I sit to write early this week as I am about to leave for what has become an annual trip to Florida. There’s a lot to be said about vacations; about getting away. One of the realities I’ve discovered about getting away is that even though vacations can be either restful times or times of abundant activity and though we may feel very alive, relaxed and renewed, or utterly exhausted upon returning home, there can also be that sense of “Gee, I have been changed by being away but I’m returning to the same old way of life – nothing back home has changed”. And that feeling (or reality) can be quite disheartening.
But my Florida vacations are quite different. They are filled with time – mostly time to be rather than the activities of doing. They are restful times; those of much reflection and contemplation, of going within and listening, and both a getting away and a coming back to a sense of what really matters. As abundantly as I’ve written in recent weeks about taking/making time for silence and solitude amid the busyness of our everyday lives to discover what and who lies at the core of our being and to connect (or re-connect) with the Sacred who forever abides in and with us, I have found, for me, the ideal place and space to simply be is in the quiet company of this Florida environment. Maybe it’s the vastness of the ocean, maybe it’s the sound of the rolling waves and the ebb and flow of the tide, maybe it’s the quiet conversations with a dear friend co-mingled with silent walks along the beach, maybe it’s the leaving behind for a time the cold and snowy Wisconsin winter
weather for a week of Florida warmth, or…maybe it’s all of the above that grants me the greatest permission to relax and notice and ponder the awesomeness of creation and the pure desire to listen to the Sacred voice within and around. There’s an easiness to the letting go and a compelling feeling of willingness to be led by the breath of the Spirit into the wilderness.Early on in the Gospel according to Mark we read: “The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert” (1:12). It’s a very familiar story – the story of Jesus being tempted by the devil, how he resisted those “earthly” temptations for fame and power and control and how Jesus emerged from the desert and went on to carry out his mission and ministry of teaching, preaching, compassion and love. Spending time in the desert, whether an actual desert or another place or within the silence of our hearts can be both a lonely, scary place and a fruitful place. It’s really our choice, for we often perceive we go there alone. We can choose to experience it as a vast wasteland, even a waste of time, or a place filled with our own demons: regrets, guilt, temptations, and our imperfections. But we can also choose to experience it as filled with abundant opportunity. We can choose to spend our desert time wandering around wishing we and/or our lives were different. But we can also choose to quiet ourselves and notice the ways the Sacred woven into the fabric of life and is speaking to our hearts, walking with us, loving us into who we are intended to be. We can choose to allow the Spirit to drive the breath of the Holy into our very souls. We can emerge from the desert – our time of silence, solitude, listening and perhaps wrestling with demons and temptations – filled with strength and courage for the road ahead and the knowledge of the undeniable love of the Sacred One ever-present with us and all around us.
Peace on the Journey
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