com - with fort - strength
This is my Aunt Ruth. She helped my mother raise me. By the time I was born her heart had been stretched and broken opened, and bridged and mended, many times. She was strong.
My mother was strong. They loved and were loved by powerful entities of all sorts. They were held by death and suffering, and held it, and joy and tenderness, over and over - maybe always. To be with them was to be with strength.
I watched them together: the way they broke open and and held each other in time with some kind of music I could almost hear. Like bird wings and air - they pulled strength from each other and it filled them, they gave strength to each other and were
full.
They poured strength into me, and taught me how to be with it. They taught me that cadence, broken open and strong, at once and in turns, so I could find it in the world without them. So I could find it in myself.
They taught me comfort.
I think it's a skill - being with strength - I don't think it's innate.
I think we're born looking for teachers.
I feel like I'm learning it - from love and the woods, from music and weather and my body - all the time. I hope I am. I want to be.
We'd like to learn comfort with you.
We would like to come together and learn more and more about all the ways we can be
with strength, together.
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