Livin' Off the Land

For a few days, I am embracing life through the gift of rejuvenation and encounter. In other words, I am on vacation.

So, after a peanut butter hamburger this past weekend, I am going a bit more natural. A feast awaits!

Eggs

Earth

Water

Amen. 

Let us walk in the holy presence. 

Milestones

As I posted my last entry, I looked at the sidebar and found that I had posted 44 times in 2015 and 55 times in 2016. Using my fourth-grade-math-teacher-place-value skills, I added the ones column and the tens column only to find the value equal to 9 in both places.

This means that you are reading my 100th post!

But, I also came on here to post tonight only to find that this is the first time that my thousands place has a value of 9, which means I have reached over 9,000 posts!

Thank you all for reading about my journey, as well as your kinds words of encouragement since I began writing here.

I reached another milestone this weekend as I visited Penn State. We ate lunch at a restaurant called The Corner Room. Word on the street was that the burgers were good, which was not a problem for me. So, I glanced at the options on the menu:

It was basically telling me what I should order!

So I did...

And here is the proof that I consumed my first PB burger!

And, was it delicious?

YES!

Let us walk in the holy presence.

Synchronous Poetry

Today someone gave me a book of poetry by David Budbill. I knew the name sounded familiar, so I started browsing through the Table of Contents for an equally familiar title. I found it. This moment of synchronous poetry seemed worth sharing.

          What We Need

          The Emperor,

          his bullies

          and henchmen

          terrorize the world

          every day,

          which is why

          every day

          we need

          a little poem

          of kindness,

          a small song

          of peace

          a brief moment

          of joy.

Let us walk in the holy presence.

(A brief moment of joy: baby animals! c/o zooborns.com)

Following the Path

The Way It Is

William Stafford

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among

things that change. But it doesn’t change.

People wonder about what you are pursuing.

You have to explain about the thread.

But it is hard for others to see.

While you hold it you can’t get lost.

Tragedies happen; people get hurt

or die; and you suffer and get old.

Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.

You don’t ever let go of the thread.

This weekend I participated in a retreat with a group of women called "Following the Path" here at the Mount. We used Joan Chittister's book by the same name, and guided by Joan, engaged in conversation about happiness and the pursuit of our passions.

I had participated in this same retreat two years ago, and that was the moment when I knew it was time to start seeking with this Erie Benedictine community. So, I was looking forward to reflecting on the same material at a different point in my journey. When I went back into my journal from July 2014, I found that the big moment on that retreat was the clarification between a job and a life. Our society isn't necessarily good at knowing the difference.

This time a big takeaway for me was another insight into society. First though, I need to mention the fact that we spent a lot of time reinforcing the truth that we have responsibility for our own journeys; no one and nothing hold that responsibility for us. Yes, community will support us on the way, but like Søren Kierkegaard says, "We create ourselves by our choices." The question then becomes: How much of what society says my happiness and passions should be can I shed in order to feel my own happiness and follow my own passions?

The thread about which William Stafford writes, it seems, is the most essential thing. God gives each of us a thread to follow in our lives; that thread is our passion that will guide us on the path to full happiness. The thread will not be God, but it will point us in the direction of the Divine; it will give us a taste of the Divine here on Earth; it will call us into a life lived in union with the Divine.

So, when I follow my path, I have to listen very closely because society often tries to tell me what my thread ought to be. But what my path ought to be is my own, my own unique journey. Yes, it is a challenging, beautiful, growing, evolving, imperfect journey, but it's my mine, and I don't want to let go of it.

Let us walk in the holy presence. 

A Walk in the Garden, continued

Now, we will move onto the "floral portion" of our visit to the botanical gardens in Cleveland last weekend.

Who doesn't appreciate the intricacies of orchids?

Here is a variety of Clematis that I had never seen before.

I don't particularly care for this picture, but I was mesmerized by just how blue the Delphinium were. 

The lilies were out in full force! 

See!

And lily pads, too! 

This is called a Toothache Plant. And according to Wikipedia, it really works!

Let us walk in the holy presence.

A Walk in the Garden

With my mother and grandmother visiting this holiday weekend, we decided to journey to the botanical gardens in Cleveland. Anyone, even if you've already been there, must go! It was incredible! Here are some of my favorite photos. This time I will focus on the trees and other odds and ends. Next time I will post the flowers.

These first pictures were taken inside the Glasshouse, which recreated the environments of the desert in Madagascar and the rainforest of Costa Rica.

 Even though they are perfectly aligned and in lovely form, spores have always grossed me out for some reason!

I loved the interconnectedness of the trees with the surrounding life. 

The leaves of this banana tree are bigger than I am!

 A perfectly content butterfly - there were so many beautiful butterflies flying around the "rainforest." This one stayed put for at least a minute, which is even longer than I can sit still.

In the herb garden, they used chamomile as ground cover in some places, so I rubbed my hands all over it, and I sure slept well last night. Also, a close-up of web dew.

Many trees had signs which told you how much money they help save each year...

 

 ...which is why we must hug trees! But, really, I simply wanted to show the size of this Black Oak.

Okay, until next time --

Let us walk in the holy presence.

Love/Fear

This upcoming Sunday's Gospel has similar themes to last week's Gospel reading. In my lectio with both passages, the same idea stuck out. Last week it was the words, "he sent messengers ahead of him." This week it is the words, "...he sent ahead of him."

But even with basically the same words, two different gratitudes came to me in my prayer. Perhaps it had to do with the word "messenger." When I read that word I thought of all the beautiful messengers in my life who proclaim Christ's presence to me, as it happened when Jesus himself was journeying toward Jerusalem. There are mentors, children, family, community, friends, and people whose names I don't even know acting as harbingers of the Divine in my life. I am grateful to witness the face of Christ in my life daily.

This week, on the other hand, I spent time with another idea: we don't really know what we are jumping into when we choose to follow the path of Christ. The choice precedes any of the reality of what will unfold ahead of us when we discern a new step in our journey. Yes, we try to make informed decisions and hopefully would not walk on a path that is unfit for us, but whatever is coming is unknown. And, it seems to me, that the best choice we have is to embrace that ever-present unknown.

It is so easy to fear; it is a very real part of being human. I know there were things I feared when entering into monastic community, not to mention all the things that bring out my fears on a regular basis. But, we do have a choice to trust that God is indeed at work all the time and move toward a place of loving the Mystery. Any time I able to do that, great gratitude runs through me. And, often times, it is those messengers who help me trust God at work in my life.

All of this brought to mind a wonderful animated short from the wonderfully creative Pixar team. It is called Day & Night. While I will not spoil it for you, I will include the text of only words in the film.

"Fear of the unknown. They are afraid of new ideas. They are loaded with prejudices, not based upon anything in reality, but based on … if something is new, I reject it immediately because it’s frightening to me. What they do instead is just stay with the familiar. You know, to me, the most beautiful things in all the universe are the most mysterious."

How do we live with the Mystery in our lives?

Let us walk in the holy presence.