“Sometimes the desire to be lost again,
as long ago,
comes over me like a vapor.”
I get the pleasure of being away this week journeying through week 3 of a 4 week Ignatian Seminars program.
The best part of journeying through any program is the people you get to do it with. I am so blessed with the combination of people from all over the country, Jesuit educators, that I get to learn, reflect, and grow with this week.
The four week program is spread out over two years… usually. But for us, the distance between week 2 and 3 was a bit longer than original anticipated. They were supposed to be 9 months apart.
Instead they were 21.
I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived. So much time and life had separated us.⠀
⠀
But it was beyond incredible to greet these companions when I arrived.
In a way, it was like no time had passed at all. In a way, it was like a lifetime had.
We each donned so many heavy coats during our time apart, and as we began to share them with one another… I felt like I was slowly shedding mine… one layer at a time.
“With growth into adulthood, ⠀
responsibilities claimed me,
so many heavy coats.
I didn’t choose them.
I don’t fault them,
but it took time to reject them.”
That’s what companionship like this does for me. It allows me to take off the multiple layers of adulthood and hold them for a minute, examine them, maybe even accept the offer for someone to carry a piece of them for awhile before deciding which pieces will go back on and which will be left behind.
Companionship like this reminds me that I am but a tiny nail in the house of the universe… a part of something much bigger than myself.
It puts me back in the stream and keeps me moving forward.
“Something is wrong,
I know it,
if I don’t keep my attention on eternity.”
May I be the tiniest nail in the house of the universe, ⠀
tiny but useful.
May I stay forever in the stream.”
