We are Blessed with a Wilderness of Choices

Illuminating the Path

Lord, I will learn also to kneel down

into the world of the invisible,

   the inscrutable and the everlasting.

Then I will move no more than the leaves of a tree

   on a day of no wind,

bathed in light,

like the wanderer who has come home at last

and kneels in peace, done with all unnecessary things;

every motion, even words.

                        Mary Oliver, from “Coming to God: First Days”

            When my son was a young teenager, he undertook a traverse of the Hundred Mile Wilderness from mid-Maine to the Canadian border.   With a group of other boys and a few seasoned guides, he departed eager and confident with backpack and water filtration devices in tow.  Midway through the journey, their sources of water disappeared.  Several of the hikers fell ill.  Others dully clocked the requisite number of miles for the day and prayed that they’d be able to do the same come morning.  Then, one of their leaders became so dehydrated he started to hallucinate.

            Eventually, this being a camp experience, water was bussed in the many miles they’d ventured from home base and those who needed it were evacuated.  But not before everyone on that trek learned first-hand the true measure of the word “wilderness.”

            Our lives are always presenting us with new forms of wilderness.   Illness as wilderness.  Loss of a loved one.  Exile from one’s homeland.   The erratic behavior of someone we thought we knew well.  The tumble into joblessness.  Betrayal.  Failure.

            Lent is the great invitation into the spiritual wilderness of our inner lives.

            Our guide is a man poised on the verge of transformation.  From life as a private student of the Torah among restless visionaries who wanted to disrupt rigid and dysfunctional religious authorities of their times, Jesus went to the wilderness to discern what he was to do with the rest of his life.

            In life’s wildernesses, we too are looking desperately for the water that will slake our thirst – physical or emotional or spiritual.  We are seeking re-integration, and health, and new foundations on which we can chart a path out out of confusion and lostness into lives of purpose and value.

            Lent is often mistaken as a time of penitence, fasting and self-denial.  It can be these, but to stop here is to miss the point.  The point of closing off easy avenues of distraction is much like the point of my son’s group venturing into the Maine wilds.  It is to learn what truly matters to our survival and thriving.

             The journey of Lent is about our choices.

             It is time and space, poetry and wisdom literature through which we can examine the alternatives before us, and to choose.

            Jesus’s story is all about his choices.

            You can make this true for you as well.

            I invite you to join me, and a group of deeply spiritual folks for a 6-week Friday zoom hour of meditation, readings, and reflections.  Bring your questions, your hunger for a quiet place to be, and your journals.

            Make this the Lent when you face into your own wilderness in a supportive community, confront the temptations that meet you there, and explore the transformative possibilities of your choices for greater freedom, fulfillment and mindful self-awareness.

Workshop details:

Dates:  February 16, 23

            March 1, 8, 15, 22

            12 noon to 1:15 p.m.

Cost: $150

To Register:  Email kathleenhirsch2016@gmail.com