This is the cat that lives with us. His name is Raphael, he was about 8 years old when he came to our home. I am very careful with my words here, he is not my cat. You see he came from a loving home and is a bit of a feral character. He is strong very confident and came here with all his ways of being, habits and traits. It has taken a while for us to get into our stream of togetherness as there are little ways he finds his comfort that are his fullness of expression of self.

He likes to take his seat, anywhere! And like all cats, he has different meows and ways of communicating his needs. I feel I am a good listener, so I have been trying to get to know his voice, his sound and his tone. You see, I have been listening, practicing and developing in a listening environment called circle practice over the last 4 years. This goes back to indigenous circle gatherings, and if you think Zoom etiquette is a new thing, think again.

You see there is a way of gathering, of speaking in circle, it is a practice. It is a way that we connect to be heard. We have a speaking voice, and we have the voice of the circle which I will try to explain. You see this is why I have introduced the cat, Raphael. He is a very good example. He has different voices that mean different things and while, I would love to say I know cat language, what I am actually saying is, I listen deeply to the things around what is being communicated. Circle practice is a bit like this, we develop, we tune in, to what is being said, what is spoken and we tune in to what is not said but which is also communicated. By sitting in circle we start to connect in our other senses, our inner perceptions and as well as our physical hearing become attuned. These perceptions come from being completely immersed, in time and space to others and we start to listen to only the person with the talking stick, or the one not muted, on Zoom. We then become totally aware of what they communicate, as well as what they are saying, we listen to their multi-dimensional being. When we become accustomed to this, from circle practice , we have an awareness of the self in relation to the multi-dimensional being in a multi-dimensional space. We empathise, and when we attune to this space of group empathy, we develop a body awareness and we connect to the emotions that are then able to be released through our physical form, so we release.

This releasing is healing, it is healing for ourselves from physically held or blocked emotions and it is healing for the person speaking into the space because they see that they are heard and witnessed and that releases them. This expression first in their words and then in their connection to others and then by feeling in a congruent space and being seen as fully accepted and fully recognised. When we feel that safe space developing we are then able to fully sound, voice, mourn, keen, laugh…..express that feeling, that has been block, and to know it is ok to do so. When it is sounded outside of ourselves, is it released. And here is the thing, the cat Raphael, is able to do that because, he doesn’t give a hoot, about what emotions are going to sound like! The problem is when the mind thinks of all the ways that sound may seem like or squeal like, it gets pushed back, blocked, held and solidified in the body. The cat, doesn’t solidify his voice of discontent, or content, he just does it.

My definition of circle practice is emotional bathing, connecting to my multi-dimensional self.

A remembrance that we are here to connect.

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