communing

plural communings

1. The act of one who communes; a communion.

   In youth have I known one with whom the Earth / In secret communing held—as he with it.

   1884 [1827], Edgar Allan Poe, “Communion with Nature”, in Richard Herne Shepherd, editor, Tamerlane and Other Poems, London: George Redway

   2 more examples

   Hope had never been the companion of love. Even in her most secret communings with herself, she had never admitted even the fancy of their union.

   1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IV, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 49

   I shall take an hour and come / Sailing, darling, to thy side. / Wind nor sea may keep me from / Soft communings with my bride.

   1913, Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Communion”, in The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, page 110

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of commune