Loretto Retreats Monday Musings

Every Monday, Loretto retreat directors Susan Classen and JoAnn Gates write a Monday Musing reflection for social media. In case you don’t have social media account we’d like to share a few of the musings with you.

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I love the simple beauty of this stack of firewood, protected and ready to provide warmth. What simple beauty is calling to you today?

Several times a day a scarlet tanager has been pecking at the mirror of the truck I drive, occasionally leaving feathers behind. It’s nesting season and the male tanager is trying to protect his territory but he’s mistaking his own reflection for a threat from another bird. I want to say, “Stop smudging my mirrors! There’s nothing there but you!” But then I have to wonder. How often do I project a reflection of my own fear or insecurity onto someone or something else, seeing a threat where none exists? Perhaps the persistent tanager is my teacher helping me to see myself more clearly.

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Oh, how precious and brief is our human existence. This cecropia moth with its 6” wingspan was first noticed among the irises in front of the Guest House, then made its way to the nearby tulip poplar tree. After five weeks of various developmental stages and a mere ten (10!) months sealed in a silken cocoon, this beauty emerged for its two-week lifespan of mating and reproducing the next generation. How are we putting OUR energies at the service of Life? What inner work prepares us for that service?

Silence and gratitude… What better response to the beauty and power of nature?

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Poet Mary Oliver writes, “Let me keep company always with those who say ‘Look!’ and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads.” This praying mantis invites me to laugh, astonished by its wise and inquiring look! I wonder what you will encounter today that will make you laugh in astonishment and bow your head…

A group of Zen practitioners meditated at Mary’s Lake under a full Hunter’s Moon on their final night of retreat. Maybe all that we could want is right in our own backyard.

Sunrise paints the sky with color as night gives way to day. Dawn teaches us that transitions can be beautiful, that darkness and light exist together and that each new day is formed by the night that precedes it. May we celebrate the beauty of transition and learn from how we have experienced the intermingling of darkness and light.