Rom Carillo, from JISA’s First Spiritual Exercises ministry in Western Australia, reflects on his experience of a recent three-day EcoSpiritualty retreat.

Over the three and a half days we had opportunity to:

• Engage in personal reflection
• Journal on question that focused our attention on our own experiences, our concerns and on our place in nature and creation (of earth and in the cosmos)
• Share with others what touched or moved us during,
• The inputs on God and nature/creation and the evolutionary journey of creation
• Hands on ‘experiential practices’ that drew on our innate wisdom of body, mind and spirit
• Contemplative inner listening (meditations)
• Spend time in nature – on excursions, (or immersions) which included visits to Trigg Beach, the Henderson Environmental Centre and Kings Park

After one of these experiences, I wrote… one thing that stays with me is the sense of sacredness as I walked through natural bush. Everything is interconnected and this awareness awakens both sorrow and joy in me. Sadness at the way we (humans) have treated Mother Earth (and my own part in it) and joy at the realisation of cosmic interconnectedness. [COMPASSION ó COSMIC PAIN]

I was profoundly moved by the overall experience, especially by the messages of others… about shared pain in and of Earth (and Humanity). The video by Meg Wheatley – Beyond Hope and Fear  Meg Wheatley – Beyond Hope and Fear (Post Doom with Michael Dowd) was enlightening and helpful in coming to a place of peace and acceptance.

A couple of retreat takeaways for me: (out of many)

• An increase in my awareness of the wondrousness of Life. A heightened sensitivity and a sense of loving purpose going forward, not being overwhelmed with the gloom and doom of the ecological situation.
• To live in the moment and ask; ‘what’s needed here?’ and ‘what’s mine to do?’. We need to move forward as pilgrims, putting aside the road maps of the past and learning to read the stars that shine in the soul and trust in their guidance – a paraphrased from ‘Old Maps No Longer Work’ by Joyce Rupp.