“….We open
a persimmon seed to find the tree
that stands in promise,
pale, in the seed’s marrow.
Geese appear over us,
pass, and the sky closes…
And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.”
-Excerpt from ’The Wild Geese’ by Wendell Berry
Dear Folks,
Last weekend I had the opportunity to participate in a silent meditation retreat. We drove a couple hours north in Maryland to stay in a lodge on a point of land where the Susquehanna River meets the Chesapeake Bay.
When we arrived, I stepped out of the car, into the scent of water on the humid air, and deep quiet all around us. I felt as if I’d stepped into a different time and space, leaving behind the sounds of the car radio and traffic snarls.
During the weekend, we cooked, ate, and cleaned up each meal together in companionable silence. We sat and walked in silent meditation inside and outside, a few of us even waking up early enough to go down to the dock and silently watch the sun come up. One hot afternoon, we went kayaking and canoeing, reveling in the soft breeze off the Bay.
On the last day, I was able to see the silhouettes of Canada geese flying low over our heads against a cloudy sky. Because I don’t see well, it was very moving for me to be able to synchronize the sound of familiar honking calls with the vision of dark shapes rippling in formation across the sky.
Being silent in a group over time can create deep clarity. I find that listening to my own heart in silence opens up space for me to be fully aware of what I need and how I feel. At the beginning of the retreat before going into the silence, we shared our expectations, hopes and fears, and at the end, discussed our actual retreat experience. One participant said that being with 15 other people in silence had opened her to a visceral awareness of the realness of other people’s physical daily needs and limitations, helping her feel compassionate with them and herself.
In being silent together, we make a space where we can finally listen and be present with everything that is happening inside and outside of ourselves, a space where we truly see and appreciate what is right in front of us.
cheers,
Eliza