“My understanding of the Great Work ( call in life) began when I was quite young. At the time I was some eleven years old. My family was moving from a more settled part of a small southern town ( in the USA) out to the edge of town where the new house was being built. The house, not yet finished, was situated on a slight incline. Down below was a small creek and there across the creek was a meadow. It was an early afternoon in late May when I first wandered down the incline, crossed the creek, and looked out over the scene. The field was covered with white lilies rising above the thick grass. A magic moment, this experience gave to my life something that seems to explain my thing at a more profound level than almost any other experience I can remember……
Yet as the years pass this moment returns to me, and whenever I think about my basic life attitude and the whole trend of my mind and the causes to which I have given my efforts, I seem to come back to this moment and the impact it has had on my feeling for what is real and worthwhile in life.”
This experience of Thomas Berry might be something that has happened in your life too. The beauty of nature, the magic of a place can change and direct an entire life..A moment of deep connection with the Earth leaves an imprint on our soul that will last a life time. As you take time to connect with nature, just sit quietly and close your eyes. Your let your consciousness drift to a place that is very precious to you. Let all the memories come back…see the place with your inner eyes, smell it, hear the sounds and feel the Earth in that place. Realize that all that happened in that place is still with you. See how this place has become part of the inner landscape of your soul. And allow yourself to be touched again by the power of this place. See the person you have become since that moment and hear Mother Earth speak to you about the deeper dimensions of your relationship to her. See what has come about in your life, perceive it as the gift of this now.
The Aboriginals welcome the guest with the question: “Where is your name written in the Earth?” Where is that place for you and what do you find in that place for your life now? Write about it, visit that place, if it still is there. So many of htese places have been destroyed, cemented, etc. Connect with it in your heart.
“A viable future for the Earth will only happen if we rediscover our place on Earth: not a geographical place, but a place in our heart that is connected with the inner “heart” of the Earth. This was perhaps something I vaguely experienced in that first view in the meadow across the creek” ( Thomas Berry, in ‘The Great Work,” ch.2)
