By Julie Daley
I remember leaving White Sulphur Springs on that warm, sunny August day, beginning my return home after the Process. I felt alive. I felt joy. I felt a great new sense of possibility.
I remember the light pouring through those beautiful trees that lined the narrow winding road back into quiet St. Helena. I’d been deeply immersed in my week at White Sulphur Springs and the light I’d found within me was meeting the light coming through the trees.
I remember wondering what my life held for me and how it might unfold. In these moments, the dark side was nowhere to be found. The world truly does appear as we know ourselves to be.
Being With Non-Grad Loved Ones
Not long after returning home, our family held a blessing ceremony for my first grandchild. He was about 18 months old at the time. We gathered in a park with a beautiful redwood grove. For the ceremony – a very non-traditional “baptism” in the grandeur of nature’s love – we circled around these beautiful trees.
After the ceremony, we gathered to eat and I hugged close family for the first time since I’d returned from the Process. One in particular, who has always been deeply perceptive, looked deep into my eyes and exclaimed, “Something about you is very different. You’ve changed.”
Love That Is Woven In the Process
I don’t recall if she knew I’d been to the Process. In hindsight, I am very aware of how little she knew of the Process itself and especially what happens there. How can anyone truly understand the kind of change and transformation that takes place there? It is a place where we are held so deeply in love – the love of the natural world that exists in that ravine as well as the love that is woven into the Process itself.
Tucked in between two hillsides and surrounded by such lushness, we enter into the crucible of the Process and seven days later we emerge transformed. What changes within each of us is unique, but together we journey through some of the most intimate terrain we’ve ever known or have encountered in our everyday lives.
Sharing Our Experiences
There’s no way to share the tale of what has occurred except through sharing our experiences and insights. We can tell our story to those who want to know. We are changed and we can live as who we know ourselves to be now. We can discover what it means to live the Process.
When I first returned home, I wanted to tell everyone about what I’d experienced. I wanted them all to know and, perhaps, even do the Process. But I had to learn how to be with the people I love who hadn’t done the Process, and who perhaps never would.
In reply to this woman I love dearly, I simply said, “Yes. I am changed.” She didn’t ask more and I didn’t share more. Her eyes acknowledged that she was deeply happy for me. Together, our eyes said it all.
If you’re wondering how to be with a non-grad loved one, consider joining our “Being with a Non-Grad Loved One” webinar on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, 5:00-6:15 PM Pacific / 8:00-9:15 Eastern, led by Hoffman teacher, Ed McClune. You’ll learn how to create more depth and intimacy with your loved ones and specifically look at how to be with those you love who have not done the Process. This webinar is available only in real time; no playback will be available.