Step Outside Tonight

I have a friend who told me of being at a retreat with the mystic, Jean Houston where the leader took everyone outdoors on a clear wintry night.  All the participants were standing in the cold within earshot of the conference center.  Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony boomed into the night air.  Jean invited the participants to “conduct the Ninth Symphony” imagining they were conducting the stars.  They were encouraged to assign to the stars the qualities they sensed they needed for their own life’s journey;  things like faith, honesty, playfulness, joy etc.  I can only imagine doing this… seems so powerful!

Then this morning I read Rilke’s poem. “Entrance” which I will copy at the end of this piece.  Both experiences seem to rely on the power of the outdoors to bring us closer to our own spirit… to find a way to listen deeply to what is inside us.  We are made by how we see the world.  It is too easy for me to forget or to resist going outdoors – especially at night, especially when it is cold.  And yet, I see the power in both of these described experiences – and I vow to overcome my resistance and to see what it’s like to conduct the stars, or to lift up a huge black tree and “put it in the heavens”…

ENTRANCE.  by Rainer Maria Rilke

Whoever you are:  step out of doors tonight,

Out of the room that lets you feel secure.

Infinity is open to your sight.

Whoever you are.

With eyes that have forgotten how to see

From viewing things already too well-known,

Lift up into the dark a huge, black tree

And put it in the heavens:  tall, alone.

And you have made the world and all you see.

It ripens like the words still in your mouth.

And when at last you comprehend its truth,

Then close your eyes and gently set it free.