I am discovering that if you really keep your eyes open and your ears open, if you really pay attention to life, even such a limited and limiting life as the one I am living, you will be opened up onto extraordinary vistas.
Eating supper with a friend, a supper prepared by their own hands. Trying to accomplish a simple day’s task. Hearing the rain patter against the window. Watching the maple leaves fall. Comforting one who is burying her mother at age 92. Driving a good friend for radiation treatment. Enjoying a serious conversation about the future of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph. There is no event so commonplace but that God is present within it, always hiddenly, always leaving you room to recognize or not to recognize God’s presence. If I were called upon to state in a few words the essence of everything, it would be something like this. LISTEN TO YOUR LIFE. See if for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness, touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis ALL MOMENTS ARE KEY MOMENTS, and all life is precious, all life is gift.