February Musings

     Outside my second floor window, a pervasive grayness chills the landscape with its bone-bare trees and swirling snow.  It evokes an unsolicited, fleeting feeling like that of being in Narnia, where it was “always winter, but never Christmas”.  Out of nowhere comes a phrase from the baccalaureate speaker at my college graduation many years ago: “You are the children of winter.”

      That is all I remember of the speech.  Most likely, the speaker encouraged us to meet the challenges that lay ahead and reminded us that it would not be an easy future that awaited us.  Wise decisions, hope, and trust in God would help us make a difference. 

      Now, the necessity of hope and informed action is more crucial than ever as the volume and speed of human and environmental crises mount.  While the advances of technology, medicine, psychology and science grow, so do drug problems, weapons of destruction, slavery and domination.  And the curse and saving grace is that we are all in this together. 

      As the Spirit hovers over the land and waters, seeking those who will listen and hear....  let us pray and carry one another. 

       During these random musings, a beautifully bright, small and fragile redbird has alighted on the top limb of a tree on the hillside.  It flits here and there, with its mate nearby.  I am reluctant to leave.  How can it stand the cold?   Thank you, God, for this little gift.  I need it today. 

                        Sr. Sharon Portwood, OSB