The desert has many teachings

In the desert,

Turn toward emptiness,

Fleeing the self.

Stand alone,

Ask no one's help,

And your being will quiet,

Free from the bondage of things.

Those who cling to the world,

endeavor to free them;

Those who are free, praise.

Care for the sick,

But live alone,

Happy to drink from the waters of sorrow,

To kindle Love's fire

With the twigs of a simple life.

Thus you will live in the desert.

by Mechtild of Magdeburg (1207-1282 ? or 1297?)

tranlated perhaps by Oliver Davies

Notes from Women in Praise of the Sacred edited by Jane Hirshfield

The "daughter of a wealthy German, Mechtild was twelve when she saw "all things in God, and God in all things." "

...In 1235 she entered a local house of the Beguines, independent communities of laywomen devoted to leading a life of good works, poverty, chastity, and spiritual practice."