Wild and Precious Life

Our retreat center

This weekend was the silent retreat for all Jesuit Volunteers in the Northeastern US. About forty of us met at a Jesuit Residence and Retreat Center in Walton, Massachusetts for three days of silence, introspection, and listening to God.

It was a great experience - in honesty, I think it went beyond my expectations. It's amazing how much you can learn about a person, not by talking to them, but just being with them and letting them be who they are with you. It's equally amazing how much you can learn about yourself by peeling back the layers of dialogue and self-consciousness and leaving yourself blank and open.

I was connected with a spiritual director who checked in with me for just a few minutes every day to hear my thoughts on how the experience was unfolding for me. She was wonderful at helping me to decipher the messages that God was sending to me in the silence. I am surprised at how connecting with God doesn't have to mean chasing after or 'dialing up' God, but it can also be as simple as making a quiet time and space in your life where God can come to you. It is as though the openness, silence, and deep thought creates an avenue for God to pass through to you.

My spiritual director for the retreat gave me a copy of the poem below to contemplate as I spent time in nature, and navigated the silence. It rang with me, like a bell.

The Summer Day

Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

 

 

In other news, work is going well - things are moving along quickly. I am really excited about the opening of the new Catholic Charities Thrift Store! For more information on what's going on there and what I do every day, become a follower to the official Catholic Charities Thrift Store Blog. And as always, thanks for reading.

Starting Again.

Sometimes life forces you to stop, turn around, return to your drawing board, acknowledge your lack of control, start over. Such a time has come to my life this month.

Driving north from Augusta

As we pass through yet another Lenten Season I am thinking about all the elements that have given me life over this past year. The family that keeps me grounded, the town that has given me a home. The community that has seen me at my best and worst and taken me in. The good people at Catholic Charities Maine who have given me a chance, and inspire me to practice forgiveness and give chances to others in my life as well.


In turbulent and uncertain realities like those shown to us through JVC, it helps to remember simple words that validate your struggle and encourage your perseverance. One such writing captures this very well. If you know it, say it along with me.

'Desiderata'

Max Ehrmann

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.


As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.


If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.


Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.


Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.


Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.


Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.


Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.


With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.