The Celtic Monk Musings

Today is that day in November when by 10:00 am rather than being empty, the feeder is still full of food.  There are only a few stray Bluebirds, Finches, and Blackbirds left outside of my window. The large flocks that came last spring have flown farther south now. Too much chill here from the cooling Atlantic sharing its Nor’easter winds. In just a few weeks, the Mergansers will return, having made their journey from Canada and the Upper Peninsula– believing as they always have, that this is quite far enough a place to spend the winter.

Living in a heightened awareness of the natural world here on the marshes edge, it’s often my spirit that recognizes these transitions first. I sense them.  I celebrate them.  I live into them.  So this late fall morning is my time to ponder, to reflect, to once more be filled with wonder, to be grateful for what was, to patiently wait in anticipation of the joy which is yet to come.

But just for a moment on this particular morning, I will also notice the loss I feel and be very still. I will stop for a while and join my heart to other hearts who grieve this day for losses of their own; great and small– seen and unseen—public or private. And in that divine joining of being, I acknowledge the single Consciousness of which you are, and I am, and all of creation is, a part.  And just perhaps, in the great Mysterium Tremendum, such pure heart intention may heal each of us, all of us, even the world, a little more.

May it be so.

With warmth and love,

Kathleen – thecelticmonk

Since moving mid-pandemic, early in 2021… this is what greets me from dawn to dusk out our back door. No buildings, no cars, only an occasional walker on the trail. I don’t need to drive anywhere to take a ‘nature bath’ as the Japanese have named it. I don’t even need to get dressed to abide in this sanctuary (as I sit here in my pj’s with an unobstructed view).

The sun falls first on the tops of those almost 4 story tall pines across the lake. When it does, the Ibis and Spoonbill leave their roosts in the thickets and take the opportunity to sun bathe before heading out for breakfast in the marsh grasses–a bounty of small fish and oysters. They will all return again within 5 minutes of sunset to start their ritual of getting ready for bed.

It took me a while to catch on to the rhythm of the place. I’d never experienced nature so up-close-and-personal growing up in the inner city of Chicago. Oh, there were a few weeks of lightning bugs in the summer. But I wasn’t a great observer of much else. Certainly not aware of the tides, as we must be here. Nor aware that the creeping and winged beings around us follow the course of the sun and moon. I do feel blessed by it all.

Thomas Merton wrote: “The sun, the clear morning, the quiet, the barely born butterfly … Solitude-when you get saturated with silence and landscape, then you need an interior work, psalms, scripture, meditation. But first the saturation. How much of this is simply restoration of one’s normal human balance? Like waking up, like convalesence after an illess. My life here in solitude is most real because it is most simple.” A YEAR WITH THOMAS MERTON, JUNE 30th, page 188.

How many years, did my life consist of the ‘work’ without the saturation? Thankfully, I didn’t know any better! It has only been within the past 30 years that I realized the value of “silence and landscape” and sought it out at a monaastery or two in thousand acres woods, with miles of secluded walking paths–proverbial rafts of nature to carry me for a while.

And now in this time called retirement I am blessed with this saturation on a daily basis, a gift that came as a surprise. One that took me a while to see, then to recognize and only now, only now begin to understand. And as it was for Merton, it is: “like waking up, like a convalesence after an illness…my life here in solitude is most real because it is most simple.”

I have taked A LOT about my found spirituality of nature with my spiritual director. In fact, I sought her out at a time when I wondered if I was veering too far off the path. (Old habits die hard). I’d say things like, I feel the breeze coming through the pines and am reminded of the gentleness of the Spirit… or, The constancy of the ebb and flow of the tides reminds me of God’s faithfulness… or, the colors of the sky at sunrise and sunset speak to me of the unnecessary beauty all around us… or, I really am learning to care for the bounty of nature. And she’d remind me that I could not learn any more by sitting in a building.

