Lake
Meditations
“A
lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is the earth’s
eye, looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.”
Henry
David Thoreau
Yesterday,
the lake was dead calm. After days of rain, it is high and a deep, clear
gray-green. This morning, the lake ripples with the wind and fish are jumping
for their first meal of the day. Every morning, crows rule the landscape with
their loud, cross-country communications. All in all, this has been a very
pleasant five days. Quiet. Peaceful. There’s something about being near a body
of water that focuses the mind inward. In silence, one ponders life and life’s
possibilities.
My
second day here, in the early hours before others were up, I watched the
memorial service of Fran McKendree, the co-founder of Awakening Soul, on
YouTube. He was a consummate musician and a man with a heart too big and too open
for this world. I cried from the sound of the first bagpipe until the final
blessing. The service was held outside (covid rules) at Kanuga Conference
Center earlier this month, officiated by Episcopal Bishop Brian Prior of MN. Brian McLaren read poetry, and Barbara Brown Taylor gave
the eulogy. And, of course, the Awakening Soul musicians supplied the praise music.
It was the kind of service that can only be done by people who know and love
the deceased. So dear and poignant because his loss is felt by so many. It was
also an opportunity to think about one’s own life and death. What do you want
people to remember about you? What music do you want played? Will your body be
buried or cremated? Who will officiate? These are the sorts of things that the
lake assists you in pondering.
Turkish
writer, Mehmet Murat ildan said, “Find a calm lake and wait for the twilight
in silence. There, existence will visit you with all its magnificence.” He’s
correct—at twilight, in that liminal space before complete darkness falls, the veil
between the worlds is thin enough to see through—to see what awaits on the
other side. To have no fear because the quiet, calm lake reassures you. “Await;
Allow; Accept; and Attend; all is well, and all is well, and all will be well.”
(Judith of Norwich) May it be so.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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