The Gathering Changed My Life.
When I attended my first Gathering in 2002, my life was in the midst of rapid change. All the activities I had based my identity on were shifting – I was facing the empty nest (the youngest of my three children would go to a distant college in the fall), my husband had retired, I no longer had a job outside the home (no daily professional work), even my 13 years as a Girl Scout leader were ending with all the girls graduating from high school. I was stressed and somewhat frightened, not knowing how my life would unfold.
I had been attending Quaker meeting for about a year when the Gathering Advance Program arrived in my mailbox. I had not heard of the Gathering before. I clearly remember the moment of standing in my kitchen, paging through the variety of offerings, and thinking – “what a gift! maybe going to this event will help me find a path forward.”
In that Gathering, layers of self-image and self-protection began to fall away, revealing a more authentic “me” to myself. My husband and I took the Couples Enrichment workshop and found deeper ways to express and sustain our love for one another. I shared some of my most private fears in that workshop and I marveled at the safety I felt there. Worshipping multiple times each day, in community or by myself, opened up my heart afresh to the movement of the spirit. I talked, sang, ate, and even danced with other seekers from all over North America, finding that, in essence, their spiritual journeys were not so very different from my own. I went home lifted up by the transformation that had taken root in me. My growth in the spirit altered my worldview, allowing me to let love flow through me in new ways.
I am grateful to the Gathering for the opportunities that the experiences there provide for me. Each year that I attend, the Gathering enriches my life in new ways, shifting my path, some years dramatically and others just slightly, to a closer walk with the spirit.
Michelle Bellows
