Healing Circle Forms Around Salon Meritage

About 40 people gathered Wednesday night to form a healing circle around Salon Meritage, the site of Orange County’s worst mass murder.

Their message was simple: love flourishes.

“This has always been a place of joy and laughter and love, and I think it’s time to let the sunshine back in,” said Alice Billman, who works in the Wellsprings Wellness Center located upstairs from the salon. Billman organized the healing circle in an effort to dispel the sense of hurt and pain wrought by the shooting spree that took eight lives. Many of those who joined her were business owners and employees of the shopping center.

“This building is made of wood, a living thing that picks up vibrations,” Billman said. “Today was about making the structure whole again.”

Lily Nelson of Long Beach joined the circle to offer up her best intentions. “I don’t know if it will ever go back to normal here, but I hope so,” she said. “We are here to try to relieve any negative energy and replace it with positive emotions.”

The small gathering brought sage incense and Native American drums and sang in gentle unison, “There is only love. There is only love. Love that heals, that sets us free. There is only love.”

It’s been almost one month since the tragedy, said Rev. Kristin Hawkins of the Namaste Center for Spiritual Living, located in the same center as Salon Meritage.

In many religions, four weeks marks the time period for intense grieving, Hawkins said. Holding the ceremony exactly four weeks after the shooting is symbolic for the healing process, she added.

“It’s been very difficult for the neighbors and the people in this center. Today is really about honoring the life and the love that is here,” Hawkins said. “This can again be a place of joy and celebration, not just sadness. I think in the first couple weeks that this happened, the message was, ‘love survives,’ but I think now it is, ‘love flourishes, not only does it survive, it thrives in our lives.’”