I AM Sisterhood Retreat Byron Bay

I AM SISTERHOOD RETREAT
BYRON BAY
MARCH 30- APRIL 3 2017

I AM Sisterhood is created by Anni Daulter as a sister program for the Sacred Living Movement™. 

I AM SISTERHOOD
breaking F R E E to become M E

Women are NATURAL born Creators...They give birth to babies, visions, ART, beauty, dreams and sisterhood!

Sometimes we need to get INSPIRED to get on our RIGHT PATH...sometimes we need a sister to say YES! I see you and HONOR you for your choices. Sometimes we need help diving deep within to FIND our soul's purpose and PASSION. Sometimes we just need a friend. If you are a woman and want to join our Sacred Circle Sisterhood, then this retreat is for you personally. If you have a passion to share this work with other women in your community, then this RETREAT is SURELY for you. The unique aspect of this retreat is that all you need to be to join is a WOMAN! You will gain so much personal insight, have fun, laugh and cry throughout this journey we will take together and after as a BONUS, you will be certified to run Sacred Sisterhood "Breaking FREE to be ME " workshops in your communities!

*you will be a CERTIFIED I AM SISTERHOOD CIRCLE LEADER following the retreat and will be able to host / hold these classes / circles for the women in your community!

These retreats are exceptionally popular and rarely come to Australia. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!

TO BOOK YOUR PLACE, FIND OUT MORE, OR TO EXPLORE HOW YOU CAN MANIFEST THIS AMAZING RETREAT IN YOUR LIFE THIS MONTH, please email earthysammi@gmail.com or phone 0418 950 793 today

I AM Sisterhood Retreat Swag

Byron Bay

The I AM Sisterhood Retreat nurtures the creative spirit within all women and helps us gain clarity and inspiration about our right path. In a lovingly held circle of women, we dive deep within to find our soul’s purpose and passion. We will gain so much personal insight, have fun, laugh and cry throughout this journey, nourishing ourselves as natural born creators. THIS is the I AM Sisterhood.

Anni is a revolutionary figure in the world of intentional living as seen through the lens of rites of passage and our connections with each other. She has the ability to merge the Beauty Way lifestyle with body, mind, spirit and life changing retreats and trainings. Anni dedicated to changing the whole birth experience for women, helping couples grow their relationships to the highest vibration possible and helping sisterhood grow in ways that will eventually touch every woman near and far.

The Sacred Living Movement grew out of Anni’s first book, Sacred Pregnancy, and retreat back in 2012. She quickly realised that all aspects of our life journey needed to be addressed, honoured, marked and seen as sacred and so many programs to fit the needs of the community were developed. These programs range from pregnancy and birth, post partum, menarche, parenting, natural health with more being created all the time. The Sacred Living Movement is about living with intention and inhaling the beauty of life. For more information visit www.sacredlivingmovement.com

The Sacred Living Movement

NIGHT ONE: Welcome to I AM SISTERHOOD *I AM* UNFOLDING ME *

circle check in + sacred space building + seeds of a woman tribe *magic + feminine consciousness + the elements *get your color + prana path meditation + introduce yourself to your sacred journal *UNDER THE MOON DANCE (CIRCLE UNDER THE MOON) + singing + dancing to BOUNDLESS *breaking free to be me : 6 line poetry slam *create magic moon water *create magic moon oil *enjoy drinking “Sisterhood Moon Essence Potion” with some magic sprinkled in!

Word Medicine//Journalling

 DAY TWO: *I AM* WOMAN TRIBE

AIR + FIRE

AIR : UNDERSTANDING DIVINE MIND *divine mind + understanding the element of AIR *word medicine + we are ONE *SUPER-POWERS *loving yourself : create rose anointing oil *soul sister match up + heart to heart + gift exchange *claiming the sacred writer in you *sacred journal art time

FIRE : LOOKING AT PASSIONS + YOUR WILL *transformation + understanding the element of FIRE *create black protection salt + say spell *deep release fire ritual *understanding the pendulum *lotus mudra + chant *sexual fire *desires : poetry slam *raw witness dancing

DAY THREE: *I AM* UNFOLDING ME

WATER + EARTH + SPIRIT

WATER : BEING IN THE FLOW *flow + understanding the element of WATER *gratitude practice *living in abundance *releasing LACK + manifesting money + looking at your relationship to moolah! *create an abundance oil + money spell *drink from the chalice of abundance

