Connection

Reflection – Connection – June 7

Today we're exploring connection. The word itself comes from the Latin connectere — to bind together, to weave, to weave.

For me the analogy of weaving is a wonderful way to think about connection. Weaving is not simply a bunch of threads lying beside one another nor is it about all the threads functioning the same. To weave a tapestry each thread comes with its own color, texture, and purpose. Some threads, called the warp, provide strength and structure. Others, called the weft, move between warp, creating pattern, movement, and beauty. When all the threads are finally woven together, something magical emerges …. A tapestry that is stronger, richer, and different than the individual strands alone. Look close and the individual threads are still distinguishable but they are intimately connected.

Connection is not the loss of our individuality, but the weaving of our uniqueness. And each of us weave our own tapestry of connection. Mine wont look like Katherine’s or Miranda’s but your threads are a part my weaving and my thread is a part of yours. It is the crossing of our lives with one another.

Now imagine adding to your incredible tapestry the connection you have with the earth. The thread that represents the birdsong in the morning or that tree that you just want to hug every time you see it,  your cat or your dog and other beings that are part of the weaving of your life. Many times in our discussions we have tried to find the language to describe the feelings of connection in nature. I use the image of mycelium in our meditation. Imagine that as the most incredible tapestry under our feet. Have you considered what thread of us does the mycelium add to its weaving? How is nature adding us to its great tapestry.

And then for many of us there is the weaving of the thread of something larger than ourselves. The sacred, the universe, God, Goddess, your higher self, a shared energy, Bodhicitta…The experience of feeling ourselves woven into something numinous.

Sometimes we know those threads of connection through magical moments that are difficult to explain.

A piece of music that moves us to tears.

A profound stillness.

An unexpected sense of peace or absolute release into meditation.

Encounters with Spirit or the deepest wisdom within ourselves.

Perhaps the distinction matters less than we think. But the connection is there and the thread is woven.

Thích Nhất Hạnh taught that we are all expressions of what he called interbeing — the understanding that nothing exists independently and that our lives are deeply intertwined with one another and with the earth itself.

He writes:

"We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness."

And perhaps that is our work.

Not to create connection, but to awaken to it.

To notice the threads that have always been there.

To decide how our thread is contributing to other’s weaving, and how our thread is part of the tapestry of this earth.

And to we remember that we are participants in something infinitely larger, and more mysterious than ourselves the larger weaving of the great mysterium.

May we notice the connections that surround us.

May we tend the threads that bind us to one another, to the earth, and to our divine relationship.

And may we never lose our capacity to feel the wonder and the quiet joy that come from remembering that we are part of the interbeing of a magnificent tapestry.

May it be so.