The stone circle at Castlerigg. Photo: Terry Winterton.
Encounters with the divine
Terry Winterton describes a Kindlers’ nature retreat
It was time set aside, to notice the nudges and prompts of the Spirit in the natural world. Nine of us had come together, for four days in September, at Glenthorne Quaker Guest House and Conference Centre in Cumbria.
We walked together in the autumn mornings to beautiful and quiet places in the Lake District, places that had been chosen by our ancestors as special sites. We visited the haunts of William Wordsworth and the Poets’ Walk near Grasmere. We spent time at the magical ‘Grot’ building, a special room built in 1688 to create a living picture of the waterfall at nearby Rydal Hall.
Surrounded by the mountains near to Keswick, we experienced a mini-Meeting for Worship at the 4,500-year-old stone circle at Castlerigg. Then we quietly walked to the isolated church on the shores of Lake Bassenthwaite, built on the site of the hermitage of Saint Bega, a beautiful princess who ran away from Ireland to the harsh discipline of the mystic monastic life, rather than marry.
We opened our eyes, ears and hearts to allow us to notice the subtle feelings we often ignore in our busy lives: the changes in atmosphere and the internal effects on us. Perhaps this was just a memory or stillness, or maybe a sense of awe or reverence at the deep peace of silent landscapes, or the wild strength of the wind blowing over the mountains and off the lake.
In the afternoons, the time was our own: to rest, or draw, or journal, or talk about things that mattered to us.
Our only required task was to notice just one or two things from each day, something that stood out for us in this lectio divina approach to each meditative walk. We were asked to spend time reflecting on what it might mean, to reflect and chew on it gently. At the end of each day, we shared that one thing in the epilogue before we went to bed.
One of our group, Heather Tweddle, wrote this poem, which catches the essence of this time.
Look into the Eye of a Child
Look into the eye of a child – and look into the eye of the Divine.
Look into the eye of the person you just passed in the street – and look into the eye of the Sacred.
Look into your heart and find the heart of the Beloved.
All around in all things, in all people we meet the Divine – if we are open to that.
In the sky – birds winging and clouds scurrying.
In the water – all living creatures
On the earth – the earth itself and all living things
In all the elements and in all creation there is the Divine, the Sacred.
