A Sense of Presence
Sermon | October 4, 2020 |Rev. Julie Lombard
How we define spiritual practice is significant. If it is the simple act of getting in touch with your Self, then even being a prankster can help you to arrive at enlightenment. At least that is what Doug and Dave found out after years of performing their spiritual practice.
Doug Bower and Dave Chorley were circle creators from South Hampton, England. They are the men behind the crop circle phenomenon. It all started in 1976, these two artist and friends would gather on Friday evenings at the pub for a few pints.
It was over the many discussions that brought them to Doug’s memory of hearing about crop circles while living in Australia years earlier. Wouldn’t it be fun, thought Doug, if like those circles that were thought to be made by UFOs, Doug and Dave were to secretly wander out into the fields after a night at the pub and make a few of their own circles.
At first, they used Doug’s security bar from his studio door. The men would be on all fours pushing around the heavy bar in the field making the circular depressions. Later, they constructed a devise called ‘the stomper’ out of a piece of wood and some rope. With that lighter weight tool, the men could stomp out circles in just a few hours.
After a few years, Dave grew tired of the practice. Hardly anyone seemed to notice their creations other than the occasional farmer on a tractor. They longed for their circle creations to be noticed. One day, while Doug was driving around, he noticed that the Bunch Bowl in Cheeseford which had been used as a grazing field for sheep for many years was being prepared for crops. He believed that their dreams had been answered.
They patiently waited until the grain was just the right height and then they took to the field with their stompers. The field was a perfect canvas and soon folks were talking about the crop circle they’d seen on the hillside. Dave was pleased with the attention they got and he was recommitted to their circle practice.
For years they made them, not even their wives knew. They got great pleasure out of having a laugh while folks tried to explain away their creations. These crop circles attracted many. The followers, known as Croppies were convinced that they could feel spiritual energies from the circles as they lie in them.
Meanwhile, Pat Delgado- the expert, made money selling books about the circles. Once Doug and Dave heard that scientists planned on studying the circles, the men decided to spill the beans. Dave’s health wasn’t doing so well and they felt like it was time to quit, there was no need to waste money on a myriad of scientific studies on the crop circles.
Nobody believe the pranksters. Dr. Robin Allen, of the Wessex Skeptic Society, like Pat Delgado, didn’t believe the circles were man-made. They preferred the mystery – maybe they were made by a UFO, or magnetic forces, or the wind created them. Doug and Dave even took out their stompers and showed how the circles were made in broad day-light, but few were convinced.
Eventually, Dave’s health failed. He died leaving Doug to be the soul storyteller of their spiritual practice. You can read about Doug and Dave or see the documentary film that Matthew Williams made about them called ‘Circle Makers’.
You might believe the that pranksters were having a little harmless fun, but when you see Doug or Dave explain their experience- being in a field at midnight after a few beers, silently stomping out the patterns they dreamed up in the pub with only the sounds of the night, such as the grasshopper warbler singing to them, and the varying winds rising and falling through the fields under the moonlight – there, they found a sense of presence.
Sure, there were a few ‘Narrow Squeaks’ as Doug called them, times they were almost caught, but he knew what they were doing was some kind of religion and the interest in the crop circles would continue long after their deaths. It’s been only a couple of years since Doug died. He joined Dave in circle creators’ heaven constructing divine designs, but all who are or have been inspired by their efforts continue to make crop circles.
It doesn’t matter what might guide your choice of spiritual practice: religion or tradition need not matter, except to your heart. As we follow our intuition, not our mind nor another’s, the practice reveals its offering. You may not start off with the task as a way to connect with yourself, but while you’re at it –that magic happens- you feel centered. Maybe like Doug and Dave, you were just play a gag, but you continued it because you were transformed by doing it.
Spirituality is an experience; it’s more than an intellectual pastime. Do you color in one of those coloring books, or write poetry, or listen to or perform music? You might do your practice in a wood shop, a kitchen, on zoom as you attend a vespers service, or on the hiking trail as you walk away the worries of the world.
You may have no product to speak of other than your own peace of mind, and then again, you may have given away sweaters you’ve knitted, or soups you’ve shared full of the vegetables you grew in your garden. Is your yoga mat rolled up in the corner and your paint brushes stored in an old mason jar with nobody knowing what is created with these spiritual tools? Only you know where these practices lead you.
Once while floating in the warm waters of Square Pond in Maine, my friend’s mother told me of her prankster spiritual practice that she does. She knits knockers for cancer survivors. She giggled as she explained the art of knitting knockers and most of the time her daughter and I joined her in the giggling.
I had many questions for Knocker Knitter: what kind of yarn do you use- obviously you’d want to avoid an itchy wool, how do you make them with the proper weight or size, and how do you give your creations to the cancer survivors?
She explained all the facts with chuckles dispersed in between. She is a cancer survivor herself and she intimately knows the pain women feel when they do not feel whole after a breast has been removed due to cancer. Her aim is to make these women feel whole again with every Knit and Perl.
It tickles her to no end to make a new breast in public without anyone’s knowledge. Occasionally, the church ladies gather in a knitting circle to make the knockers at church, afterwards they send off their creations to those who made the request for them. If you don’t believe me, go to www.knittedknockers.org and find out for yourself.
It doesn’t surprise us, does it? We know all the creative ways we partake in these practices. If meditation doesn’t suit you, try gardening or baking- that works for my mom. Thousands of Native Americans have passed the peace pipe around. Maybe you don’t have a green thumb or a desire to take up pipe smoking, what practices have you tried? ….
Every spiritual journey leads us to a better understanding of our place in the world. We are the spiritually evolved beings we desire. With every act of doing a spiritual practice, we grow our souls better and connect with the divine within. We reach inward and rediscover that place of centeredness. Taking quiet time for ourselves, sometimes its quality time spent with our loved ones, whatever it is- we do it and it relieves stress and brings a sense of peace and oneness with all that is our life.
So, let us give thanks and praise that in our inner world we have the ability to shape who we are and project that image out to the world around us. We are sacred spirits that are meant to grow, to learn, and to come to new understandings.
Let us give thanks and praise for when we come to the full understanding that we are a spiritual beings – with a deep connection to life, compassion, love, and a true appreciation of being alive, that our daily problems and challenges are transformed into easier and lighter weights to bear through doing our spiritual practices.
May we recognize our spiritual iceberg’s tip, identify with life and find compassion, knowing compassion is the path to deeper spirituality. May we get a handle on what our iceberg is afloat in. May we behold, the ocean of being that is the source of everything. May these spiritual lives we lead set a higher bar, demand the self-honesty within our own lives, and an extra-dimensional imagination that will intimidate us. Do not fear the chance for growth, or the realization of our true potential, and may we forever revere the abundance of fellowship we find here in this spiritual oasis in the desert.
May it be so. Amen.