Throughout this series, mountains have been an important image for me. And now we arrive at the end of my mini-series, we find ourselves on a mountain again. And this mountain is on the opposite side of the world to the mountain where I had my first childhood experience – in Australia.
I’ve told this story before on this blog. And so it is with important experiences – the story must be told again and again.
On the border of Queensland and New South Wales, behind the Gold Coast, you may find the Macpherson mountain range, part of the Great Dividing Range. The road leads from Southport via Nerang up through Mount Tamborine to the town of Canungra where you may continue your journey to one of two mountain resorts: Binna Burra or O’Reilly’s. I was negotiating the mountain passes on the way to O’Reilly’s. In the passenger seat was my 18 year old niece Caroline, who was visiting Australia for a month (where I lived at the time).
Caroline had mentioned that she and her friend Jo (her fellow traveller to Australia) had gone to Sydney to stay in a house of students who they knew nothing of. And discovered that they were all committed Christians – just like Caroline and Jo. Caroline found that wonderful. I said, “Well, like attracts like” – for I at the time believed that this apparent coincidence was the operation of the Universal system / the principle of “reality follows thought.” But Caroline was having none of this. “No, it was God,” she said.
I didn’t want to argue with her. Especially as I was driving up a perilous mountain road at the time. My own beliefs were a mixture of NeoPaganism, Pantheism and Eastern Mysticism. I pursued gurus, tried Buddhism, practised eastern forms of meditation and various esoteric philosophies, teachings and techniques.
I prepared to go into “indulgent tolerance” mode whilst we climbed higher up the mountain range. It was because of that very black-and-white “certainty” that I had long mistrusted evangelical Christianity.
But Caroline then launched into a full exposition of the gospel and of the fact that Jesus Christ had come to bridge that divide between God and humankind; and when we reached our cabin in the resort, she drew for me a picture of a cross bridging that chasm. All the time I was in tolerance mode. I didn’t need evangelising. I considered myself knowledgable about the bible, & had been good at R.K. at school. So I just let Caroline do her thing, until she at last got distracted by a snake lying in the path.
For the next year I continued in my usual way, following my own spiritual interests, occasionally thinking of this episode. OK I hadn’t liked being evangelised. But I was impressed by her conviction, by her belief that her religion wasn’t a private matter, it was to be shared; and by her courage. I thought, “I wouldn’t do that.” It’s a personality thing too, but I actually believed everyone has a right to their own beliefs & it was no business of mine to try and convert someone else to my beliefs. But Caroline believed she not only had a right but a responsibility to tell me what she believes. I was impressed by that. But I didn’t do anything about it until 1991 a few months after I’d returned to live in England, with my parents in their Kent village near Tonbridge – and it changed my life.
Have you ever changed your life as a result of a conversation with one person? Or was it a long process, involving several people, covering a number of years? Please share your own stories with me!
Here is a list of some of my glimpses of eternity, listed by one identifier or the place where the experience occurred:
- Mountain at end of road in Wales.
- Hedge parsley in Kent.
- Dream of the sea
- Mount Neel Kanth in India.
- Violin passage in Bach’s “St Matthew Passion”
- Twilight on the beach at Mynt, Pembrokeshire coastline, West Wales
- Taize service in church
- Chalice Well Gardens in Glastonbury
- The woodland between Conishead Priory & Morecambe Bay, Barrow-in-Furness
- St Cuthbert’s Tomb in Durham Cathedral
- On the mountain top at Binna Burra, Queensland.
Journey through the Cambrian Mountains to Aberystwyth in Wales
Do you identify with this journey? Share your thoughts and feelings with me about this journey of the spirit. I’d love to have your comments!
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I totally understand that journey! This year I have experienced many changes both spiritually and emotionally, mainly brought about by people I have interacted with and places I have been. Just yesterday I was standing on a North Yorkshire beach watching the sun sparkling on the rippling waves of rock pools, and I had a sense of total peace. It was short-lived and I was soon hurrying back up the hill to catch up with my travelling group. As I rushed past some overgrown hedges I stopped suddenly as I saw a beautiful butterfly sitting on a flower. It was magnificent, and made me realise just how insignificant all of our ‘business’ really is so much of the time.
Thank you. It is lovely to hear of others’ experiences, coming aside from the busyness of life, and seeing things as they really are, “glimpses of eternity” in nature, in the simplicity and beauty of the world around us.
I would add – among many things – the close study of hawthorn blossom outside St Albans cathedral.
Thank you Paul. This is a lovely image. I felt a sense of joy and upliftment when I contemplated the hedge-parsley in Springtime, when I was age seven or thereabouts. And hedge-parsley has the same effect upon me now. It’s why spring is my favourite season. When I gaze at that exquisite lace-like pattern, I remember that childhood experience & feel the same sense of peace and joy in relation to the universe.