In our August 2024 Fire and Light podcast, we offer a guided meditation on a “soulscape” that changed your life. If you prefer reading to listening to a meditation, we post the reflection here. Take your time as you read; feel free to stop at any point and let your memory and imagination ponder, ruminate.
Recall a time and especially a place where a seed was planted
A flame kindled
A space opened
That changed your life, that set you on a course.
Were you a child? Adolescent? Middle-aged?
Solitary? With someone?
Where were you?
What season was it? Summer green?
Autumn gold and red?
Winter, black, white, frost and snow?
Spring thaw and first blossoms?
Were you on flat land? A forest? A mountain?
What was the air like? Still? Windy?
Clear? Misty? Cloudy and gray?
Starlight? Moonlight?
What fragrance comes to mind? Dry? Moist?
What did you hear?
Did the sun blaze? Or a candle glow?
A campfire or wood stove crackle?
Were you on water or shore?
On a river or by a spring?
Was is raining? Snowing?
Were you indoors? At a window?
With a book?
With an image?
In a place of worship?
Rest there a while. What has become of the seed, the flame, the opening?
Can you give it a name?
Has it sent out roots and leaves? Has the fire grown? The space expanded?
If the moment lies dormant, how might you make it quicken and thrive?
Dream it into being?
Yes, I know very well what it was that woke me up and it happened when I was fifteen years old at Putney Work Camp in the rolling hills of Vermont. The Putney School was run by a bunch of liberals–communists and quakers and people in the arts who loved the outdoors and took up the cause of peace and a positive commitment to humanity. After World War II there were many pacifist and other international movements devoted to ending armed conflict. At Putney I lived among young Holocaust survivors and other children of intellectuals who were aware of social evils and resistance. An example was the daughter of William L. Shirer, the journalist who chronicled the rise of Nazism. Anyway, my anger and the strength and enthusiasm of people who had experienced real suffering and oppression combined to make me determined that any career I entered into would be not for monetary gain but for how it contributed to the good of society. And I thought the person I married would need to be so inclined as well. Folk music, square dancing, corn husking contests, hiking in the high White Mountains, in addition to the daily farm labor made me a more confident and purposeful youngster and set me on a path that I have followed ever since. I cherish the memory of those two summers and how they brought me closer to reality and allowed me the freedom to dream, and . . to fall in love. Thank you for the opportunity to reminisce on the impact that Putney had on me and many others in the generation of the 1950’s. Never think that the 50’s were apathetic; there was a lot stirring that eventually led up to the awakening of the ’60’s.
Elizabeth, thank you for this wonderful response. I was deeply moved when you told me some of this story, and I am so happy that you share it here.