May the artesian water spring
Silence is the rock where I shall stand
O when I strike it with my hand
May the artesian water spring
From the Dark source I long to find.
Judith Wright
Photo credit: Cindy Cornett
Dadirri recognises the deep spring that is inside us. We call on it and it calls on us. This is the gift that Australia is thirsting for. It is something like what you call “contemplation”….A big part of Dadirri is listening….We do not try to hurry things up. We let them follow their natural course- like the seasons….We don’t mind waiting, because we want things to be done with care.
Mary- Rose Ungenmerr- Baumann
God help us to live slowly
to move simply
to look softly
to allow emptiness
to let the heart create for us.
Michael Leunig
Photo credit: aarty822
What could living slowly look like for me? What would I see/hear? What would I need to let go?
Could I learn to move simply? To be more congruent? To be as if head- heart- hands moved in concert?
Could I learn to look softly? And to walk care-fully? “Sacramental vision is not instant photography of the world in which we live. It is something learned by patient education of a sensibility to the engagement of God with the world”. (Alan Ecclestone)
And could I dare to allow emptiness? This is the way of poverty, of not knowing, of unlearning, of conversion, of not having all the answers…of listening and being open…..of recognising and celebrating that “flawed as we are we stand on holy ground”….of realising we belong to the whole community of creation….in a web of interdependence. This is why St. Augustine said that God is always wanting to give us things, but our hands are so often full of things that we cannot receive them?
And to let the heart create for us. Blaise Pascal saw that the heart has its reasons, that reason doesn’t know about. Is this not asking us to live more imaginatively? To exclaim with Jacob; “Surely the Lord is in this place and I never knew it” (Genesis 28:16) …to enjoy a seamless world where belief in God and appreciation of the earth is as natural as breathing.
For a printable PDF of the text of this meditation please click on the link below
