Recently I completed 55 years of religious life. While no one celebrated except me, I was content with a quiet Emerald Jubilee. Green, my favorite color, is associated with new growth. I felt ready for new growth of some kind, and I was blessed that the time coincided with packing for my annual retreat. Typically, I would have chosen a directed or guided retreat (a time with a leader or companion). I was wondering what my days would be like with just me. Of course, I invited God to come along. Realizing the Spirit might use the first day to help me plan, find the “right” book (besides my bible), get used to my surroundings, settle in my room, and open my heart at the starting gate, I was already chomping at the bit. (Yes, I know “champing at the bit” is the better idiom, but my spell check doesn’t approve.)

Even though this type of retreat was not what I would have ordinarily done, I am surprised that my reading is about the ordinary. I read, for example, that God doesn’t give meaning to events. Rather God is meaning. God doesn’t sanctify the ordinary, but rather “God is the heart and soul of ordinary.” In addition, I read that I should not spend so much time with the parts of me that are not God but be alive in God. (Ideas and quotations from Becoming an Everyday Mystic by James Warnke, Abbey Press, IN). May you and I “champ at the bit” for the next revelation of God.