Lorian Still Point: Gratitude and Q&A
The audio recording of the Stillpoint Town Hall in the Commons is available at the end of this blog.
This week marks the last week on the Lorian calendar before we enter into our conscious still point. Our last class is finishing up. We’re tying up loose ends, preparing ourselves to lean into the thrilling mystery of what is to come. The past few weeks have felt like a whirlwind, but I can already feel the subtle air currents stilling, and an almost iridescent and magical shimmer beginning to make itself known in the field.
Two weeks ago, we made our first announcement about the still point, and the responses we’ve received since then have been heart melting. There have been emails of support, words of encouragement and oh, so much love being sent our way.
I will admit, I was expecting some sort of vague support. Lorian tends to attract kind people. I knew our announcement would be met with kindness, but I didn’t let myself hope for much more. I imagined there would also be disappointment, confusion, or even anger.
What I wasn’t expecting was our decision being celebrated. I wasn’t expecting a bevy of emails, long and short, expressing how many of you have been feeling the same call in your own lives. I didn’t anticipate how our making this decision would open up space and permission for others to make the same choice — creating space and stillness to listen to spirit, drawing inward to center, and letting the leaves fall to clear the way for a new cycle of spring.
And I really didn’t expect to hear, “This is exactly the sort of integrity and attunement that brought me to Lorian in the first place,” repeated over and over again.
The response from you all has been beyond what I ever could have hoped. It’s one thing for us to feel the rightness of what we’re doing, but it’s another thing to have it reflected back to us the way you all have done. It has been humbling. Lorian is truly blessed to have such incredible friends and allies walking this path with us. I can’t say this strongly enough. We are so blessed.
Along with all of the encouragement we’ve received, there have also been a couple of recurring questions. And while we’ve answered them in conversation as they’ve come up, I thought I’d take the opportunity here to answer them publicly — just in case there are others who have been wondering something similar.
One question we’ve gotten a few times goes something like this: “Wow, what an incredible step! But is this ‘call from spirit’ really the reason? Or is there some other secret, behind-the-scenes reason for this still point?”
I love this question — it’s given me a good laugh each time it’s come up, because we’re really not a secret-keeping kind of organization. We tend to be pretty transparent. Everything we’ve put out up to this point about the still point and our reasons for taking the pause are, in fact, our real reasons. We’re not experiencing political pressure. We’re not being targeted. As radical as it sounds, we’re a thriving organization that is intentionally halting our educational offerings for a beat, in order to be of even greater alignment and service in a time that really, really needs it. And that’s the wholeness of it. Everything that we do is in service to our world. Including this still point.
Another question has been, “Does this mean you get a vacation?”
Alas, alack — no. This does not mean Lorian is taking a vacation. We will be just as engaged as we always have been, just in a different form. It takes a lot of intentionality to bring an organization like ours into stillness, without scattering the energy or breaking the container. Over the coming months, the Lorian faculty and board will be coming together in meetings twice as often as we normally would, building a grail field for this still point and joining together for meditation and discussion.
In addition to this, we will be crafting a guided meditation for all of us to use to help hold the field of still point and emergence. If the idea of this guided meditation excites you, this is what we will be using for our monthly “Lorian Still Point Meditations” in the Commons, which will be an opportunity for the broader Lorian community to come together to hold this container with us. And if you’re more of a solo practitioner, we intend to gift the written form to you in an upcoming newsletter so you can follow along with us in your own way.
When we aren’t meeting together, we will be spending the time in between listening deeply and holding a grail container for the emergence of something that will be — dare I say — delightful and spectacular.
Alright, my friends. I hope this letter has given you a smile. From here on out, our newsletter will be sent twice a month rather than every week, to keep us in touch. Keep an eye on your inbox!
Love and Blessings,
Maryn Spangler
Commons Town Hall discussion of the Stillpoint with questions from participants.
