Many years ago I took a psilocybin trip. It was my first (and so far only) trip and I wanted to travel gently. I did not want a Heroine’s Journey or to meet G-d on my first go around. I prepared the mushrooms, drank the muddy infusion and 15 minutes in, the Navajo rug we bought in Santa Fe on our honeymoon began to dance. I was listening to a cassette tape (remember those?) that our friend John made for us, “Music to Trip By”: Holst’s “The Planets,” “Deep Blue Day” by Brian Eno, “Strawberry Fields” by the Beatles, “Box of Rain” by the Dead and more. Just after I peaked and started coming down I heard John Lennon’s “Love is Real.”
My heart burst wide open. I was hit with the certainty that All is Love. The absolute truth that we are here to learn to love, that we are meant to take the circumstances of our upbringings and the stories of our lives and do whatever we need to do for as long as we need to do it over as many lifetimes as it takes to heal ourselves so we can give and receive love.
I might not have met the divine on my first go-around, but I did meet something holy. The passage of time has not changed my mind.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, I share Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s beautiful poem, “The Question.” It’s not about romantic love, but big love, as in, how do we learn to move through the world from a loving place. “Is this the path of love?” she asks herself throughout her day, regardless of who she’s with or what she is doing. Is this the path of love?
“Amazing how
quickly six words become compass,
the new lens through which to see myself
in the world.”
Wishing you love this Valentine’s Day, and every day.
Dayna
****
Next round of Women’s Writing Circles begins March 14.
Eight week series. Zoom classes begin March 14, 5:30 pm PT to 7:00 pm PT. In person Berkeley classes begin March 15, 10 AM to Noon. Cost: $360 per series. $315 if registered by March 1. No one turned away for lack of funds. If you are experiencing financial challenges, please reach out. daynamacy.com for more info.
*****
NEW!: Yoga & Writing One-Day Women’s Retreat, Saturday, April 27, 8:30 to 4:00 PM, with two sessions each of writing circles and gentle, mindful yoga, a sumptuous vegetarian lunch, all on a beautiful country property in Sebastopol, CA. I will be joined by my former colleague, Kaitlin Quistgaard, mindful yoga teacher and former editor-in-chief of Yoga Journal. $225 or $195 if you register by March 10th. Eight spots left. Please email me at dayna@daynamacy if interested. More information at daynamacy.com and KaitlinQ.com
****
The Question
by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
All day, I replay these words:
Is this the path of love?
I think of them as I rise, as
I wake my children, as I wash dishes,
as I drive too close behind the slow
blue Subaru, Is this the path of love?
Think of these words as I stand in line
at the grocery store,
think of them as I sit on the couch
with my daughter. Amazing how
quickly six words become compass,
the new lens through which to see myself
in the world. I notice what the question is not.
Not, “Is this right?” Not,
“Is this wrong?” It just longs to know
how the action of existence
links us to the path to love.
And is it this? Is it this? All day,
I let myself be led by the question.
All day I let myself not be too certain
of the answer. Is it this?
Is this the path of love? I ask
as I wait for the next word to come.
