As one of God's little humors, after my rather petulent observations about Portland's urban collision with my train-indulged hermitage of sorts, I boarded the Empire Builder at the city's Union Station to find a full house. The train is teeming with people -- with the room immediately behind mine packed with four quite active pre-pubescent girls, and the rooms forward of mine filled with the four parents; two families traveling together and armed with animated chatter. So much for the silent sanctity of the rails!
There is some instructive justice to the circumstance. I have been reflecting on my earlier observations with some humility and regret. While retreats -- whether of the railroad or the more conventional varieties -- are certainly useful, surely it is lamentable if the spiritual life and inner quietude are only possible at a distance from active and energetic life in the very midst of whatever is more common -- an urban cacaphony or a rural spread. To curse the very hum of human animation seems contrary to the transformative premise of the Gospel. If the Spirit is only accessible apart from everyday life then we are most to be pitied!
And so chastened, I reengage my rolling environs -- giggling girls and chatty neighbors and all. They are the world I am in. And wasn't part of my intent to listen, to attend, to know?
Sleep well.
There is some instructive justice to the circumstance. I have been reflecting on my earlier observations with some humility and regret. While retreats -- whether of the railroad or the more conventional varieties -- are certainly useful, surely it is lamentable if the spiritual life and inner quietude are only possible at a distance from active and energetic life in the very midst of whatever is more common -- an urban cacaphony or a rural spread. To curse the very hum of human animation seems contrary to the transformative premise of the Gospel. If the Spirit is only accessible apart from everyday life then we are most to be pitied!
And so chastened, I reengage my rolling environs -- giggling girls and chatty neighbors and all. They are the world I am in. And wasn't part of my intent to listen, to attend, to know?
Sleep well.
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