Slowly, slowly...

My spiritual director is fond of advising, "Sloooowly, sloooowly...." a relic from his time in India. As I headed out the door after 8 full days of silence, my director for this retreat offered similar wisdom, though less colorfully expressed. "Don't plunge back in for a day or two, take time to unpack the mental bags as well as the physical ones." It's been good advice, though by 11 pm on Saturday night after cantoring the evening Mass, followed by a barbecue (a working dinner for my spouse), I was wondering if I could take it (the advice, not the pace).

Random impressions:

• It was hot and steamy for several days, which has the positive effect of encouraging stillness. I spent several afternoons sitting in the cloister garden, reading and drawing (not well, but a good contemplative exercise).
• Watching a 20 acre field, glittering with fireflies. Special effects like I've never seen.
• A deer and her fawns crashing through the hedgerow at night (after which I took a flashlight - deer up close are BIG).
• The line of sneakers holding open the doors on the second floor, in hope of getting a cross breeze.
• Hoarding quarters to do my laundry again, like grad school