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I wasn’t really sure what the day would hold. I’d thought of all the reasons I ‘shouldn’t’ go — work to be done, cleaning of closets to be accomplished, winter wardrobe to switch over, a report to write — and in the end, I decided going was what my soul needed. 

And so I went, along with five others, to a ranch near Pincher Creek in the southern reaches of the province. A ranch where Jens Steenberg has built a pyramid for meditation and healing.

It was sublime. Divine. Blissful.

Alberta is often called, Big Sky Country. In the southern corners it could also be known as Big Wind Country. It was two hands on the wheel kind of driving. The winds blew fiercely, buffeting my car as we sped southward along Highway 22X, the Rockies a solid mass of granite and limestone soaring into the sky on our western flank, the rolling, undulating fir clad foothills rolling into the plains far to the east.  Above, clouds rolled across the sky in thundering dark masses punctuated with white fluffy billowy softness that leaped and cavorted amongst the darkness overhead.

It was glorious.

And then, we reached Jens ranch and the winds blew and the lake waters hurled themselves against the shore in steely grey waves and Jens’ windmill careened in crazed glee spinning and spinning, a high keening whir competing against the wind’s howl. Rolling plains stretched out to the meet the Rockies, fir trees and barren poplars bent windward climbing up along mountain ridges that split sky and earth. Beauty unfolded itself upon the painter’s landscape spread out before us.

We sat in Jens’ greenhouse, sharing a potluck lunch and chatted about the inspiration behind the pyramid. We talked of spiritual graces and secular matters and the world fell away into that space where time drifts into nothing as gently as a leaf falling in the forest. After lunch we entered the pyramid and spread ourselves out to meditate and to simply be present in the natural energies of the sacred confines of that amazing space.

It was divine.

From the notes of Judy Atkinson playing her flute, to drumming, we connected together through silent contemplation, letting worldly matters recede as we fell into communion with soul and spirit and all that is Divine within ourselves and this world which we share together.

And then, we braved the elements. Climbed up onto the ridge on the other side of the lake, Jens leading the way through the forest trees up onto the highlands, up into the wind that whipped itself into a joyous frenzy amongst the crags and crannies of the higher ground.

I am alive the wind and rain and clouds and trees and rocks and streams seemed to say. I am alive and you are amidst me and you are alive too.

And I was.

Alive. Enlivened. Enveloped in the natural grace of being present to the rapture of the moment spread out in infinite time before and within me. Alive to the joy of being in that space, that place, that time where I could simply be present to the One within me. Connected to One within the others. The One within the All that we are when we let go of being separate and apart and join in communion with the world that connects us all.

I am One. You are One. We are all part of the One that is all that we are.

It was a day of soaring spirits and tantalizing vistas. A day of new experiences. New horizons. New views. A day like no other.

It was a day that made a difference because I was made different in its passing.

I am blessed.

I am grateful.

I am One.