"Winter is the dry season in Africa, the time of safaris. We can learn from the dry seasons in life, and from life on safaris.
A safari of the self and Spirit is at times lonely. But we know we are never alone. It is a comfort to realize that this sense of isolation is necssary if we are to encounter Mystery and mystery is very much a part of a safari. Each day in the whildreness brings with it the struggle to survive and a heightened awareness of how wonderful it is just to see the sun set and rise again in the morning. Each day on safari is lived to the fullest because it is all that is guaranteed. If only we could learn this lesson as well in our everyday life.
Today, expect many things as you sit around the campfire of your heart. Someone is listening. Someone is talking to you, encouraging you to take that next step as you embrace the Mystery of the wilderness within.
Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wonderous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again."
Simple Abundance
Sarah Ban Breathnach
Isaiah 43:19
"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
A Safari of Self and Spirit
Sarah Ban Breathnach wrote in her book, "Simple Abundance,"
"In the summer of 1893, an English woman named Mary Kingsley traveled to the wildest and most dangerous part of the French Congo in search of herself. Both her parents had recently died, and suddenly, at the age of 31, Miss Kingsley found herself "not only desolute with grief but bereft of purpose." Her adventures in West Africa changed all that. Several years later her writings and naturalist discoveries, including the documenting of unknown species of fish and animals, were applauded by the Victorian scientific community.
Mary Kinslgey was a hunter of a dream: the knowledge of who she really was and her place in the world. So are you. Yet even without encountering the daily dangers she faced--wild animals, menacng spears, and deadly diseases--you have embarked on an adventure as exciting as that of any explorer. Uncovering the source of the Nile or charting the course of the Amazon are outward parallels to the inner journey you are on today--a safari of the self and the spirit.
In Africa, to go on safari--the Swahili word for journey--is to leave the comfort and safey of civilization to venture into the wilderness. Each time you listen to the woman within--your authentic self--you do the same. Remind yourself of this often. "You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition," Alan Alda advises the inner explorer in you. "What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself.""
"In the summer of 1893, an English woman named Mary Kingsley traveled to the wildest and most dangerous part of the French Congo in search of herself. Both her parents had recently died, and suddenly, at the age of 31, Miss Kingsley found herself "not only desolute with grief but bereft of purpose." Her adventures in West Africa changed all that. Several years later her writings and naturalist discoveries, including the documenting of unknown species of fish and animals, were applauded by the Victorian scientific community.
Mary Kinslgey was a hunter of a dream: the knowledge of who she really was and her place in the world. So are you. Yet even without encountering the daily dangers she faced--wild animals, menacng spears, and deadly diseases--you have embarked on an adventure as exciting as that of any explorer. Uncovering the source of the Nile or charting the course of the Amazon are outward parallels to the inner journey you are on today--a safari of the self and the spirit.
In Africa, to go on safari--the Swahili word for journey--is to leave the comfort and safey of civilization to venture into the wilderness. Each time you listen to the woman within--your authentic self--you do the same. Remind yourself of this often. "You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition," Alan Alda advises the inner explorer in you. "What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself.""
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