Just Be

When was the last time you spent 24 hours of uninterrupted time with the one you love? Or one of the someones you love?

24 hours of uninterrupted time? It sounds ludicrous! How? When? This is not possible.

Humans in the 21st century - modern times - are skilled at filling every minute of the day with activity, obligation, tasks. And we are always struggling against the grind that we have set up for ourselves.

I find that I am always looking for a window out!

The window came this last week. Gracie was to be at camp for the week. The house is empty of interns and guest moms. I just needed to enlist a small army of people to care for the myriad of animals that live at Nativity House. (a house of hospitality not just for humans!)

Tuesday after work we jumped in Rosie (our red prius) and headed north to Racine, WI, Eco-Justice Center. It just so happened that we were there 7 years to-the-day! of our very first visit to their hermitage. Our treks to the one room cabin in the woods began as 24 hours or a full weekend - if we were lucky - to get away and prepare in prayer for the project that would become Nativity House. It has now become a whole family affair. Once or twice a year Justin and I go. Once or twice a year Gracie and I go.

This time Justin were blessed to have a full 48 hours of time away. We spent our time reading, hiking, exploring the southern Wisconsin coast, drawing, writing. It was time to just be in each other's presence. There was no elaborate plan, there wasn't non-stop deep conversation, it wasn't all about romance.

The task at hand was to  just be. 

On our jaunt up the coast of Lake Michigan coast we stumbled upon a brewery: St Francis Brewery. Yum!

we have to make time, take time, reclaim time

to just be in each other's presence

your spouse, your child, your mother, your father

Remembering the Beginning

Unpacking, sorting through boxes that we haven't looked through in many years, I came across this painting that I did for Justin back before we were married. It was inspired by a spiritual experience I had on a silent retreat. A hummingbird came to visit me. I was deep in prayer, sitting by a babbling brook in a field of lily of the valley. Yes, it was that surreal. My eyes were closed, I was meditating, pondering the possibility of a life long commitment to Justin. I heard a humming, a whir. I opened my eyes and what seemed like a mere centimeter away from my nose was a hummingbird. His long pointed beak poised at the tip of my nose. We made eye contact. In that moment time froze and clarity came. 

The poem that accompanied the  painting...

a cozy space inside the heart

accompanying the gentleness of the morning Sun.

in a longing for eternity

with our Trinity

a sudden flash of beauty comes to me

a hummingbird

divine timelessness answers

our love - infinity - with Trinity

Peace

The Christian Family in the Modern World

I have been preparing my article for the next issue of The Visitation. I usually muse over the topic for a good month or so before it all goes down on paper. This time, I find that I am bombarded with notions of community: how to live community, what is community? how does that translate to the Body of Christ? what are my communities?

The snippet that keeps coming back to me is where two or more are gathered in his name, there am I in their midst.

Justin and I, due to our vows, are always gathered in the name of Christ. That notion recently hit me like a ton a bricks. When we are having fun playing with Gracie, when we are driving to our cousin's birthday celebration, when we are in a heated discussion, when we work on publishing the next issue of the newspaper.... there Christ is!

Then I think about the family that was gathered around the Infant Jesus, the Boy Jesus, the Adolescent Jesus... What an image of perfection the Holy Family is. Christ literally was and is always present there.

A few months ago, a good friend recommended that I read Familiaris Consortio an encyclical by Pope John Paul II from 1981. It was an amazing read. I totally recommend it. Here is a tidbit of it as a reminder to what we are called to as a Christian Family.


 ...the family has the mission to become more and more what it is, that is to say, a community of life and love, in an effort that will find fulfillment, as will everything created and redeemed, in the Kingdom of God. Looking at it in such a way as to reach its very roots, we must say that the essence and role of the family are in the final analysis specified by love. Hence the family has the mission to guard, reveal and communicate love, and this is a living reflection of and a real sharing in God's love for humanity and the love of Christ the Lord for the Church His bride.

Be Accused of Loving your Husband more than your Children

"What God has joined, let no man put asunder."


This was a thought provoking interview that I managed to catch on Terri Gross' Fresh Air back in June. I think that many mothers can take this notion for granted. In the world that we live in we are trained to be the super mom that will drop anything at the drop of a hat for our children, even our marriage. For me this was a good reminder that, as always, balance is the key.

Interview with Ayelet Waldman