On being a wilderness community
Walking the Willie Browne Trail together.
This is a time to trust, to expand,
to put down roots, to get our hands dirty -
a time to keep on going/one foot in front of the other -
boldly, with confidence, not doing what we do because
well, “we have always done it that way”.
It’s a time for being conscious -
a time for transforming.
—a collection of Well folks responding to the question “what time is it in the life of our community?” (Feb ‘24)
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We spent this fall equinox weekend being led on a contemplative forest walk by our neighbor, Matt Colaciello, and then celebrating together over a stone soup dinner on Overalls Farm. As Matt so beautifully reminded us with words *inspired by Octavia Butler, “Nature is God’s self-portrait.” We were asked to use all of our senses to practice presence within this portrait.
The next day our transition team met over brunch - yes, we eat very often together. About 6 months ago, this team formed to help us navigate the shift from Sunday gatherings at Hyperion to co-creating (& utilizing) community gathering space on Overalls Farm 3. This group has been showing up in so many wonderful ways during this season. Admittedly, we imagined a relatively short “transition period”...yeah, we’re laughing, too...what ever goes as planned?!
We started our meeting by looking back on the words at the top of this page (take a minute to read them if you haven’t yet). We then shared examples of how we have been leaning into these words as a community. That’s when we experienced an epiphany:
We are not just undergoing transition for a season. We are a community that is always undergoing transformation. As one Wellian put it, “we are not just in the wilderness, we ARE the wilderness.”
I don’t know about you, but “wilderness” can have some pretty negative connotations for me. It’s the place that lacks luxury and convenience. You can’t pack too much or you’ll get weighed down. It can get pretty dark in the wild - you might hear noises you don’t recognize, sounds you have never been quiet or secluded enough to notice before. It’s not a place most of us choose to stay for very long.
The wilderness can be harsh, and at the same time, it is teaming with life.
“It is not a barren wasteland,” wrote Jen Hatmaker in describing her own wilderness journey. “It is not unprotected territory. It is not void of human flourishing. The wilderness is where all the creatives and prophets and system buckers and risk-takers have always lived, and it is stunningly vibrant.”
What time is it now? Time to own that we are not just in the wilderness, we are the wilderness. We are a community who is learning to embrace the emergent, relational, slow, interdependent, inclusive, life-giving way of the God whose self-portrait we see in nature. The one we also see revealed in Jesus.
It strikes me that we will gather in the wild again this Sunday to practice baptism in the ocean. This is where, according to scripture, Jesus the system-bucker -Jesus the one who saw the sacred in everyone and everything - was baptized by his prophet-cousin John the Baptizer - it was actually a river, but you get the point. He was baptized into the wild. I can’t think of a better time and place to choose or to choose again to walk the wilderness way. Yes, you will have to leave some things behind and your comfort will be among them, but there is so much life to be had out here.
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*“Create no images of God. Accept the images that God has provided. They are everywhere, in everything. God is Change— Seed to tree, tree to forest; Rain to river, river to sea; Grubs to bees, bees to swarm. From one, many; from many, one; Forever uniting, growing, dissolving — forever Changing. The universe is God’s self-portrait.” —Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower