Published: 6/8/2021 3:07:53 PM
Modified: 6/8/2021 3:07:53 PM
WENDELL — The volunteer group in charge of the fundraising campaign to revitalize the Wendell Meetinghouse envisions the hall having four domains: Wendell’s “Living Room,” a performance space, a sanctuary and a “Maker-Learner Center.”
This vision is slowly becoming a reality. The community center’s 2021 programming is kicking off this month with “Spirit Circles” presentations, fitting like a glove into the hall’s role as a sanctuary. “Spirit Circles” offers presentations and gatherings to support the diverse spiritual lives of its participants through shared exploration, celebration and practice.
The June presentations are free, open to the public and accessible via the online video conferencing platform Zoom from 7 to 8 p.m. each Thursday.
The first Thursday, on June 3, involved a presentation by Kai Carol Jud, called “Spirituality Out of the Box.”
Jud, a psychotherapist for about 30 years and a Wendell resident for the past seven, said her focus is getting people to move past their egos.
“This is one way that my spirituality is really practical, because I’m helping people heal and then actually be lovers in the world,” she said, adding that she seeks to help people understand “that we have many ways of meeting with … source energy, creative source energy. And they’re all necessary and they’re all needed.”
Jud said she calls herself “a practical mystic.”
“We’re in a place where we are constantly shaping reality and reality is constantly shaping us,” she said.
With the first of the “Spirit Circles” presentations down, the next will be “Finding a Place in the Circle” with Christopher Queen on June 10, followed by “Come Sit in the Rebbe Chair” with Joe Laur on June 17 and “The Twelve Mysteries” with Court Dorsey on June 24. All presenters are Wendell residents. Register for any and all of the presentations at tinyurl.com/spiritcircles.
Dorsey explained “The Twelve Mysteries” are 12 sonnets he wrote in India in the early 1970s. He was in India for four months and spent about 10 weeks with spiritual guru Swami Ashisananda, who had been a student of Hindu sage Ramana Maharshi. Dorsey explained his guru had taken a vow of silence and they communicated solely through eye contact.
It was the young Dorsey’s first time away from home during Christmas, so he assigned himself the task of writing 12 sonnets for “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and explore the deeper meaning of them. For example, the singer’s true love gave “two turtle doves” — Dorsey sat down to examine what that could mean mystically.
For more information about the Wendell Meetinghouse and its events, visit wendell-meetinghouse.org.
Reach Domenic Poli at 413-772-0261, ext. 262 or dpoli@recorder.com.