Here

The space between skin and skin

is torment.

But here

The space between souls

makes the space between skin and skin

a comfort.

The truth is hidden

and yet its whisper reaches us.

In the sweet luxury of a smile

In the brief consumption of embrace

It tells you to look deeper…

To look deeper.

Look beyond the space between us all and

see

that you are that smile.

You are that embrace.

You are the civilian

whose life was lost to hatred.

You are the man

who strapped a bomb

to your own body,

and in the name of hatred,

took those lives.

You are the earth

that held them both

and converted their bodies

into new life. 

Your pain is a congress of tears

called the ocean.

Your joy is a collation of light

called the sun.

The whisper of truth

tells you to look deeper…

To look deeper.

Until the truth is revealed

that there is no space

between skin and skin.

That there is no space

between souls.  

Relationships are currently the heart of expansion and the expansion coming from the experience of being in a primary relationship is immense.  Your partner will become your biggest mirror and so, committing to them, is the same thing as committing to both self-awareness and personal integration.  Also, the perspective that comes along with being pair bonded in a unified couple is an immense vibrational improvement upon the perspective of independent individuality.

Marriage is an opportunity to practice unity and therefore oneness with someone that is currently perceived as an “other”.  This is why it so often takes place between a man and a woman.  It serves to harmonize the polarity of the genders. 

In the physical dimension, we live in a binary universe.  This duality is a source of contrast.  The unification of this duality is bliss.  Marriage provides people the opportunity to live out a physical expression of this unification of dual aspects.

Marriage is its own kind of spiritual practice.  If we were to run the other way from relationships when the going got tough, we would forfeit the opportunity to grow because we would be running from our own reflection and our own shadows.  They would continue to chase us from partner to partner and we would keep running from them to the next partner and the next partner instead of facing our own shadows when they are mirrored in the other person.  We would forfeit the opportunity to find not only transformation but also love for those aspects of ourself (and them).  By committing to someone else in marriage, we are ultimately committing to ourselves.  And today, it is my pleasure to announce that the member of my intentional community that has ben with me the longest, has chosen to commit to himself... by committing to another.  He has chosen marriage as his next spiritual practice.

I met Blake Dyer 18 years ago, when both he and I had only barely left the confines of childhood behind.  I was 18 and he was 19.  We became each other’s family, refuge and safe place to land.  After enacting a form of mutual rescue, we decided that we wanted to walk the landscape of this life together always and to witness the rest of each other’s days.  Because of this, when the threads of romance between us unraveled, we stayed together as family.  We built an intentional community together and around us.  We set out to change the world together.  We have lived together now for 17 years.  Many partners have come and gone for both of us in that time period.  But Blake is the one who always remained in my life and I was the one that always remained in his.  Because of this, there is a sacred weight to any man stepping into a position closer and more intimate to me than the place that he occupies in my life…  A sacred weight to any woman stepping into a position closer and more intimate to him than the place that I occupy in his life.  And as of yesterday, a woman has.

Blake met Juliana a couple of years ago in Bavaria (where she is from) when we were on European tour.  Fate ended up orchestrating an introduction between them through her father, as it was he who was following my work first.  The romance between them was not immediate.  Instead, it was a slow ember that grew slowly and at a distance.  And it grew into a love that effectively closed that distance between them.

When he decided that she was the woman with whom he wanted to spend his life, every member of this community was involved in the planning and execution of his surprise proposal, which came to fruition yesterday in the fragile morning sunlight at an altitude of over three thousand feet.  Having invited her on a ride in a hot air balloon, Blake waited for a moment when Juliana was distracted by the beauty of the landscape below them to drop to one knee.  When Juliana didn’t turn around for several seconds, the balloon operator said “It’s getting awful quiet in here!”  To which, she turned around to see what was going on with the other people on the ride.  When she turned around, everyone was silent and staring directly at her, some holding phones to record the moment.  And Blake was on one knee. 

Blake competed with the roaring sound of the fire being periodically turned on to keep the balloon afloat, in order to tell her that the time he had spent with her had been the best in his life, to let her know what he loved about her.  And to tell her that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.  He opened a little feminine box with the engagement ring that he had carefully selected for her personality and taste.  A stunning pale blue aquamarine, accented with white sapphires and white gold.  And Juliana said yes! 

And so, it is with pleasure that I announce this big step that a beloved person in my life (a person that you all know so well) is taking.  There are many bonuses that come with belonging to this community.  There are many gifts that come with being central to Blake’s world.  But it also takes a very special person to say yes to the intensity, the rollercoaster, the pressure, the unpredictability, the difficulty, the uncertainty, the pioneering, and the mission inherent in this community.  It is with this deep awareness of having been blessed with the bravery of her heart and the fierceness of her commitment that I announce that we have welcomed a new family/community member.  And she is a blessing to us all. 

Do not look at your ability to love or at the fragility and the vulnerability of your open heart as a flaw.  Don’t look at it as something that should be hidden, tucked away and kept safe.  It is the most beautiful and brave aspect of you.  If you can let this world shatter you and still stay open to love, there is no brokenness in you… only beauty.