July, 2011

I have described this past month in many ways to people...

Living poetry, transparent freedom, being in the veil--not on one side or the other, but in the midst, standing between, breathing deeply in the astounding place where divinity and humanity touch...

I was part of an annual educational project in Leon, Mexico, that worked with youth who were trained as leaders in a two week day-camp for younger children from the same neighborhood. There were 45 volunteers and 200+ children, ages 5-14, attending. It was great to work with my rscj sisters, and fabulous to see the youth learning techniques, assuming responsibility, being creative, and helping their community. The kids who attended were also phenomenal...wanting to participate, learn, play, grow...

But, as well, my time in Leon was much more than that.

I had experiences of God that were transformational...experiences that came through long and winding conversations, through invitations to enter into the lives and stories of friends as well as people I had only just met, through freedom, love, honesty, mutuality, kindness, respect, tenderness, laughter, silence, stillness, prayer...

This gift, in total, is not at all something separate from my life, a set apart moment of experience, though it was lived, learned, revealed, through events and people...no, that is part of its authentic beauty...it is something that is woven together with other threads, something that makes my being more whole, more complete, stronger and more wondrous.

It is a gift that makes me want to throw back my head and fling my arms wide and say "YES!" and "THANK YOU!" as well being a gift that humbles me with its generosity and deep knowing and feeling.

It was, simply and complexly, a wonderful month.

As I get ready to go to bed this evening, two bits of poetry come to mind and heart...

"for Christ plays in 10,000 places/Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his"
--G.M. Hopkins--

"Para que todos vivan/ en ella/ hago mi casa/ con odas/ transparentes."
So that all may live in her, I make my house out of transparent odes.
--P. Neruda

Tonight, with all strength of soul, I find myself saying again and again "YES!!" to a life of discovery and revelation.