Chapter 124

Arnold turned his head and saw the animals too. The laughter stopped as each of the people saw the animals watching them. "Wow." Arnold said, softly.

Later, after they watched the animals move back into the grove they turned to face each other. They dressed, wondering why as they did, but they did. Then Josh said, to the group, "I don't know about the rest of you but I'm hungry."

Susan laughed. "Every time we make love this man wants to eat." Then she realized the double meaning of what she said and they all laughed.

Later, as they finished setting up the lunch in the center of the clearing they began talking about what had happened. John began. He was barefoot and wearing his shirt and jeans, sitting at one corner of the blanket where lunch was spread out before them. He looked across the banquet at Susan and spoke, softly.

"There are moments in life that are bigger than even imagination could anticipate. This morning has been one of those moments. Perhaps I have so little experience with great sex that I have little ability to evaluate what has happened here, but I feel like something beyond normal experience has happened here. All I can really say is, thank you."

Susan had tears running down her face too as she responded, "Oh John, I think your experience with sex is like all of ours, sadly lacking in the area of spiritual sex, connected sex, truly loving sex."

"I think Susan is right." Miles said. "Something very weird has happened here. I used to be a very jealous man. I used to blame Marilynn whenever some man paid attention to her. Before we got married we broke up twice over incidents where men hit on her at parties. Now we are here with all of you and well, I, I'm not jealous. I know Marilynn loves me, and I know she loves each of you too. And I love each of you too."

"My experience with meditation has always been subtle. I have often wondered after a meditation if I really meditated." Marilynn said, looking from person to person around the circle. "Yet when we left the van and started walking into this grove I knew this would be different. When we walked I felt like we were becoming a part of the forest. I don't know what that means but it is what I felt. When we saw the deer and the raccoons and the butterflies I knew that it was because we were so centered. When we sat down and started meditating I went so deep that I heard things from spirit I've never heard before. Not words. I knew that spirit wanted us to do what we did. I knew that it was important that we did it, and that we felt what we felt."

"Can you tell us what you felt when you were making love?" Josh asked.

"I can try." Marilynn answered. "I felt the energy of the grove as soon as we entered it, and the deeper we walked into the grove the more welcomed I felt. It was as though I were becoming the grove, as though I was no longer an observer of nature, but really a part of nature. When we sat and closed our eyes I could feel that Arnold and I had known each other for many lifetimes, had already loved each other for a long time, and that we had been not telling ourselves the truth about that love. I felt his energy flowing into me through my hand and it was like some warm liquid that seemed to fill and warm me as it flowed throughout my body. The last place it touched was my genitals. As soon as it reached me there I was instantly wet, instantly ready for sex. I'm not normally like that, it normally takes some time for me to warm to the idea of sex. As soon as that energy filled me I stood up and pulled Arnold to his feet. I undressed him and then we undressed me. I hadn't opened my eyes, but I could see us perfectly. I knew that Arnold has a scar on his right hip, and I knew that even if I opened my eyes the scar wasn't where I could see it, we were facing each other and it was behind him. Every touch was electric. It was like the energy we were giving each other was so strong that it created sparks. When Arnold entered me I felt like I was disappearing, melting into a single being that was not me and was not Arnold, but was a more complete part of the One. As we approached orgasm I began to feel not only what was happening in my body, but in his as well. I never even thought about what sex would feel like from the penis side. It is wonderful! When I came I cried out! I've never done that before. Never! The feeling of being the grove, being Arnold and me, being the breeze that made us laugh, the sunshine, is a feeling I can't find words to tell you about." She sat still for a few moments, then leaned over to Arnold, they held each other and kissed.

"I think that about covers it." Bette said. "I felt all that, and could not describe the feelings any better than Marilynn did. I've never felt love any stronger than I have today. I've never felt more loved, more loving than I feel right now. I don't want this feeling to end. I don't want to leave this grove, or this clearing ever." She paused, took a long, slow, deep breath and continued. "I know we have to leave the grove, go back home and back to our regular lives, but I don't know how to do that. I don't know how to go back to work on Monday and deal with all those people who don't know what this feels like."

"Five years ago I was at the end of a terrible marriage. The man I was married to was becoming more and more abusive and I had been thinking about leaving him for almost a year. He was the first man I had ever had sex with, and he never had made love to me. We had sex, not love. No. He had sex and I got used. When I left him I swore off men and sex for a long time. Last year when I discovered the church and started attending regularly I started meditating and feeling like I should have a man in my life. I dated a few men from the church, and a couple that asked me out who weren't from the church. I took two of them home at different times and finally someone made love to me. I was so happy, felt so good that I almost didn't want to go out in public. I thought everyone would be able to tell how happy I was, and think I was a slut." Rita was looking around the circle and holding Josh's hand as she spoke. "When I got into the class that Joshua was leading on deepening the experience of love through meditation, I didn't know how much better the feeling of love could get. The weekend after we started the class my boyfriend broke up with me, and moved out of town. I was crushed. But I knep meditating, kept believing in love, and choosing love. When I was asked to come on this outing I had no idea what a difference being in a grove would make to my meditation!"