Praise Song for Wide Open Space
by Omid Safi
[Listen to Audio!]
 Wide open spaces fill my heart with a sense of awe. It can be a plain, a desert, a view from a mountaintop, a vista. Somehow wide open spaces remind me of God’s presence in ways that few mosques, churches, and temples ever have.
I have sat with this mystery for a while, wondering about what it is that touches our hearts so. Rumi said,
"Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!
Why do you stay in prison
When the door is so wide open?"
The opening feels to me not so much like an emptiness but an invitation, a beaconing, a call, a welcoming. Wide open spaces feel like being drawn into a place that’s beyond place, a time beyond time. So many of the ancient sages have been saying this:
"As Above,
So Below."
Somehow the wide open space here (“below”) serves as an opening to there (“above.”) […]
Maybe there is something about this love of wide open spaces that is a desire to be bigger, grander, more connected. There’s something about the urge to lift up our gaze from the micro-dramas of our own life, and be more attuned to the larger rhythms of the cosmos, and the cosmic Artist.
We are meant to live lives that are complete and whole.
At least for me, this is the appeal of wide open spaces: a reminder of who we are, who we have been, and who we must become yet again. It’s a reminder that we are not “mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life,” as Martin Luther King used to say, but that there is something in us as vast as the whole cosmos. Somewhere deep in our hearts, there is a faculty that reaches out for the whole universe, because it is made in the image of the cosmic Artist.
This is what open spaces are: a reminder that our hearts are meant to be open, cast open, flung open so that the whole cosmos is reflected within.
About the Author: Excerpted from this page.
Latest Community Insights  |
Praise Song for Wide Open Space
How do you relate to wide open spaces in your life? Can you share a personal story of a time a wide open space helped you turn your gaze from the micro-dramas of life to the larger rhythms of the cosmos? What helps you remember to be cast open so that the whole cosmos is reflected within? |
| david doane wrote: I love the wide open spaces. I just came in from outside looking at the enormous starless sky with a giant full moon — I felt awe and gratitude. I spontaneously thanked God. I reme… |
| Jagdish P Dave wrote: I had lived in a wide open space in a village size little town in India until I was 16. I graduated from a high school and went to a collage located in a relatively big town.Now when I go back … |
| Always Love wrote: “What more do we need to fill this cup of life?” Presence. Being here … … |
| Share/Read Your Reflections |
|
Awakin Circles:
Many years ago, a couple friends got together to sit in silence for an hour, and share personal aha-moments. That birthed this newsletter, and rippled out as Awakin Circles in 80+ living rooms around the globe. To join in Santa Clara this week, RSVP online.
Some Good News
Video of the Week
Kindness Stories
Global call with Yoav Peck!
 Join us for a conference call this Saturday, with a global group of ServiceSpace friends and our insightful guest speaker. Join the Forest Call >>
About
Back in 1997, one person started sending this simple “meditation reminder” to a few friends. Soon after, “Wednesdays” started, ServiceSpace blossomed, and the humble experiments of service took a life of its own. If you’d like to start an Awakin gathering in your area, we’d be happy to help you get started.
|
Editor’s note: As technology and social media help our world get smaller, our circles of daily interactions also become smaller. Not only are we increasingly seeking out people with similar views and values, we are also only seeking out news stories that reaffirm our own beliefs. We have to be mindful of going beyond our "bubble" to also see the world through the eyes of the "other". -Ameeta
Richard Whittaker
Oh his solo bicycle ride across the U.S. Zilong said, “I had no experience biking. The longest I rode a bike before was for two hours.” He vowed not to use money for lodging, so each night of his two and a half month journey he knocked on the doors of strangers and asked to camp in their backyards. Each night a door opened. When I interviewed Zilong, he was three days away from embarking on an even grander bicycle odyssey…
“I met Jim Miller in 2005 at a sweat lodge. Later Jim pulled me aside and shared a dream. He was riding on a horse across South Dakota and Minnesota and saw a group of Dakota men singing. Then he witnessed an execution in his dream. Later he learned he’d dreamt of the largest mass execution in U.S. history in Mankato, MI on Dec. 26, 1862. He said, ‘I’m wondering if you could help me make a film to connect with our youth.’ It was one of those things where chills go up your spine.” …
Sangha of Auspicious Companions 