The core of me was spoken into being, no strings attached
I am a decorative artist and plasterer by trade and a seeker by nature. When I met Dove in Diane’s living room, he was a complete stranger to me. A friend had met Dove and thought I would appreciate him. I had no idea! He was to be conducting what he called an “Evening for the Soul.” Twelve of us entered Diane’s living room by descending three steps into a delightful room, rich in crimson red and orange, where every detail had been placed and attended to with great care. It was like stepping into the heart of the house. We all felt the warmth and comfortably settled in. Right on cue, Dove starting the evening speaking, in layman’s terms, about far and deep reaching realities we all face as humans. It was so refreshing not to be spoken down to or counseled with dogma and empty concepts. He then moved into connecting with each one of us. It so happened that I was beside him and so he started with me. In three minutes he spoke words to me I had ached to hear for 56 years. I felt completely seen. I felt he had cut through it all. Months later I was to find out the epic significance of it when Dove in one of his many poetic moments said I had been WITNESSED INTO BEING, THROUGH THE DUST AND THE DIRT. Who was this human who could let me rest into my very deepest place; a place I had always felt and which had remained a mystery to me? How was this possible?
There was nothing to say or do. I was just sitting with a profound simplicity and authenticity. It felt like being 4-years-old siting on a chair, dangling my legs with no agenda and just looking around. I felt expansive and warm. He didn’t do anything, to me. He had simply engaged me with me. The core of me had been spoken into being, no strings attached. I felt strong, renewed, and relaxed in a whole new way, all at once. I felt completely safe in his ‘strong hand’ like a child does with a truly loving parent. And then he spoke to the 11 others and I saw a similar experience occur for them. We were there together not wanting to leave, ever. I was home in three minutes. We were all home, together. I noted what he told me :
DOVE: You came to see and study, and you are being faithful to knowing your soul-nature. Before this life, you were in charge of the keeping of scriptures, with the soul of a servant. Now you are on a deeper level, moved by the quality of confusion, and by the sense of people feeling collectively lost. The compassion you feel fuels even more, this task of being a custodian for what is true. You chose a family that gave you support in the sense of values as one who keeps the records. You recognize truth when you see it, and know what’s worth recording and what isn’t. In terms of rarefied elements, you are able to identify and integrate truth very sacredly. The scribe nature does not settle for just anything. It’s a soul-level choice – keeping a record, bringing in the rarefied truth and not settling for what is not rarefied.
All this man did was to take my hand for a moment and ask me to speak my name. That’s it, nothing more! The fact is I have a genealogical document, a foot thick, dating back to 1210 when our family was knighted by the King of England. In my early years I was brought up as the hope and custodian for the future of the lineage. I have always felt despairing about the confusion in the world, which in convoluted and complex ways led to a near-death experience 22 years ago. At that juncture, I began keeping daily journals that are now twice the thickness of the family genealogy. They have served as a record of my journey of integration.
At the end of the evening it was clear that this meeting was in Dove’s words “an appointment kept” for the next leg of my journey. This time it seemed like the final orientation. I happened to have my latest writing about the very edge on which I was currently living, and pressed it into Dove’s hand at the end of the evening. A part of it reads like this:
RINGSIDE
I sat alone At the family diner By the fish tank, Ringside to noisy tables And the shuffling of generations.The solitary fish With it’s singular eye Round and penetrating, Pressed close to the glass Was good company for me today.
Can I swim, Or even float Fully as I am, In this age Old cacophony?
It was late when we all had to leave. I wanted to learn how I could choose to “be home” like this. Dove agreed to work with me as an apprentice. That is how our dialogue began, and it has been ongoing weekly for three years, and every “appointment has been kept.”
