Having spent the last three Easter weekends at the Bield, it felt a little strange this year to not be here. The Bield closed to guests on Good Friday, and I returned yesterday wondering what I might find… what evidence might there be of the transformation that we celebrate at Easter… will it have happened even though I was not there to witness it?
My mind wandered to the account of Mary Magdalene finding the empty tomb, and then recognising Jesus in the Garden. What did she know and understand of what she witnessed or of what happened before she arrived at the tomb?
During my few days of not knowing, my imagination was freed to imagine all kinds of possibilities. Our imagination enables us to visualise something that is not in front of us. It can enable us not just to see our physical environment in new ways, but to create new ways of being, acting as a wellspring for creating meaning in our lives.
If I imagine… I am better able to find the resources within me to begin to work towards bringing about a new reality, to be more the person God created me to be, more Godlike.
Some of you may have read or heard of The Cloud of Unknowing, an anonymous fourteenth-century text, that gives practical advice on finding union with God. It says that God can never be fully “thought” but God can be fully “loved” — so we know God in our hearts more surely than in our minds. It is with our hearts too that we can imagine. If we open our hearts to new possibilities, God who is love gradually reveals to us more of love, more of life that is overflowing with love, than we can imagine, that is the beauty of the mystery of God.
So how might we cultivate this sacred imagination?
I find that silence is important, for nourishing the imagination. It gives the mind and heart the space to think, to wonder, to explore possibilities, and to envision. If we give the intuition and imagination space to play, the Spirit will take care of the rest...
In Celtic Daily Prayer (Book 2) Frances Roberts writes “silence will speak more to you in a day than the world of voices can teach you in a lifetime”
I returned to the Bield to find the chapel transformed with a beautiful flower arrangement made by our gardener Pamela. I could see what she had done but was content to enjoy the beauty in silence rather that worry about the how or why it was so attractive.
I invite you to listen to the silence and wonder as you ponder the mysteries of the Easter story.
Liz