The Gathering

Every year, for over the past ten years or so, my closest, dearest friends and I have come together in Holland at the Humaniversity for what started out as a reunion and is now called 'The Gathering'.  I like this name for what is happening this weekend very much. When we first started coming together it was a reunion of old friends, of training colleagues and a reunion of those of us who started here at the Humaniversity in the old days. It was a time of re-connection, reminiscing and general good feelings shared.


The re-naming of the reunion as The Gathering acknowledges that not all of us are 're-uniting' with former training mates, but we are all coming together for a European-wide friendship action that gathers us all into the big Humaniversity family. For three days in May we gather together in love, gratitude and recognition of having made it through another year.


Every May I look around at the Friday evening party so graciously hosted at the same place and the same time in amazement.  What started out a small group of us old warhorses has now grown to include a complete new generation. I watch the mingling of old (!) and young and see the mutual respect for who we are and what we bring to each other with a real sense of  delight. There is at least a 30 year age gap between some and yet it always works. We dance, drink and really laugh together. I could never really imagine many nuclear families working like this.


There used to be a programme on American TV called 'Cheers'.  This was about a group of  characters who met up regularly in a bar in Boston,  The theme tune for the show went like this:


Where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name. 

And as each of the people here walks through the door of  my friend Shikhara's house on Friday evening, everyone does know their name and who they are. Not just in a superficial way, but in the way of family, with all its quirks and eccentricities, with all its qualities.

I have a wonderful, crazy loving relationship with my husband.  He knows who I am and loves me despite and because of this. Partying with my friends tonight I felt the same overwhelming sense of acceptance with all those around me. I delude myself into thinking that none of us have aged, maybe we've faded a bit round the edges, but we still get up and dance and move.  We laugh more in one evening than I do in a typical month at home and we share the stories of our past year.

We delight in each others achievements and commiserate with our shared griefs.  There truly is no place I feel so 'me' and so seen, even when I try and hide.  Sounds soppy?  Yes, probably, but also true.  The Gathering is a unique event.  It happens once a year.  Every year I leave here exhausted from late nights and social contact, but I also leave with a heart full of love. 

There is an old saying that goes:

'A friend hears the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.' It is a privilege to hear the songs of my family and hear us all singing to each other.