EARTH : GETTING GROUNDED *grounding + understanding the element of EARTH *goddess connections *nature mandala offering * find your nature object for your soul sister *create your wand *create your soul sister’s name gift *soul sister share *tribal-flow face painting 

*I AM* DEFINED
SPIRIT : FINDING YOUR GODDESS WITHIN *drum circle + “woman am I” song *my name : be gifted your ‘spirit name’ *my vision : send out dream to the universe *my purpose in the world
Special “Living in Freedom”
BOLD RED Ritual **Sisterhood Salt Bowl**

DAY Four: Sightseeing and visit to the Crystal Castle in Mullumbimby

Please claim your space in this workshop, or seek more information by emailing earthysammi@gmail.com or calling 0418 950 793.

Copyright Sammi Cambray/Sacred Whisper Bellingen 2017

Sammi is a holistic doula and birth counsellor, and is the publisher of Sacred Whisper Bellingen

Ph: 0418 950 793

Grounding into the Narrative of Birth

If you are a regular reader of the Sacred Whisper Bellingen blog, you would know that I have been working on a six week immersion for integrating traumatic birth experiences.

She's arrived earthside- Healing Your Birth: Returning to the Heart after Birth Trauma is now running as a pilot program, and I will soon be offering it to the wider community. It is a beautiful meeting of the Sacred Living Movement's Sacred Loss: Healing Birth Trauma course, written by Corrine Laan, and my own processes and work as a holistic doula and birth counsellor. I feel very inspired and humbled by this work moving through me. And I also see the vital importance of holding space for mamas who have experienced trauma in the birthing process- coming to wholeness as a mama creates healing and clear space for the next generation. What we need now are awakened, conscious humans. This work is a small but important part of that.

I am a certified Healing Birth Trauma Circle Leader

The first week of this course is called Grounding into the Narrative of Birth: Embarkation. We explore mental health, create a container for clear expectations and communication and safe space, deepen our ability to listen in a truly wise and open way, and share our birth stories. We also chart the birth- the charge moments, the highs and lows, the peaks of the experience in a peak experience. We begin to tell our stories- to explore our narratives.

What is the narrative of birth?

On the most simple level, it is simply a conveyance of the chronology of the birth, the facts, perhaps the feelings. But any woman who has given birth, or approaches birth, knows that it goes much deeper than this.

Birth will awaken parts of us we didn't know were dormant inside us. It will agitate any part of us that is raw, and sometime soothe us in ways we didn't even know were possible. It will allow us to traverse strange and wonderful lands. It will take us to the edge, again and again, and reveal that beyond our edge there is both the void, and more space yet to travel. It can leave us more whole than we ever imagined, or leave us broken.

The narrative of birth is all of this: the deep sensuality of birth and how we met it; how we were held (or shamed, or unheard); the lessons, both new and deepened, that it teaches us (and again, both those lessons that served us and those warped lessons that don't); the way birth initiated us into motherhood- with energy or with grief, trauma or empowerment. It's a story but a story far too profound and complex for words alone. It can be told in words, but only partially. It can be danced, but only partially. It can be sung, or painted, screamed, torn, brought to a relational field-- but only partially. We will tell it forever, in many different ways.

We cannot control the trajectory or outcome of birth; we have a massive job in overcoming social conditioning around the shaming of women's bodies, the fear of birth and the medicalisation of our reproductive systems; and so we cannot ever prevent all birth trauma. But, given the healthy faciliation of a physiological birth process, with a woman clear in her intentions and supported by warm, knowledgable and skilled caregivers, giving birth can become a superbly empowering event. The narrative this woman would take into her motherhood and her wider life will serve her and all those around her in the most positive, nourishing way.

But what if the birth giving was horrible? Traumatic, haunting, isolating? What of that narrative?

Something I have seen in my work, is that there is a deep parallel between giving birth, and healing from birth. Both are a manifestation of women's power and strength and above all the feminine energy of giving love in the most amazing ways. Over and over, the women I see come out of birth feeling broken, traumatised and disconnected are the ones who discover a strong sense of wholeness, strength and connection during their healing journeys.

In healing we have to go to those raw places and confront them (much like the physical and emotional intensity of giving birth). In this we write a new story- instead of shutting down, the very act of striving to heal allows us to rebuild strength, trust, wisdom and self love. We can return to the heart, ever so gently.

