IMI: Closing Ceremony

On 8 May 2008, we held our final class. We partnered up for one last massage (blindfolded; think Luke Skywalker), shared a potluck meal, and then we gathered in the Harmony Room for our Closing Ceremony. I'll describe only part of the ceremony:

Picture us -- some fifteen students, two apprentices, two instructors -- sitting on the floor in a circle, lights dimmed, a tealight candle burning in front of each of us. Randy holds up a string, maybe two feet long, with the two ends knotted together so that the string forms a circle or loop. He says that this string represents all of us over the past year; the knot is Randy, our teacher. He picks up a pair of scissors and says...

I don't remember what he said next. I remember only the image of the string, the knot, and the scissors, my sudden and tiny gasp when he picked up the scissors, and my watery eyes as he cut the knot from the string, and I remember feeling sad and not sad.

Randy passed the string and the scissors to his left and asked us each to tie a knot at the end of the string and then cut it off. I snipped my little knotted "me" from the string and thought, this is so cool.

Rituals can be nifty things. I never would have guessed that such a simple event could have such a springboard effect on me. Whoosh! and Randy ushered our hinies out o' the nest, and again, Whoosh! ...the beating of wings.