Oh, I’m tired. I returned Sunday from a 48 hour retreat at Mariawald Retreat Center. I hope to share more about the experience in the coming weeks, but for now, I’m tired. Who knew there could be so much labor involved in retreat?
My husband did an excellent job of holding down the fort, but I’ve spent the day cutting trails from room to room and working to get home and its inhabitants clean again. Oh, and then there are the two suddenly sick children (again!), a trip to the Dr. today and one tomorrow, the coming monstrosity of a consignment sale, church meetings and an upcoming camping trip (from which the twins and I will be joyfully excluded). And did I mention I have TWO thirteen month olds? Ok, ok, I’m getting a little full of myself, but I’m sure you get the picture. Now, where was I . . . oh yes, tired.
Anyway, here’s a little something I brought back from the retreat. I was so pleased to find it there in the prepared reading packet as the story of the one who finds a treasure in a field and sells all they have to buy the field had become a sort of metaphor for me of this whole Oasis experience. Enjoy! and keep your eyes and heart open – there are treasures everywhere!
“The Bright Field”
I have seen the light break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while
and gone my way
and forgotten it.
But that was the pearl
of great prize, the one field
that had treasure in it.
I realize now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it.
Life is not hurrying on
to a receeding future
nor hankering after an imagined past.
It is the turning aside
like Moses to the miracle of the lit bush.
To a brightness
that seems as transitory as your youth once,
but it is the eternity that awaits you.
– R.S. Thomas, quoted by John O’Donohue in Anam Cara
