Together is the Natural State of Life

by Meg Wheatley

Marianne Knuth and Paul Hollesen, dear friends of the Shambhala Institute, were married at Kufunda Village in Zimbabwe on August 18, 2007. The following poem was offered by Meg Wheatley, who officiated.

Marriage is not about love.
It begins with love, but truly it is about union.
Two people who vow to forego separation and step forward to journey together and to explore union.

Even these stones, seemingly
so strong in their separation,
were once together.
Once they were a great blanket of granite that covered this land.
It was time and events that wore them apart.
Today they stand with us so that we can remember:
Even those who are apart, strong as they appear,
are meant to be together.

Together is the natural state of life. Union. Communion. Community.
Life cannot bear separation. Like rivers seeking ocean,
we want to flow toward one another,
We only know who we are when in relationship.
We call this ‘love’ but really, it is life we are loving.
We can be human only together.

Love is in the geology of Africa.
She is the mother continent who still sits
in the same planetary space where she’s always been.
500 million years ago, the continents began their drift.
For all these years whose duration we cannot comprehend,
these other lands have wandered away, exploring separation.
They created new habitats, new species, new identities.
But Africa never wavered.

Africa sits and waits, like all mothers, for her children to return.
And now—at least one geologist tells this story—the continents
are returning, beginning their slow drift back to where they once began.
Returning to the shores of the mother.

Africa never wavers.
People, like continents, leave Africa.
Africans leave Africa.
But Africa does not leave us.

So Marianne returned to Africa and found Paul.
And Paul, who was wandering, found Marianne.
And now, like two rivers, carried by currents of love,
carrying currents of love,
they stand here, together, on the good earth of Kufunda.

May their love reach far beyond this place,
to those who so need love.
May their hope travel far beyond this day,
to those who so need hope.
May their faith in the human spirit travel far beyond this time
to those who so need faith.

And may we who have drifted away
and are now returned
open wide our hearts for this land
and be nourished by this Mother
who has never wavered,
who only ever reminds us (like these stones)
we are meant to be together.

A Time and Place of Abundance
by Bob Stilger

“Marianne’s mother had done the almost impossible: she prepared a feast for more than 300 people in the midst of scarcity, from food grown in Kufunda’s own hydroponic gardens. This in itself is great testimony to Kufunda’s success as a model of self-reliance in a country on the brink of starvation. Each time I am blessed to come here, I feel an underlying spirit of kindness and acceptance. The people here find their way to joy whenever they can. It is still a place of abundance—but I see more clearly how fear and half-truths make abundance go into hiding. In the coming years, as many of our systems continue to fall apart I hope we can each find the same kind of grace I feel present when with the Shona. We have much to learn from them about waking each morning to find the joy already present in the world.”

Together is the Natural State of Life , © 2007 Meg Wheatley