At the social after our first session, we had a chance to chat with our presenter, Lynn. I mentioned these encounters with words as we talked about truth. She reminded us that truth will keep presenting itself over and over again. So, I know these are probably important words for my journey right now.
Of course, when I got home from retreat, I re-encountered words from her presentation, a quote from the Cheryl Strayed book, Wild (a great read, by the way):
It was enough to trust that what I'd done was true. To understand its meaning without being able to say precisely what it was...It was my life - like all lives, mysterious and irrevocable and sacred. So very close, so very present, so very belonging to me.
The only way to encounter truth, it seems, is to take time to notice, to be present. How would we know what is revealing itself to us if we aren't paying attention?
At the monastery, one thing to which I've been paying attention is this one last bloom on a hydrangea in the courtyard:
It reminds me that summer still lingers, although the breezes are getting cooler. I had wanted to write about the hydrangea even before I officially started writing the blog. Tonight, my fellow postulants and I had our monastic values class. I looked over at the cover of the Joan Chittister book, The Monastery of the Heart, and what did I see?
Hydrangeas, of course.
What signs do you see in your own life pointing you to truth?
Let us walk in the holy presence.
