Later on this morning, I read these words from Henri Nouwen… all attempting to say better what I’m trying to say. I take comfort in the collective voices!
While realizing that ten years ago I didn’t have the faintest idea that I would end up where I am now, I still like to keep up the illusion that I am in control of my own life. I like to decide what I most need, what I will do next, what I want to accomplish, and how others will think of me. While being so busy running my own life, I become oblivious to the gentle movements of the Spirit of God within me, pointing me in directions quite different from my own.
It requires a lot of inner solitude and silence to become aware of these divine movements. God does not shout, scream, or push. The Spirit of God is soft and gentle like a small voice or a light breeze. It is the Spirit of Love.
Mary seemed to have captured what I’m trying to say :
“In the beginning I was so young and such a stranger to myself I hardly existed. I had to go out into the world and see it and hear it and react to it, before I knew at all who I was, what I was, what I wanted to be.”
Steve, it is good to read a post from you and it is also good that you took time off from writing while you & Gwen were traveling! In the pictures, your faces radiate peace & joy!
The group pic of your family was priceless! Did I see a grandson sitting to your right who maybe has more of your DNA than he does of Gwen’s ????? 😊
love the pictures. there is light and joy in them.
i am learning about being formed with a visual too.. i am learning about the work of the potter, my wife and i taking beginning pottery, how to throw clay, center, open it, pull it up and learn to shape. it looks so easy bu it's not, it takes a skilled potter and willing clay to make something beautiful. as for our lives, the potter is certainly skilled enough, but as the clay i am not always willing or cooperative; and so just like earthen clay, as the potter i learn to take the lump i have tried unsuccessfully to turn into something worth firing, all the way back down to a 'puck like thing' or even take it off the wheel to sit a while and then use it again later. Maybe that is age, maybe it is suffering and great love that are needed, and for you in all those things you have experienced, are now determined and perhaps in a best place to taste! the potter can do very best work Keep the thoughts coming, and the pictures.
Loving your honest eloquent words. Feeling quite shallow! Loving recent opportunities to do some reading, and podcasting. And enjoying my own "collective voices". thank you, as always.
This is a lovely post, Steve. It flows with the clarity of water - it is simple and relaxed, yet shows you have almost reached the wellspring of the abundant life that God makes available to all of us. It seems as if you are indeed finding "God's perfect plan for your life," and that this plan is so very different from what you originally thought it to be. Your trying, training, and practice is being replaced by . . . being . . . and resting . . . in the Lord and amidst the beauty of the people and places that he has created. Your comments are dear to those of us who are still striving to rest, struggling to be observant, and working hard to relax. And your postscript from Mary Oliver is wonderful: it describes so much of my early life.
Thank you for your message today, Steve, and for sharing the beautiful photographs that demonstrate the joy you and Gwen are experiencing
Later on this morning, I read these words from Henri Nouwen… all attempting to say better what I’m trying to say. I take comfort in the collective voices!
While realizing that ten years ago I didn’t have the faintest idea that I would end up where I am now, I still like to keep up the illusion that I am in control of my own life. I like to decide what I most need, what I will do next, what I want to accomplish, and how others will think of me. While being so busy running my own life, I become oblivious to the gentle movements of the Spirit of God within me, pointing me in directions quite different from my own.
It requires a lot of inner solitude and silence to become aware of these divine movements. God does not shout, scream, or push. The Spirit of God is soft and gentle like a small voice or a light breeze. It is the Spirit of Love.
Just read this as well! Thank you Henri! Thank you Stephen! And the pictures you have posted throughout your trip were beautiful!
Mary seemed to have captured what I’m trying to say :
“In the beginning I was so young and such a stranger to myself I hardly existed. I had to go out into the world and see it and hear it and react to it, before I knew at all who I was, what I was, what I wanted to be.”
Mary Oliver, Upstream: Selected Essays
Steve, it is good to read a post from you and it is also good that you took time off from writing while you & Gwen were traveling! In the pictures, your faces radiate peace & joy!
The group pic of your family was priceless! Did I see a grandson sitting to your right who maybe has more of your DNA than he does of Gwen’s ????? 😊
love the pictures. there is light and joy in them.
i am learning about being formed with a visual too.. i am learning about the work of the potter, my wife and i taking beginning pottery, how to throw clay, center, open it, pull it up and learn to shape. it looks so easy bu it's not, it takes a skilled potter and willing clay to make something beautiful. as for our lives, the potter is certainly skilled enough, but as the clay i am not always willing or cooperative; and so just like earthen clay, as the potter i learn to take the lump i have tried unsuccessfully to turn into something worth firing, all the way back down to a 'puck like thing' or even take it off the wheel to sit a while and then use it again later. Maybe that is age, maybe it is suffering and great love that are needed, and for you in all those things you have experienced, are now determined and perhaps in a best place to taste! the potter can do very best work Keep the thoughts coming, and the pictures.
You and I are on a similar journey, particularly regarding contemplation and church (from your article entitled a Seasonal Memoir).
Thanks for sharing your heart and journey!
PS I've missed your posts while you've been gone....😊
We were on a similar journey when I first met you and realized who your famous daddy is!
Loving your honest eloquent words. Feeling quite shallow! Loving recent opportunities to do some reading, and podcasting. And enjoying my own "collective voices". thank you, as always.
This is a lovely post, Steve. It flows with the clarity of water - it is simple and relaxed, yet shows you have almost reached the wellspring of the abundant life that God makes available to all of us. It seems as if you are indeed finding "God's perfect plan for your life," and that this plan is so very different from what you originally thought it to be. Your trying, training, and practice is being replaced by . . . being . . . and resting . . . in the Lord and amidst the beauty of the people and places that he has created. Your comments are dear to those of us who are still striving to rest, struggling to be observant, and working hard to relax. And your postscript from Mary Oliver is wonderful: it describes so much of my early life.
Thank you for your message today, Steve, and for sharing the beautiful photographs that demonstrate the joy you and Gwen are experiencing