This was my father the other day, summing up the mood for us as we began our first day in Maine. A lazy breakfast, lazy stroll through the harbor town of Camden, and a lazy evening at my brother's place, tucked away behind oak and pine woods in the little town of Washington. Cooking up steaks, watching Ella run around, and catching glimpses of goldfinches as they dipped and dodged through the tree branches beside the house. But being lazy is hard work. Letting go of plans, not checking e-mail, not posting religiously to a blog (hmm), not looking at your cell phone every 15 minutes, is hard! Try it sometime!
"Ours is a time of continual movement which often leads to restlessness, with the risk of "doing for the sake of doing". We must resist this temptation by trying "to be" before trying "to do"." - Novo Millennio Ineunte, JPII
Pope John Paul II was and is the MAN. He recognized our restless itching to keep busy and tried to hush us, like a father rocking an anxious child to sleep. He spoke again and again of the One Thing necessary for wholeness in this world (it wasn't a cell phone, by the way). It was the art of listening, the gift of doing nothing, the capacity in all of us to, in the words from Paul Simon's new song "sit down, shut up, and think about God."
We're driving north through the woods of Maine as I write this (I know, a living paradox, but it's for you!) and the things that keep one busy are slipping past like the birch trees and boulders along this highway. No billboards, buildings, high-tension wires, malls or the madness of traffic. Just woods, rivers, mountains... I don't expect to have a signal once we hit Rockwood, but who knows.
There's a line from an Indigo Girls song that speaks of "days so still the beauty gives you pain." I'm hoping for that pain as we enter the great Moosehead Lake region for an overnight. To hear the "still, sad music of humanity" for a time, and to grow in appreciation of it. But the stillness is'nt just here in Maine. It's as close as the off switch on a cell phone, radio or television set. And mine is right.... here...
4 comments:
I cannot help be grow jealous of where you are right now, where you have been going for years now. And regretful of never having made the visit myself. Remember me in that peace, that I might know it even here. Elen sila lumen omentielvo.
We'll get you up there, CTR3, to the Cabin in the Woods! You can count on it. But be warned, once you taste the air of Maine and smell the balsam fir and the wood fires near Brann Road, there's no getting it out of your soul! Sean and Mr. D would love to see you up there!
How right you are my friend! The 'One Thing Necessary' is to simply position ourselves before the Master to 'receive' .... Mary chose this one thing while Martha busied herself about so many other things and missed the forest for the trees. This is not that God dislikes busy hospitable people and loves only those that love to laze around with Him. No! It is just that He desires first things first. First, God does not want actions of a certain kind, but rather, people of a certain sort! We must be a people constantly at the ready to receive His love (i.e., adoration, prayer, scripture meditation, etc.) and then to live out of that LOVE. We must be moved through life by His love and not our own will to do what we think will make us happy. Many in our culture are chasing carrots -- a trick of the enemy to keep our eyes from setting their gaze upon He alone Who can make us happy!
-- Deacon Jeff
Amen Deacon Jeff! Thanks for the comment. That was "spot on" as they say in Australia. A beautiful sentiment and a beautiful way to live. + Peace, Bill
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