A "Thin Place"

This is a picture of my house in the snow we had last week. It was an abundant snow. Today, as I was waiting to get my hair cut, I started talking with a woman about the snow we had. "Snow is as good as money" she told me. When I asked her why, she told me that snow puts nitrogen in the soil and makes for a good crop season. Last week's snow was, by those terms, a gift of great wealth! Although we have had warm weather and rain over the past few days, there are patches of snow still clinging to the land here in the mountains. My mother was fond of saying that lingering snow was waiting for the snow to come.

The snow was a good thing for me. The painter started painting the inside of my house today and before he could start, I had to pack up all the breakables and clear all the furniture surfaces and the walls. The snow gave me several days of quality time to do all this work. Having moved a number of times, I am no stranger to packing. It is always an onerous task. I stretched it out over a number of days making it a little less intense but never the less it was tiring.  Today after making sure that things were going well, Bella and I moved to a friend's house in Laurel Springs to stay for a few days. My cat, Pumpkin, is not portable, so she is left to keep an eye on the painting project. 

Mepkin Afternoon

My friends whose house I am staying at, live on top of a mountain. There is a Christmas tree farm behind them and a view which includes not only mountains but the Blue Ridge Parkway in front. The name of their home is Mepkin. Like the Abbey of the same name in South Carolina, their Mepkin is a "thin place". The Celts designated places like Iona, off the coast of Scotland, as "thin places" because they felt that the barrier between earth and heaven was particularly thin in those places. Prayer came easier and holy moments were abundant in those "thin places." Being at my friend's Mepkin is like being on retreat. Since getting here today, I know that my blood pressure has dropped to a healthier level. We got here about 1:30 this afternoon and since then I have napped for over an hour, taken a walk with Bella, read, had a glass of wine as the sun set and remembered that God is sovereign over all. What is it about the daily pressures of life, especially in the midst of particular chaotic events, that makes me suddenly feel like I have to take control of the universe? Every problem, every issue becomes larger than life itself. It has been life giving to find my heart and mind turned toward prayer today for those I love, and those who are in pain right now. 

I am so grateful for this time to reorient my heart; to find my voice in prayer and to listen for God's voice. So with my sleepy little Bella here beside me, I pray that a "thin place" will be in your future.