Birth is never just a narrative of just a few hours, but a whole lifetime, and it's one of those rich and potent times that the narrative of our lives- the way we perceive our lives- can be rewritten. Whether that sacred rewriting happens during birth or during integrating a traumatic birth, the pathway to initiation is there regardless. In this I trust.

If you would like to know more about the six week (one morning a week) course, or be kept updated where I am with it's release, please email me at earthysammi@gmail.com, or call me on 0418950793

Copyright Sammi Cambray/Sacred Whisper Bellingen 2016

Sammi is a holistic doula and birth counsellor, and is the publisher of Sacred Whisper Bellingen

Ph: 0418 950 793

The Alchemy of a Traumatic Birth

There's an alchemy that comes with birthing. There's the changing from maiden to mother, but as magnamanous as that transition is, there is something deeper at work. There's an imbuing: both of the particular lessons needed in mothering this little child, which sometimes needs close examination and a brave heart. And, if held well by the circles surrounding the mother, she will also be imbued into a deeper sense and connection to who she is at her highest: her unique vibration and soul purpose and how the divine is channeled through her and only her.

Sadly, tragically, this often doesn't happen. There are a myriad of reasons why it doesn't happen, and that complexity will need to wait for a future post. Suffice to say, it doesn't always happen, the mama doesn't always step into her motherhood connected strongly to the wellsprings of empowerment and love and bonding and intuition and knowing that is there within her. Sometimes, this is because she has experienced trauma in her birth giving (this can also include her pregnancy and post natal time).

When a mama has experienced trauma, a different type of alchemy occurs. This alchemy can be just as rich, and in a strange way, beautiful as that which comes from a blissful, satisfying birth. It's not easy, and hopefully a vast array of support can encircle the mama to do this important work. Healing from a traumatic birth experience holds a power and alchemy all of it's own: the digging down right to the viscera, to the bones, the roots, and uncovering from woundedness, a deeper and more nourishing sense of self and what it is to be a mama.

This work is vital. When a mama is called, she needs to immerse herself into it, or become stagnant, stay in the woundedness or disconnect from her heart.

The process for healing will look different for each woman, and often it is difficult to know the path ahead- it relys on a heart-centredness which can be very difficult to engage with when recovering from a traumatic experience. Getting back into the heart, and feeling at least a little safe in that space, is the first step.

My work is deeply informed by the inherent power that lies within the alchemical potential of birth, whether it be from a blissful birth, or in standing as a sacred witness and guide to the process of integrating a traumatic birth experience. I have spent a number of years now focusing on birth trauma work, and will never retire a sense of awe of just how important the rite of passage of giving birth is for a woman.

This doesn't just reside in my professional life, however. The sacred catalyst for this direction in my life came from my own first birth-giving. The birth of my first child was the most distressing, wounding event of my life. It was harrowing and the weeks and months that followed, though joyous, where also tainted by the extra stress of experiencing acute post traumatic stress.

It was hard. To go into that sort of process, when I had a new little baby who was so demanding (and adorable), and I had to master so many new skills and knowledge and emotions-- it was hard.

But it happened, I integrated the birth, went on to have three more positive births and channel my experiences into my work. I took my counselling qualifications and focused on birth, and more specifically, helping other women who had sustained trauma in birthing.

Last year, as I gestated my last baby, I dove back into that process again. I undertook training in Sacred Loss: Healing Birth Trauma, produced by Corinne Laan for the Sacred Living Movement.

If you read my post last week, you would already be clued up about the beautiful creative process I am having in gently, alluringly, approaching my work again with the most open heart,joy and love. A big part of my time has been spent revisiting the Sacred Loss: Healing Birth Trauma training, sifting through my own experiences as a mama, a doula and a counsellor, and crafting something new.

It's a six week (one morning a week) immersion into healing birth trauma, and more specifically, the alchemy of returning to the heart. It's a bunch of processes: journallings, meditations, deep listening and being witnessed, ritual, practical skills and knowledge, art therapy and more, that aims to take a woman from her place of trauma and hurt, meet that experience with gentleness, sensitivity and awareness, and create a lighter, more integrated and open space for her to step into- both for her own wellbeing, and for her experience of mothering.

