A retreat center is a good place to take a deep breath and make good choices.  It is an art and it takes time and information.

Recently, it sounded regularly, calling Buddhists together for meditation.  It was central to their week because they were in silence, often in sitting prayer, or in meditative walking around the grounds.  Better than someone shouting, the bell rang out a call, an invitation.  Come and gather.  It is a lovely, clear sound – you are invited.  Come. Pay attention.

Walk with me down uncharted roads and ordinary paths, always leading me to a deeper trust and more faithful service.

I open my heart to your Easter Joy. Amen.

From Openings – A Daybook of Saints, Psalms and Prayer by Larry J. Peacock, Executive Director of Rolling Ridge

Tender my soul for the arrival of spring.

Let Easter happen in me and all around me.

Warm my expectations and make me ready for what you have prepared as I deepen my prayer and my walk with you.  Amen.

Published in Openings – A Daybook of Saints, Psalms and Prayer by Larry Peacock.

I like to think of all the prayer and meditation seeping into the walls of this retreat center and leaving a blessing for those who come next.  Just as all the camp youth from the 60′s to the turn of the century left laughter and joy in the walls and halls, now we add silence and prayer.  This old estate has heard lots and we are delighted for all the traditions that find a welcome here, each adding to the environment. Tell me what you experience on your next visit to Rolling Ridge.  Listen.

“You must keep collecting threads: threads of meaning, thread of hope, threads of purpose, energy and will, along with all the knowledge, all the skill that every weaver needs.  You must keep on weaving – stopping sometimes only to repair your broken loom – weave a cloak of warmth and light against the dark and cold (oh, all the dark and cold!), a cloak in which to wrap whoever comes to you in need: the world with all its suffering, those near at hand, yourself.”

Here’s to weaving hope in these troubled times and wrapping ourselves in warmth and light!

“When the mind is consumed with remembrance of the Holy One, something divine happens to the heart that shapes the hand and tongue and eye into the word Love.”

What are your spiritual practices that shape you into Love?  My yoga teacher says at the end of class as we bow, that we surrender the wisdom of the mind to the greater wisdom of the heart.  It is the compassionate heart, consumed with gratitude and remembrance of the One beyond all names, that touches the world with kind hands, sees the world with clear eyes and sings praises throughout the whole day.

What is the outline of your day?

What helps you “get the morning right?”  I listen to music while I eat breakfast and read the morning paper.  Having Gregorian Chant or Gospel music seems a good balance to the often painful headlines.  The older I get, the more I need to stretch out the kinks and some gentle yoga moves helps lots.  Saying hello to the dog and cats and fresh fruit on homemade granola put me in touch with the ordinary blessings of life. A little quiet time to journal and reflect on the day is key before I turn on the computer and tackle the tasks of the day.  Breathe.

As Jeff Brantley, director of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program at Duke University, wrote, “Even if you wake up tense or cranky, your brain hasn’t had a chance to feel overwhelmed by these feeling yet, so it’s easy to find relief and set the tone you want for the day ahead.”

What are your ways to get the morning right?

Me?  I have a file folder with handwritten quotes, bits of paper torn from articles, copies of pages from books with quotes underlined in yellow.  It is a bulging file. I keep thinking I will organize it.  Nah.

It is easy to go to the internet and type in a topic and see what comes up but I like pulling out the file and being surprised.  Often quotes can be used in unexpected ways, going beyond any narrow category.  So, it takes some time searching for the right  quote, but along the way I dwell with some good friends who I had forgotten about.  A gentle laugh, a deep sign of appreciation.  Such gifts. I might just take some of them along on a different project.

Here is one from my file.  “I believe that life is given us so that we may grow in love and I believe that God is in me as the sun is in the color and fragrance of a flower-the light in my darkness and voice in my silence.” Helen Keller, The Open Door.

I didn’t know whether to be angry or laugh.  Actually, a little of each as I put him outside with a stern, “not good, Thor!”  And then I laughed.  I don’t know if there is a moral but it was good for a laugh.  He left me one slice.  Good enough.  A little kindness, even if it was a heel.