A Leaf in the Snow

My running in the morning is usually an extension of the early morning spiritual time. It is usually possible to see the tiny signs that God is behind it all.

This morning, I happened to notice a leaf. It was a somewhat large leaf and well formed. It was stuck upright, plated by its stem in a snow bank. It was located where no person had been and where several inches of snow had melted between yesterday and today. The slight breeze ruffled it.

Was it the hand of God who had secretly and delightfully placed that leaf there; just so I could see it and be reminded of The Wonderful Lover? I get to choose what I want to believe. God is present everywhere but I get to choose to remember and see and thank Him.

Then I went to Mass. Thankfully, the Christmas decorations are gone, replaced with deep green, gold and white. It is somewhat awesome to believe that day after day, this exact same liturgy marches forward.

Intimacy

Wow! I was getting off the freeway on my way home from work. My mind flashed on an image of Mass this morning. I suddenly felt the intimacy of Christ in the depths of my being. It was strong enough to say almost physical, or that the reverberations from the spiritual plane buffeted the mental and physical enough for me to notice it.

This vague sense of intimacy would definitely create a hunger for Mass within my mind. Then it expanded to the guy at the bank, the apartment manager lady, and Georgie (my co-worker's little daughter).

Intimacy with Christ could be seen everywhere; not with the body's eyes but with the intuition. Now if only I could keep the Christ vision permanently.

View from the Bed

I want to go deeper. I want to enter my depths. I want to get beyond the superficial level of reality. This seems to be an extraordinarily difficult task. The attempt means that all my thoughts need to be redefined: running is not about running. Mass is not about what the Church says it is. Money is not about making sure I have enough and hang on to what I have. Hassles are not about fixing things so they are my way or easier for me. Work is not about achievement. What I think of as life needs to be redefined if I expect to get beyond the material world. I have to be teachable by some level beyond where I am at. I need to be listening to the intuition.

I have always used silence. Now, I find I will need to weave more than one idea into the idea of getting beyond.

I took the picture with my Blackberry! On the wall is an icon of Abraham’s Three Guests and a crucifix. I ponder the man on the cross. I ponder the presence of God in the three guests.

I ran 10.8 miles this morning in the city park. It was a foggy morning since the air was about 50degF and vapor was rising off the Missouri River. Near sunrise, I saw five deer swim across the river. It was quite a site as I didn’t know deer could swim. They did great.

On my last lap, after 90 minutes of running, I had one of those precious instants: the solitary runner powering along the path, the sound of foot falls on dirt, quiet bliss.