
---->This image Chilly comic'd of the second <3 circle.
And, this is A little something I wrote in class online discussion about my recent heArt circles with the RAdical FAiries.
I can't recall if I actually said this out loud in class or just repeated it many times in my head. I have been wanting to talk about our outside groups. I fear bringing this up because I don't want to put those on the spot who haven't "done one of their six yet," or make them feel like I am judging them. I have been in situations where it just wasn't right to do a class assignment, and I heavily support you. I also support pushing the guidelines a little in order to satisfy the "request or maybe recommendation" while getting something that is good for you. (this is in a whispering voice..If you need to call together a family dinner and call it group, as long as you went in with some group intentions and thoughts. I think this is justifiable. Especially, if this meeting would of never happened without Larry's request. I feel that having one or three dinners versus not doing the request is well worth not fitting into the "guidelines." Part of me is saying, go ahead, fudge a little. If you tried to follow the guidelines, and they don't fit your situation, than it is better to adjust the guidelines to fit and make a move towards action. I might even say this about ethics.)
Back on my note about talking about our outside groups in class. I also, don't want to seem un-empathetic in saying I am getting gifts from my out of class group while others are having trouble engaging.
I will have my third session tomorrow night, and I am sitting here thinking well this is going good; but what should I be doing in this third session. I have a feeling this assignment isn't about being in the moment only.
To tell a little or maybe a lot of my group. It started with three radical fairies (a self-identified group of individuals, whom choose not to categorize their sexuality [as straight, gay, bi, or beyond] and are trying to understand the lines of intimacy and sexuality beyond what has been created in a religious man and woman monogamous love history [a history that is better not even seen as religious man woman blah blah, but as seen as history, so that we can see what love is saying/wanting in our current world order]. Of coarse this means many things to the different fairies, and I am sure just like all humans some ways are not agreeable to me. So this might be how the term radical came about. Oh, and usually we are seen as more willing to show our bonds through touching. Commonly, fairies sit closer, place hands on shoulders to show kinship, and hug for long times.
Now as to Fairie, we the radical fairies usually are found dressings, homing, and communicating differently than your average human. I like to identify with the word fairie since there is a sense of mythology around the way we/ I live our lives. I could spend much more time on how we like to sustain ourselves through solar power, growing our own food, staying close to the trees, and living in community settings across the US and even world together, but back to my meetings.
So we had the first with four of us. Than, I caught wind of having a whole Atlantian fairie opened heart circle (For those of you who don't know about it, a heart circle is a round-robin style conversation/theraputic session where you are given open and warm space to let us know what is happening in your life. It will be a calm and tranquil space for us to deepen our bonds and come together as the friends, family and faeries that we are. It is also not common to respond to others, as you are giving a space of pure acceptance, therefore response might represent thinking while others are speaking "and even judgement")
GOSH, I feel I have said so much and yet nothing about my experience. So before over 25 Atlantian fairies went to the Short Mountain Sanctuary (literally 1/3 of a mountain owned by fairies in Tennessee) for the two week Fall Gathering, 8 of us met for a heart circle. The intention (sense of what should be discussed till it is talked out then we have more free space at the end) of the circle was to discuss fear, thoughts, expectations, and the like about going to the mountain.
Tomorrow, we will be having up to 15 show and I am thinking, what am I suppose to be engaging in for class? I am being asked to open my heart in listening and not responding (which is so hard, and not like many groups we talk of). There is also not a facilitator, only group members. For the first session a lot of the how to questions before the meeting were turned to me (since I am a master in a psychology program? since I was one of the three who got things going?, because they trust me? because I am seen as a facilitator prior to?), where as I just said ask the group. The intention of this meeting is to discuss how the mountain was, fears, guilt, celebrations, lessons, love and the like. Then, like i mentioned we have more open free time, sometimes even stopping use of the talking stick by the end.
(Stepping into the NOW) I am scared because I just gave you the shortest over view of what a Radical Fairie is that I have ever gave..and it is so commonly mis-interpreted and judged as a gay sex thing. Even by those who I have spent multiple occasions explaining it to. I wonder of those of you who will wikipedia it, knowing what a joke their interpretation is. If you really want to know what a radical fairies is, look at me, not an image in your head.
Also in the now, I feel drained of all I have said, but feel I haven't even said many of the things I intended when I started this post. In this I ask for your questions, thoughts, and comments. So that I can return to this post with more energy next time.
And try imagining yourself in a group session where your role is to only listen, other than expressing from the heart when you want to talk. What does this make you feel?
Reply