycle Living.

Tuning in to Natural Cycles

Posted by Around the Fire Editor | Apr 19, 2018 | Event Landing Page, Fire Stories |

As I ponder my experience of attending Life Cycle Living (LCL) a month ago, I am surprised by a new quiet in me. I feel that I let go of some of the internal voice that wants to tell me “gotta get to the next stage in life.” I think there was a subtle yet profound transformation with this; the cultural linear thinking seems to have lightened somewhat. I have been living in a rural setting for five years now, having spent most of my life in the city. As a result, I experience the natural cycles much more now and I am in tears for how the LCL exploration affirmed this knowing in me.

Several insights are worth sharing. I had trauma in my early life for which I have done much healing work, but during this community dialogue, I deepened my compassion for my younger self. Also, as I look at my young adult sons, I now feel more empowered to let go of concern for them and to allow them to be in the “work” of that stage of life. Further, as an early childhood educator with many degrees and years of experience, I feel validated for my work, which is to preserve the innocence of infants and young children, allowing them to fully be in their respective stages of life. That is the greatest contribution I can make for them.

Finally, as an older adult I now ask myself: Am I fully living into this current stage of my life? So I am pondering what is it to be an elder, and that is a wonderful thing to do in community also. My thanks go to the facilitators, Larry Messerman and Jessica De la O. I felt that they were dwelling in the questions of the workshop for themselves. They brought this insight as well as a deep listening.

Lessons about Life Direction and Purpose

Posted by Around the Fire Editor | Apr 5, 2018 | Early April 2018, Event Landing Page, Fire Stories |

I’ve struggled with knowing myself and my place in the world since my late teens. I never felt I was taught how to decide which direction to take my life. Somehow, as a 16 year old, I was expected to know what to do with the rest of my life, without anything to base that decision on. As a college student I changed my major several times, unable to decide on anything that really moved me. As an adult, I find myself in the same place as my 18 year old self – like a teenager who’s never really been able to decide what I want to be when I grow up.

The Life Cycle Living workshop showed me that I had missed an essential phase in my life that would’ve allowed me to understand myself better, to move forward in my life with direction and clarity. It gave me context to that which I knew to be true, but couldn’t formulate into words. It’s not that this program gave any answers on how to change this, but I was able to feel like the stuckness in my life isn’t related to something I have failed to do, or to a personal failure. I now understand it’s because the society that we live in expects our children to jump from puberty to adulthood without any support to understand what that even means. This realization made me very angry and also very upset, because so many of us are missing pieces of ourselves that are necessary to be who we really are. And we all have so much to offer as our true, authentic selves.

Life Cycle Living has left me wanting to pursue how I can move through this missing stage. My local fire community seems hungry for more of this medicine as well. We were passionate about brainstorming how to bring a supportive way of aging to our community. We are excited to become involved in the next steps of what Life Cycle Living has to offer each of us. We want this not just so we can heal ourselves individually, but to be able to extend the gifts of Life Cycle Living to all of us, to grow stronger together. Like a community. Like a village.

The Importance of Leadership

Posted by Around the Fire Editor | Apr 4, 2018 | Early April 2018, Event Landing Page, Fire Stories |

I was very aware that it takes an awful lot of skill to lead a course like Ukilái. To have the presence to hold the group, judge what they need next, keep feeding them the right thing at the right moment, keep up the intensity yet–at the same time–keep it light. We were fortunate to be in the care of a master. He held us all. Made us feel safe. Safe enough so that he could consistently challenge us. Push our boundaries. Expand our expectations.

Thank you, David.

Displays on page: Lifeways

Maturing Gracefully and with Meaning

Tuning in to Natural Cycles

Lessons about Life Direction and Purpose

The Importance of Leadership

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