6.
Conference - Day 2

5th March 2020

PART 3

After a while Brigitte comes out of the room where she has just announced she will be organising the first Women Economic Forum Event in France… next year.

She is shaken by the realisation of the full extent of what she has just declared, and we breathe for a while together, releasing expectations, letting go of all ideas about how it is supposed to be.

Little did we know that all large gatherings would be suspended in just a week’s time and for who knows how long…

Well, over two hours later than originally scheduled it is my turn to go on the Plenary stage. We are only two speakers on our panel: The Role and Power of Self-Belief and Self-Care.

Didi Wong, who also organised a WEF event, speaks before me. She eventually comes to the point where she shares how she got herself into over 200,000 dollars in debt as a result of organising Women Economic Forum in Las Vegas in December 2018, and allows herself to be vulnerable in front of the whole audience, including Dr Harbeen, founder of WEF but she does not even once accuse anyone else for what happened. She takes full responsibility for what happened and does so with great courage.

Having organised a WEF event in Portugal myself together with a fabulous team, with a final total budget spent of around 10,000 euros, I cannot envision how the event could require so much money to put together, but I guess the reality in Portugal is very different from that of the USA. Each one to their own reality.

One thing we did make a point of while organising the Conference, was to always go for the simplest options and remove the superfluous, trimming the Event’s organisation down to what was essential in order to pull it through successfully, generously and under a very tight budget.

We did not have a large sum of money from the Registration Fees and the main economic support we got was from our local Municipality, so we were always very aware of the need to keep expenses as low as possible. We relied upon massive cooperation from our local community, involving schools, our local University, Associations and public resources, mainly the human resources that make things happen.

We held a fair amount of meetings, and even managed to connect some local partners who were not on each other’s best books at that time.

I must say many times it worked like pure magic, how doors opened and the people and things we needed came our way in some quite unsolvable situations - so it seemed. Always the simplicity of the heart, was our main and basic focus.

And we surprised ourselves time and time again as to what really was possible and we were actually capable of. We organised it on a completely voluntary basis, none of us earned a cent from it and we worked for a year and half to get it all in motion but we did so absolutely wholeheartedly and I believe that is part of what made the magic flow with such grace., together with the Breath, of course :)

I usually share that organising WEF Portugal was an initiatic experience. Apparently it is for all of us who choose to organise this event, as Didi is so transparently sharing. We grow through the experience of hosting this very special event and are blessed, irrespective of the challenges we are faced with.

It is my turn now. I have chosen to share a story. My story. Could very well have been yours too.The story of the collective She.

The public becomes very silent. Listening. Feeling. Some have tears in their eyes as She speaks. She is part of each one sitting here, in Her sorrow as well as in Her glory.

(Here is the Audio version and the Text version)

Didi and I receive many rounds of applause as well as our gifts of recognition and after I step off stage some amongst the public come and congratulate me and express their gratitude for how this rendition of Shakti has touched them - men and women alike. For She is in all of us.

I receive yet some more gifts. So many gifts. Physical and non-physical. Blessed to be Here.

Now. In these gifted moments that are received with profound Gratitude.

Dr Harbeen Arora, thank you for insisting that I come.

The day is coming to an end. I still have time to get a book to offer Linda’s School. A beautiful book from the children’s book stand. Duaa gives me a generous discount, which I deeply appreciate.

We decide to go to the Hotel for a short while to refresh before boarding the bus that will take us to the Gala Dinner at the… right in front of the Pyramids. Which of course we are absolutely choosing to visit.

It just so happens that as we are leaving, we find Sasa Bozic, from Slovenia, who also chose to organize a WEF Event there, after coming to ours in Portugal. I must say it was a very beautiful, graceful and powerful Event, excellently organised - you may watch it here. Congratulations to the WEF Slovenia team!

Sasa has booked a private chauffeur and guide to go to the pyramids tomorrow morning, since she is leaving for the airport right after lunch. Would we like to join her? Well of course!

So that’s how we end up visiting the Pyramids the following morning. Pretty simple! Thank you very much Sasa.

Now the Gala Dinner.

The buses take quite a while to fill up and it is considerably late once we get on the road. It is not right around the corner and the bus ride gives us ample opportunity to interact and even do some integration work, which I have shared about already in another chapter of these Chronicles.

We finally get to the Marriot Mena House Hotel at around 9 PM! Wow! It is so beautiful. Everyone is in high spirits, dancing, enjoying, celebrating.

We sit at the table with Abeer, her daughter Jumana, her partner Cecilia and another lady we don't know yet joins us too. She has an association to raise awareness around domestic violence and is organising a fundraising dinner with a conference part and invites me to speak there. I have to decline because it is in 2 weeks’ time in the US and I am not going to travel again right after arriving from Egypt.

But of course we now know this event never takes place because all of a sudden Covid-19 enters the scene.

So many plans changed. The world brought to an almost complete halt. Something we could not have imagined even in our wildest dreams.

Here, where we are, sitting beside the pool, enjoying a feast of exquisite tastes, laughter, chatter and connections, we are grateful. Engrossed by the view of the illuminated Pyramids just beyond the palm trees to our left. Enveloped in an exotic landscape of luxurious specialness.

This is all we know now. And it is all that matters at the moment. Absorbing it all.

Some of these photos were taken by Cherie Banks. Thank you Cherie, for your love of photography :)

During the next 3 days there will be guided tours organised by the WEF team in Egypt but Joana and I have decided not to go because we want to remain open to the other potentials we have by now already set in motion.

We also have a limited capacity to be in big crowds for too long. It drains us. We need time alone. Time to retreat and be in silence and we do not want to make this first time in Egypt a tiring experience. As much as we have loved meeting everyone over these last two days, we bid our farewells and wish everyone the most amazing time together.

After large gatherings like these International Conferences are, I always feel drawn to be still, to let it land and settle within me so that I can really receive the magnitude of all that has gone on, both visibly and invisibly. It is so much that if I keep on entertaining myself with more and more interactions I will just lose the core of this experience. So I invariably step back, absorbing the potentials, the energies, the wisdom, the wholeness of my forays into massive interpersonal connections, bringing it all into balance, to the neutral stillness within. This is how I dance with the outside world within me.

I have completely lost the faculty of multitasking! It could be a misfortune but I realise it is a blessing and a direct consequence of my choice to Stay only Here, only Now. A choice that has peculiar side effects… :)

And so it is.

After a good night’s rest tomorrow we will be off for our first touristic explorations in Egypt.

We are not anxious or expectant about it, as we aren’t about anything really. However we are happy and grateful to finally be here again, after thousands of years away.

💞💞💞

To read the other chapters, click on the links below: