THIS WEEK

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THE VESSEL OF THEMES

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When you come to Cottonwood Gathering you have the opportunity to contribute theme ideas to the Vessel of Themes.

Write the thought onto a slip of paper, fold it in half, and drop it into the glittering Vessel.

At the end of each Gathering, someone reaches in to the vessel and pulls one of the ideas out and reads it aloud, and this then becomes the theme for the following week.

Here's what gently arose its power last Sunday:

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“What Is Pain”

Is Pain bad? Is Pain our friend? Pain is an extreme sensation that tells us something important is happening.

Resonant with the Lammas idea (above) of Transformation, Re-Birth, New Beginnings, it strikes me that Pain is frequently associated with All of those things. A forerunner, a precursor, a messenger, of important change.

Pain is an invitation to activate. Usually its an emergency, something that suddenly emerges into our awareness demanding attention.  Pain is change.

And then there is chronic pain, a seemingly perpetual element in our experience, a visitor that will not leave until it gets what it came for.  The Pain of not knowing how to give it what it needs.  

Again related to Lammas, the French word for Bread is also “Pain”!  I think of the restaurant chain called Au Bon Pain, translated means “Good Bread”.  Can we say that Lammas opens the door to the Good Bread of Transformation?  

The Circle is Open!

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Seven Daughs