July 24
It was an excellent Sunday in Fairhope yesterday. Just a nice day for noodling around and at 5 P.M. I attended a meeting of a new group calling itself the Spiritual Circle. We're just forming into some kind of Sunday evening exchange of spiritual vibes, using the Friends Meeting House as a space. We started off by trying to affiliate with the Unitarians, but that group was not comfortable with the concept.
The simple, beautiful little room the Friends have offered is inspiring in its unobtrusive elegance. It is also used by an AA group, and everybody can feel the energy of rebirth within its white walls and silence. We are still defining ourselves, which unfortunately requires words, but I think when we become a functioning group we'll be able to manage in silence from time to time. Coming from that first meeting, I felt a sense of joy in having found something I needed. Someone called, "I love you" to me as I left, and I said "I love you too," not always the easiest words out of my mouth. This is a very promising sign.
After that meeting I was invited to a birthday party for three women, all roughly of my vintage. These women are good friends, beautiful -- there's that word again -- and each intense in her own way. The party was on a pier over the bay; that was the best part.
As soon as I got to the water, the sound of the bay enveloped me and the uplift of spirit I had experienced at the earlier meeting was intensified. The Spanish explorers who discovered Mobile Bay in the 18th Century called it The Bay of the Holy Spirit, and I know what they were talking about. Last night it was overwhelming -- a windy night, the usually gentle waves were crashing, and the breeze was unexpectedly strong and dry. For the party, lights had been strung out under the rafters of the pier. There wasn't much to drink, and I'm not crazy about warm white wine, but the food was good and the partygoers were merry. I wasn't really in a crazy party mood, but I loved being at the bay with happy people for a few hours. There are times when you are just glad to be where you are.
All in all, a Sunday to launch a productive and positive week. Hope you had the same.
2 comments:
I love the word "Sabbath." I would like to think the word and the suggestions of peace that travel with it existed before that old devil Jehovah co-opted it. "Sunday" comes close, and you have given it even more of the suddenly quite bearable lightness of being.
In his book The Gospel According to Jesus Stephen Mitchell coins the term "a sabbath of the heart," suggesting a term for the daily peace we all seek.
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