Robert Farrell
– GEORGE FOX CALLED IT OPENING
And it could
happen to him anywhere – in a field
or prison;
standing in a vale or on a road. He
never knew
when the spirit would take and cast him in
to light. God
was everywhere in 1645
it seems. Still
is I suppose. For me it’s usually
in a wood
with you I find some sense of purpose, some
thread that if
I could pull it through might string up all the
colored beads.
Maybe it’s the sun between the trees, the
trees themselves,
the leaves. The mushrooms on the stumps, the ground.
Each thing where
it is and ought to be. Doing its own
work. When we
find ourselves walking in such places the
rhythm of
our feet measures something more than distance.
So we seek
an opening in our weeks, a time, and
remember
to turn ourselves to field or mountain. It’s
good for the
spirit to seek out light. It gives a sense
of purpose.
God’s voice is in the wind and water. Or
is it wind
and water? The songs of birds? Our breath? You
can hear it
in cities. But it’s hard to hold the thread.
Often on
our rambles, we enter a clearing ringed
by trees. It’s
then the sun will greet us. There’s light in the
leaves which soon
returns to darkness. A circle is a
thing that does
a kind of work and there are places that
resist the
common rhythm of life. They sing to us
another
measure. So I think of George Fox again.
Opening
his book, I read some pages, then we leave
to find a
field and remember our city is not
a prison.
It too has a vale. I lived near it once
high on a
hill. It has a spirit and a light. God
knows it’s hard
to see, but you find it in September
sometimes. When
we return we’ll walk again from street to
street. We’ll think
of a wood. Perhaps we’ll pull a thread through
all our walks
and follow them back to prior places,
our thoughts, like
colored beads, reflecting sun, the world our
labyrinth.
Between the trees we see it, our morning
star. Among
the leaves and mushrooms there are other worlds,
wild creatures
doing work. All places have their rhythms.
We keep them
in our feet. Each one provides a measure.