"It is I
From earth and sky
Shut out, or they
From my closed heart?"
___ Kathleen Raine, "The Oracle in the Heart"
As we become increasingly urbanized and the population rises, people in cities cannot help but begin to exclude parts of the world around them, out of sheer self-survival. We cannot meet and greet everyone in the street, nor would this be entirely desirable. Given the effort we expend on blanking out parts of the world, it is any wonder that we sometimes have the impression that we are shut off from the world? If we are emotionally hurt or physically traumatized, if patterns of depression and disconnection continue, we can end up feeling isolated and unable to communicate with the world around us.
The process of opening our heart after it has been injured is best begun in nature. We can become aware of the beauty, variety and seasonal changes of the nature world by regular exposure to the countryside. We can also go directly to the sources of nurture that have given us insight and empowerment in the past: music, animals, poetry, books, places, and friends are all able to feed our spirits. Learning and observing fresh subjects can also draw us from depressive introspection into new avenues of communication. Reaffirming our spiritual connection through daily prayer, meditation, or communion with the sources of spiritual strength can likewise reopen closed pathways.
The most profound change comes about if we frequently extend our sincere welcome to the world to be with us in our space. In that invitation we learn that it is not the world that excludes us, but we who shut the world out.
"Contemplate times when you have felt excluded from the world. What factors helped you feel included again?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]
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