Some Time in Nature

“A genuinely holy conversation can function as an authentic spiritual practice. Our guides might also recommend that we spend some time in nature.” Teresa of Avila, The Book of My Life (1562)

Authentic spiritual practice comes in many forms, and every once in a while it’s good to change things up a bit and add something new. I do morning centering prayer as a spiritual practice, and God meets fallible me in these moments more often than I deserve. This week, however, I was surprised by how God came to me in the form of holy conversation, snow and trees in the monastery cemetery at St. Scholastica.

At noon on Wednesdays I walk with my friend Betty Preus. Most of the time we walk around the track in the athletic center, but this week we decided to walk outside and enjoy fresh air. As we started up the hill to the monastery cemetery, Betty was sharing a story from her heart—very much what Teresa would call “a genuinely holy conversation”—and I was listening as best I could. Then something very unusual happened.

When we reached the cemetery, it felt like we entered a different world and we both noticed it immediately. The weekend’s wet, heavy snow still covered the branches of the pine trees, the grass and the gravestones. A young deer was grazing under a pine tree. The circular path around the cemetery was clear and free of snow and ice, and we felt welcome to walk and talk as we have done in the past; however, it was quiet—so quiet, a quiet I hadn’t experienced for a long time—and we immediately stopped for a moment and took in the earth’s hush. “Do you think I should keep talking?” Betty said. I thought she should—it was a special sort of conversation, after all—but we decided after she was finished we’d walk the circle a few times in silence.

Sometimes we plan our spiritual time as I do with centering prayer, but other times the Holy One makes the plans and we find ourselves quite unexpectedly in the midst of more beauty and wonder than we could imagine. Grace can be plopped upon us—just like fresh, wet snow—when we least expect it. What a wonderful surprise!