10.21.2024 | Ordinary Monday

It's still dark and chilly outside in the Carondelet Garden on this Monday morning in October. The fireplace is knocking the chill out of the old gardener.  The tea is keeping me company and life is pretty good as we begin a new week.  We should have plenty of sunshine and a bit warm with highs near 80-degrees.  The watering will continue!

Time is precious right now.  Time has become our companion on the way.  I am more aware of time as I grow older, constantly aware of it hovering over me like a chilling mist or the warming sun, constantly reminding me of the power of now.  It is in the present now that we learn to truly live.  This now is the focus of my getting older for it is in the now that I am living.  

As we move into late October and early November I feel as though we've entered a Thin Place as my Celtic ancestors would call it.  A place where the distance between heaven and earth is but a whisper.  As we come closer to All Hallow's Eve and All Saints and All Souls it does feel like the veil is getting thinner for a time.  We remember our loved ones who've passed on and we pray for those we still have.  We take a moment to realize that now is our time to live and to recognize that Earth is crammed with heaven as Elizabeth Barrett Browning reminded us:

Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.

It is a good time to take off our shoes and walk on holy ground.  It's not a bad time to sit around and pluck the last of Fall's bounty of blackberries either.