“It was a spirituality characterized by a listening within all things for the life of God.”
J. Philip Newell
Seeing and listening for God in all life on Earth naturally leans into the contemplative practices of photography and music. It requires an awakening and attentiveness to our surroundings. In addition to the contemplation of scripture, lectio divina, there are also the practices of visio divina, the focus on a subject, and audio divina, the focus on a piece of music or sounds of nature.
The Celtic tradition sees the grace of God in the ordinary and everyday elements of life, embracing not only Scripture, but also the Book of Creation. It asks us to be aware of and attentive to spiritual movement in evolving natural creations; sometimes I find hearts in rocks, leaves and flowers when experiencing photo therapy. The world is a visible manifestation of God. All beings and all things are sacred.
The vision of St. John was of goodness in everything, and that all beings, our creature and plant kin, the elements of earth, air, fire and water, are inter-related. We must have the trees for oxygen exchange. We are not living on Earth, but are of the Earth. We do not have dominion over our planet, but have an obligation to care for Mother Earth.
What happened to our concept of Mother Earth? Would we treat our own mothers as an inexhaustible resource to be used for our own gain? Hopefully we would mature into respect for her love for us.
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For further reading:
Listening for the Heartbeat of God by J. Philip Newell
Anam Cara by John O’ Donohue
Lost in Wonder by Esther de Waal
Wintering Woodland can be found on my Quiet Beauty album. Visit dianewheelerdunn.com/music to purchase a CD or visit Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, ITunes or your favorite streaming platform.
