Please Mute Yourself

2021 May Blog by Ellen Euclide ~ On a recent Thursday evening we gathered on Zoom and put ourselves on mute. Bob Toth introduced his friend, Ofelia Rivas, an O’odham Elder who joined us from her homeland near the international border (Arizona and Mexico) that violently divides the Sonoran Desert. As indigenous people have no concept of agenda in the Western sense of the word, Bob explained that the evening would be about listening.

The conversation that followed blew me away. The trust and friendship between Bob and Ofelia was evident, however, it was clear that the evening belonged entirely to Ofelia.

Her stories flowed in zig zags and eddied around characters. Her friends only spoke when she invited them to do so and briefly, not drawing the direction of conversation toward themselves. The rest of us listened in silence. When attendees were invited to speak in the last minutes of the event, the magic was broken suddenly as our musings and questions tried to bend the direction of the river that had been flowing so naturally. We have so much to learn.

I am a person who likes to be in control. Who likes agendas and “reading the room” to ensure a meeting goes smoothly: a consensus is reached; items checked off; conversations don’t zig or zag.

So often, prayer is a time when I am forced to give up some control: to mute myself, my goals, my analysis and just sit. For me it is a time apart; a time set aside. I am muted for only 30 minutes before going back to my day.

Ofelia spoke to us of her awareness that every step we take, every tiny thing we do throughout the day is ceremony and the way her sharing was facilitated that evening allowed us to experience it.  That Zoom meeting filled with muted boxes, was a prayer-filled space: sitting as ceremony; listening with no expectation, roadmap or plan; being in the presence of another God-filled human as deeply as I try to be in the presence of the Divine during centering prayer.

I am grateful to Centering Space for providing this opportunity and look forward to more of this unique conversation in the coming weeks.