I am excited to share it soon. I am finishing the draft course, and will piloting it in the coming weeks. It will be out in the community in deep midwinter- a fortuitous time for deep inner work.
My Course and the creative process

My intention is to sit with mamas who are hurting, or are disconnected or disassociating from their experience, to nourish them, to listen in humbleness and openness and complete lack of judgement, to see the light in them, and to help them see that light to. Because we all have it, no matter what we have been through.

If you would like to know more about the six week course, or be kept updated or where I am at with it's release, please email me on mamarising@gmail.com, or call me on 0418950793.

At present I am looking at running it in Bellingen, and would be open to running it within a couple of hours radius- Port Macquarie, Kempsey, Macksville, Armidale, Coffs Harbour, Grafton and surrounds.

If the work of integrating your traumatic birth experience calls to you, but my particular offer doesn't sing to you, here's some other places you can reach out to get the support you deserve:

Mental Health Access Line NSW (24 hours): 1800 011 511

Lifeline (24 hours telephone crisis counselling): 13 11 14 

Birthtalk: http://birthtalk.org/  

PANDA (Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia): 
Helpline- Mon to Fri 10am to 5pm  1300 726 306 
http://www.panda.org.au/ 

Pregnancy, Birth and Babies Helpline (24 hours): 1800 882 436 

Perinatal Psychologist, Coffs Harbour Hospital (free for antenatal and post natal appointments, contact through Primary Health: (02) 6656 7000 

•  

Go well mama. May your healing be swift, deep and heart centred.

Sammi Cambray/Sacred Whisper Bellingen 2016

Sammi is a holistic doula and birth counsellor, and the publisher of Sacred Whisper Bellingen

Ph: 0418 950 793

Word Medicine: Handmade Birth Journals

Blank canvas

This morning, whilst listening to the sweet deep sounds of divine feminine singer Peruquios, I am creating the most delicious gift for a mama I am having the honour of attending right now. She birthed a beautiful baby girl twelve days ago, and I have loved the process of prenatal, birth and postnatal doula work.

Word medicine from my own birth journal (a trilogy!)

As part of the Art of Sacred Postpartum training I am undertaking, we learn how to create handmade birth journals for our mamas. This activity resonated so deeply for me, for if I follow myself down to the very core of who I am, I am a story teller, and a holder of stories. There is a lyric from a Mama Kin song- My Friend that goes "You're the alchemist, you're the holder of so many stories, you grab the stars and light the way home,"

The cover of my own journal- Awakening, nourishment, trust: the shamanic, ecstatic birthings of Sammi Mirabai Seed

That's what I see as my medicine on this earth walk, the sacred path of helping people- and more specifically, birthing mamas- find their story, to sit in honour and nurturing and witness of that divine story; to help them find that point of alchemy where story becomes a source of strength and nourishment and growth for them.

So on this beautiful sunny summer morning, my partner and children out swimming at the Never Never (morning swims are their favourite!) I am crafting this birth journal for the mama. With my hands that seek to express the gentle love and care- and honour- I feel in my work, I take paints of oceanic hues that soothe her soul to colour the pages. I will scatter words that come to me from my work with her- arising, the art of grief, meeting each surge, sacred emergence, within the borders. I will paste in photos of her and her precious little one. I will draw a little. I will, in the back, write in the birth story from my perspective with all the amazement I held to witness her process. And most importantly, I will leave so many blank pages for her to write her own birth story, to give life to and integrate that story that had become such an integral part of her psyche.

Birth mandalas are the title page for each child's birth story

Here are some photos from the journal I made for myself- because, of course, until I have fully lived the lesson myself I am not equipped to pass it onto others.

Evocative pictures

How did you creatively celebrate and integrate your birthings? How do the pictures here make you feel?

© Sammi Cambray/Sacred Whisper Bellingen 2014

Sammi is a holistic doula and birth counsellor, and the publisher of Sacred Whisper Bellingen

Ph: 0418 950 793

Manifesting A New Nest

For the past two and a half years, my family and I have been incredibly blessed to live in a rambling bush house at the base of Nungali, the sacred Gumbaingirr mountain. The house was, a couple of decades ago, part of Satyananda Yoga ashram, and is part of a group of earthy times homes sprinkled up the lower reaches of the mountain. My children and I played in the bamboo forest, by the creeks edge, ate fruit straight from the trees...it has been magic.

Pictures of our current nest

But now it is time to move on. The landlord is ready to move back into the bosom of this beautiful house, and it's time for my nomadic family to pack up and find somewhere new. It's sad to go, but it's also exciting, to see where that deep, resonant and unmistakable call of the land takes us to. The land drawing us in- that is something I really believe in.

