Taking a deep breath and saying "Hello".
Hello ~
Well here I am. I apologize for the dusty dirt and grime, the torn and tattered clothing, and my less than jovial mood that I have arrived with today. I landed here, bruised and battered from the journey, disenchanted, and disillusioned. The journey of the last few years have showed me strengths I did not think I was capable of, depths of my emotions that have frightened me, and awesome joy and gratitude beyond what I believed possible, marvelously hidden within simplicity. I no longer recognize myself. I advance now with no way to hide….. from myself….. or from you any longer.
My whole life has been a journey to understand who I am. My beginning adult years I spent trying to manipulate the world outside of me. I had varying degrees of success and failures, but never seemed to reach that place of contentment and happiness. As my journey turned from the outside world, to an inward direction, I studied and researched many self-help, therapy and religious paths. I’ve talked, I’ve cried, I’ve let it out, and I’ve held it in. I have turned the other cheek. I’ve pushed against, I’ve pulled towards. I’ve “let go” more times that I thought was possible. And yet, here I am. A little weary today, but this to shall pass. I also have an energetic, positive and pleasant side which I enjoy sharing more than my mood of today. I bring to this world a mixed bag of everything I am, everything I have been, and everything I will be. I have never been good at pretending or pretenses.
Life is prodding me to join in community with others – who I have built a life trying to avoid and distance myself from. I stalled on the last lessons, hesitant and somewhat fearful of joining this portal. (And what if I was not invited in?) As you can now see, I “felt the fear and did it anyway”.
I do look forward to sharing, learning and loving with you here at the Gathering Spot. I need you in my world…. And I need to be in yours. Thank you for meeting me here.
I have enjoyed reading the forums and experiencing the beauty of this place.
I see that I am not the only Mary out here, so you can call me Mary G.
With Love,
Mary G
Hi Mary G
Welcome to the G-Spot. I sure do appreciate the way you stay transparent and open, in spite of natural human fears. When someone expresses themselves the way you have, it helps me and I am sure others, feel safe and inspired to do the same.
And I think you will find yourself to be a pretty good fit here in this community. I loved what you said at the end of "More about me" on your personal profile,
"The diversity (or complexity) of the outside world is now growing at an exponential rate. Life as I have known it to be is changing before my eyes. On one hand it seems to be getting more and more out of control, and yet somewhere within me is a growing excitement of what is to come. My spiritual slant in life does not support the path of fear. The path I seek is paved with faith. I feel that I have gone as far as I can on my own and now need to join in with others of like mind, who have been traveling the same path, for companionship, encouragement and support. I look forward to meeting, sharing and learning within this new place"
I resonate strongly with this, and could not agree more...
LLP, Chris
Welcome, welcome Mary G.
The account of your journey is very substantial and forhtright. You immediately have my respect and best wishes.
A couple of things occur to me to say to you. The first is that this can be a very helpful discussion place with new and pertinent ideas, facts, and perspectives; and it can also be irrelevent at times, depending on what we need and understand, vis-a-vis what is posted. It goes without saying (if I completely believed this I wouldn't be saying it) that we're all at different places in our search -- indeed, we're not all necessarily searching for the same thing. Based on what you said about yourself (especially the part about searching for who you are -- although that can mean different things to different people) I would especially recommend reading the following recent threads (and I'm sure there are many from the past that you would also benefit from reading): "Inner Pioneers...." and "The Quantum Apocolypse...." (You may have read these already.)
Now, we sometimes have difficulties in communicating and allowing one another to be where we are and bring forward what we do. (I recommend looking at the lengthy "A Haiti Disaster Relief Scenario..." thread.) So if you sometimes reach the point of having your patience tried or feeling misunderstood, preached at, or even put down, well... remember that wherever you go people will be people. But we're learning to talk and respect and support one another, and we surely do a better job at that than the world at large. All good people here; no saints in residency, however.
Take care and my very best wishes for you,
Bob B.
Helloo Mary
Hi Mary G,
What a lovely chunk of honesty, I think you may have nailed it, at least it is true for me, I am bit of recluse, by choice..But we are supposed to connect with others like us. I think we were unable to function because we have evolved past the baser side of human interaction to such a degree, it is an impossibility to cope with the negative emotional baggage, that is so out of place in so many instances.
I hope you will find here what I have found, lots of interesting exchange of ideas, and a good laugh here and there..looking forward to getting to know you.
Welcome
Welcome Mary! Good to have you on board.
Namaste, Mark
Hi
Hello again Chris~
I thank your once again for your kind words of welcome, your friendship and for your support through the course lessons. After reading many of your posts in the various forums I have a feeling we’ll get along just fine. I look forward to tossing some ideas around with you sometime down the road.
Many Thanks ~
Thank you Bob for your welcoming words of wisdom and pointing the way to some interesting and pertinent posts. I did enjoy “The Quantum Apocolypse “ post and video. Great Stuff. “Inner Pioneers” is another great post and thank you for bringing it back to the top for me. What you evidently intuited about me ~ which led you to point to those topics ~ was spot on.
I was a little glad to hear that there are “no saints in residency” here. Whew… that takes the pressure off… J I am no expert at the human struggle to communicate and play well with others. That is actually one of the reasons I am here…with all of you. I am also determined to get better at this.
:~)
Thank you also Carol Anne for your kind, welcoming words, fellow recluse! Yes, the baser side of human interaction is my least favorite place to find myself! And equally important is to retain our ability to laugh! May some day we wipe the tears from our eyes from sharing a delightfully good laugh….
Thanks
Hello also to Mark – another fellow Aries! Thanks for your welcoming post.
Looking forward to
tossing around some ideas sometime Mary... So fun to play with thoughts, and then abandon them in favor of no-thing in quiet and peace-filled meditation....
Holding you in the L&L of One, Namaste, Chris
Mary, thank you for letting me feel who you are
Hi Mary,
I so enjoyed reading your words both in this post and on your profile page. I just want to recommend to anyone who might end up reading this that you might very much enjoy reading more about Mary on her profile page. Beautifully written!
I love your openness and vulnerability and your willingness to take the risk of being real with us here, Mary. I sense a deep well of wisdom in you -- not the type of wisdom that knows what's right, but rather wisdom that comes through having ridden the intense roller coaster of life and become more comfortable with both what you knows and what you don't know. Thanks for sharing so fully and I look forward to connecting more.
With abundant love, joy, and gratitude,
Fred
Welcome Mary
Hi Mary lovely to meet you and I am looking forward to getting to know you...........I am loving what you say already; I wish I could be as chatty, open and articulate
I'm working on it 
I completely resonate with the need, in the past, to be reclusive and now the need to connect with others of like mind. We need each other more than ever right now I feel and I have found this forum to be welcoming, informative and a great place to visit as often as I can.
with love val