Turning The Corner
"...we shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time…" T. S. Eliot
This is one of my favourite quotations, and it came to mind as I arrived at Friends House for the first time this afternoon, for my first Britain Yearly Meeting. It resounded with the phrase that is often used amongst Quakers: "Coming Home To Friends", and it made me wonder that perhaps I have come home to Friends. I've recently had the feeling that I can only describe as being a "nostalgia for Quakerism". This is not a nostalgia for some unattainable historical 'golden age', but nostalgia as a form of 'homesickness' - a gentle yearning for a spiritual home. A spiritual home that I thought perhaps I had never previously known, but find myself feeling somehow that it is a place I appear to be returning to, almost unawares. The wonderful prospect for a Yearly Meeting filled with friendship and fellowship amongst Quakers makes me feel that this is indeed home.
0 comments:
Post a Comment