“I marveled at the natural beauty of God’s creation effortlessly rolling out before me .”
Virginia Harris, C.S.B.
5:31Space Oddity – (View the Video)
On the eve of his return to Earth after nearly five months on board the International Space Station, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has recorded his own version of David Bowie’s Space Oddity. (15,804,519 views)
A Summer of Spiritual Transformation: The Best Vacation!
by Virginia Harris, C.S.B.
Posted: 07 Jun 2013 05:00 AM PDT
“Drive the back roads,” something whispered in my ear. I was driving on the expressway from Boston to New Hampshire with my happy traveling companion, Saukee (my dog). It was early summer and one of those glorious New England days of endless blue sky, rolling hills of green, and fields of yellow wildflowers. The farther I moved from the hustle of traffic and skyscrapers of Boston and into the majesty of nature’s beautiful landscape, the more mentally quiet I became. For several weeks I had been praying and reflecting on my purpose in life and how I could expand on it. Was there more I could do?
As I marveled at the natural beauty of God’s creation effortlessly rolling out before me, I realized that ‘doing more’ wasn’t about filling up my schedule but letting go of it – and the ‘to-do’ lists that accompany it! This summer, I vowed, was going to be one of spiritual meditation, renewal, and transformation – not vacation – and filling it with expanded views of my capabilities…not pressing ‘pause’ and vacating important thinking until September!
This is when I heard what I believe was a divine direction to get off the well known, well-traveled highway and discover a different route on the back roads. So Saukee and I meandered along rural roads that I had never explored. We soon found ourselves at a lovely country house that looked so welcoming I was compelled to stop. It turned out to be the home of Robert Frost, author of “The Road Not Taken.”
Oh my! The message of this poem had been so meaningful to me over the previous months of my prayer and reflection, and there were lessons I was beginning to apply to my own life. Coming to this place, on this rural road, in the middle of the New Hampshire wilderness, seemed to me a confirmation I was on the right road of spiritual exploration and expansion.
This particular summer of years ago is still a beacon for me in my spiritual journey. I learned a ‘life lesson’ of looking for ways to expand and enlarge my life, break up the ‘cement’ of established habits and lift and grow my perception of who I am and what I am capable of doing. There is more I can do!
How often do we find ourselves in a long-practiced, albeit comfortable routine, and have a sense that there is something more? How about using this summer to refresh and expand your thinking about what you are capable of doing, and find a new activity to learn? Read that book you have had on your nightstand or tucked into your Kindle, read the Bible…set aside daily time for meditation…learn to play the family’s inherited piano, or learn a new language…run a half-marathon! Break the cement of old habits, explore the ‘back roads’ of your thought, dare to expand your capabilities!
No stranger to ever-expanding her capabilities, Mary Baker Eddy founded The Christian Science Monitor in her 88th year. Here is her guiding direction: “God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis.” (Science and Health).
You have a “boundless basis.” Now, this summer, discover a new road!