A few years ago, I was talking with someone about intention. We were having a discussion about what it means to set sacred intention – or sacred intent – when you’re getting ready to do ceremony.

And so I picked up a pebble and I said to him, “What is this?”

And he said, “It’s a pebble.”

And I said, “No, it’s an altar. Say it.”

And he kind of shrugged, and said, “It’s an altar.”

And I said, “No, believe it. What is it?”

And he said, “It’s an altar.”

And then I said it, and then I put the pebble down on the ground

– the altar down on the ground –

and I said, “Now just sit.”

When we sat there for a few minutes, and I saw the look on his face, I could tell he was feeling it. The energy in the room completely shifted. We were totally grounded.

And then I picked it up again and I said, “This is a pebble. Say it.”

And he said, “This is a pebble.”

And I threw the pebble over my shoulder, and the energy of the room completely changed.

And he got it.

For that short period of time, we were bound together in a sacred space specifically created by our intention, by our belief that that space was sacred.

I am very grateful for everything that’s happened in my life, because it has brought me to those places. It has given me the gift of being able to sit with others without judgment.

And I can say, “Well, that’s the price I have to pay for this privilege.”

Or, I can say, “That’s part and parcel of the privilege. That was my school.”

You don’t get to pick one without the other.

It doesn’t mean you have to like every single aspect of it. It doesn’t mean you’d want to go back and repeat it again,  because for love or money, I wouldn’t…