Spiritual Journey in Ghana. Ghana-Malawi Joint Formation: April 5 -22: I went to Ghana for a joint meeting between the Formation Teams of Ghana and Malawi. I left Malawi on Easter Monday 5 April and came back on 22 April. I was away for 18 days and spent five full days for the meeting. The remaining 13 days were for traveling, visiting communities , brothers, and others. All these days spent, I called them a “spiritual journey” for some personal reasons as follows: 1. I felt I was uplifted, I got encouragement from my fellow brothers. During this time, the word “FIC brotherhood” was sound and real. This reality is an experience that goes deep to my bones, flesh and heart. I don’t take it for granted. It is “a blessing” from God, and then the word “God” and “Goodness” become a reality too. On my free time I used to walk around alone, meeting people, and even school children, visiting markets, groceries, townships, villages, etc. In this very short encounter or even greeting with two or three words, I could feel the spark of their goodness that leads to the feeling that I am good as well. Thus their goodness was the mirror of my goodness and vice-versa. In short, I felt at home. This kind of experience, reminds me of the beautiful poem by Mark Roske , “mirroring”, that runs like this: "Mirroring" I cannot be better than you, you cannot be worse than me.. .ego dies and we are free. Beautiful child, Perfect Being, Let me share what I am seeing. Mirroring Spirit's sacred song, above the field of right and wrong, inseparable, our hearts as one, sharing breath and sacred Sun. The choice is ours, transcend perception, Owning you as my reflection. Layers of pale perception pealed, a view of a "you" and a "me" is healed. Spinning cells are merged in motion, droplets in the same vast ocean. Barriers broken, borders gone, our simple souls sing one grand song. Symphonic triumph, our notes get clearer, Honoring you as my own mirror. 2. Openness: One of the values of the meeting was “openness”. Every time I heard a participant saying words, I felt as if his words were mine. The opposite might be true. Once I said words openly, I felt that others could understood and accepted the points raised. In the meeting there were no debates but dialogue. Too often what might be the subject of a fruitful dialogue is approached in a spirit of debate, of winning a point. Debate is of the mind; dialogue is of the heart. Debate is the language of authority; dialogue the language of community. Debating is like boxing, dialogue is like dancing.  3. The hot weather in Ghana was a blessing. This means that I had a pleasure of staying in the cool room with fan or Air Condition. It was the best time to sit and enjoy reading “The Pillars of the Earth”. It was the second time I read this book of 1087 pages. I had enough time spent for reading in the airport, in the plane, and in the hotel in Nairobi. I was happy that I managed to finish it. It is the book that portrays the practice of Christianity in the daily life of people of England, especially that of Monks and religious leaders such as bishops in the year 1135-1174. This book reminds me of the Hindu epics of Bharatayudha and Ramayana I used to enjoy when I was a primary school boy. While reading this book, my memories went back to the past year experience (1985) when I traveled with late Brother Aristides to see some historical churches or cathedrals in Holland, Belgium and Germany. Late Brother Aristides was my principal at van Lith Teacher Training College Muntilan (1969-1972)and an expert in history. He told me how the people built the beautiful cathedral in Brussels, Antwerpen, Uthrectht etc. Small part of this book tells us how Tom the builder built the Cathedral at Kingbridge. The biggest part was about the life of William Harmleigh, Prior Phillips, Remigius (the monk), Bishop Waleran Bigot etc. The most interesting of this book is that the values of characters of the people presented are still applicable to this very day!!!!! 4. To enjoy and at the same time to meditate through the nature is one of my hobby. The vegetation along the road from Accra to Kumasi, is similar with that of West Java and Borneo. It looks so rich and fertile. In the North part of Ghana, there are so many empty lands not yet cultivated. As a man from the Far East where land is so scare, this empty savanna creates impression of natural richness. God creates people with talents and resources to survive. In some places, people start cultivating the land by creating project of “Mango plantation”, “tick trees forestry”, “expanding the towns” etc. Bro. Martin Dariyo. Last edited by Martin Dariyo, FIC (08-05-2010 18:53:46) |