Falling upon God

     I am a visual learner. For example, when I need directions, a map or printed words clarify things for me much more than oral description. Since our recent retreat, I’ve been reminded several times of how I relate to images. 

     During retreat one of the psalms spoke of God’s love being poured out, and in my mind I saw someone being filled like a vase is filled with water. Now I’m finding this concept makes it a little easier to deal with difficult people. I guess it’s harder to stay upset with someone when you can visualize how much God loves them. 

     Then just the other day I was reading again Daniel Ladinsky’s renderings of poetry by the 14^th century Persian Hafiz. (The book is called I Heard God Laughing.). Here’s the quote that jumped out to me this time:

“Pulling out the chair beneath your mind and watching you fall upon God…”

Wow! I saw myself in the air and gently falling into a cloud after the chair of my expectations/plans/whatever was pulled out from beneath me. 

     I wondered if I could I ever get to a point where I could “fall upon God” this readily when my best laid designs go awry? I can only pray and keep working at it. 

      Sr. Colleen Winston, OSB

PS: If you are also someone fascinated with imagery, I put more of those used by Hafiz into my personal blog. You might be interested in checking it out. It’s at http://kymonastery.blogspot.com.