On the new moon just past (it was also our oldest son's birthday, for a little extra magical potency), we gathered our children, some paper, pens, dreams and hopes and visioned what we wanted this time around. With consciousness and clarity, we spoke it out into this sacred land we live on. What manifests will be a perfect reflection of this, as filtered by what we all need now on our Earth Walk.

Here's a little of what we called upon:

on healing land/high vibrations
cheap rent
bedroom/s that connect us
on a well functioning, beautiful and joyful MO or community
a healthy house- no mould etc
sanctuary space
a bath
tipi/yurt/belle tent
stairs that go down into a room of my own (that was our oldest son)
stairs that go down into a room of my own, with a high butterfly bed, and fairies (that was our daughter)
oven and stove
space for an outside/verandah bed
outside bathroom and kitchen
close to Chrysalis Steiner School
close to a daycare or preschool option
cool architecture
easy maintenance
cosy and efficient fireplace
tin roof (for the rain sounds!)
beautiful, heart expanding views
space for my heart work (me)
fireflies
in the rainforest
fig tree
beautiful waterhole nearby
as much off the grid as possible
specifically, places- Martells Road, Freida Hicks Drive/Nungali, on the Never Never, Darkwood Road, Kalang Road, Roses Road or in town

Dropping deeper, I visioned what makes a home space a heart space
love
emotional transparency
deep listening
the holding of space
gentle, conscious and creative parenting
connection to the earth
belonging
holistic
sustainable

I look forward to writing about what manifests for us!

Today's Beauty Way Invitation: One Small Piece of Gorgeousness

In the Sacred Living Movement, we talk often of the Beauty Way of living. Simply put, it's a way of being present to our lives, and how we can deeply nourish ourselves and those around us by consciously bringing beauty to our internal and external spaces.

The Beauty Way is one of the greatest lessons, both for birth work, and for motherhood- and yes, for ALL of my crazy, full, gorgeous, blessed life- from working and learning through Sacred Pregnancy. It's something I come back to again and again.

Today, it's time to offer a little challenge- no, an invitation. This is for you, if you already walk in the Beauty Way. It's also for you if you've never thought or heard of the Beauty Way before. It's especially for you if you consciously or unconsciously are repelled to the concept of beauty, because hell, it is a concept that has been so twisted by our mainstream culture (if this is you, try this: what is one item I could place in my space, or on my body, that would open my heart a little more? That's all. Be gentle. This is your work alone).

So here is my invitation:

What is ONE SMALL THING you can do, right now, in the busiest spot of your home, to bring in walking in the Beauty Way?

Some ideas:

*Lighting your favourite incense in the entry way\
*Making your bed neatly and lovingly
*Placing flowers in the kitchen

Then, what is ONE SMALL THING you can do, right now, to nurture your own body in beauty?

Some ideas:

*Make a simple body scrub from raw sugar and coconut oil, and exfoliate your skin
*Pick a flower and put it in your hair (a great activity to share with little ones!)
*Stop and STREEETCH and find your favourite yoga position.

Here's my little beauty way moment, inspired by a line in this awesome India.Arie song...

"Sometimes I shave my legs, and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I comb my hair, and sometimes I won't. Depending on the way the wind blows, I might even paint my toes..."

Painting my toenails...and my, didn't they look sweet with my favourite shoes and my new wrap skirt...

Okay...now go and do it! Get your Beauty Way on, and post a pic in the comments! Enjoy!

An Invitation to Love

This post is dedicated to my partner Zai, and the love that endures between the two of us. May it deepen and expand through the years. 

Photo found on Pinterest

Last month, my partner went travelling. He attended a wedding in England and then spent some lazy weeks pottering around Europe. He explored neolithic villages, saw the full moon rise at Stone Henge, and cycled through the back streets of Barcelona. 

And children and I- we stayed at home.

It was an epic challenge for me, at least in my mind. It was up there with labour, which for me is one of the  ultimate challenges and rites of passage a woman can go through.

And I admit, it was the unravelling of me. Not when he was gone, but in the months leading up to the trip, knowing he was going, knowing he had made the choice to go, knowing that I would have to delve into new parts of myself to shift from the way we have mostly equally coparenting, at least from when our second child came into the world, to being absolutely, radically, self reliant, and accountable to these three precious beings. I cried, I screamed, I channeled my hurting bleeding heart.  I doubted our relationship. Mostly I doubted myself.

