ROUNDING THE BASES, FILLING THE SPACES
Something New
I am inviting any of our 60-ish and older members to join me in Chapel at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, Dec. 17 for a session titled “Rounding the Bases, Filling the Spaces: A Spiritual Exercise for Golden Agers” which is intended to help those of us in our “Golden Years” mine the lessons, the riches and the graces of the time with which we have been blessed.
Location, Location, Location
Each of us have countless events happen in our life, but what is the meaning of a given event or of a series of events over the course of one’s days? A frame of reference might prove helpful in naming the significance of our experiences, especially in relation to the entire trajectory or pattern of our journey.
Rounding The Bases
Something New
I am inviting any of our 60-ish and older members to join me in Chapel at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, Dec. 17 for a session titled “Rounding the Bases, Filling the Spaces: A Spiritual Exercise for Golden Agers” which is intended to help those of us in our “Golden Years” mine the lessons, the riches and the graces of the time with which we have been blessed.
Location, Location, Location
Each of us have countless events happen in our life, but what is the meaning of a given event or of a series of events over the course of one’s days? A frame of reference might prove helpful in naming the significance of our experiences, especially in relation to the entire trajectory or pattern of our journey.
Rounding The Bases
More than once each day I find myself locating an event of my life
(either present or past) on the template of “rounding the bases” or
“staying on the base path” or “making the turn” on my journey “home”.
The image above offers 80 locations (one for each year of the current average life span in our country). If I reach 20 years of age, I’ve gotten to first base, but I’ll need to make a big turn (reorientation) in order to get to age 40 (second base). I’ve I’m blessed to have reached second base, I will need to make the major turn of my life in order to arrive at third base (age 60). After making the final turn at third base, I’m heading “home”.
Note though, in this image the circle at each of the 80 steps is blank, empty, unfilled.
Filling The Spaces
In the following image, the circles that were empty in the image above have been filled, and so---looking back on my life, after having made the turn at third base (60 years of age), I am positioned to look back over the entire course of my life, and see not a bunch of unfilled spaces/experiences, but rather view (and review) all the experiences that have filled in my originally vacant spaces.
The image above offers 80 locations (one for each year of the current average life span in our country). If I reach 20 years of age, I’ve gotten to first base, but I’ll need to make a big turn (reorientation) in order to get to age 40 (second base). I’ve I’m blessed to have reached second base, I will need to make the major turn of my life in order to arrive at third base (age 60). After making the final turn at third base, I’m heading “home”.
Note though, in this image the circle at each of the 80 steps is blank, empty, unfilled.
Filling The Spaces
In the following image, the circles that were empty in the image above have been filled, and so---looking back on my life, after having made the turn at third base (60 years of age), I am positioned to look back over the entire course of my life, and see not a bunch of unfilled spaces/experiences, but rather view (and review) all the experiences that have filled in my originally vacant spaces.
Rounding Out Another Year
We are now rounding out another Liturgical Year. On Sunday November 26 we will conclude the Church Year 2016. But before begin the the Year of Grace 2017, we will have literally to turn a page in the Roman Missal with these words: The Proper of Time.
Liturgy, Light and Life
Liturgy brings to light what otherwise remains in the dark. Ceremony surfaces serious stuff. Cult clarifies that which is crucial for a well- lived life. Ritual reveals what is Most Real. As we turn the corner into a new Year of Grace, may we allow our celebration of the Liturgical Life of our Tradition to shape our lives and lead us Home.
We are now rounding out another Liturgical Year. On Sunday November 26 we will conclude the Church Year 2016. But before begin the the Year of Grace 2017, we will have literally to turn a page in the Roman Missal with these words: The Proper of Time.
Liturgy, Light and Life
Liturgy brings to light what otherwise remains in the dark. Ceremony surfaces serious stuff. Cult clarifies that which is crucial for a well- lived life. Ritual reveals what is Most Real. As we turn the corner into a new Year of Grace, may we allow our celebration of the Liturgical Life of our Tradition to shape our lives and lead us Home.
