And, yet, one of the most profound, awe-inspiring, and deeply connected experiences I've ever had was when I said, "Yes," to an opportunity that had a not-my-tribe radar sounding. 

I had walked into a dark room, with an alter that was different from the ones to which I was accustomed. 

The people looked different.

The patterns on the wall were different.

The smell was different.

The music was different.

It was not shockingly different. But it was just different enough, and I was uncomfortable in a primal way. 

And then they were asking us to draw closer to one another. To connect physically. 

Yikes! I come from stock that holds physical space as its preeminent value. Especially with people I don't know. 

We were to put one hand to our heart and the other on the back of the person in front of us so that we were all literally connected.

My body recoiled. I need space!

As it happens, we're wired to key into like-me and not-like-me. Evolutionarily, it kept us with our tribe and safe.

It can be useful, and it can be infinitely destructive.

Thankfully, it was not my primal self, but my more enlightened conscience, that was in the drivers seat that particular morning. It knew I was safe, and it said simply, "Stay open."

And so I moved closer to the people in front of me, put my hand on my heart and laid my other hand on the person in front of me.

The music began, and people started to sing. 

With the touch on my own heart and the back of the person in front of me, the music, the voices, the feel of the vibration, it all began to loosen the tension and seep through my being. As it all began to touch my Soul, I went thoroughly to pieces.

At some point a didgeridoo piped in directly behind me in what I learned later was the key of C which resonates with the root chakra. 

In that tradition, the root chakra is the seat of deep connection with the physical, our environment, and the universe.

And that may very well be why it felt as if the communal vibrations dissolved the boundaries of the body and soul so that all that was left was pure experience, and connection, and joy. 

What was left was the experience of Perfection. It was what I've heard some describe as the Divine. 

And I was privy to it not because I stayed with my own people, but because I said Yes to others who are different from me. And yet not at all.

Stay open.

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