The First Threshold.
One evening, offered twice this October. Come and sit with us for two hours, and see for yourself whether this path is yours.
Why one evening
Ask a man here where he takes what he carries, and very often he will tell you: nowhere. Ask him whether he would take it into a room full of other men, and he may laugh. We heard this again and again when we listened to the men of the Caribbean.
So before anything else is asked of a man, there is this one evening. A quiet room. A few men in a circle. Nobody watching, and nobody performing. It is the plainest way we know to let a man taste what this work is from the inside, before anyone explains it to him.
How the evening goes
You arrive, and you are allowed simply to arrive. No one stands at the front. The chairs are in a circle, the room is quiet, and for the first few minutes the quiet is all there is.
Then a few words of welcome, and one image to sit with. One question, and time to stay with it on your own. Later you sit with one other man. One of you speaks and the other listens, without fixing, without advising, without a word of judgement. Then you change places. For many men it is the first time in a long while that they have said something true and simply been heard.
Near the end there are a few words, not many, to name what has already happened in the room. A short practice of breath. Then you leave the way you came in, through the door, with one small thing to carry home.
You need bring nothing. You do not have to speak in the circle. Silence is a full way of taking part, and the quiet man is as welcome as the one who talks.
What is said in the circle
What a man says in the circle stays in the circle. On the night we will say plainly what that means and where its limits lie, so that every man knows where he stands.
What it is not
It is not a talk, a course or a workshop, and it is not therapy. Nobody will try to move you or work on you, and nobody will ask you to sign anything. You come for one evening, and when it ends you are free.
After the evening
Nothing is asked of you on the night. Within a couple of days you will hear from Michael, briefly. About a week later he will write again with word of the path that begins at the end of January: what it is, how it is walked, and what it asks of a man. The choice is then yours, made in your own time.
Two ways to come
The evening is offered twice so that no man is left out because of where he lives. Both evenings are the same circle, the same quiet and the same two hours. Choose the one nearer to you.
In Barbados · in the room
The room in Warrens.
Thursday 29 October
Half past seven until half past nine in the evening
360 Wellness by Novamed, Unit 19, Williams Industries Complex, Warrens, St Michael
Across the water · online
Men across the water.
Saturday 31 October
Six until eight in the evening, Barbados time
Online, by Zoom
That is also six o’clock in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and the Eastern Caribbean, five o’clock in Jamaica, and four in Belize. If you are further afield, please check the hour where you are. Find a quiet place where you can be alone for the two hours.
Why we ask you to register
The circle is small, between twelve and sixteen men, and the chairs and the pairs are set before the evening. Registering keeps a place for you. It also brings you the directions to the room, or the link for the call, which goes only to men who have registered. Many of us leave such things to the last minute. Please don’t leave this one.
If you have a question, write to Michael at michael@hierlife.com. He reads and answers every message himself.