Photo: Farfield Meeting House – Becky Lucas
Outside the trees move happily, the wind fresh and lively. Yews, Chestnuts, Sycamore and Birch. Most too young and supple to remember the time before there were walls to house the Silence. They remember though, the underground network of roots keeping their collective memory alive of the people who came and hid away from the trees in their stone house surrounded by green.
What care has a tree for stone houses anyway? Their Silence is in their roots, grounding and centring them to the Earth, nurturing and protecting them from the unforgiving elements. The tree finds Silence in its sway in the wind, moving with the caress, feeling the sharp sweet refresh from the soft rain and fluttering brightly in the light of the sun.
People are too inconsistent, without roots or solid core. We roam wildly, taken by that wind to adventure or descent into the gloom of banality. When we Seek the room it is because it has invited us in, to sit and pause in our movements, from here to there. The room calls us to stop and listen for a Silence of our own. To do nothing and be everything at the same time.
In this stone room, staring at a view untouched by time, listening to the clap of hundreds of leaves alive in the wind. There within lies Silence, quiet of body and of mind, for all who Seek it.
I hear the trees rustle as they watch me leave the Silence of the stone room. They merrily flutter and rejoice in their lived Silence.
Other posts about Farfield:
Farfield Meeting House – The Silent Building
Farfield Meeting House is a Quaker meeting house that is no longer regularly used. It is how owned by the Historic Chapels Trust. You can read more about it here Wikipedia article about Farfield Meeting House
Blog posts are written by members of Ilkley Meeting and occasionally other contributors. Posts are not necessarily endorsed by the Meeting and may not always represent the opinions of our members or the wider Quaker community.