I went to Mass this morning at Mt. Irenaeus. I wasn’t going to go. I was kind of bummed out. Our daughter went back to college yesterday. Our son has gotten a position in a nearby city and has his own apartment now. This is just a part of life, but it can be painful nonetheless. I have a reasonably high stress job and that’s been wearing me down a bit. Being a creature of habit I made the 30 mile trek to Mt. Irenaeus and half listened to what was being said. I came alive a bit during the sign of peace and then communion. After Mass there is always brunch and today I became engaged in conversation with a man I graduated from high school with. We talked for over an hour and during part of that conversation he told me that he had read a reflection I had written in one of the hermitages at Mt. Irenaeus. Steve Andrews, that’s his name, is a local businessman who has been coming to Mt. Irenaeus for much longer than I regularily donates his time to help the friars. A dozen years ago he donated the timber and the time to build “La Posada”. It is the most rustic hermitage at Mt. Irenaeus and it atop the 2200 foot mountain that is the high point on the land. I’ve stayed a couple of nights at La Posada in the past five years. It’s very peaceful there. Only the sound of rustling leaves or a summer thunderstorm punctuate the silence.
There is a journal in the cabin for reflections by guests. Steve told me he enjoyed what I had written there. I forget the words but not the place. La Posada is in my heart forever. Peace.
Don, a sister from our parish sent me an article from a Wisconsin paper –I can’t remember the priest’s name, but his column was about losing people we love. He talked about how people feel when their children grow up and move away or go off to college, how you miss them so terribly. Somehow, he says, you come to appreciate them even more when they’re gone. When they come back, they have had new experiences, they have grown in maturity, and you can become even closer.
Mary, thanks for the comment. It’s all part of growing up and maturing, but it can be painful indeed. I’m glad I’m alive and can feel it all. I’m blessed to be a parent and I tell all the young parents that I meet to enjoy your children and to spoil them while you can. I’m very proud of our children and never take a backk seat when it comes time to share what they are doing with friends and others. Thanks for taking the time to comment. Peace.