After too long without “Solitude which saturates with silence and landscape” I am beginning to feel full once more. It’s the feeling of taking a cold drink, when one didn’t realize they were thirsty, or eating before knowing one was really, really hungry. I am, after these two years in this lovely place, feeling satiated, and as though there is a ‘something more’ beyond taking it all in. What Merton says is — only possible once the restoration has returned one to one’s normal human balance.

I have of course already begun this ‘work’ without realizing that it was what I was doing. It was from my saturation in solitude that I agreed to convening small online gatherings for WCCM-USA, temporary spiritual communities for nourishment and fellowship. The beauty of this work is that it is not scheduled months or years in advance. I can offer programs from fullness, not schedule–from wholeness not demand–like the tides and the movement of sun and moon.

There is balance to this spirituality of nature. Just as there once was to much work and not enough solitude… now there can be too much solitude and not enough work. My true self lies in the balance. For all of us, our true self lies in the balance.

With much love and peace,

Kathleen — thecelticmonk

Dear Readers, Followers and Friends,

For a week in April (16th-21st) I’ll be leading a meditation retreat at the Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina, just outside of Asheville, on Black Mountain. More than a few folks have asked what happens at a meditation retreat and why do people pay to be silent… Both are good questions.

As to what happens, together we keep a schedule of times together and apart. There is an early morning time of Meditation that is led by one of the retreat leaders before breakfast that includes several readings. We will have breakfast in the main dining room together, but in silence. Each day, there will be a morning and afternoon plenary session where I’ll be teaching on our theme of BEAUTY AND SILENCE. There is free time for your individual use, and lunch together. You are invited to walk, wander, wonder or nap. Each day we will have a contemplative service before dinner including the Lord’s Supper. And after dinner we will keep the Divine Office of Compline together before retiring. Then, we do it all over again, for the rest of the week.

On my retreats (where I am making it, not leading it) in my free time I read, I write, I’ve been known to bring supplies to paint, and of course nap. During many WCCM retreats you are invited to write Haiku to share with the group by posting them in our gathering room. But I have to say that mostly, its a time for listening. We each listen for the Spirit, who for most of the rest of our lives doesn’t get a chance to be heard above the din of very, very, busy lives.

One of the amazing things about coming together for a meditation retreat, is how quickly we form a community of silence. We learn, whether this is our first retreat or our 10th, that silence becomes our bond and our way. We strengthen one another by this solidarity that we form together. And we often have much to say by that final morning when we offer our words to one another.

Our subject matter in April will lead the way for our week. We’ll consider how God inhabits Beauty. (Not as culture defines it.) We’ll consider how God speaks through Beauty…and what our response means. We’ll take a look at Beauty from various traditions, people and places. And we will tie it all together with how our silence allows us to see Beauty and how Beauty leads us into deeper and deeper silence. And before I tell you everything about my presentations, I think I’ll stop here.

When I was in church ministry, I most often used my continuing education time for silence. It was a necessary part of both my spiritual and self-care. I depended on that time for renewal, for healing, for joy to return, for fresh ideas to germinate. My guess is that most everyone needs renewal, healing, joy and freshness. But sometimes we have no idea how to access it. And likely we cannot imagine that it could all happen within 5 days! Which really is the answer to the second question above…why do people pay to be silent.

I hope you will consider joining me in April at Montreat. Registration is available on the WCCM-USA.org website, and will be open through March 16th. The cost of the retreat is $125.00 plus the room and food package of your choosing. Costs are low because all of the leadership team volunteers their time to make this possible. We each want to share what we have found in this gift of silence, of meditation.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. In the meantime, if you would like to try just a little meditation… I am hosting WEDNESDAYS IN LENT on Zoom at 7:00pm Eastern. Registration (free) for that program can also be found on WCCM-USA.org

In a world that seems to be changing more quickly than ever before, at a time when doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly is often ridiculed or ignored, when fear shows up more often than we care to name… meditation, the silent prayer of the heart, offers a needed balm.

Blessings upon you as we move from winter to spring. May you know the hope of new beginnings!

In peace and with love,

Kathleen

The Celtic Monk