{"id":1945,"date":"2016-04-01T05:00:21","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T12:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewayoftheriver.com\/?p=1945"},"modified":"2016-04-01T05:00:21","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T12:00:21","slug":"outsiders-welcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewayoftheriver.com\/outsiders-welcome\/","title":{"rendered":"Outsiders Welcome Here"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"leatherAs I have written before, I have spent much of my life as an \u201coutsider,\u201d a \u201cfreak,\u201d an \u201cimposter\u201d in the world of \u201cnormal people.\u201d And I am learning that those of us who have believed\u2014often wisely\u2014that we have to hide our identities in some way, are \u201cmy people.\u201d<\/p>\n

You are the people who have come to me in spiritual direction. You are the people who are reading my words.<\/p>\n

You are artists. You are sex workers. You are poly people. You are trans* people. You are spiritual leaders who cannot share your own spiritual beliefs and practices with your congregations for fear of losing your position. You are not religious, but are deeply spiritual. You are kinksters. You feel no longer at home in your religious congregations or traditions.<\/p>\n

You are all this and so much more.<\/p>\n

My Hope for Us<\/h1>\n

I have a longing. A \u201cleading,\u201d as Quakers say. And that leading is to reach out to you, to bring you into the community that The Way of the River is building. Why?<\/p>\n

Because too often we, as freaks or outsiders, have only the communities of people who seem just like us. And those communities are good for us. But there\u2019s also a way\u2026some way that I am feeling more and more that we can be together in a spiritual space. A space in which all of us can share our gifts.<\/p>\n

You have unbelievable gifts to share.<\/p>\n

I am thinking of so many of you. Those of you I know by name. Those of you I only know by reputation.<\/p>\n

I cannot say strongly enough how much I yearn to work with you.<\/p>\n

What Would We Do Together?<\/h1>\n

\"rainbow\"Well, for example, you might come to my free Masterclass, Sipping Sacred Water<\/a>. Just to dip your toe into what The Way of the River is about, who I am, how I offer what I have to offer and how I seek what you have.<\/p>\n

This Masterclass will talk about a topic that is intensely close to my heart:\u00a0 Water, the element, the metaphor, and its beautiful expresses throughout the world. The class will also talk a bit about holy wells in various traditions.<\/p>\n

Sipping Sacred Water will be a taste of what I do and how I do it. It is an invitation, most of all, to you. It has no cost to you, except some time and an open mind. It is scheduled for 8 PM EDT\/ 5 PM PDT on April 7. Register here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you are already interested in working with me in a longer course, please know that you are welcome to Digging Sacred Wells, my month-long course, starting April 12. Please check out the link Digging Sacred Wells<\/a> for more information, and feel free to register for the free Masterclass, as well!<\/p>\n

I cannot wait to see you and for us to get to know one another, outsiders to outsiders, becoming insiders in a new community\u2014loved, cherished, and whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I have written before, I have spent much of my life as an \u201coutsider,\u201d a \u201cfreak,\u201d an \u201cimposter\u201d in the world of \u201cnormal people.\u201d And I am learning that those of us who have believed\u2014often wisely\u2014that we have to hide our identities in some way, are \u201cmy people.\u201d You are the people who have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[66,102,103,77,86],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewayoftheriver.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewayoftheriver.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewayoftheriver.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewayoftheriver.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewayoftheriver.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewayoftheriver.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewayoftheriver.com\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewayoftheriver.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewayoftheriver.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewayoftheriver.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}