A spiritual day in Wales
My wife, four friends, and I spent several days vacationing in Wales rambling in the countryside this October. One particular day we traversed the ridge of this farmland for the entire day. Most of the day was rainy but our gear kept us dry and warm. These close friends in elder years gather four times a year to engage in some spectacular outdoor adventures. Time together away gives us all space to share stories about the changing world around us, about our children in their adult lives, and about what’s happening to us personally in the face of aging bodies, a new world of lies, war , and the digital speed of communication. Friendship, commitment to each other, and remembrances of how we managed growing children and businesses for the lives we wanted holds us together like a woven blanket.
We six slogging in mud and rain, beholding this scene of green pastures and the soaked Wye Valley River, tells me love, hard work, and respect for the natural world has been worth it. To be silenced by the beauty below and exhausted from the rigorous hiking is our quiet prayer of thanks to our spiritual Source.
Despite our frustrations of current political, technological, and international conflict, our awe engenders a wink to one another, to suggest “we found our way with help from something greater than ourselves”. Glory be!
Tom