And it is not what one might think. It is not a deep and thoughtful writing of spiritual matters. Rather, my revisiting is done through being in similar situation this Holy Week as I was five years ago when I had loaded, with help of teens to dig up trees and load truck with them and garage and garden items. Then I drove over 2300 miles in a 32' truck. Had never driven a truck before.
I came to this place, arriving at 3 p.m. on Good Friday. It was fortuitous of the crucifixion in hard living conditions and the Lord stripping me down in various ways, over these past five years. Not long after I arrived, I got word that my Agnus Dei Hermitage from whence I'd come, had sold.
This week this nothing consecrated Catholic hermit has been hard at work within the Te Deum Hermitage, trying to make progress in finishing what had ended up being a total gutting of the dwelling and five years of reconstructing from the studs.
Today, Holy Thursday, I was awake at 3 a.m. and rested, but by 5:30 a.m. was up and loading some lumber to return to lumber yard, traveling into civilization to arrive there at 7 a.m. Got the return and selected four 1x4 boards for additional window and door trim, got a cubic yard and a half of black bark mulch in the truck at a facility for such, dashed into Lowe's to get four lath trim boards, and was back at the hermitage by 10 a.m.
And right in front of me were the two teens in their car, come to work a long day.
We dug and moved trees and buried scrap 4x4's and other landscape type boards, to create an edging for some areas of the yard in which the grass is hard to keep from the specimen tree and perennial beds. Tomorrow I will continue on with my angel and the Lord, weeding and moving a few smaller trees. (For the past two years I have sold yet more trees as they grew unexpectedly well and thus outgrew their places.)
The Holy Week five years ago and the Holy Week now, are not at all as ever before nor interim--and I hope not after this. Yet, it has been quite instructive and spiritually deep in a profound way, to be spending Holy Week in a fashion reminding me of five years ago and the pilgrimage, of sorts, from one place to another in which this hermit lives, prays, and ponders and praises the Lord!
Tomorrow I will see what occurs while I weed and move a few more smaller trees, and whatever else transpires. Of course, I should not even plan for tomorrow in a way, as living in the Order of the Present Moment most often results in any such plans even a day in advance are often disrupted. I can wake up in too much pain to rise, or the weather can shift and rains alter the yard work plan. Or I could pass on in the night, or have an unexpected guest as happened on Wednesday.
Rather than a week of quiet reflection in rest mode, this Holy Week has been one of much manual labor with the necessity to take advantage of decent weather to get the yard work under a semblance of control. Putting off means far longer effort needed as spring is for growth whether trees needing pruning or weeds needing pulling.
Yet amidst the manual labor, somehow there is a great spiritual benefit of what is an atypical Holy Week for this hermit. After an arduous Lent, filled with goodness in God's guidance and individualized lessons learned in ways that help my soul, the excitement of Easter resurrection builds along with the joy of knowing that my salvation is won through my Beloved Lord Jesus' painful and unjust-in-the-temporal--suffering and death on the Cross.
For me, since early childhood, I had a penchant for Good Friday and especially between the hours of noon and 3 p.m.
God bless His Real Presence in us!
I came to this place, arriving at 3 p.m. on Good Friday. It was fortuitous of the crucifixion in hard living conditions and the Lord stripping me down in various ways, over these past five years. Not long after I arrived, I got word that my Agnus Dei Hermitage from whence I'd come, had sold.
This week this nothing consecrated Catholic hermit has been hard at work within the Te Deum Hermitage, trying to make progress in finishing what had ended up being a total gutting of the dwelling and five years of reconstructing from the studs.
Today, Holy Thursday, I was awake at 3 a.m. and rested, but by 5:30 a.m. was up and loading some lumber to return to lumber yard, traveling into civilization to arrive there at 7 a.m. Got the return and selected four 1x4 boards for additional window and door trim, got a cubic yard and a half of black bark mulch in the truck at a facility for such, dashed into Lowe's to get four lath trim boards, and was back at the hermitage by 10 a.m.
And right in front of me were the two teens in their car, come to work a long day.
We dug and moved trees and buried scrap 4x4's and other landscape type boards, to create an edging for some areas of the yard in which the grass is hard to keep from the specimen tree and perennial beds. Tomorrow I will continue on with my angel and the Lord, weeding and moving a few smaller trees. (For the past two years I have sold yet more trees as they grew unexpectedly well and thus outgrew their places.)
The Holy Week five years ago and the Holy Week now, are not at all as ever before nor interim--and I hope not after this. Yet, it has been quite instructive and spiritually deep in a profound way, to be spending Holy Week in a fashion reminding me of five years ago and the pilgrimage, of sorts, from one place to another in which this hermit lives, prays, and ponders and praises the Lord!
Tomorrow I will see what occurs while I weed and move a few more smaller trees, and whatever else transpires. Of course, I should not even plan for tomorrow in a way, as living in the Order of the Present Moment most often results in any such plans even a day in advance are often disrupted. I can wake up in too much pain to rise, or the weather can shift and rains alter the yard work plan. Or I could pass on in the night, or have an unexpected guest as happened on Wednesday.
Rather than a week of quiet reflection in rest mode, this Holy Week has been one of much manual labor with the necessity to take advantage of decent weather to get the yard work under a semblance of control. Putting off means far longer effort needed as spring is for growth whether trees needing pruning or weeds needing pulling.
Yet amidst the manual labor, somehow there is a great spiritual benefit of what is an atypical Holy Week for this hermit. After an arduous Lent, filled with goodness in God's guidance and individualized lessons learned in ways that help my soul, the excitement of Easter resurrection builds along with the joy of knowing that my salvation is won through my Beloved Lord Jesus' painful and unjust-in-the-temporal--suffering and death on the Cross.
For me, since early childhood, I had a penchant for Good Friday and especially between the hours of noon and 3 p.m.
God bless His Real Presence in us!
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