Keeping Our Center ~ Day 34

Brother Joseph once told of being in the choir at Gethsemane, the monastery he had joined. As they chanted their Latin psalms one day, a baby’s cry gently echoed through the vast church. In those days, the monks were kept strictly out of public view, a high screen separating them from the occasional visitor. They knew they would never see the source. Nonetheless, huge smiles spread across the faces of these men even in the midst of their serious and sacred task of praising God, men who had not heard such sound for years, even decades. Brother Joseph recalled looking across the choir – tears were streaming down the face of one of the most stern, ascetic monks in the monastery. 

I love this story. It begs me to pause and ask: even though we are separated from so much these days, what do we allow to touch our hearts so deeply that it will move us to tears? Is it the plaintive cry of a child, our hope for the future? Is it the unfolding of the crocus and the strength of the tulip as it pushes up through the hardened soil? Is it the song that pops into your head, unbidden? It is the cacophony of bird song outside your window? Is it the tender way your partner holds you, or brushes a crumb from your lips? Is it a picture a child has drawn for you?

What will we open ourselves to in such a way that it will connect us intimately to the Spirit that flows through all things and will fill us past the brim to overflowing with joy and love? These sorts of tears are not weak, but are the most sacred drops of salt water in the universe.

Love & Light!

Kaye