Landing at the Mothership

My balloon touched down briefly in Chicago, but now I'm landed safely at the IHM Motherhouse (aka Mothership) in Monroe, MI. I have been treated with great kindness and as if they have just been waiting for me to get here. I am writing this from the library reading room on Sunday evening. (see picture at right)
     Saturday I was invited to attend Sr. Julie's Mission-group meeting. Seems that all the community members are divided into small groups called Mission groups (I think). And this is how they do their governance: rather like states within a country. The Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Monroe, MI (IHMs) aren't divided into separate provinces - this is the core of who they are, although they are in ministry all over the world.
     This is their "home," and they always speak of coming back to the Motherhouse as "coming home." It's huge and beautiful - but it does have a great sense of welcoming and gathering, in spite of its magnificence. The whole building was renovated recently. I'm told it was the largest institutional green-renovation in the world, and they've won all sorts of awards for the work that was done here. And it's a teaching building, so they've built into the building itself a philosophy and a blueprint for how green renovation should be done.
      The order has historically been a teaching order - but their educational focus has always been seen broadly - so no matter what their mission (teaching in schools and colleges, tutoring in the inner city, running the A Nuns Life Ministry , or working in foreign missions, helping the elderly with conservatorship and management issues, or whatever else they do (and I don't yet begin to know what that is), it all fits under the broad definition of education/teaching. I do know that in the mid-60's a decision was made to send one sister out of 10 to university to study theology, so they have several world-class theologians among them.
     So right now my official position here is one of "hanging out with the sisters." Tomorrow I will meet with a volunteer coordinator - and, I think, with the Associate Director. And things continue to unfold.
. . . . . more later. (and more still to come)--

I'm up in the air

I am literally up in the air - somewhere between the west coast and Chicago. And I am metaphorically up in the air, too - wondering why I'm going where I'm going, what will happen while I'm there. Vacillating between anticipation, skepticism as to my motives, and some trepidation . . .

But mostly I am up in the air because anticipation is winning the war. My spirit is buoyant and hopeful. This is a young sort of feeling - and young feels very good. I am happy because I know there are people awaiting my arrival who love me and want me to be there. I am happy because anticipation means adventure.

I think about the song we used to sing in the prayer group: He gives marvelous comrades to me: the faithful who dwell in his land!  (Click on it - it's the song my heart is singing!)


And then because my thoughts are bouncing around in the ether, I think of a line that has lived in my head since I memorized it at the age of six: Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life - and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.  Somewhere over the years the verb tense morphed from future to past . . . because this has been the truth of my life - he has given marvelous comrades to me. His goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life.

So, I think: It's OK to be up in the air - and to trust the current to carry

 you where you are meant to be.

Looking at the big picture . . .

Today I began my exploration by visiting the California Museum in Sacramento with my sister, Pat, where the Women and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America exhibit is on display. I'd been hearing about this for quite some time, and I was so glad to finally find myself in the same place as the traveling exhibit! It's beautifully presented - and I was excited to recognize so many of the bits and pieces from stories I've been told by friends and family!  This was a great way to build a foundation for my further explorations!

This afternoon I drove up to Arbuckle to visit family - and tomorrow it's down to Modesto to my son David's family for the weekend. The weather is beautiful, and the almonds are starting to bloom!

Tomorrow the adventure begins . . .

. . . and like one of my favorite fictional characters, Uncle Wiggily, I am off to seek my fortune, my spectacles on my nose and my valise on wheels following after . . . first stop: California to visit my family and friends. Then, in a week, on to Chicago to meet up with my sister friends from the IHMs . . .
 "And if the snow doesn’t come in our house and sit by the gas stove until he melts into a puddle of molasses, I’ll tell you next about going to visit the Sisters at the IHM Motherhouse”. 
What? Didn't you ever read the Adventures of Uncle Wiggily?

And now it is six months later! My time flies when you are having fun!

I am going to be going on my own little Odyssey - to seek a newer world, so to speak. I will use this space to share my travels and explorations. Itinerary as follows:

• Starting with a week in California to visit family and my spiritual director.
• Then on to Chicago and from there to Monroe, Michigan where I will spend a few weeks with the IHM sisters.
• Then back to Chicago - and from there to Minneapolis, for a visit with N. Minneapolis Visitation Monastery.

After than, who knows? Stay tuned - I intend to post my reflections on this little journey as I go . . .

"'Tis not to late to seek a newer world . . . "

Ulysses

Tennyson, Lord Alfred

IT little profits that an idle king, By this still hearth, among these barren crags, Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and dole Unequal laws unto a savage race, That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.         5 I cannot rest from travel: I will drink Life to the lees: all times I have enjoy’d Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those That lov’d me, and alone; on shore, and when Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades         10 Vex’d the dim sea. I am become a name; For always roaming with a hungry heart Much have I seen and known: cities of men And manners, climates, councils, governments, Myself not least, but honor’d of them all;         15 And drunk delight of battle with my peers, Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy. I am a part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’ Gleams that untravell’d world, whose margin fades         20 For ever and for ever when I move. How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use! As tho’ to breathe were life. Life pil’d on life Were all too little, and of one to me         25 Little remains: but every hour is sav’d From that eternal silence, something more, A bringer of new things; and vile it were For some three suns to store and hoard myself, And this gray spirit yearning in desire         30 To follow knowledge like a sinking star, Beyond the utmost bound of human thought. This is my son, mine own Telemachus, To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle— Well-lov’d of me, discerning to fulfil         35 This labor, by slow prudence to make mild A rugged people, and thro’ soft degrees Subdue them to the useful and the good. Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere Of common duties, decent not to fail         40 In offices of tenderness, and pay Meet adoration to my household gods, When I am gone. He works his work, I mine. There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail: There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,         45 Souls’ that have toil’d, and wrought, and thought       with me— That ever with a frolic welcome took The thunder and the sunshine, and oppos’d Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old; Old age hath yet his honor and his toil;         50 Death closes all; but something ere the end, Some work of noble note, may yet be done, Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods. The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs:          55        the deep Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends, ’T is not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths         60 Of all the western stars, until I die. It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’         65 We are not now that strength which in old days Mov’d earth and heaven, that which we are, we are: One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.         70

What matters most . . .

One thing have I desired of the LORD, 
that will I seek after;

that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
 all the days of my life,

to behold the beauty of the LORD,
 and to inquire in his temple. 

– Psalm 27:4 (KJV)