I used to work at a retreat centre that is soon to celebrate
its 25th anniversary. As part of that anniversary they are collating stories
from all the previous team members. I have just finished writing my
contribution and a theme struck me that I wanted to share on the Live and
Flourish blog: Spiritual Home.
This is a phrase that you often hear from people who come on
retreat. For them the retreat centre has become their spiritual home. It is a
wonderful thing to witness someone saying. They are usually quite emotional and
certainly full of gratitude. It is a feeling that some people have from the
minute they step into the grounds. For others it is a feeling that grows over
several visits as they gather experiences and build connections with people and
the landscape. There is a sense of profoundness which I think this phrase
'spiritual home' communicates. The spiritual home is the place where we connect
in profound ways with what is most important to us. It is the place where we
have profound contact with other people - where we feel safe enough to allow
our self to be seen. It is a place that holds or embodies a sense of the
profound mystery of life so that we can approach it and try to come into
relationship with it. It is a place that nourishes our most profound longings,
for connection, for understanding, for acceptance and for peace.
I think this is something we all need, whether or not we
call it our spiritual home or not is irrelevant. We need a place that can be
all those things. A place we can return to for clarity, solace and strength. It
is especially good if this is a place where others share in a similar
experience - such that the shared experience amplifies our own personal
responses and takes them deeper.
In a world that has been steadily flattened into scientific
blandness, where anything remotely soulful struggles for legitimacy, we can
struggle to find such places. If we are lucky to find such a place we might
still struggle to allow those feelings to flourish as the inner cynic seeks to
sabotage and dismiss them.
My experience while working at this retreat centre showed me
that this is a need many people are happy to share and express - even though
often it wasn't something they were particularly looking for. But once that
need was recognised, once the spiritual home has been found, and we realise it
has been found, the doubts are usually banished. We have found something so
precious and meaningful that the shallow scientific perspective shrinks to its
proper (and important) place in a much more profound vision of life. This shift
is a retrieval of something that our culture more generally has lost. As such
we are going against the grain and we might need to seek out the support of
others who understand and appreciate this richer perspective on life.
I know all this might sound strange to you. However, if you do
sense a longing for such a place I would recommend you relax around that
longing and not go desperately seeking it out. Perhaps it isn't too fanciful to
think that our spiritual home finds us rather than us finding it. I would trust
that if you are opening up in general, opening to life, then you will discover
a spiritual home sooner or later. The place will find you, you just have to be
receptive enough to hear when it is calling.
My spiritual home is this retreat centre where I used to
work. I go back regularly for retreats and sometimes to work leading retreats.
Perhaps it's because I'm getting older, but these days I'm very aware of all my
previous visits, the history I have with the place. It is such a rich
experience. I'm reminded of all the aspiration of my naive 25 year old self who
first moved there. I'm reminded of the trials, struggles, mistakes and
successes of my path to flourishing. I'm reminded of all the connections I've
made with fellow travellers on the same path. I'm reminded of the great sea of
humanity that is struggling towards wholeness. I'm reminded of the preciousness
of this human life, and its brevity. Of course your spiritual home doesn't have
to be a retreat centre. It could be a special place in nature that holds these
things for you. It doesn't have to even be a place - it could be a group of friends or a regular
event.
This blog is something of a ramble -spontaneous reflections
that just bubbled up as I wrote my contribution for these 25th anniversary
celebrations. I don't think there is a great point or message. Perhaps if
anything it is just to share the concept of the 'spiritual home' and how
important I think it is, especially in this modern world where these subtle
poetic concepts can be so hastily dismissed. It is possible for us all to find
such a place where the mysteries of the human heart can be witnessed and taken
seriously. When we do then our path to flourishing is made so much easier.
