Hello.
Greetings.
Salutations
Welcome!
On behalf of the organizing and facilitation team, I want to welcome you all, from the center of our hearts, to the fifth Law and Social Change Jam!
Take a breath in – notice the light patterns on the floor, the spaciousness of the ceiling, the majesty and fullness of the natural beauty around us. What an amazing place to be gathered.
I am going to take a few minutes to welcome our full selves, so I invite you to close your eyes if that feels comfortable or to soften your gaze to consider and let this welcome resonate as it can now and throughout our time together.
To all our relations:
I honor and welcome all of the four directions from which you have arrived here today. Those who were nearby, those who had long drives and rode bikes, took trains and shuttles to get here, those who flew across the continent or borders or oceans to be here. These are the journeys of the bodies that hold you and there are other journeys as well that your heart and spirit and mind have taken and are still taking to arrive. And you are welcome here.
I welcome all the ways that you ground yourself to arrive, all the parts of you that are still arriving, and all of the ways that we have been arriving for a long, long time. Your many arrivals are welcome here.
Welcome to those who feel at home in this region, and to those who feel home in another place or places. If home is a challenging or fraught idea… like family… like community… like safe space… like culture… like authentic… like normal… like justice… you are welcome here.
I want to welcome each of your ethnic, racial, and ancestral backgrounds, and the ways in which they define and shape you, and all of the ways in which you are connected and not connected to those. I want to welcome all the dialects and languages that you know and use, all the stories and wisdom of our becoming and our healing that they contain, all the dialects and languages in which you dream. All these dialects and languages that mean something to you are welcome here.
Welcome to all of the gender expressions of yourself. Welcome to all of the ways that each of you express your sexuality and your love. All facets of you are welcome here.
Welcome to your religions, faiths, spiritual practices, traditions, engagement with the Great Mystery and the sacred, and to those who choose to or do not have a practice. All of these ways are welcome here. And welcome to the questions… and the doubts… and the searching. All of you is welcome here.
I want to welcome your courage, your love, your curiosity, your generosity, your play, your voices, your tongues, your quiet leadership, your introversion, your inner trickster, your sincere bard, your presence, your questions… your answers, your answers, your answers. You are enough. And you are so very welcome here.
Welcome each of your relationships to money, wealth, property, and markers of social status – the places where there is ease, the places where there is struggle, the places where there is complexity. All that is welcome.
Welcome to all the easy and hard work that each of you does in the world, whether it is compensated or not, seen or unseen. Welcome to the ways in which that may or may not define you. Welcome to those who might call themselves changemakers, and those for whom that term doesn’t resonate. Welcome to the wanderers and the guides. Welcome to the teachers and learners in each of you. Each of you is welcome here.
Welcome to how you relate to “the law”, to “justice”, and to “social change” and the ways that those terms and concepts do or do not resonate with you. Welcome to what feels settled and what you are exploring in all of these things. Welcome to the armor you have had to develop and to your vulnerabilities. All these are welcome here.
If you’ve felt heartbreak from legal spaces… if you seek knowing presence as another step toward healing… you are welcome here.
If you have seen many Winters or just a handful of Leap years. Welcome to the ways in which the number of trips you have taken around the sun speak to who you feel you are, and the ways in which each of you moves outside of that measure. You are welcome here.
Welcome to all the ways that you create and invite wonder in the world. Your music, your art, your intuition, your skill with words, food, people. Your skills with the seen and unseen world and with creating space. All these are welcome.
Welcome to all the ways you feel and emote, all the different and unique ways your brain works, whether understood by many or few. Welcome to the parts of you that feel healed and those seeking healing… all of you is welcome here. Welcome to your minds and your intellects.
Welcome to your bodies – the unique container that holds all of you, and all of the forms you show up in. Welcome to the parts of you that feel very human, and the parts of you that are interconnected to the magick, the mystery, and the wonder of the multiverse. All of that is welcome here.
Welcome to your deep roots and buried ancestral wisdoms. Welcome to all of your ancestors (by relation and by inspiration), and to whatever spirits you hold around you. I want to welcome your awareness of the people at home, the people you left to be here, the people who are holding things up until you return. All of you is welcome here.
Welcome to each of you who are and have been caretakers and are and have been cared for. Welcome to how much of that is part of who you are and also how much of it is not. Welcome to how much of that you share and how much you do not. All is welcome here.
I want to welcome the parts of you that are excited to be here, and I want to welcome the worry, about what is known and unknown, to doubts or questions or fears. Welcome to those for whom this space, or language, or structure is comfortable, and those for whom it feels uncomfortable. I especially want to welcome the question “what are we actually about to do here together, anyway?”
All of that is so, so welcome.
Welcome to your laughter, and the places that feel joyful, silly, and in celebration, to your grief and your tears, to your pride and your shame, to feelings of anger and rage, to feelings of calm and peace.
Welcome to your body wisdom… your tremulous surrenders… your compassionate presence. You are so welcome here.
Welcome to all of these parts of ourselves: what we have named and not named.
I invite you to open your eyes and focus, now look around the circle, see, and recognize one other.
Each one of you is so very welcoming, and each of us is so very welcome here.