All real enjoyment is as good, from the point of view of energy production and conservation, as suffering. —J.G. Bennett

 

My place is where I am, and your place is where you are. Not only have I got to bear my own situation, I have to bear your situation also. First of all I have to bear the truth about myself and little by little I have to bear all truths —J.G. Bennett

 

BJ Appelgren

Camp Caravan is very pleased to share works from writers inspired by the Fourth Way.

 This excerpt is published by permission from Sunny Side Up, a memoir of a young woman’s search for transformation, pages 41-42, by BJ Appelgren

Mr. Bennett’s arrival, several days before the course is to begin, raises the atmospheric clangor to new heights. He is one of those people whose entrance into a room can be felt even when you aren’t looking. I catch my first glimpse of him from across the dining hall. He stands heads above everybody, about six foot five, bony, 75 years old, with a shock of white hair, bright blue eyes, and a gaze that bores through anyone caught in it. Can he read minds?

He makes me think of Carl G. Jung or Albert Schweitzer. It’s that mustached upper class appearance. Wearing an aged hound’s-tooth sports coat with brown leather patches at the elbows, he looks a classic model of the imposing English gentleman. Here is the person I’m putting all my hopes on. Will he bring lucidity to my search for meaning?

With him are Elizabeth, his wire who must be about thirty years younger than he, two sons a couple of years apart, the younger in his late teens, and two pre-teen daughters. The children aren’t on the course but participate occasionally in various activities and, of course, live in the Bennetts’ apartment when they aren’t at school.

Each day the increase of crackling energy makes the air buzz and my stomach clench. I can see Mr. Bennett across the room at meals, talking with people who seem to know him. What do they talk with him about?  Feeling out of place, I keep reminding myself of the numinous dream of England, how the feeling of promise had played a role in drawing me here. Am I not looking forward to communal living and shared spiritual practices? Our activities promise to reveal how ordinary daily life can be an expression of a spiritual one.

View Barbara June’s writer’s page

www.facebook.com/bjappelgrenwriter/app_191387770912394

Purchase a hard copy of the book from Amazon or directly from the author at

 P.O. Box 887
Charles Town, WV

Kindle version of the author’s published works are available at
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/235735
and
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/235696