Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. – Matthew 3:4
The young ones flee to the wilderness. They have heard through whispers that is where Greatness resides.
They go to the wilderness, ushering through the clumps of fearsome rocks and sandy soil, to rest with the old ones; the abbas and ammas, the ones that wholly listen with the ears of their hearts.
They pursue a life less lived. A life brimming with raw honey, locusts, pungent wine, prayer and unity. A life they dare not dream but a life all the same prominent in love ever after.
Love not in the sense of promiscuity but of innocence—that of the beginning—in which the golden rays of the guiding stars in Heaven shone.
In this wilderness they find a knowledge uncanny akin to their childhood faith, one that swallows them whole with wonderment.
They vow to the aflame that is growing from the Breath ever so gently exhaled on the spark from within.
It is then that they are let loose.
They have grown from the young and unmindful to a wise and timeless tribe.
They witness the Holy, in all the living world—even the flesh—and that which is illimitable.
It is through the wilderness that they are able to make their way back to the widely known.
To the place often traveled.
Not to subdue or go back to ways of the common but to spread the passion of goodness.
Lead by righteousness.
It is in this worldly place they are able to free themselves from the binds that constrain them. The binds that had permanently mark their tender skin—transforming them into the wake of tomorrow.
They know from their rest that they will be able to flourish and witness the Holy in the darkest of shadows; within the greatest cities, across the vastness of plains and in the depths of the sea.
It is there that their light will shine brighter than ever before, dripping with a thick and rich solace.
This same solace will spread with glory; pulsating all the different colors of glimmering warmth that has been cast and revealed through a crystal so clear.
And in that glimmering warmth a remarkable Presence is acknowledged.
In that moment the Truth will be known; no hesitation, no questioning.
Purely cell-splitting willingness and awareness.
In the darkness.
In the night.
In the wilderness.
Amongst all that ever was.
That is where Greatness will transcend all; ever breathing, light-giving in the stillness like wintertide.
With Love,
Brooke
Wholehearted Growth 