I write this  post just before my new group begins . We have met only a short while but already it has impacted me.   Initially I am the catalyst.   I gather the people. I meet with  them and take the time needed  to to prepare them for the deeply evocative nature of  creating group intimacy.  In time groups become their own little worlds , little towns , a community of sorts composed of a unique variety of members.  When a group begins it is so fragile  in it’s coming to be. It appears sentimental to suggest it is like buds just coming out after a hard winter.  But nature demands resilience and innate determination. That’s the image that comes to me now in this early stage , this new beginning. How delicate and demanding  it is to be a relational human. Maybe that image is too pretty a one. Because there is not only beauty. That is the inherent power of  group. For if there is beauty, there is also  sacred ugliness to contend with.  It’s as if there is a  cauldron  in the group center , sometimes gently warming, sometimes cold, sometimes hot and boiling. This unique gathering of people will in time discover how to  alchemize  much of the elements contained there.   Not  everything and  not perfectly,  but enough to provide potentially profound change. I still find this miraculous.