Wakil David Matthews

In the crowded hall of Bellingham's Village books, I listened with growing enthusiasm and emotions as my friend Mirabai Starr introduced us to her latest book, 'Wild Mercy.' I knew at that moment that a deep yearning I had felt for a long time was being addressed. And as a white cis-gendered male perched uncomfortably on the pinnacle of privilege, I also knew this was another important call to action. My friend Aziz Gary Guest and I were working on the facilitation of a men's group for our spiritual community's gathering over Memorial Day and this was obviously the subject that we needed to address. As men in this patriarchal society, it is often hard to recognize the ocean of privilege we swim in and the consequent woundedness that we have suffered along with our marginalized siblings. With the Shekina prayer as our compass (we read it over many times during our time together) - the men found the beginnings of guidance toward a different way to envision the culture, the planet, our siblings, and the world we walk through each day. We were inspired to find new ways to be in that world and to pray Hineni (Hebrew: "Here I am") each morning for the Divine One to guide us toward the "purpose Thy Wisdom (Shekina!) chooseth." (from a prayer by Hazrat Inayat Khan a Sufi master who brought Sufism to the West in the early 20th Century). This is work that not only begins to heal our own wounds but has the potential to lift us all into the birth of the new humans we can and must become if there is to be a future at all. Aziz and I, Wakil, hold deep gratitude to our dear sister Mirabai and to the many feminine icons and teachers to whom she has pointed us for guidance in 'Wild Mercy.' May we walk this path together, hand in hand, heart to heart, in love, harmony, beauty, compassion, empathy, and remembrance. Amen.