A Healing Hangout

Creating solace and support for queer BIPOC folks in Savannah

Play has been an important theme for me this week, and it’s a timely message because I have been blessed to experience significant growth in my business over the last few weeks. While more clients means more money, it also means more work, and so I feel Spirit reminding me through new touchpoints with my community to prioritize play, which, for me, means expressing myself freely, however that manifests, and indulging my curiosity.

This week, my curiosity led me to venture out and attend a local event I came across online. Held at Más Paz Counseling, which offers inclusive, affirming and trauma-informed therapies, their Healing Hangout provided a safe space where queer BIPOC folk could come together to find community. This enchanting evening featured a communal sound bath, breathwork, singing bowls and an engaging art exercise.

When I walked in, I was a bit nervous. As a deeply introverted individual, I’m always a little hesitant when it comes to entering new spaces and encountering new faces, but I push past that because I’ve accepted that getting out of my comfort zone is good for me. Upon crossing the threshold, I entered a warm, inviting room with verdant plants, cozy cushioned seats, earth-toned rugs and bright windows through which ample sunlight poured in rather unexpectedly after a week straight of rain.

I was greeted by beautiful humans who made me feel welcome, and I made myself comfortable as more participants came in. At the start, we engaged in a dialogue where each person was asked to share something they wished to release and something else they wished to receive. For me, I released self doubt — my solar plexus suffers sometimes, but I’m learning to trust my own capabilities and believe more completely in my competence each day — and received community. As each person shared, I was moved by the transparency, the vulnerability and affirming support that was cultivated in our circle. Some sixteen souls laid bare, releasing fears, hurts, control, unfruitful relationships and so much more. With each breath, we let go of that which was holding us back, and we invited in confidence, clarity, peace and abundance.

As we shook our tambourines and maracas and struck our drums, several participants expressed the desire for financial blessing, and the lovely lightworker, Temakha, who opened the way as she led us through the drum circle, espoused an alternative and awesome way of understanding wealth. She said money is an acronym: My Own Natural Energy Yield. From this perspective, money is not external to you and it’s not defined by dead presidents on paper, or the number of digits in your account. Money is a resource like water that flows, and we can attract it much in the same way that the moon pulls in the tide. Wealth is a state of mind — not to say that it is attained without work, we all know that faith without works is dead — but we each have to let go of the scarcity mindset and operate from a place of abundance. When we operate from that place of prosperity and align our actions with that which we seek, we’ll see it come to fruition. I can attest to that in my own life.

The circle ended with a calming sound bath featuring singing bowls with pure tones that uplift and ground the soul at once. The song was ethereal, attuning everyone in the room to a higher frequency.

Upon its conclusion, we took a brief break, enjoyed some treats and transitioned into an art activity, which was novel for me because it’s probably been a decade since I last drew anything, which is unfortunate, I know. We were instructed to write what we were feeling at that moment on one side of the paper, then flip it over and create a one line drawing. Then we colored the enclosed spaces to our liking, and this activity was said to be a visual representation of what we’d expressed that we were feeling on the other side. The result was an interesting abstract artwork, which I will display in my office as a reminder to play more often.

What I loved most about this event was the centering of mutual aid. It was all about coming together and uplifting one another. There were delicious desserts — that banana pudding was everything — donated by one of the organizer’s sisters. Coffee supplied by Perc. Sponsorship by Cultivate Savannah, Inc. The Más Paz counselors, Tatiana and Camille, made clear their intention to provide affirming experiences for the marginalized, asking for suggestions and expressing interest in collaboration. I love being a part of groups who are making an impact, and this event was a wonderful representation of everything beautiful about my city and the people within it.

I walked away with a gift of a precious little succulent, echeveria purpusorum to be precise. It now sits on my TV stand as a reminder to pause and play, if only for a moment each day.