And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime.
*Kahlil Gibran. "Chapter 20 - Talking." In The Prophet.
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Written in 2014, when I lived in The Peace Hermitage, a tobacco barn near my family home. I was in my mid-50s, and the barn, made of wooden logs, was older than I -
As the late Christian contemplative Henri J. M. Nouwen observes in The Way of the Heart, the desert is a metaphor for solitude. I began reading Nouwen's book in the afternoon, and that morning, I read the following from the Christian Scripture (Gospel of Luke 4.2): "At that time the word of God came to John, son of Zechariah in the desert" (TEV). Immediately following are words of John going out as a prophet throughout the territory around the Jordan River. And, here, "word of God" refers not to words but, as usual in Hebrew thinking, a dynamically creative extension of the Divine Presence.
Later, in the early evening of the same day, I left my dad's home to return to the barn where I live, The Hermitage of Peace. I said, "I'm going to the sanctuary." This "sanctuary" is an aged building, a tobacco barn renovated some 25 years ago into a rustic apartment. Sometimes, my father will ask me my reasons for being at or going down to the barn: my reply could be, "There, I go for sanctuary."
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A decade later, solitude - or desert dwelling, or sanctuary - remains one of my vows, yet more than a vow. I still need a sanctuary to go to, to be alone, to pull away and apart. Practicing sanctuary is how I am being kind to myself, honoring myself, and honoring those I live among. Through sanctuary, I can bring to others a quality of presence that is more important than the amount of time I spend with them.
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When going into sanctuary, we take all beings there with us. Through this practice, we cultivate a solitude we can take with us - we are - wherever we go. In Gibran's words, we no longer need to live from our lips; we no longer have to project ourselves before others through some felt necessity to speak. We can be a listening presence - attentive with our whole body.
We need mindful time away from others to embody this spirit of sanctuary. If you do not sanctuary away from others, you will not embody sanctuary with them.
The more you can embody the Presence apart from others, the more you will embody it among others.
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2024. Permission is given to use photographs and writings with credit given to the copyright owner.
*Brian's book is An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love. The book is a collection of poems Brian wrote based on wisdom traditions, predominantly Christian, Buddhist, and Sufi, with extensive notes on the poetry's teachings and imagery.
