Holden Village, Washington
Article For Holden Village Voice, Written While The Executive Directors
We have been living in our wilderness home for over three years. The Wolverine Fire and its slow, steady rebirth have captured our hearts and minds and we feel smitten and in love with the mystery of nature. As urban dwellers before our arrival to Holden Village we found city life vibrant, yet scratchy. The city had sushi and art museums, energy and diversity. But the wilderness boundary has been working on us as spiritual beings and as artists. We find ourselves listening to the stars in the night sky and the sun and the moon, to the mountains and the valleys, to the forests and creeks and lakes that surround us, to the meadows and the wildflowers, to the rich conversations, to the newly born fawns, a lumbering black bear, songbirds and hummingbirds and to their exotic music especially while sitting on our porch swing in the Village. We experience this expanse of creation caught up in the festivity of living.
The creeping things of earth will give you lessons, And the fishes of the sea will tell you all. There is not a single creature that does not know That everything is of God’s making. God holds in power the soul of every living thing, And the breath of every human body.
— BOOK OF JOB 12:7-10
Richard Rohr writes, “We especially need to hear the creatures of Earth before it is too late, before their voices are stilled forever through extinction occurring at such a rapid rate. Once gone they will never be heard again. Extinction is forever. We have lost sight of the fact that these myriad creatures are revelations of the divine and inspirations to our spiritual life."
When we love something, we recognize its soul, and we let its soul touch ours. We must love something deeply to know its soul. Before love, we are largely blind to the meaning and value of ordinary things, and the power they have to save us – to help us live
in union with the source of all being. In fact, we cannot fully appreciate or even delight in other things — trees and animals and the whole of nature — until we open our hearts to their souls. Our soul recognizes theirs.
This connection to soul can come from deep listening and connection with our world. It reveals insights and offers experiences that help us make a shift in how we see the earth and all her living things. Or the connection to soul can come from breakthroughs in the sciences, such as ecology, and quantum physics.
Art can also amplify the sacred and challenge the status quo and help us to hear above the noisiness of our daily lives and help us pause in the midst of our unknowing to ask better questions and hear differently. Or we may find ourselves inspired by the wisdom traditions of native peoples and mystical voices from the major religions that remind us once again that our world is a sacred whole of which we are but a small part.
These insights and experiences are necessary to free us from the chains of a society seemingly trapped in consumption. Perhaps with a shift in thought and action to A Disciplined Pursuit of Less, we can find a nobler goal and deeper spiritual connectedness to the earth, each other and our creator. As a spiritual practice, the disciplined pursuit of less might help us redefine our wealth and our worth. By reorganizing our perceptions, perhaps we can be liberated from our illusions about what we need to own and what our place is in the order of things.
Our desire fir the world and here at Holden is to move beyond tired old notions of competitive individualism to a place where we come home to each other and our mutual belonging in the living body of our earth. We desire to live within the limits of our resources and in harmony with the earth and its creatures as best we can. Unless we have roots in a spiritual practice that holds life sacred and encourages joyful communion with all people, the earth, its creatures, and the God that sustains us, the enormous challenge we face ahead becomes nearly impossible.
We plan to keep sowing seeds of dialogue, hope, community, and positive change for our world. May the Peace that passes all understanding be upon us all.
See more conversation in EARTH and ART
