The Garden of Contemplation: Attending My Second Quaker Meeting

After I had attended a Quaker meeting for the first time weeks ago it had been my desire ever afterwards to attend another one. Every Sunday that seemed to follow came with it distractions and stumbling blocks that prevented my inevitable return. Finally, today, almost at the last minute, my schedule freed itself, as a fish frees itself from a hook, and my elated spirit broke free from its anchor and travelled down Route 66 once again in search of some silence and fellowship with others who have also found a home within the present.


As I walked in and shook hands with all of the gentle souls, kind eyes smiling, mouths turned upright in pleasant greetings, I couldn't help but feel as if I had entered  a garden.  Each person, bearing their own unique and sacred fruit that has been born out of contemplation and time with God. Each person so different from the next, yet finding life and light from the same source. Sustenance from the same soil of silence we all aim at growing our roots deep within.

As silent prayer began I found myself plunging rather eagerly deep within the layers of  my consciousness. Empty, I remained open, letting God's peace and love envelop and fill me as He drew me , heart beat by heart beat, into His transforming reality. My senses became inundated with the awareness of nearly everything within and around me.  Reality lay naked and bare, fertile and overflowing, with God's glories and truths. I came hungry, nearly starving, and found myself full and overflowing in almost no time at all.

Halfway in, words seemed to rise from the depths, and I had an overwhelming desire to write them down. I hadn't thought of bringing a paper and pen with me and I didn't want to disturb anyone in their contemplation and ask for one, so I just committed each word that dropped into my consciousness to  memory, reflecting on their potential meanings. This is what came to me in the silence:

Time can't wither nor human fell
The eternal words God doth tell.
Man can't contain nor can possess,
The Glory God doth profess.
Truth like sand, man cannot hold.
Truth can never really be obtained
until all else is sold.


I thought of Jesus and how he calls us to sell everything we have to follow Him. Jesus is the truth, the way, the life. Then I thought...how true...to find the truth, we have to shed ourselves of any preconceived notions that we have of it. We have to discard any labels, attachments and illusions that time and our own desires and baggage  have constructed. Only then, when all of that scatters, like the clouds before the sun, truth will come to dawn in our hearts, like the light of a new day.

This day is proving itself to be a whirlwind of activities. I am grateful for the hour of silence that I had this morning and look forward to future Meetings. As I stop writing and return to the busy day that awaits, His peace and love still blossoms within me and I look forwards to projecting it outwards to those I love and meet.



How are you spending time with God today? I'd love to hear about it. 

Any thoughts? Comments? I'd love to hear them! Please leave in the comments section. Thank you!