Doorways
Ever since I was a child I have always loved doorways. They represent mystery, a different world that perhaps could be explored. It is like a package that is wrapped and just waiting to be opened; a gift.
We have some pretty large doorways here in the Monastery. Slowly we are having them refurbished. I was surprised at how long it took to do the fixing up. It takes a lot of labor, and the men refurbishing them are artists who have honed their trade over the years. One of the men told me, that he has been at this work for 20 years.
I was speaking to one of the men and told him how beautiful their work was. He smiled and thanked me. It is no small thing to make something beautiful in the world and I hope he understood that.
Sometimes I am surprised by beauty in places that were not expected. One day when I was about 12 years old in Panama and playing in the Jungle, I was wading down a small stream that was the aftermath of a heavy rain. As I was walking down the stream, watching where I put my feet (I was barefoot), I suddenly came upon a medium-sized hole filled with clear water and I could see right into the bottom of the waterhole. There inside the hole was a simple fish swimming around. I was taken aback by the simplicity of what I saw. The fish had been there for quite a while and was just swimming around in circles slowly. There were no plants in the water, but there were lots of rocks, no color. Just rock, mud, and the fish. Yet I found it so beautiful To this day, after nearly 64 years ago I still see it. Why? I do not know, just beauty, perhaps the surprise of seeing it so suddenly awoke something in me that still responds when I think about it.
The small and the simple can be overlooked and I feel it is to our loss. Great joy and peace can be found in being aware of what is simply ‘there’.
I am saying this because I believe I seldom do it. Hence my thinking perhaps about one small event in my life that still affects me on levels I am often not in touch with. We all can experience child-like joy if we learn to truly see the wonder of what surrounds us.
I pray for the eyes to see, Lord.-Br.MD
