Going on Vacation

Still working my way through the Anthony DeMello book, entitled Wellsprings.
So many wonder-filled pieces to ponder.
To journal through.

Pondering and dissecting this one will be high on my writing agenda this week,
one day at a time.



The Vacation
By Anthony DeMello

I imagine I retire to a lonely place
to give myself the gift of solitude,
for solitude is a time when I see things as they are.


What are the little things in life
that lack of solitude has magnified unduly?


What are the really big things
that I find too little time for?


Solitude is the time to make decisions.
What decisions do I need to make
or reconsider
at this juncture of my life?


I now make a decision
about the kind of day today shall be.


Will it be a day of doing?
I list the things I really want to do today.


Will it also be a day of being
- no effort to achieve,
to get things done,
to gather or possess,
but just to be?
My life will not bear fruit
unless I learn the art of lying fallow,
the art of “wasting” time creatively.



Maya is very good at lying fallow;
wasting time is the central activity of her life.
*******************************************************************

So I decide what time to give to play,
to purposeless and unproductive interests,
to silence, intimacy, rest.
And I ask myself what I shall taste today,
and touch
and smell
and listen to
and see.




My prayer this week is to discover the pleasure of obscure unhurried growing things. I hope and pray to find them within my own expanding soul.


PS. No, I'm not actually away going on vacation.
I'll be lying fallow here at home.
Y'all come by, ya hear?