Four years ago I traveled through the Dolomites in northern Italy. Spectacular mountains. I caught myself often humming "Finlandia," with the words to "Song of Peace"
We stayed one night in the Panorama Hotel on the largest high mountain meadow in Europe, whose name I've forgotten. I was wakened in the morning by the sun and got up and started to do my usual centering prayer, but I couldn't contain myself and hurried out to see the early sun on this meadow surrounded by even higher mountains. It was glorious.
As I walked I started thinking that I should be trying to talk to God since I had skipped my usual morning prayer. Gradually the words came to me that I entered here yesterday, especially the lines, "Be still and know that I am God within you. No need to talk nor think nor make a plan." The first verse was complete in my head when I went back inside and wrote it on the back of an envelope. Some of the second verse was forming but I didn't really finish it until I got home.
This experience helped me understand that being still is itself a prayer. Whenever I am caught up in beauty, even if I don't think of God directly, I am caught up into the Divine. My early morning walks have become that kind of experience for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment