incantation for welcoming

Hello, how are you doing?  At the Friends meeting yesterday, I had quite an hour of silence.  It’s like meditation, but I feel more free.  I sat down, settled in physically, and began to welcome myself–it was more elaborate than usual.  It turned into an incantation for welcoming myself.

Like a poem and prayer.  You might imagine me throwing a small flower onto a tray, for every item of this list.

incantation for welcoming

You are welcome here.  I welcome you.

Your fat body is welcome here.

Your disabilities are welcome here–all of them.

Your not having a paying job is welcome here.

Your not having children of your own is welcome here.

Your poverty is welcome here.

Your age is welcome here.

Your rainbow mystery misunderstood experimental creative changeable gendernaut gender  is welcome here.

Your unusual aesthetic choices are welcome here.

Your good heart is welcome here.

Likewise, your shadow and pain are welcome here.

Your artist self is welcome here.

Your queerness is welcome here.

Your truth is welcome here.

Your ways of doing relationship are welcome here.

Your history is welcome here, in all its sordid detail!

Your future is welcome here, whatever it may be.

Your present is welcome here, steady and safer.

Your spirit is welcome here, breathing light.

Your childhood paganism is welcome here, and your adulthood witchy paganism is welcome here.

Your 20 years doing Hinduism are welcome here.

Your ancestors who dwell inside you and travel with you are welcome here.

Your curiosity is welcome here.

Your values are welcome here.

Your choices are welcome here.

Your dreams are welcome here.

Your deep faith is welcome here, even if it looks different.

Your anarchy is welcome here.

Your smiles and tears are welcome here.

Your breath is welcome here.

Your breasts, vulva, tummy, thighs, butt, liver, uterus, ovaries, blood, bones, and skin are welcome here.

Your hairstyle is welcome here.

Your needs are welcome here.

Your feelings are welcome here.

yes

Even if the people around you don’t look like you or your family of origin, you’re welcome here.  And if they say words that annoy you or rub you the wrong way, you don’t need to take in those words and be too bothered by them.

People are clumsy.  But you don’t need to take that as pain.  You can try to see their good hearts and the love that makes them show up at all.

You didn’t come here to agonize over words.  You came here for silence to begin with.  There’s love in the silence more than in the words.