“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.”
—Joseph Campbell
These summer mornings I love waking up during the pre-dawn moments before the “robin concertmaster” sounds the first pitch of the morning symphony waking up a sleeping world. She announces the concert pitch, and soon the air is filled with music from the nearby neighboring birds. Thus begins the glorious morning songfest! I hear all the various crescendos and decrescendos creating this masterpiece. Suddenly the liveliness of the music changes and the atmosphere’s dynamic becomes pianissimo. This noticeable silence ushers in the glorious sunrise. We all pause as the world takes on a new color across the sky—even creeping into my place in the concert hall (my couch)!
One afternoon during my walk something caught my attention—a nest had fallen from a tree branch and was now resting on the driveway. Having recently been a participant in Prairiewoods’ Zoom discussion on the book entitled The Soul’s Slow Ripening by Christine Valters Paintner, I recognized this was a “shimmering” moment! The nest was inviting me to savor the experience.
Oh no! Had this been my morning concertmaster’s home? Had she been harmed? Will the place where she sounds the morning’s first pitch be moved? Will the “robin concertmaster” leave the tree near my concert hall?
Later, looking closely at the photo of the nest that I had taken with my phone, I saw a dark opening at the center of the nest which looked like a doorway (the Irish would call it a “threshold”). In my imagination I saw my “robin concertmaster” step out each morning onto the “porch of her nest.” Her early routine includes reflecting upon what she treasures in the deepest part of her heart. Then she is ready to share her gift of song with the world and all those sleepyheads waiting for her proclamation of a new day. But now there has been a change. She has let go of the plans she had made for herself and is preparing to accept what is now waiting for her.
So how is she feeling? What gives her life in these moments of letting go? Where does she find hope? What subtle changes has she experienced in her life as the concertmaster … or has she let go of that part of her life too? Has she found new energy in letting go? How has she perceived God moving in her life? What transformation has she experienced living in a world filled with COVID-19? What wisdom does she want to share?
She led me to ask these very same questions of myself about “retirement.” Thanks, my “robin concertmaster” friend, for the time you spent sharing with me on your former “front porch”!
—Joellen Price, PBVM, friend of Prairiewoods