It is green and comfortable here. I skyped earlier with my friend Joseph from St. Andrews and it was the most wonderful and bittersweet conversation. He skyped from where we lived and I gave him a brief outdoor tour of Vermont. Hearing him and seeing him there brought every memory back and when familiar workers from our residence hall walked by in the background, it was the nicest yet strangest sensation of being where I was for so long yet not being there physically at all.
Last night after work I visited Northfield, Vermont briefly. I weeded with a family member, fed cows, tasted sugar snap peas and rolled away a 35 year-old wire fence to be put away for the winter. The sky, distant hills and peaceful outdoor sounds of July were beautiful.
I'm currently reading 'Almost Catholic' by Jon M. Sweeny. Sweeny, a born Protestant-now-Catholic-Thelogian focuses on the mystery and traditions woven into the Catholic faith. As I continually question and explore my own following of the Catholic faith, Sweeny provides insight and meaning into what Catholicism is at its core. A few of my favorite passages:
'To be Catholic is to live in the largest of all possible worlds. This includes spanning time, reorienting space and changing within. The Catholic imagination reaches back to the catacombs when Christians first began to seek faith mediated hrough symbol, art, sacrament scripture and the mystical oneness of community.'
'Two millenia of saints and practices and teachings and mystery form a golden string that connects us to our beginnings. These paths are very much about the future as they illuminate our past.'
'The world is all wrapped up with God; both the good and the bad, hurricanes and fair autumn sunsine, the Haitian poor and the entitled rich, spiritual doubt and religious certainty; it is all One Mystery.'
Lastly, my lovely friend Charlotte from St. Andrews just had an Op-Ed published in a student magazine. Titled 'The Royal Treatment', Charlotte explores if the life of the young Prince George is to be envied or pitied, while envisioning the societal restrictions placed upon the other 4 million births in Britain this year. It's wonderfully-put and well-written.
--'Some people try to spin the myth that modern Britain is now a classless society, but these statistics show otherwise. The class system rests on the simple and odious belief that some people are worth more than others, and that your personal value is based upon the purity of your blood.'
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