Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
Rumi
Memory Work - First Day of Fall
When I was a child ‘memory work’ was very important in school. As a child, it was a big effort to learn prayers by rote, to memorize perfectly the answers to the questions in our Catechism, and to memorize certain numbers of lines of poetry.
Then later in life I began to understand all the things I had memorized as a child. The prayers, Catechism answers and poems, were no longer just words strung together but the words I had memorized found their way to my heart.
Trees by Joyce Kilmer, is one of the poems that touches my heart every year as I ponder their awe-inspiring beauty in the Autumn of their lives. I’ve even found that my memory works best when I sing the poem.
May these words reach your heart today.
-Sister Elaine Cole, csj
Trees
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the Earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
Joyce Kilmer, 1886-1918
Images: Ricardo Gomez Angel @rgaleriacom | Aaron Burden @aaronburden Unsplash
Weekly Pause and Ponder
Life is a Trip
As a former educator, autumn always brings with it the possibility of new beginnings. For me, in many respects, it conjures up a predisposition for change-making similar to that which arises within me with the approach of New Years Day. The coming of fall repeatedly offers me an opportunity to examine my priorities going forward and make minor adjustments to my personal goals.
The Best Western Hotels, asserts, “Life is a trip. Make the most of it.” This company slogan gifts me with a bit of easily remembered wisdom for my daily living. It reminds me that no day is ordinary, indeed every day is unique offering me 84,600 seconds of newness. Back to school days, offer all of us a chance to set our inner GPS for where we wish to travel on our life’s trip and how we might make the most of it.
May you have fulfilling autumn days.
-Sister Nancy Wales, csj
