Nancy Kalina walked onto the stage at the Buskirk Chumley Theater, placed herself on a meditation cushion, removed her shoes and shut her eyes.
She didn’t say a word for the next 60 minutes.
Kalina is a life coach and one of "the five inspired women," as they called themselves, who sponsored the "Being Bloomington: Being Together" event, an hour of silence designed for meditation, self-reflection or prayer to bring the community together. Kalina was inspired to plan the event after she learned about a New York City-based group called the Big Quiet, which is host to mass meditations at places such as ground zero.
Kalina said mass meditation is a safe space where participants can go to connect with one another regardless of race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, country of origin or political ideology.
“It’s all about empowerment and expansion,” Kalina said. “There’s a lot of divisiveness and business in our world right now.”
This is particularly important after the recent election, she said. She added she does not believe the country is divided by race, but by political party.
Janiece Jaffe, another of the five inspired women and a spiritual musician, said the silence is a time for healing and reconnecting with oneself. At first, the hour of silence can be overwhelming, she said. To make an hour of meditation manageable, many people who attend choose to focus on breathing or a single word.
“Silence is chock full of sound,” she said, which allows the imagination and intuition to come alive. During the hour of silence, Jaffe performed spiritual music with singing bowls and sang about rainbows.
Karla Kamstra, the owner of The Bridge, which offers classes and workshops to enhance one’s life, an interfaith ministerial candidate and another of the five inspired women, said meditation allows people to communicate from grounded space.
There are two selves — the social self and the essential self — Kalina said. The social self is the who one is around others, and the essential self is who one is at their core. Meditation allows participants to take a moment to reconnect with their essential selves.
“We are all here beyond words,” said Mary Ann Macklin, a reverend at the Unitarian Universalist Church and one of the five inspired women, to start the hour of silence.
Kalina said going forward the goal is to make "Being Bloomington: Being Together" a monthly event to bring the community together.
“Love is love,” Kalina said as part of her closing statement. “Namaste.”
