The Hinterland Becomes the Heartland

field growth

What if that shadowy mystery beyond the span of our years turns out to be the real country to which our earthly days are just the fragmented signposts? What if the unconscious realms in which our conscious minds are floating turn out to be the embryonic sac that is beckoning us toward a reality far beyond imagination? What if that of my life that seems so total, so final, and so absolute turns out to be the map into the hinterland of my eternal reality?

How reluctant we are to let go of the containing walls and risk a life beyond the circumscription. It seems easier to survive the slavery of Egypt than to venture into Sinai, and we convince ourselves that our slavery is freedom and our helplessness is a proud independence. The map changes radically when our walls come down and the real roads, that were always there, though impassable, are opened up. Then the hinterland becomes the heartland, where real life can really be lived.

—Excerpted from Inner Compass by Margaret Silf

3 COMMENTS

  1. When Margaret Silf nails it, she nails it. How good, how very necessary today for me, in particular, to be reminded of the land beyond our current land, the land of which we were certain as children, from which we are all too distracted as adults.

  2. What if that shadowy mystery beyond the span of our years turns out to be the real country to which our earthly days are just the fragmented signposts? What if the unconscious realms in which our conscious minds are floating turn out to be the embryonic sac that is beckoning us toward a reality far beyond imagination —This is what I have believed is true since Confirmation at 11 years of age. It is that I forget.

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