In most of the great religious traditions we find references to the desert. The desert is a vast space, where the absence of growth and the presence of silence removes the person from normal distrations and allows them focus on what is really necessary. These traditions see people being purified in the desert and given a new perspective as they prepare for a new phase in their life or in their mission. In the Old Testament, the Prophet Hosea states that God says that "The desert will lead you to your heart where I will speak"
The desert is also an image for our inner selves, seen as a time for deepening or as an symbol for certain periods in our life. We can experience times in our psyche when nothing seems to be moving or growing in us, when we seem barren and dry, or when familiar ways no longer seem to work. We enter our own deserts and are given our own opportunity to re-evaluate what is important and simplify things down to what is really needed.
One basic principle of the inner life is that our problems become the very places where we can discover greater wisdom and love. One Eastern Tradition has a training practice entitled "Making Difficulties into the path". However, prolonged periods of difficulty or dryness, - desert periods - when we are faced with harsh conditions, with a removal of our usual points of reference or with no sustenance, can be very frightening. Our difficulties can seem to be increasing because we no longer hide from them or from ourselves. We can no longer follow our old habits of fantasy, escape or distraction. Consequently, we can become afraid and doubt if we can ever find security or direction. Often we can panic and not trust that our own empty and desolate moments can be moments of deeper growth.
The secret of the desert is learning to lose, to let things go, to simplify. Periods of dryness or darkness are challenges to stay with ourselves, to gently observe. The desert teaches us the importance of slowing down, the need to pay attention and to look more deeply. Difficult periods can be, as the Prophet says, a time for journeying deeper into our own heart.
