By Siglinde Van Ransbeeck
My name is Siglinde Van Ransbeeck. I am part of the Christian Meditation community from the beginning in 1992 when Laurence Freeman opened here the first Belgian centre. I am also part of the Belgian guiding board since then. We are a fine meditating community with many groups and activities as you can see on our website ( www.christmed.be). Some of them became ‘ online’ with the corona crisis. We also feel strongly part of the World Community and connected to the ‘spiritual heart‘ in Bonnevaux.
In this Corona period ‘home base’ Bonnevaux was and is for me from the beginning a continuous spiritual support. Laurence spoke in his mass of 29/3/20 of transformation. But now after attending several masses, conferences of Sarah Bachelard and Mark Burrows and others, the oblate meditations, video lections…I look back and see a transformation still active without knowing clearly where it will lead me.
Also forced to go back to the simple living, caring for the close ones and surrounding people, sharing their sufferings and worries but also work in the garden, simple house tasks….make a deeper layer of connection come to the surface.
God’s presence is here and that is very moving. I want to hold it and cherish it and see Him all the time but it does not work like that. Still, I know the Lord does help me all the time, He is always there but I am just not attentive enough. I can ‘lose’ this presence but He never loses me. That is recomforting and overwhelming.
Meditation is a keystone in this period. Silence and attention during the day are a natural continuation of meditation. Painting and drawing are part of that. One could say it is a kind of meditation or prayer.
The large drawings are made in Chinese ink without sketches or specific plans just a starting hint like ‘ window’ or ‘tree’. The drawing comes into form by the act itself. It takes time to let it grow and to become what it is. Silence is hereby very important, outside and inside….. for several hours. Letting it flow and ‘I’ becomes just an in-between.
Thinking and evaluating stop gradually and also the notion of time, me being simply ‘here and now’. The pen, the ink, the paper…..and attention.
The result is not so important and in the end, I am often surprised.
It is a way of expression very refreshing for the heart and open to everybody. A form of prayer.
