Funny how things seem to pop up, forgotten moments which are now important. I remember back in 2002 I was having a particularly difficult time. My wife went back to Florida. I was in Pennsylvania working a job, she had enough of my craziness. She wished me well, said I would just have to go through what I was going through by myself; she couldn’t do it. I knew it and understood, I didn’t like it but I understood. Shortly after that, I remember one afternoon there was a bird flying through the work site which was on the Delaware River. I don’t know if it was a shore bird or what, I couldn’t tell at the time, I don’t remember much about it except when it tilted its belly to the sun, in the light of the sun shine, the light reflected off the bottom of its wing and in that nanosecond, I saw something, a glimpse of something really beautiful. It was years later, literally 10 years later, that I understood what I saw. It was because of Bishop Barron’s homily; he described what was objectively valuable and what was subjectively satisfying. I didn’t know I was having one of those objectively valuable experiences at the time, I certainly wouldn’t have phrased it that way but that’s what it was. There are those times when we see something in nature, have a realization given as a grace which changes our lives, when the event is incidental and the experience monumental.
Know you are on my prayer list. Your Brother in Christ.
I hope this letter finds you in good spirits.
This morning, I was looking back at the day in South Carolina while I was driving through the mountains watching the sun shine through the trees and the leaves were blowing and the shadows were dancing across the hood of my car. It was truly beautiful. Reminded me of the day on the Delaware River, that magic moment when the world became objectively beautiful. I know now what a valuable experience these moments hold for us. I can see in my mind’s eye the morning looking over the Atlantic Ocean when I realized that I’m the only one on the planet that’s seeing the sun glistening across the water the way it is right now, right here. It’ll never happen that way again, it’s only happened like that one time, this time. Now I realize in those moments, I’m part of that cosmic concert, sometimes I’m playing an instrument, sometimes I’m just listening to the orchestra. it’s all good. Blessings for all of us. Your friend in Christ