Your Balcony People
Two weeks ago, I had the true pleasure of spending 5 days of intensive writing and training with these amazing women: Sylvie, Kathleen, Regina, Jodi, (Kasha - Suzanne's mom and our yummy snack provider), Katie, Dulcie, Suzanne and Minton! (Plus Jeff, our amazing photographer and memory maker!) These beautiful women are not only fierce and fearless writers, they're also a powerhouse group of performers, speakers, artists, coaches, editors and workshop leaders.
It was an honor to learn, explore and dive deep with each of them under the compassionate and mindful tutelage of Author, Book Shaman and Literary Visionary, Suzanne Kingsbury, who's the founder of the Gateless Gate Methodology that we were studying. I'm proud to say that not only have I made some new lifelong friends and gathered new tools for my craft, but I'm now also a certified Gateless Gate Writing Teacher! (Weekly Writing Salons coming soon! Yay!)
The reason why i'm telling you all this, is because two months ago i wrote a piece called "finding your spiritual team" and somewhere in there, i talked about the people you choose to surround yourself with. You might refer to them as your friends, your group, your pack, your crew, your people or your tribe. These are the folks that totally get you, love you and support your dreams and they're a super important part of your journey.
Now, if you're lucky - nestled amongst all this sweet goodness of your beloved tribe (kind of like the prize at the bottom of a cracker jack's box) - you'll also have a few of what i call, your "balcony people".
Balcony people are the friends, family members and sweeties that are totally crazy about you! The enthusiastic cheerleaders that would stand up in the balcony at your gig, show, book reading, music recital, sports game, ironman race, wedding, play or performance (you get the picture) - and swing their jackets over their head and make a total ruckus on your behalf. They're the friends that would hoot and holler and stomp their feet and call out to you how awesome you are. Not afraid to tell anyone that'll listen, all the things they love about you!
They're the ones that adore you, edify you, celebrate you and cheer you on! And these aren't the one handed, polite, air clappers trying to look oh' so cool either - these are the "where the wild things are" aren't afraid to make a total feckin' rumpus kind of people! And once you have these folks in your corner, once you know that they've got your back - your life will never be the same.
Because they are the ones that aren't competing or comparing, they aren't jealous or insecure, they're not trying to steal your ideas or tear you down, they're not afraid of how bright you shine - they're the ones that have done their own deep work, the ones that have faced their own shadows side and remembered to turn on the light! They're the ones that know how to forgive their humanity & stand in their divinity.
And this allows them to recognize the spiritual power within you too and hold the vision of you at your highest - so when you do go out into the world and create something that is good, beautiful, authentic and sacred - they can't help but recognize it for what it is and cheer -woohoooo! They get the gift of edifying others and the joy of making a rumpus and putting some loving energy behind someone else's vision, accomplishments and dreams. They understand the theory of sympathetic joy and practice it whenever they can. Knowing that since we're all one - whenever another person rises up, they automatically take the rest of us with them! So their buoyancy lifts you up too and in this way we're all reflecting the light and helping each other find our way home. And if enough of us actually do this - miracles can happen!
This kind of holy magic is what i got to experience during my gateless teacher training and these kick-ass women now have their very own special section up in my balcony! (and they sure as shit can count on me being up in theirs!) knowing that they're there, that they see me, honor me and love me - makes all the difference in the world.
My motto for the gateless experience is this: "if you're lucky, you get it before you die."
