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Read the most recent “MondayMusings,” and other posts about the Loretto Retreat Centers, below. You can also follow Loretto on Facebook directly.
In his writing, Henry David Thoreau urges us to “... take up a little life into our pores.” These daisies called to me this morning as a response to his invitation to “take up a little life.” In other words, to allow myself to be open and receptive to life around me. What is your response today? Maybe it’s a nap or the laughter of a child or simple beauty or saying “no” to something that isn’t yours to do or ... Whatever it is, may life be nourished in and through us today as we take life “into our pores.” #LorettoRetreats #MondayMusings
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I’ve been thinking about Memorial Day and the phrase, “in the service,” to refer to someone in the military. In Elaine Prevallet SL’s 2002 booklet "In the Service of Life," she writes, “The deepest instinct for life, sometimes called the survival instinct, is what impels the individual members of species to get and to do what will contribute to the survival of their species, and hence to the larger, on-going process of life.”
I ask myself, in what ways do I feel compelled to protect the life of the human or other-than-human species? To what or to whom is my life energy “in the service?” And how do you answer those questions for yourself? #LorettoRetreats #MondayMusings
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I couldn’t believe my eyes! Oak seedlings were sprouting everywhere I looked! I was on a walk around Mary’s Lake in an area of the woods that was hit hard by a wind storm several years ago toppling many large, old oak trees. Delighted by the new growth, I remembered a quote by Kate Bowler who wrote, “Joy doesn’t require the absence of sorrow. It appears alongside it, without resolving it, and without asking permission.” I felt the reality of her words. My sorrow at the loss of all of those large, old trees wasn’t replaced by my joy at seeing the new seedlings. Rather, I was holding both emotions at the same time. I wonder how you have experienced joy appearing alongside sorrow. #LorettoRetreats #MondayMusings
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