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December 17, 2007

Dear Ones,

Some of you may have heard about the Firewalk twelve of our youth and one young guest experienced on December 8^th. As our Director of Youth Outreach, Jamie now plans activities with the youth that help them shape their sense of who they are, their gifts and challenges, their purpose here on earth. Those forays will always be into somewhat unfamiliar territory, across boundaries of human difference, outside comfort zones and beyond the fallacies of long-held assumptions and limits. Sometimes it is only by leaving the safety of familiar choices, roles and places that any of us, young or old, have hope of moving through our fears to a new awareness of our true nature.

That Saturday afternoon we drove up to Leverett, Massachusetts, where we were warmly welcomed by certified Firewalk instructors Paul and Barbara Weinberg and a few local teens. By 4PM we were out in the lovely dusky woods building together the hardwood log fire that would burn down into the path of embers we’d later walk. With each log we placed, each ball of newspaper chinked and each splash of corn oil, we voiced our intentions for our walk, knowing that it is the vision of what we wish to achieve that gives us the courage to take that first step, draws us forward across the barriers of our fear and doubt. By nightfall, the fire was blazing and the Milky Way was poured out over the inky sky. Ascending sparks with their long yellow tails linked our earthen fire to ancient stellar light. The snow on the ground and in the trees around us shone pink in the fireglow.

As the fire burned down, we returned to the Weinberg’s spacious living room to continue our preparation with exercises to loosen our bodies, shake off distractions and raise in our soles the spiritual energy to match 1200 degrees of physical heat. “When you stand in the woods before that path of glowing coals,” I had written in the meditation participants read at home before our trip,

“You will be aware, more than you ever have before,
of your relationship to your bare foot as you lift it or consider lifting it,
of the Power that is yours as you weigh your choices—
in your mind, in your emotion, in your spirit, in your flesh—
the Power that is yours to overcome any obstacle that lies
between  you and your clearly chosen path.
This is the teaching of a confrontation with fire.
Whether you choose to set your bare foot on the coals or not,
this is the teaching. You alone choose, having achieved clarity of intention,
what you will allow to come between you and your goals.
You alone choose with what Faith you will uphold your own resolve.”

In the darkness, accompanied by solemn declarations, drum rhythms and shouts of celebration, youth and adults walked the eight-foot path of red-hot embers. Individuals chose to walk or not, but the group worked together to create sacred space in which the preparation, clarity, courage, and support each of us needed could fully manifest. This church is such a sacred space. Here our trust in one another, our faith as Unitarian Universalists, and our shared Affirmation empower and charge us to live out our values as purposeful companions in ministry. Together we can do anything. We can raise whatever energy, talent and money we need. We can work together to shape a powerful mission. We can be good stewards to four more acres of precious contiguous land. We can extend a spacious welcome to all who are spiritually homeless. We can raise courageous, peace loving, confident children with the skills and heart to right our world. Ours is a faith that will uphold even our most ambitious resolve. To get to where we want to be, we can, working together, walk into the fire and not be burned.

I wish you peace in the season of lights,

margie

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