Retreat to Appreciate
On reading Our Father's World: Mobilizing the Church to Care for Creation, I found this quote which sums up, in a way, part of the reason for this blog: appreciating and celebrating God's artistry in Creation. It says...
"We need to spend time learning about what we want to save. Whether it's the creatures in the woodland that borders a city park or the birds that visit on their annual pilgrimages north or south... [w]hat we don't know, we can't appreciate. What we don't appreciate, we won't care about. What we don't care about, we won't try to fix or save." (p.150)
In the past year I've concentrated on getting to know and appreciate my own back yard. I'm even going to write about how retreating to a small space outside each day took me on an unexpected spiritual journey.
As I prepare to write about that, I consider that there are many beautiful places in the United States that need to be understood and appreciated— places we can retreat to, not just for our own solace and growth, but also for the sake of drawing near to God's concern for his creation. A part of me sorely wishes I could take one of these opportunities, for instance, offered by the people at Laity Lodge. After all, I've never been to Texas.
If I can't go, maybe you can. Who knows. Maybe it is just the place you need to retreat to, in order to meet God and spend time with his lovely creation. This offer to win might send you on a journey of celebration, a retreat into the heart of God's creative beauty.
Photos of Laity Lodge provided by Laity Lodge. Retreat Logo and Banner design by L.L. Barkat. If you want to join the High Calling Blogs group writing project and share your thoughts about the issue of "retreat", alert Mark Goodyear and link to Chris Cree where all posts on this theme will be featured.
RELATED POSTS:
LL's Journeys
Kathy's poignant Only the Strong Retreat and Surrender
Carl's enchanting and profound Sacred Ingress
Gordon's lull-you-into-longing A Listening Prayer
Labels: creation, HC group writing project: retreat, Our Father's World, retreat
posted by L.L. Barkat at 11:51 AM
2 Comments:
"We need to spend time learning about what we want to save." You know that's what the introduction to Lord of the Rings is about, right? All those chapters in the Shire are supposed to set the stage for what will be lost if ugly technology takes over the world.
Thank goodness for those trees, right?
Also, anyone can enter the drawing. Just write about retreat and link back. We'll put you in the hat.
I never thought about places that might "need to be understood and appreciated." I'm so self centered that I always assumed I "needed" to do the appreciating and the places were just there.
I might have to rethink that now.
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