Preparing
Anticipation of a Summer Sojourn
Departure is imminent, as I’ll soon embark on my annual summer sojourn to the nine-week arts, education, and spirituality festival at Chautauqua in western New York. I was fifteen years old the first time I visited that magical place and its summer festival. Little did I know then that I would return nearly every summer for decades. That it would become my spiritual home—a place where I would come of age on so many levels and continue coming of age even now. Same concept, different meanings as life goes on.
I’ve been anticipating my Chautauqua summer for weeks now—concerts and dance performances, inspiring and illuminating speakers, early morning reflection time beside the lake in spots where I’ve sat since I was a teenager. Yet perhaps what I anticipate most is sunrise. Especially in the last few summers, seeing the sun rise over the wide expanse of water every day became an anchor. And my early morning photographs have continued to anchor me throughout the year. Chautauqua feeds my soul. Full stop.
In the past, preparing for Chautauqua has been all about organizing home to be away for an extended time and packing for an extended stay somewhere else. Yet this year feels different; it’s been about much more than packing and organizing. Preparing has taken on a deeper meaning. The word itself comes to me as a combination of prefix, verb, and suffix:
pre
indicating something that happens
in advance of or before something else
pare
to peel away or trim an outer layer;
to reduce in size or number;
to diminish
ing
a suffix that puts the verb in motion
Preparing is an act of making ready. Yet this year, it’s as if I am being made ready. Every day brings another awareness—a deeper invitation into what this summer might bring. I don’t yet know what that will be. Yet I do know that the last two summer sojourns in Chautauqua have brought grace and healing to deep layers of my being. And they created a more profound sense within me of what my life is about now—what my role is in these unsettling and often tumultuous times—why I’m here.
It’s been nearly thirty years since I first gave words to my soul mission: I liberate and empower. Living into that mission in the world requires first living into it within myself. Thirty years later, I’m still learning what that means.
And so, preparing for this Chautauqua summer has been more internal than external. Organizing and packing is happening, yet the more significant preparing is happening deep inside.
Opening to receive the gifts of the summer.
Accepting them as they come.
Allowing more spaciousness in my inner world.
Meeting what comes, even if it’s not comfortable.
Welcoming rest, inspiration, renewal, and rejuvenation.
I sense that the summer will bring a further paring of outer layers of my being—layers that no longer serve or that get in the way of what Life is inviting me to now. And just as I don’t know what invitations will come, I don’t yet know what will be pared. I just know that my job pre-Chautauqua is to do my pre-work—to open, accept, allow, and be ready to meet and welcome whatever this summer sojourn will bring. And then, day by day, week by week, as the summer unfolds, to let the paring—the active peeling away—continue.
There’s something deeply sacred about what is happening. It’s not like it’s taking over my life. It’s not all-consuming. It’s just there. It’s present, and it’s asking me to be present with it—to remain with this sacred preparation of my being and with the paring. Chautauqua will bring its gifts; it always does. Some I’ll probably anticipate ahead of their arrival; others will come unexpectedly. It’s the nature of life.
I’m quietly curious as departure draws near. And I can’t wait to be there—to return to the physical place that has become home more than any other place I’ve ever been. I’m also recognizing that the pre aspect is not only a “before Chautauqua” thing; this internal preparation is also likely to continue even as the summer unfolds. Because that’s also the nature of life. Everything leads to something else. Each moment in some way prepares me for the next.
As I write now, I’m starting to realize that this summer, fifty-six years after first arriving at Chautauqua as a fifteen-year-old-boy, I’m not going there to find something. I’m going there to meet what now wants to find me.
Invitations
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Again so much depth in what you are sharing with us.
Reading your pre for Chautauqua and your beloved stay, give me this time even more a feeling of; “I feel blue”
And yet, through your words, I’ll be open to what wants to find me here at home and at my mothers.
Thank you Alan!
Opening, Accepting, Allowing, Meeting, Welcoming. Those are guides that can be used in so many ways. Once again, you've added depth to how I think about today, this week, this summer, etc. Thank you, Alan!