In the morning, while it was still very dark,
he got up and went out to a deserted place,
and there he prayed.
And Simon and his companions hunted for him.
—Mark 1.35-36
Find your deserted place,
dark and empty,
far from words:
not just solitude,
but soul-itude,
where you are
the I AM within you.
Pour yourself out of yourself
until you are empty.
Abandon what you think;
let the stone be stone, the light light,
wall and window and mountain
be themselves,
and so with you.
Leave behind all you identify with,
all you hang onto to know yourself,
so there is only God,
and God’s emptiness you enter,
a night sky full of love.
No one can say where you are, or who.
You are in God.
Beloved, stay there as long as you can,
until you can’t be anywhere else.
—January 30, 2018