Play + Evolution = Plevolution

There are some experiences that don't really translate into something neatly explainable, and my time with Michael and Ricki Byars Beckwith is up there with hard to articulate phenomenons. It was Friday night, and though I couldn't afford a ticket, somehow one became available to me and I joined two friends at the Center for Spiritual Living for the first speaker in the Extraordinary Speakers Series. I didn't know much about Michael Beckwith, other than that he was in the movie The Secret and that it cost $40 to see him speak. I knew even less about his wife Ricki Byars Beckwith, though as I found out, I have been singing along to and know several of the songs she wrote by heart.

So we arrived and it was packed. I didn't know what to expect, though they were both familiar to me as I had seen their pictures all over CSL. Michael is a dynamic speaker, a small man (though he seems much bigger on stage) with long dreadlocks and a tendency to pace back and forth as though gaining momentum to express some deep truth. He spoke of love and spirit, alternating between story telling and preaching. He made me laugh and think and feel and then periodically he would pause and turn to his wife who sat behind a keyboard. Then she would start to play. On the program it said she had a jazz background, but her voice was much more of a blues singer's voice, rich and deep, a voice made to sing gospel...our anything soulful and heartfelt.And her songs....they touched me, not because they were catchy, but because they felt like songs I had been singing my whole life, but just hadn't known the words to until I heard them coming out of Ricki's mouth. In fact that's how the whole evening was....not so much a revelation of something new, but a beautiful reminder of a spiritual truth. They created a tangible energy that wrapped around me and took me out of myself. Jesus (and later Stevie Wonder) talked about being in the world, but not of it...and up until now I haven't really understood what that meant, but Friday was an opportunity for me to live and play in that space. I felt connected to God and to everyone and everything in a way that did not diminish my individual spirit, but rather allowed me to have a moment of clarity, where I felt like I knew the exact nature of my being in relation to God. It was truly a gift to be there and to share it with people I love. Thanks LD.