Beloved……

Beloved,

Beloved, I come before Thee.

All that is in my heart I lay on the altar of Your Love.

All the sadness, all the grief, all the regrets, all the missed opportunities or spoiled creations.

I know courage in this place. I know resilience and steadfastness. I know it in the abundance of Your Love.

And I call all people to know that Love, to know the fullness of Being, to welcome the power and assurance that comes in that fusion, moving through the act of creation.

Do you pray? Do you offer all your troubles onto the altar? Or plead for a better life with more opportunities? Or give deep thanks for all your friends and for their support? We all have our own secret ways of making our connection with the Source of All.

Perhaps you go for long walks over the hills and through the woods, smelling the damp leaves and the new green shoots as you walk. Perhaps you revel in the majesty of the blue mist of bluebells that arise in woodlands, undisturbed by human presence. In moments such as these—in the colours, textures and variety of the abundance of nature—my heart is filled to overflowing and I feel like singing! Isn’t this communion with the Creator?

It seems that in some way we need the stillness and the quiet, we need the experience of only me present in the here and now. How else can I touch You except through me?

Sometimes, in the company of the one you love and who partners you in your most intimate living, there is a real sense of oneness or being together. When you look in the eyes of this one and see yourself and know yourself in this oneness, the tears well up. This is the experience of the Creator!

Wrapped in the awe and wonder of a clear night sky is the sense of belonging—knowing yourself in the pattern of things—in a much larger design, being part of something unfolding here on this little planet. Then, perhaps, your prayers and thanks wing their way through the clear night air.

And if none of this is your experience, what then? Do not give up! Come humbly into your quiet centre and touch what you find there. Have courage and look directly at what is present. This is your life and your experience, it is not nothing, and it is not wrong!

In your fingers, turn over your myriad diverse creations, even the fear and hurt and pain. Is this also not wonderfully made? Can it too not be molded and changed as light filters through the curtains? Give yourself to the tender exploration and know that many others share these pains. Your courage to see them and offer them on a higher altar changes not only your experience but also that of all those connected to you. Your prayers then find hungry hearts to soothe.

We shall not cease from exploration
and the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time.

In the words of TS Eliot, we find the understanding and the felt sense of the glorious Creator in the quiet centre that has been there all the time. Glory is all around when we look!

-Ruth Buckingham

RUTH BUCKINGHAM is a teacher of Primal Spirituality and travels internationally offering courses on spiritual awakening and transformation. Her practical approach encourages people to discover the truth of themselves.