What did I need to do? Trust, surrender, love. That old mantra, gifted to me by my third son and his blazing arrival into our lives, the mantra that seems to apply to anything and everything in my life. It would be okay. There would be gifts.

The greatest gift, it was revealed, was the stripping away. My partner and I rescinded our roles to each other as co-parents and as housemates. Wow, how encompassing those roles had become, without us seeing it! How much of our interactions- and, to be truthful, our frustrations and dynamics with each other- were wrapped up in parenting our children together, and sharing domesticity.

Within hours of watching his plane fly off into the ether, I was struck down by two things: firstly, a deep sense of missing him, of his presence travelling further and further away, faster than the speed of sound. And secondly, from that great heart-spaced emptiness, what flowed in: the realisation that I LOVED him, so deeply, so strongly, so purely. When all else was taken away, what was left was love, and for some reason, I hadn't expected that.

Photo found on Pinterest

So the lesson, for me, in this experience that I fought against for so long:

Open up to the raw places, the places that make you feel abandoned, empty and alone: what do you find there?

Photo found on Pinterest

(It's a great lesson for love relationships, but I am thinking right now, it would be great for relationship with the self too).

And I invite you, dear reader, to this: How can you open up to the raw places today? How can you create a place where you let go of expectations, of relationship dynamics, of feelings of security? What happens when you do?

I actually want you to go and do this. What are you holding onto so tight, and what happens when you let go, for just a little while? What sparkling little lessons rush into that empty space? Share your story in the comments, if you feel to.

© Sammi Cambray/Sacred Whisper Bellingen 2014

Sammi is a holistic doula and birth counsellor, and the publisher of Sacred Whisper Bellingen

Ph: 0418 950 793

Silence and the Art of Holding Space

Silence is profound, and paradoxically, one of the most fundamental and effective components of listening.

When I speak of listening, I do not mean the unconcious listening that pervades much of the day- simply tuning in (or tuning out) to auditory stimulation. Instead, I mean the deep stepping in and heart opening that occurs when one sits as witness and container for another's expression.

Listening, in the true meaning of the word, is

Respectful
Without judgement
Compassionate
Facilitates the speaker to move onto the next stage of the process
An encounter with both self, and other; as well as that beyond the individual

To be silent, however, is such a key component. Not just silent of word, but silent of the mental chatter that clogs up our communication channels and seperates us right at the moment we intend to connect. Silence shifts us from mind space to heart space, and to body space, and the profound knowledge that lies there.

SIlence allows the speaker to follow their thread of consciousness where it is longing to go, and then gently, or abruptly, falls into an abyss.

That abyss is interesting. Apparently, it takes eighteen seconds from the start of silence, to come to a deeper awareness of what is going on underneath what has already been spoken. Eighteen seconds to gain an insight, eighteen seconds to become aware of a new facet of the issue, eighteen seconds to drop down.

How often do we give ourselves, or others, eighteen seconds?

This eighteen seconds has implications in so many areas. The lovers that find space to truly hear each other and break down the build up of patterning and habit; the parent that holds space for the child to voice some deep fears or let go of some cathartic tears. I can see immense implications for my work in counselling, and in birth work, especially in the very special time I spend with clients pre and post natally. It's such a charged, frenetic and emotional time; that conscious silence, well, it makes all the difference.

Let silence do the heavy lifting in your life, today. What does it manifest?




These reflections were inspired by the first day of Robyn Sheldon's doula workshop here in Bellingen. To know more about Robyn's work, have a look here. 

Love is

Love is 

A stolen moment

A glance across the kitchen as the soup is spilled all over the table

And a gentle look, that says "I know"

A cloth thrown, sudsy from the dishes

A stolen moment

A brief touching of hands

As we pass in the hallway

No words

Just a tangible remembering

That we are both here

A stolen moment

An interrupted conversation over the phone

Children yelling to get my attention

A work task demanding yours

A quick goodbye and

An affirmation and intention

To talk later

A stolen moment

A deep heaving cry when you are not here

Either in body, or presence

And a cutting knowing

That I am also not there with you

Love is

A present moment

Children asleep

Work is done

We are here

Touching bodies

Touching hearts

Touching emotion

Touching eternity

Love is.

(c) Sammi Cambray 2014