Thursday, February 23, 2012

40 Days of Lent: A Spirtual Journey -- Day Two

Lenten Spiritual Journey:  Day Two
"Lent commemorates the 40 days Jesus spent wandering in the wilderness. Go for a solitary wander through your neighborhood, with no destination in mind. Notice everything. Notice yourself."

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This evening I went for a wander.  It was not as easy as one might think. No destination in mind?  How can you do that?  I thought I could walk to the nearby shopping plaza, or over the the main boulevard, but wouldn't both of those be a "destination"?  I concluded that, yes, that would be a destination walk and not a wander.  So I closed up the house, put up the dogs, (they had their walks today already, didn't qualify as a wander), and set out.  

The first thing I noticed was the rising crescent moon in the darkened evening sky.  Nearby in the sky were two very bright stars...Venus?  Jupiter?  The sky was so clear, the stars were truly like the diamonds of song and poetry.  I set out down my street.  No one was outside. The houses were lit with warmly glowing light as the people inside went about their activities.  I imagined that each household was doing something about dinner or cleaning up.  Kids might be studying.  Parents watching the news.  The retired folks reading the paper.  Dogs would bark as I passed.  I steady river of traffic on the main street hissing like a mechanical river.  

I experienced some discomfort.  I wondered what I would say if someone, say a policeman, asked me what I was doing.  With no destination, on a spiritual exercise, that would be a tough when to sound sane about.  

But as I continued, those thoughts subsided.  I became aware of the sound of my footsteps on the pavement.  I became aware of my breathing in and out as I continued walking onto the next block.  I decide to just go around the block. I realized again that I had created a destination.  Wandering was a tough thing.  Especially in my own neighborhood.  Just looking around, seeing what's what.  That is not what one does, especially in one's own neighborhood.  People stare. They might talk.  Suspicions might be aroused.  

But on I trudged, putting those thoughts out of my mind.  Wandering.  Just going. No destination in mind.  One foot in front of the other.  Going on as if I was just making it up as I go.  I felt the moon following me.  The evening air was cooling gently and softly swept over me.  Sounds were muted into the background of my small journey around the block.  I found myself with a strange sense of clarity, aware of my thoughts, the smells and sounds of the night.  

Then suddenly I was back home.

As I set about fixing some dinner after this exercise, I noticed I was extremely conscious of what I was doing.  I consciously opened the fridge to get the milk and butter, the pantry to get the pasta.  Filling the saucepan with water to boil was almost a mystical experience.  My senses were heightened and at some points I felt as if I were observing myself.  Perhaps that is the point of this second day devotional.  Awareness of the your surrounding and becoming mindful of your predisposition to knowing the outcome and missing the experience.

Noticing everything.  Noticing oneself.  Going with the flow and being open to the still small voice.  Epiphany noted.


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