The Ceremony of Life
Dear All,
I share these words with you in love, in the hope that they may serve as a loving and gentle reminder to remember what is truly important in life, in your life.
A few years ago I had the profound pleasure of meeting my dear friend Eva Driessen in the sacred space of a plant-medicine ceremony, where she assisted at the time and I participated. At the end of what turned out to be a wonderful weekend, she shared beautiful words with the group talking about; that weekends like this can remind us that we can “live our lives as a ceremony”. In which life itself is actually the ceremony and all actions can be the rituals. These words have always stayed with me and have inspired me to this day to practice the same, in reverence for our dear friendship as well as for the power of her message I would like to elaborate on what this can mean.
Many years have now passed between the initial meeting between Eva and me and the ceremonial medicine work has become a large part of my life. It is with a deep, deep bow that I have the pleasure of devoting a large part of my life to assisting in these works. I consider these works to be the continuation of sacred work, drawn from many traditions throughout human history. During these ceremonial weekends (as well as many other type of retreats or gatherings) people often talk about having a desire to keep many of these wonderful aspects in their daily lives, such as a similar brotherly relationship in which transparency and honesty prevail, being able to look in wonder to the world, to be present in every moment and to experience space to go inward. I understand this beautiful sentiment, I too have often had the same kind of thoughts in which I thought “If only it could stay this way!". But, partly because of the beautiful words of Eva, I have come to realise that life can actually be lived in a way that is consistent with the beauty we find at retreats and gatherings, if only we choose to live life that way.
“Heal yourself with the light of the sun and the rays of the moon. With the sound of the river and the waterfall. With the swaying of the sea and the fluttering of birds. Heal yourself with mint, neem, and eucalyptus. Sweeten with lavender, rosemary, and chamomile. Hug yourself with the cocoa bean and a hint of cinnamon. Put love in tea instead of sugar and drink it looking at the stars. Heal yourself with the kisses that the wind gives you and the hugs of the rain. Stand strong with your bare feet on the ground and with everything that comes from it. Be smarter every day by listening to your intuition, looking at the world with your forehead. Jump, dance, sing, so that you live happier. Heal yourself, with beautiful love, and always remember …you are the medicine.”
Despite my great devotion and love for this beautiful work, I have also (respectively) come to believe that wonderful weekends and experiences like this should not be on the horizon of our lives. What I mean by this is that I consider it important that, be it a ceremony, another retreat, a holiday or even a retirement, it should not become the only thing we live towards (or for). That in the effort to reach an imaginary horizon, we run completely past life. Which tends to happen to many of us. When an experience such as a ceremony (but actually also a holiday) comes to an end and we "go back" to what we refer to as our "normal life" (whatever that may be?) then we can often experience such a high (and sometimes confusing) amount of contrast in which the sense of our normal life seems to pale in comparison to the memory of “the experience”. And so, we're looking for something that we can place on the horizon again so that we at least have a view to look forward to. All of these experiences are not isolated phenomena that we occasionally go to and then continue living on the same footing, waiting for the next opportunity to present itself, something many people will no doubt recognise in their yearly desire to go on vacation. No, in my opinion all forms of retreating ourselves, be it a ceremony, a spiritual retreat or a holiday, are opportunities to remind us of what is really important. We come to our senses, experience inner-peace and literally have a lot of space to welcome life in its many colors. This could then help us to make new and (more) sustainable choices for the continuation of our lives based on this memory. My opinion is that we should level the difference so that our "normal" daily life coincides with the substantive qualities that we consider valuable as we find them in a ceremony, a retreat or a holiday. So that daily life can actually be lived as a ceremony.
Every human being is invited through birth to participate in the ceremony of life. This ceremony is not something we go to, it is not something that can be confined to a single place or reserved for a single moment in our agenda such as Sunday morning at church, the weekly yoga session or the annual retreat, but it is essentially a ceremony to which we are ordained through our birth. Through birth we are initiated into this ceremony and invited to live life in reverence. Living life as a ceremony means that what you offer is in worship: it is trying to meet everyone and everything completely, it is beautifying every act, it is speaking every word in love, it is trying to perform every act in presence and gratitude. In it, what you add to the world, what you give, becomes deep down a worship. Whatever you do in life, you are always offering "something" in the form of your being, your presence, your time, your actions, your words, you are always inevitably offering "something" to the world.
“Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity”
In the end, the big question is not how long it will take before you can experience something again or how long you still have to work before you can relax or retire, but the question (and invitation) is whether you can ensure that what you offer every day is in worship? How to live each day in appreciation of the already present beauty that is always unfolding. How can you ensure that life becomes a ceremony? How to make sure you keep looking at the world in wonder? How to make sure you enjoy the small moments in presence? How to deal in the same honest and transparent way with everyone you meet? Each moment is an invitation that asks us to dance in the ceremony of life. Although this can be seen as challenging, this is where the invitation lies, to walk in reverence with every step, so that the whole of life becomes your celebration, your yoga, your art and your prayer.
Dear human being, as long as we choose to see life in the way that deeply allows us to be in the present beauty of life, then we will see that there is no fundamental difference between everything we experience. At its core, life is the ceremony to which we all belong and are invited to participate, what a gift! All I can share with you are just words that come from my own practice, I too try to dance every day in this wonder, so take my hand and let's celebrate life together for the beauty in which it unfolds.
In love and reverence, sven
