And He Was In The Desert…

This drawing represents what people maybe was when they looked at John the Baptist (on the right) vs. what being in the desert maybe was actually like (silhouette on the left).

There is a hermitage retreat place where I used to go in Minnesota. Sometimes going there felt claustrophobic and crazy. Imagine being alone with your own thoughts for 24 hours! Once though, I experienced this sort of timelessness. Every movement in the forest became interesting – the progress of the shadows, the squirrels, the changing light of the day. I sat it the cabin and watched the day pass. Weeks later, back in the city, I was not feeling so peaceful. A wise person told me to go back in my mind to the hermitage. I imagined myself in the cabin, and felt in my body the effects of the experience of timelessness once again. She said to me (and yes, I know it sounds cliche), “See, the hermitage exists inside of you.”
So I say to myself this morning, even though I have never been there, “The desert exists inside of me.”