How fresh, oh Lord, how sweet and clean
Are thy returns! even as the flowers in spring;
To which, besides their own demean,
The late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring.
Grief melts away
Like snow in May,
As if there were no such cold thing.
Who would have thought my shriveled heart
Could have recovered greenness? It was gone
Quite underground; as flowers depart
To see their mother-root, when they have blown,
Where they together
All the hard weather,
Dead to the world, keep house unknown.
“The Flower,” by George Herbert
This past July I relished the gift of four days of solitude in the radiance of the Lake District that inspired the likes of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Beatrix Potter. Each day I traversed one of the countless trails, savoring wooded paths climbing to breathtaking vistas basking in Jesus’s gentle companionship filling me anew with joy-filled contentment. I was particularly renewed by climbing High Rigg and walking the ridge trail between two valleys before descending along an extended cataract to the valley below.
Ignatius of Loyola has been guiding me to pay attention to the deep currents of my life expressed through seasons of deep consolation and desolation. I am growing to share his hope that our deepest desires truly are for secure loving attachment to God and to those He has created us to share our lives with.
In the unhurried spaciousness that freed me to bathe in the beauty of the fields, hills, and lakes I found myself overwhelmed by a deep sense of the goodness of my life.
I had chosen to spend these precious days of solitude revisiting locales rich with joy-filled memories shared with my wife and eldest daughter 18 years before. We could not have known at the time that this would be one of the last major trips we would be able to share together. I came expecting to savor treasured memories of the love I had known and had lost to my wife’s journey with glioblastoma.
In the quiet of the surrounding landscapes I found myself instead drawn to an awareness of the rich beauty of my life. Over the past 12 years my heart has been expanded and grief no longer scares me the way it once did. I find myself experiencing deep connections with God and fellow pilgrims and witnessing unexpected levels of transformation in me and those I’m honored to share life with. That July alone I had just relished the company of fellow seekers walking the 62-mile trek along St. Cuthbert’s Way from the village of Melrose, Scotland to Holy Island off the coast of Northumbria. From there I got to journey to the Isle of Iona with 6 companions to soak in the unhurried luxuriousness of God’s presence in a location where Christians have been dedicating themselves to Him and His creation for nearly 1500 years. Just prior to departing for Scotland, Angela Howell and I were filled with overflowing gratitude as we experienced the culmination of our Coracle Baltimore Fellowship for 2024-25 at the Claggett Center south of Frederick, Maryland. And I was reminded of the sacredness of the Coracle Grief Retreat I experienced at Corhaven this past March. I sensed in each of these spaces a profound, deep, gentle moving of the Holy Spirit that I was honored to witness and share in along with others dear and precious to Him.
I found myself pondering what made each of these experiences so transformative. My memory was drawn to similar life altering experiences I had had: spending two weeks with a cohort of seekers at a monastery in Sierra Madre with Dallas Willard in 2002 and a week spent together on a farm in Western Maryland with dear friends from my house church in 2004. What was it that Dallas knew when he pioneered those annual gatherings at Sierra Madre and that I now found myself organically stepping into?
First, God wants to be seen and He delights to reveal Himself to those who create space to be with Him. Second, beauty is deeply restorative, and rest and an unhurried pace are keys to being able to attune to the beauty. Third, the presence of like-minded companions of Jesus helps us hold the space and allow one another to be safely and securely seen and soothed. Fourth, communal engagement with God through liturgies of prayer, Scripture reflection, worship, creative expression, and shared meals allows the fullness of who we are as embodied eternal beings to be restored and to expand our souls.
Whether it was Corhaven, or the Western Maryland countryside, or the hills and fields of the Borders of Scotland each provided a setting of great beauty for serious seekers of Jesus to come together in a community of loving presence.
Underlying this opening of my awareness to the deep richness of my life was my daily soaking in the words of David in Psalm 16. I invite you to reflect on this psalm with me and consider whether you too discover anew the richness of your life even in the midst of the pain of the unrealized dimensions of God’s kingdom in our lives and the world around us –
Psalm 16:
1 Protect me, God, for the only safety I know is found in the moments I seek You.
2 I told You, Eternal One, “You are my Lord,
for the only good I know in this world is found in You alone.”
- ) Where have you experienced His protection and goodness as you reflect on your life? What experiences rise to the surface of your attention?
3 The beauty of faith-filled people encompasses me.
They are true, and my heart is thrilled beyond measure.
2.) Who are the beautiful faith-filled people who have encompassed you?
5 You, Eternal One, are my sustenance and my life-giving cup.
In that cup, You hold my future and my eternal riches.
6 My home is surrounded in beauty;
You have gifted me with abundance and a rich legacy.
3.) Where do you sense beauty surrounding you where you are? A sense of abundant goodness? A lasting legacy that can’t be taken away from you because it’s held by God Himself?
7 I will bless the Eternal One, whose wise teaching orchestrates my days
and centers my mind at night.
8 He is ever present with me;
at all times He goes before me.
I will not live in fear or abandon my calling
because He stands at my right hand.
4.) How are you experiencing the life-giving richness of His Word and His Counsel? Where have you experienced the confidence to persevere in your calling because of God’s presence standing with you?
9 This is a good life—my heart is glad, my soul is full of joy,
and my body is at rest.
Who could want for more?
5.) Where/when are or have you experienced joy permeating your heart? Your soul? Peace permeating your body?
10 You will not abandon me to experience death and the grave
or leave me to rot alone.
11 Instead, You direct me on the path that leads to a beautiful life.
As I walk with You, the pleasures are never-ending,
and I know true joy and contentment.
6.) Where is God inviting you to walk with Him figuratively and literally at the pace of an unhurried conversation?
Psalm 16 is a complementary description of the Life Without Lack that David depicts in Psalm 23. This is our inheritance and birthright as sons and daughters of God and joint heirs with Jesus our elder brother.
Where might God be inviting you to move further into placing yourself in the path of oncoming beauty (Curt Thompson) in the company of faith-filled brothers and sisters?
I close with this beautiful reminder from Steffany Gretzinger that there is no fear where love abides. Abba, gentle shepherd, lead us into the fullness of your love in all its manifestations in and around us! Permeate our bodies, hearts, and souls with Your joy and contentment.
For those who would relish joining others in the Coracle community:
1) Baltimore is forming a new Coracle Fellowship cohort to share the next 10 months together in a shared pursuit of the love of God.
2) We are offering another Grief Retreat this October 3-5 with the hope of another opportunity in March.
3) New cohorts of pilgrims for St. Cuthbert’s Way and Iona are now forming.
Keep your eyes and hearts open for the communal experiences of beauty God is offering you.