The hours on retreat were wide open and ripe for the taking. I walked three times a day. Having settled in early at night with tea and a book, weary from the sun and exercise, I awakened every morning in first light.
My daily “walk with God” was early with the rising sun while my mind was fresh and clear to listen for the messages of inspiration, now titling these pages. Afterward, I would take my breakfast in the silent dining room, then go to my room to meditate and write in preparation for my time with Sister Kathleen. Another walk before lunch or maybe a bike ride around the cozy neighborhood of Cape May Point, then lunch.
After noon, I took my chair to the sand and parked at the fringy hem of the sea. In the wake of this glorious vista, I am helpless to imagine another able to speak the rhythms of God’s creation more eloquently. The tide that brings the things of life to my feet; the tide that takes them back. The shells that scoot by me on legs, the empty ones I carry away to cherish . The sun that rises and falls, encircling the Point like a ring on the finger of God.
After dinner, many of us set out, one by one, alone yet together, to stand in the surf or rest on the sand or walk to the west as the red sun merged with the water. A tour guide’s voice drifts from a boat, as it rounds the point to dock. Shadows of fishermen stand at the water’s edge, children linger to finish one last sand castle, and the silent women raise their faces to the divine fulfillment of another glorious day.
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever. Revelation 5:13
Meeting God at the Park 