“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'” Matthew 4:1-4
As part of our ministry training, the students of Unitarian College are asked to complete an exercise every month called 'taking stock', where we reflect on the month gone by, lessons learned and intentions for the future. One of the questions, about our spiritual practice, is what nourishes and sustains you here?
There have been so many changes this year. Sometimes it can feel overwhelming. When the ground feels as if it is constantly shifting beneath our feet, it is good to stop and take the time to consider, what nourishes and sustains us here?
For me, there is both a simple and a more complex answer to this question. The simple answer is, the earth.
As Thich Nhat Hanh says in his wonderful book, Love Letter to the Earth, “The Earth has all the virtues we seek, including strength, stability, patience and compassion. She embraces everyone... She supports us in very concrete and tangible ways. No one can deny that the water that sustains us, the air that we breathe, and the food that nourishes us are gifts of the earth.”
And I guess the more complex, or perhaps it's more accurate to say, more detailed, answer is also – the earth, because after all, we are the earth. The seventh principle of the Unitarian Universalist Association is “respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.”
At the beginning of lock-down the bare supermarket shelves showed us the stark reality of this interdependence and the climate crisis continues to do so. On a more positive note, those of us who were lucky enough to be able to get out for walks during lock-down developed a deeper appreciation of the natural world around us, and a closer connection to the land and the seasons. Paying attention to the beauty of the earth – that which fills me with awe and wonder – is what nourishes and sustains me here. The other day I was walking through the woods and I thought about how all the trees would still be here after I have left this world. I found this strangely comforting. Perhaps there's also something about acknowledging the impermanence of life that allows us to appreciate it better.
One of the lessons of lock-down for me has been to recognise how my physical, mental, and spiritual health are tightly interwoven and tangled up together. The most nourishing spiritual practices for me are also physical practices – yoga, singing and chanting, running, walking in the woods - things that ground me in my body and the present moment. As someone whose livelihood often involves stringing lots of words together in a vaguely coherent order, it can be easy to live in my head and forget to pay attention to the rest of my body. It can be easy to get carried away with planning for the future, and forget to pay attention to the here and now.
Just breathing and being present to what is, is not as easy as it sounds when what is is so unfamiliar Рthe physical separation from other people has often left me with a strange sense of dislocation. It helps to remember that we are not alone. 'We're all in this together' may have become a lock-down clich̩, but nevertheless, it is true Рwe are all experiencing the same things, albeit in our own unique way.
What nourishes and sustains me here are connections, relationships, love. I mourned the loss of face to face connection when we had to close our church building, but connection is connection, whatever form it takes, and I have been pleasantly surprised by the depth of connection I have experienced online, both within this Unitarian community and beyond.
Connection, relationships, and love are what give my life purpose – being of service to others and fostering connection between people, and between people and their sense of the sacred. What nourishes and sustains me here is very much this spiritual community. I always feel nourished by our time together.
Thank you for all the ways in which you have all helped to nourish and sustain each other through these difficult times we find ourselves in. I am so very grateful to be a part of this community.
What nourishes and sustains you here?
I'll leave you with the words of John O'Donohue, from Benedictus: A Book of Blessings,
“There is a quiet light that shines in every heart. It draws no attention to itself, though it is always secretly there. It is what illuminates our minds to see beauty, our desire to seek possibility, and our hearts to love life. Without this subtle quickening our days would be empty and wearisome, and no horizon would ever awaken our longing. Our passion for life is quietly sustained from somewhere in us that is wedded to the energy and excitement of life. This shy inner light is what enables us to recognize and receive our very presence here as blessing. We enter the world as strangers who all at once become heirs to a harvest of memory, spirit, and dream that has long preceded us and will now enfold, nourish, and sustain us. The gift of the world is our first blessing.”
