Humble yourself in the arms of the wild at Gembrook Retreat

Samara Pitt and Jane Hope, Victoria Regional Meeting

Inviting people on to the land

 Wood is stacked, thanks to my fella and the kids. The wood is from a few different trees. Mainly a blackwood, a messmate and a grey gum. They all grew from seeds, naturally, on our property. The blackwood maybe 20 years ago, and the gums maybe 60-80 years ago. At some point they withered, died or had branches come down. They were then cut up by my fella and son, moved to a woodpile to dry out for about a year. Now they are brought into our house so we can warm the place up over winter.

 This whole process is about connection to land, and connection to the resources we use in our daily life. Most of the ways our society has set up our lives is about disconnection. Interestingly, the more disconnected we are, the less our lives find spiritual meaning, and the more we destroy God’s creation.

(Jane Hope @rewildingchristianity)

The land here is on the border between Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri country. Due to colonisation the boundaries are not clear, but high on the ridge close to where we are, the water runs to the salt-water of the ocean (Boon Wurrung), and inland to the Birrarung river system (Wurundjeri). This may have been a place of meeting and exchange.

Aboriginal people who have visited the Retreat have often been drawn to one area where there used to be a scar tree. It fell down and was cut up decades ago.  We know and honour the place where it used to stand, and by naming this, we also name the damage and destruction that our own forebears have participated in, and benefited from. These stories are so often hidden and lurk beneath the surface to haunt our histories. By bringing them to the light and experiencing the feelings of guilt, shame, helplessness and confusion, we can come to a place of acceptance that enables us to open up and listen with compassion. 

In the Quaker Peace Garden, we have a cairn of stones. We are invited to take a stone and hold it as a physical sign of the weight of sorrow and suffering in our world that we are carrying.  We have a culture that can try to repress pain, or hurry us over it.  Here we recognise that pain may have something to teach us, and that we are not alone.

This year we celebrated the winter solstice. We touched the earth, washed our hands in rainwater, breathed the air and fed sticks into the fire, singing ‘earth my body, water my blood, air my breath and fire my spirit’. These rituals remind us that we are not separate from the land, that we are created from the dirt and that our living bodies are part of the darkness and the light.

My wander this morning took me to a stump on our property that gives me the best view of the wallabies if they are about. As I sat down the sun shone brightly on my face and body, giving me much appreciated warmth, but blinded my sight. As I looked out I could not see anything…

 During this month I have felt the presence of God move through my body more than ever in my life, a bit like the sun’s presence this morning. But I can’t necessarily see that much in front of me.

 After a while of trying to strain my eyes to see the familiar wallabies, I give up and turn to the left. In the distance are lyrebirds. A new wild creature to learn from. I’m heading into new terrain. It’s unfamiliar, but with the sun by my side and wild animals to teach me, my eyes begin to see a little bit further along the path I must take. 

(Jane Hope @rewildingchristianity)

Equip each other to live a soulful life

 When I was younger, I was a city girl through and through and I found silence unbearable. Oh how times have changed. But that change has happened over a long time, and it’s been with the support of my community. 

 Today when I went out in the rain, it is only because I have learnt from one of my children the delights of being in the cold and rain, and from another how to live in the present, and then I have a spiritual companion who has often risen from sleep and prayed with me in the middle of the night.

 (Jane Hope @rewildingchristianity)

During the long lockdown in 2020, we developed a rhythm of work and prayer to help us live deeply and soulfully in the day to day. Using a simple liturgy of singing, Quaker Advices and Queries and silence, we pause three times a day to remember that it does not all depend on us.  During this time we have looked at how we here at Gembrook Retreat can respond very practically and directly to some of the big challenges our society is faced with, such as climate change and the Black Lives Matter movement. 

This year we are opening our beautiful ‘new’ Meeting House. It has been built using many recycled materials from the bones of Tom’s old hut which had lots of character but was falling down! It has a meeting room, and dining room, a kitchen and disabled access. Like the cabin, it is powered by solar, heated by fire, and uses tank water. Groups of up to 20 people can book the space for their activity and be surrounded by nature.  We hope to have a regular meeting for worship as well.

Some questions Quakers have about the way forward for an ageing Society might be addressed here where the spiritual and practical elements of life are integrated, where prayer is linked with action, practices of discernment are encouraged, alternatives to capitalism are explored, responses to the climate crisis are implemented, and connection with the land is at our doorstep. Let’s not struggle along on our own.