It is well...

My place in the cleft of the rock.

[Complete with pillow, journal, iPad and sweater]

 

I don't have a hymnal handy, but these are the words going through my head:  "When peace like a river attendeth my way; when sorrows like sweet billows roll. Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul."

 

Perhaps it's no wonder.  Because for yet another Lenten season I've spent time with John the Beloved  and his very special perception of Jesus. What's striking in Jesus' life is that neither 'peace' nor 'sorrow' could shake the well-ness of His soul.  And as I again watched Him walk on water to the boat of the terrified disciples...it seems He was working overtime to teach that sure and certain wellness to His disciples. 

 

The picture above was taken last August at Easternpoint Retreat Center in Gloucester. It was a new place on the property I found to sit and think, journal, meditate and pray.  What you can't see is that I'm only 10 or 15 feet from a high craggy edge that drops down to what was a turbulent Atlantic Ocean that week.  Sometimes the waves would crash so violently, they'd spray me with water.

 

It seems that the waters temperament, at the time, matched my own.  There were things crashing around inside of me...though I didn't realize it till five or six days into the silence. The water I stared at from my place on the rock was a mirror of my soul.  I was drawn to its wildness, and unpredictability because it was so familiar. I felt one with it.  Staring into the deep all those days was what I needed for healing to begin. There came a moment...in an instant... when I realized this place I'd been invited to come to was a metaphor and God was able to begin the healing I needed.

 

My own realization of what was happening between my internal dis-ease and the Atlantic became so clear that I remember telling my spiritual director that morning "I don't need to go back to the rocks anymore, something has changed."  But it was only in retrospect that I learned how God had used the crashing tide to get my attention, to help me face myself, to put me in a position to move beyond the unrelenting seas inside and out.

And it became true "it is well, it is well, with my soul."

I'm hoping and praying for you that there are those times and those places, that there are those rests for reflection in the busy-ness of your life.  Where is the place you go...the shore, a park, a favorite chair?  How and when do you take time to check in to see if it is well with your soul?  Would it surprise you to learn that God is trying to get your attention--to put you on a healing path--if you'd only stop to listen, to hear what is trying to speak all around you?

For me it was in the crashing, crushing surf that I heard God speak.  For you it may be in the song of a bird, or the pelting of rain, or the twinkling of stars overhead, or the opening of a flower. God can speak through all of His creation; and does.  So this is my final prayer as I prepare to push the button that will whisk this on its way to you.  That this week you will look to the vastness of the Good Creation to hear a message that will make it true for you that "it is well, it is well, with my soul."

Standing with you on your journey in peace and joy,
Kathleen Bronagh Weller,  thecelticmonk