“We are River people. We cannot hurry the river. We have to move with its current and understand its ways. We wait on God too. His time is the right time … we know that in time and in the spirit of Dadirri (that deep listening and quiet stillness) his way will be clear.” – Miriam Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann
I consider myself a very blessed man to spend semester one of 2019 doing my Mission Placement in Darwin. My time immersed in the culture and spirituality of the First Australians has been truly enriching for my personal prayer life. I will share but one of the many discovered treasures there: Dadirri, a word which for the Ngangikurungkurr people means “inner, deep listening and quiet, still awareness.” Dadirri was first brought the church’s attention by a Catholic aboriginal elder from Daly River, Miriam Rose, and has since helped many Australians enter into the traditional Catholic notion of contemplation.
One of the first things I noticed about our indigenous brothers and sisters is that they never seem to be in a rush (even when it means catching a plane… haha). Indeed, things like the pacing of conversations, the speed of walking and even the time given to grieving the death of a loved one seem to operate on a different time scale to what I’m accustomed to. Over the months in the Top End I began to understand why: it was largely because our indigenous are still very much in sync with the natural flow of the seasons, the land, and the timing of the flora around them. See, nothing can be rushed or short-cutted in God’s creation – a flower blossoms when it is supposed to, not necessarily when we want it to. Whereas the Western hyper-stress on the values of productivity and efficiency often dictates what ‘should’ be happening in a particular time frame (e.g. meeting should start at 2:00pm and end at 3:00pm), our indigenous are more able to simple flow with what is already going on around them. In this sense, they are more open to the gift of the now, the present – and the present is where God dwells. Dadirri teaches them to have an “inner deep listening and quiet deep awareness” of God’s spirit in the here and now, and just as importantly, to flow with Him.
Having come across this beautiful notion of Dadirri a number of times and places in Darwin, I have tried to since absorb its simple principals as a way to remedy my relative impatience and habitual desire for results to happen in my own timing. Today, rather than getting frustrated that a particular breakthrough isn’t happening, I too remember that “I am a River person” and that I “cannot hurry the River” because the River is God’s sovereign Spirit, of which I am invited to flow and trust.
This doesn’t at all mean I am passive in the process though. Rather, I am invited to be deeply aware … aware and receptive to what the Spirit is actually doing in the particular season he is carrying me through.
The Timeless Quill 