Can you have a Dorothy experience and a Grinch experience in the same moment and the same place?  Well, I just did.  What a weekend it was at the Awakening Soul gathering in Asheville, NC.

For those who might not share my cultural context, let me explain.  By a Dorothy experience, I am referring to that moment in the great story of the Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, when Dorothy, our heroine, wakes up at home after her long journey of trials and adversity and friendship.  By a Grinch moment, I refer to interestingly again, the end of the main character’s journey of transformation (at least, the end in the story we see), when the Grinch suddenly understands the meaning of Christmas his heart “grew three sizes… (Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas).”

I am not always able to write about these events, but this time, because what happened there was so very subversive, I had to try…try to put down a few words that, in the future, might just help me recall the sensations of these moments.

I have a friend who often asks me this question:  do you really think that people’s lives can be changed in a weekend?  Do you really believe that there is a lasting value to these kind of gatherings that is greater than listening to the podcast?  I don’t always have an answer for these queries, but, this time, I do.

My answer is yes.

My answer is that people must find community however they can find it.  This work, this living that we all do, is not meant to be done alone. It is not meant to be done in the quiet of our rooms, listening to the words of others from a distance.  It is meant to be done sitting next to strangers who are seeking something, just like you are.  It is meant to be done as you are challenged over and over again to take just one step, make just one choice that subverts the status quo that you find oppressive.  It is meant to be done in the presence of other live human beings who sing along with the same songs that you do, and watch the same respected writers and thinkers struggle in their own way with the world in which we find ourselves.

My answer is yes.  Yes.  Gather wherever you can.  Gather however you can.  And if at all possible, set aside even just a weekend once a year to remember the truth of your being…that Love has overcome