Big Welcome

Big Welcome

A version of this practice came through Gaia Education (introduced by Silvia Di Blasio) and has been circulating through Transition Town meetings; the original authors are unknown. It is similar in some ways to one used at Canticle Farm in Oakland California. Jolie Elan and Molly Brown adapted this version. Please acknowledge the source when you use any of these practices.

Time: 10 minutes

This message welcomes all dimensions and aspects of participants and helps create an inclusive and safe container for group work. We recommend that anyone using this welcome adapt it to their own language and phrasing, including most or all the dimensions mentioned below, adding more as needed. If there are two or more facilitators, take turns speaking the paragraphs, pausing briefly between each one.

Method

We are so honored to welcome you and all you bring to this healing circle. 

We welcome your excitement and your trepidation. We welcome your open hearts and skepticism. You are welcome here. 

Your culture is welcome. Your ethnic origin is welcome. Your race, your skin hue, accent, food preferences, and all of the complexities that make up your cultural identity are welcome here. The histories, herstories, and experiences of your ancestors are honored and welcomed. 

We welcome you with all of the connections you bring with you to the children in your lives, your partners, siblings, parents, the animals in your lives, your ancestors and spiritual allies and other loved ones. All your connections are welcome here. 

We welcome your spiritual practice, your religious affiliation, your spiritual walk. However you hold that aspect of your life is welcomed. 

Your love is welcome here. How you love, who you love, and your understanding of what love are all welcome. We welcome you in all of the ways your sexuality and gender are unfolding. 

We welcome you in your ignorance. We welcome you in your privilege. We welcome you in your grief. We welcome you in your guilt and shame. Welcome if you have been harmed by racism and white privilege or have caused harm to others because of your social conditioning. 

Your quirks and ambiguities are welcome. We welcome your humor and we welcome your silent contemplation. We welcome the parts of yourself that you’re still figuring out. We welcome you in your roles as activists, healers, feelers, intuitives, parents, caretakers, students, artists, witches, diviners, change agents, magicians, educators, and warriors. 

We welcome you at whatever level of mental and physical wellness you are currently functioning. We welcome your introversion and your extroversion. We welcome all of the experiences that led you to this moment. We welcome your wounds and scars. Your emotions, ALL of them, are welcome as well. 

Thank you for bringing your ancestors with you; we welcome them also. Ancestors, please be with us, collaborating with us to anchor the healing and what is most needed in these times. We welcome your sacred connections to the lands on which you were conceived, the lands that hosted your births, and the lands of your ancestors. The lands that you are currently standing upon and all the life that came before you – the animals, the indigenous peoples of the land you stand upon. we now collectively prepare the soil on each of our own lands through our intentions and sow the seeds of our visions for all beings. 

Let your roots sink into this nutrient dense soil, intertwining with the roots of everyone else here, and connecting to the root systems of all of the other living things around here as we collectively build our power to create a healing circle across continents. Settle in. Welcome.