On being present.
A blessing for all who long for calm.
People are an interesting species, don’t you think? We like to do things together. Visiting pretty places. Watching sunsets. Worshipping. Meditation. And though this can make for beautiful experiences of communion it sometimes can also be in the way of the calm we are craving.
Yesterday we found ourselves sunset watching with a crowd of people at probably the most coveted sunset spot in the Florida keys. We had just finished a week long visit with Chuck’s family and were craving some down time before heading back to the Midwest.
So on a whim we decided to just drive down they Keys and see what happens.
Just in time for sunset at the Key West promenade.
It was a gigantic happening. Street artists, musicians, jongleurs, and a river of people. Hannah was dancing and watching the fun.
But if you had hoped for a calm time taking in a natural phenomenon, this was the wrong spot. People were busy. Busy watching. Walking, talking, snapping photos, making orders, taking orders, and finding the perfect spot in the first row.
As soon as the sun went down into a bed of clouds resting above the waters, the crowds streamed backwards. Sunset was done. Dinner and drinks were waiting.
While Hannah was dancing to the street music, I was busy watching people being busy with sunset watching — it was just one checkpoint on a long vacation bucket list.
And though there is nothing wrong with great sunset watch parties it got me thinking. Here, so near the equator, all was lush and green, flowers blooming and swamps and beaches crawling with life.
Back home in Minnesota, it was still in hiding (see my winter farewell photo blessing), and though not yet visible, “viriditas” is already bubbling there in the bare branches waiting patiently to burst into new green. May be one needs to live through the cold winter to appreciate the wonder of this greening life force, as Hildegard has it, which penetrates all creation with being?
May be one needs to join a sunset watch party to appreciate the calm of a lonely beach walk at sun down?
**
So my blessing comes to you today in the words of a wise woman, inviting you to marvel and to be.
"Glance at the sun.
See the moon and the stars.
Gaze at the beauty of earth’s greenings.
Now, think.
What delight God gives to humankind
with all these things. . . .
All nature is at the disposal of humankind.
We are to work with it.
For without it we cannot survive."
— Hildegard of Bingen
And may calm find you where you are, Almut
PS: If you can, leave a heart, a word or a line which resonated with you in the comments, so we know you have been here :-) (for all who had difficulty last time to comment it is working again!)
About Almut
Almut Furchert, Dr. phil., Dipl. Psych. is a German American scholar and practitioner, a psychologist turned philosopher turned writer, traveler, photographer, retreat leader and mother of a pre-schooler. She has taught and published on authors like Kierkegaard, Buber, Frankl, Yalom, Edith Stein, and Hildegard of Bingen. Almut is also a Benedictine Oblate and lives with her family in a little college town in MN.
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In case you missed it
From our Lenten series
Some might have experienced difficulty to comment on the last post. So sorry. It now works again for every one.
In the summertime we get great sunsets, so we make a habit of stopping whatever we are doing and sit on the porch for awhile. You never know what you might get until the end, so you have to watch them all.
Wonderful, inspiring words from Hildegard von Bingen. Reminds me of beautiful Pfälzerwald, where my wife's from and where I can never get enough of running through–only a truly higher power could create something as magnificent as Nature. Incidentally, my wife to Edith Stein Gymnasium in Neustadt a.d.W.
Keep up your great work!