Before I learned anything about the Desert Fathers or the Great Dismal Swamp Maroons, I loved to retreat to my place apart from everything and everyone else. My parents built a home in the early 1980’s near Jack’s Creek in King William. A bend between the “swimming hole” and the “other branch” became my favorite place to play, catch creatures, explore, daydream and pray. Sometimes I’d go straight there right after school without first stepping into the kitchen for a sip of Kool-Aid. Perhaps my mind was troubled with encouners with a schoolmate. Maybe it was my struggle with anger, lust, or some other teenage issue. Or, was feeling content, perhaps rather happy about something. No particular reason was necessary for me to go to that particular part of the creek. I just went and would stay until my mom honked the horn for me to come in for dinner.
There is great value in having such a place. Even if it is no more than a corner of a room, having a place apart is a location to be in God’s presence and offer all thoughts and feelings to him. Yes, there is the church. But do you really want someone you don’t know or trust ‘like that’ to know your business? A part of Othodox Trisagion Prayer is to the Holy Spirit “who is everywhere present and fills all things.” Jesus prayed on mountains, Abba Anthony in deserts, Old Man Fisher along the banks of Lake Drummond. A bright and glorious transfiguration may not happen all at once. But the process of such a change can begin there, perhaps a path of holy wisdom, or maybe hearing a “nibriation,” a voice directing decision making.
The world around us seeks to confuse the mind and lead the heart way from a spiritual stillness where we can experience God’s presence. In rural King William, I only had to content with the typical high school “he-said/she-said” nonsence highlighted with non-cable/satelite TV and land-line telephones. The various doors of technology can lead today’s teens with wonderful and horrifying paths. A place to disconnect and disappear from the “world” is needed for adults as well as youth. Somewhere in the outdoors is especially preferable as we are surrounded by things made by the hands of God.
I was a bit sad to see Jack’s Creek as dry as it was due to the drought we’ve had in Virginia. The sight of invasive stilt grass didn’t make me smile either. But it was great to see the familiar rocky bottom of the creek bed, almost drinkable clear water, and hearts-a-bursting (strawberry) plants. My plan is to visit my parents more often and carve out somewhere in my place apart for another “John-John” to encounter a grace not found anywhere else.
