I’m writing this post from the Isle of Iona, a small island with a rich history. My husband and I have come back to this island we love for a retreat centered on the work of Rainer Maria Rilke led by author, translator, and Rilke scholar, Mark Burrows. No lengthy essay from me today! Instead I want to share a few photos and quotations AND an invitation to join me online next Sunday for heart-centered conversation and practice. You’ll also find information about an in-person retreat on Winter Equinox.
I hope you’ll pause, breathe deeply, and join me in enjoying the incredible beauty of Scotland along with a few words from Rilke.
Whoever you are: when evening comes, go out
of your familiar room where you know everything;
for your house stands on the verge of distances—
whoever you are.— Rainer Maria Rilke, “Eingang” from The Book of Images; trans. Mark S. Burrows
To arrive on the sacred isle is indeed a pilgrimage: drive to the airport, fly to London then on to Glasgow, train to Oban, ferry to Craignure, bus across Mull, ferry to Iona, walk to St. Columba. It was filled with the beauty of rain, spectacular sunrises, rainbows, waterfalls, grazing elk, seals at play, and dolphins leaping beside our boat. What an abundance of gifts!
“In life one cannot awaken often enough the sense of a beginning within oneself. There is so little external change needed for that since we actually transform the world from within our hearts. If the heart longs for nothing but to be new and unbounded, the world is instantly the same as on the day of its creation, and unending.”
— Rainer Maria Rilke from a letter to Anita Forrer (January, 19, 1920)
Storm Boela is upon us, winds gusting up to 70 miles an hour. The ferry did not run yesterday nor will it go today; we are locked on this small island, 4 miles long, 1 mile wide. Even the Abbey has closed. Yet, as Rilke reminds us, the pilgrimage continues.
“…no matter how extensive the ‘outer world’ might be, with all its astral distances, it has not comparison to the dimensions, the depth-dimensions of our inner life, which hasn’t need of the spaciousness of the universe in order to be, in itself, practically illimitable.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke from a letter to Nora Purtscher-Wydenbruck, August 11, 1924.
I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it.
I circle around God, around the primordial Tower.
I’ve been circling for thousands of years
and I still don’t know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?
~ Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours, trans. Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows.
Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart: An online gathering: Sunday, Nov. 1, 3-5pm EST
When we sit beneath a tree ablaze in autumn colors, gaze on the last asters of summer, or watch day fade into darkness, we see the beauty of the abundant natural world. When seeing through the eyes of the heart, we sense our kindred connection through the sacred web of life. In this space, everything belongs. Join us for this monthly gathering of Church of the Wild Earth & Soul. All who want to deepen their connections to this incredible living world are welcome.
You can expect shared conversations, small group discussions, and space for quiet reflection as we open to cultivating our relationship with water, land, and sky around us. Midway through our time together, there will be approximately 30 minutes of silence so that you can move away from technology to be present to the more than human world.
Register to attend Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart here.
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