“There is comfort in keeping what is sacred inside us, not as a secret but as a prayer.”
Terry Tempest Williams
Dear Friends,
This quote entered my heart a few weeks ago. It comes as invitation, as reminder. As a child, I would ride my bike through the walnut grove, an adventurer under the sunny skies of Northern California. Alone, or with my friend, I was free to climb the rock piles, rest under the trees, poke around the creek bed. This was my secret place – away from the emergencies at home – where I could experience life’s fullness. I was learning to pray.
A lifelong extrovert, I engage with the people and activities around me. As I age, however, I relish the comfort of quiet, sacred moments. I’m traveling a path to life within – a more introverted approach – into my place of prayer. Here, I pause, listen for answers to my questions or just trust the silence.
Recently, I was a volunteer “sorter” at our local library. Hundreds and hundreds of donated books needed to be organized for an upcoming Book Sale. As I put the paperbacks on their designated shelves or the non-fiction hard covers under the proper sign of “Biography” “Photography” or “Education,” I consider the hours each author spent to create that one book. I remember my own journey as an author… the many demands of editing, rewrites, or obtaining permission for quotes. I smile at the thrill of that accomplishment, heart full of gratitude, while I imagine my book tossed in the “Self-Help” pile.
I keep my thoughts to myself as we organize the books stacked around us, grateful for this reflective moment….to keep what is sacred inside, not as a secret but as a prayer. Through this experience of birthing a book, then 12 months later see it’s temporary nature, I’m reminded that life is filled with impermanence. At the same time, I trust that my contribution adds a little more light to the world. And that is enough…today I am enough.
And so are you, dear friends. The gift that you are lives alongside the human flaws and foibles that concern you. Let us move into unitive thinking where all comes together in the Grand Design of creation. Richard Rohr, OFM puts it this way in “Eager to Love,”
“The transformed self, living in union, no longer lives in shame or denial of its weakness, but even lives with rejoicing because it does not need to pretend that it is any more that it actually is – which is now more than enough!”
With affection,
Lisa
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