Refuge (86)

As a kid growing up on our farm, one of my favorite things to do was to find places of refuge from the wind and elements. Since it was windy almost all of the time where we lived, I had plenty of opportunities to enjoy this pastime. Our straw stacks next to the corrals were particularly well-suited since there were small spaces between the stacks you could crawl into and be completely protected. Immediately, I would notice the silence and stillness of the air in the absence of the wind. The sensation was very much like entering another world. A quiet, safe, secure, even loving world. I would even imagine that I was in the middle of some catastrophic event and yet I was safe and secure in my refuge. I can feel that sense of refuge now as I write. It happens to be quite windy out this evening and I am sitting at a table outside on our patio. And yet I am also in that place of inner refuge that those childhood memories and experiences connected me to. What I now know is that I hadn’t really found much of a physical refuge at all, but I was drawn to and finding over and over again the felt inner sense of refuge, safety, and security. One that is actually always present and, more than likely, the root and foundation of our Being. Sanctuary. Asylum. Shelter. Safe haven. Secure base. Home. Wholeness. Unchanging loving awareness. Being. The wind and the elements were messengers pointing the way. The protective cracks and spaces in the straw stack were tactile, physical, visible symbols of deeper realities. The refuge was and is Real and True and Here and Now. Peace