It is really way too late to be writing, it is actually “tomorrow,”  but I know that if I let myself off the hook with the “promise to be back soon” business that it could be weeks before I write again.  So here goes.

This writing comes from the retreat but is not too heavy.  Just before the end of one of the sessions, Sr. Ishpraya gave a few reminders of meditative walking.  To walk with no other purpose than to just be, stopping if something catches your attention, stop and listen to it, not talk to it, but listen to it, to hear the voice of God manifested in earthly glory.  I had learned this on my own on my many trips to Yosemite.   My friend Terri, a practicing Catholic, refers to Yosemite as church, and indeed it is. It is quite easy to see God manifested in everything at Yosemite.

San Damiano retreat’s main building sits on a hillside.  Down a couple of dozen steps you can go to the retreat vegetable garden and pond, and in that setting is the labyrinth.  The path is bordered by stones, there are flowers here and there along the way.  Walking a labyrinth is done slowly, silently, meditatively.  I actually had not done it before and now understand its appeal and popularity on the grounds of many churches.  After lunch, I went down to the labyrinth and was alone for most of my meditation.  When something caught my attention, I stopped and listened.  The ways in which I related these whispers to my own life are probably best left unwritten, but feel free to think about what they might tell you that can be helpful today in your own life.

From the bee: You can go from flower to flower, even from plant to plant as you desire, leaving traces of yourself wherever you go.  Those traces of previous flowers may or may not be beneficial to where you land next.  Many interests and passions can exist in one’s life with equal importance, each enriching and informing the other.

From the flower:  Isn’t it amazing that we are here together today?  I am so beautiful and I’m kind of stuck here in this one spot, but damn I’m gorgeous!  And everyone says so who passes by…I’m very happy to be a flower thank you very much…

From the gentleman who joined me in silence on the path: Two people can be on the same path at the same time, sometimes passing close to each other, and then suddenly as far apart as can possibly be and then just as quickly passing close to each other again.

From the rocks that lined the path: We are the guides.  We don’t move, we seem unimportant, but without us there would be no path.

Good night, or should I say good morning…