Healing... My Prairie Jubilee Experience

Hello,

As you may know I have been an instructor in the Prairie Jubilee Program for the last eight years. Prairie Jubilee is once again about to begin a new Cycle of students looking to reconnect to their inner wisdom and perhaps an outer cosmic wisdom. No small thing in anyone’s life.

Healing...

A few years ago I was having a conversation with my fellow instructor, Cheryl Kinney Matheson, about that year’s new cohort of students. There were quite a few applicants who mentioned how they were coming to Prairie Jubilee in need of healing.

At first I was surprised how “healing” was named as one of the draws to this two-year experience, but then I began to reflect on my own two year experience with Prairie Jubilee and realized that I was drawn for many reasons, but yes, one of the reasons was healing.

My Spirituality Story

My initial experiences of spirituality were through attending church with my family. There was lots of talking, kneeling and incense burning, but there was not a lot that I found spiritually fulfilling. Catechism classes were mandatory, but questions about what spirituality actually is, did not get answered. The statement; “Don’t ask questions, you just have to believe”, did not cut it for me.

My parents gifted me with an institutional spirituality and I hoped that one day it would open something inside me and answer my burning questions. It was the eighties though, they were scary times, and while I wished for expansion, I was met with fear and narrowing of opinions around who would be welcomed into this “institution of church”.

One day, my teenage-self could not bear the fear-filled, judgement around AIDS, HIV and gay people, so I left. I did not just leave the church, but I left my only understanding of spirituality. Though narrow in some ways, it was all I had. I felt abandoned, but I had a choice. Would I close down my spiritual self and meet the world as an eternal cynic, or would I be curious? I chose curiosity. I knew there was MORE. I opened myself up to the world and allowed the world to show me a plethora of traditions, practices, and philosophies. Hinduism, Buddhism, nature-centred lore, Mystic Sufi teachings and so many personal stories from wise, wise people.

“There are new things that want to come into our lives all the time, but there needs to be a space for them to land.” My good friend David Walsh would say. He would explain how when we hold onto old things because they are familiar, we do not leave space inside of us for the new things to inform and change us.

In my seeking out of the “new”, I was made aware of Prairie Jubilee. I did not know exactly what it was offering, but I did know that students in the program were finding new ways of understanding what a spiritual life meant. It was not being defined by a narrow doctrine, it was being recreated within a safe place. A place where I could question, expand and explore.

Prairie Jubilee is an open, non-judgemental, nourishing community of people searching to discover the truth of who they are and why they are here. My sparks of self-discovery, kindled by the program mentors, filled new parts of me. Jubilee gave me a place to take the broken pieces of me and put them back together in a way that felt right. A way that made me feel whole.

And what about church?

Each spring I return to a small country church with my mother. My father is buried there and my mom will be too one day. In this place, I feel welcome and warm and loved. I see now how important my church upbringing was to who I am today. It is only one facet of my spiritual self. I am not defined by only one tradition, religion, doctrine or dogma. I am me. I am made up of a lifetime of human, spiritual and soulful experiences that are to be honoured and shared with the world.

The world is in a transition and now seems to be the right time to hear and share our experiences more than ever. Not just what we have overcome, but what we still struggle with each day. All we can give to the world is the truest version of ourselves that I can. But first we need to make the effort to get to know it. 

Are you Seeking?

Are you looking for a safe space to heal or a place to grow into something more? You may want to check out Prairie Jubilee.

To learn more you can read about it here.

Cheryl and I are happy to answer questions anytime and there are spaces left in the new two-year cycle that beings on September 27th.

Dale Bially
Inspired Enneagram