TENTS seemed quite a miraculous thing to me as a child.  I recall pinning a blanket to the top of the fence in a neighbor’s yard, stretching it out and holding the lower edge with rocks to form my own little refuge from the world.  Inside the TENT we could hide, giggle, tell stories and share secrets. It was a world unto itself, yet temporary, easily moved to another place for another day.  Have you ever thought about the physical forms that we walk around in as being like those TENTS?  Our bodies provide a virtual TENT in which we can find a bit of refuge from the vastness of the universe.  They are a private place in which we hold our own personal thoughts and ideas.  We tell ourselves stories about the world and our lives.  Sometimes we laugh and sometimes we cry.  And when we close our eyes we can close out the physical world around us and reconnect with the vastness of the universe, with the very essence of Life which is greater than all the stories we tell ourselves.  A TENT is a miraculous idea providing shelter wherever we go.  Our bodies, the physical body, the energy body, and the spiritual body, provide a place of refuge too. Within them we can close the door to outer appearances aligning our minds with the Mind of God, the ultimate shelter that transcends time and space and all that has appeared before us.

© 2016. Reverend Eileen DeRosia Patra

Rev. Eileen is an ordained Unity minister currently serving at Unity of Livonia in Livonia, Michigan.