Yesterday, we attended our bi-weekly centering prayer gathering – an hour+ of friendship in silence. There are usually at least five of us who come together in a friend’s home every other Thursday, and it always brings the blessings of quietness and peace. Indeed, peace, I guess, could be simply called the absence of strife, and on these prayerful Thursday afternoons, strife is powerless in the presence of our unpretentious alliance in stillness.
After centering prayer, we drove over to the Quaker meetinghouse for our monthly gathering of poets and lovers of poetry – and I would say it was one of our most enriching meetings. It was a group of perhaps eight, and the poems shared seemed, to me, to be both musical and inspiring, as good poems always are. I especially loved the harmonies among the spoken words, as if all of us readers were serious lovers of words and the music they can make. On this chilly day, I felt fortunate to be there in the warm meetinghouse among good people and good poems.
This morning we went again to Elm Grove Cemetery for our daily workout. It was a dark and damp day, but the walk among the grave stones and distinguished trees was, as always, stimulating and inspiring.
