swim, retreat, and beauty
It has been a busy several weeks! We relocated home base and spent the weekend unpacking endless boxes and more accumulated junk than I realized that we had. I might keep moving regularly if only to necessitate the purge that comes with that change. Transitions are a test in gracefulness. Not exactly my strength. Three thoughts on this sunny August day, as has become customary:
1. I had the opportunity to swim in the Gulf a couple of weeks ago along a deserted stretch of beach. Ominous storm clouds were out in the distance and I could see dolphins not far from where I was. As I stood in the surf and looked around me, it occurred to me that I could have just as easily stood there a million years ago just as I was. There was nothing artificial about the moment, nothing man made. No electronics. No schedule. Time stopped. It was a baptism of sorts, an immersion in the present.
2. I depart for Manresa on Thursday. I am already imagining the last couple of miles before St. Mary's Hall comes into view. It is a homecoming every time I go. There is my Saturday night walk to the chapel and my Sunday morning vigil in a private area. My walking meditation between an alley of oaks done only once a year. And a couple of runs along the banks of the Mississippi, where someone usually runs with me courtesy of imagination. I am grateful to get to be there in that space again this year.
3. I am slowly working my way through John O'Donohue's writing on beauty. It is incredibly rich. Beauty has always seemed an unnecessary luxury. I am starting to see that it is at the essence of the spiritual life. I am making my belated trip to Ireland next month and I am excited to see the wild countryside he has written and spoken of.
A small piece from O'Donohue:
"Beauty dwells at the heart of life. If we can free ourselves from our robot-like habits of predictability, repetition and function, we begin to walk differently on the earth. We come to dwell more in the truth of beauty."
1. I had the opportunity to swim in the Gulf a couple of weeks ago along a deserted stretch of beach. Ominous storm clouds were out in the distance and I could see dolphins not far from where I was. As I stood in the surf and looked around me, it occurred to me that I could have just as easily stood there a million years ago just as I was. There was nothing artificial about the moment, nothing man made. No electronics. No schedule. Time stopped. It was a baptism of sorts, an immersion in the present.
2. I depart for Manresa on Thursday. I am already imagining the last couple of miles before St. Mary's Hall comes into view. It is a homecoming every time I go. There is my Saturday night walk to the chapel and my Sunday morning vigil in a private area. My walking meditation between an alley of oaks done only once a year. And a couple of runs along the banks of the Mississippi, where someone usually runs with me courtesy of imagination. I am grateful to get to be there in that space again this year.
3. I am slowly working my way through John O'Donohue's writing on beauty. It is incredibly rich. Beauty has always seemed an unnecessary luxury. I am starting to see that it is at the essence of the spiritual life. I am making my belated trip to Ireland next month and I am excited to see the wild countryside he has written and spoken of.
A small piece from O'Donohue:
"Beauty dwells at the heart of life. If we can free ourselves from our robot-like habits of predictability, repetition and function, we begin to walk differently on the earth. We come to dwell more in the truth of beauty."
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