It is Saturday morning and I am retreating to my room this morning. In a few hours, we start our trip to learn about Saint Bridget but my energy is low. A cup of instant coffee and a protein bar will suffice.
Last night, I was restless so I read into the night. “What makes a young, Cambridge educated woman first join a religious order and then, if that were not demanding enough, seek a hermit vocation, literally on the edge of the world with only a simple hut as protection against Atlantic winds and storms?” The Anglican nun Verona Schiller takes me on her journey of solitude and retreat.
It helps me reflect on the frenetic nature of my life and how little time I take to step back and evaluate the beauties right before me. I think for me, my Sunday time at St Luke‘s church fills that void. It forces me to sit still for a while and just listen. It helps me reflect on the last week, it’s challenges and opportunities. It’s a time for me to be thankful for all my many blessings. It brings me together with a community of like-minded people bonded in spirituality.
When I get home, I will re-read Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s book Gift from the Sea which I’ve read so many times throughout my life. Each time I read it, I gain perspective about ways I can reduce my stress and enjoy my life more fully, being conscious of the present moment. So true on this journey I have been consumed with learning, looking up things on my cell phone about each place we have visited, each saint, each historical event and each new “word”, concept, or philosophy that was previously foreign to me.
Today, I strive to stay in the moment as I experience it and not feel bound to enhance my knowledge until a later time. It seems this will enhance my journey here, to dive deeper into the moment.
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