Change of Season

Over the last eight years I have gone north to south and south to north along this east coast of the United States a number of times. Marsha and I went to Myrtle Beach for vacations in my present home twice a year for six of those years. The high today in Myrtle Beach will be in the 90s while here in Massachusetts it will be in the mid 70s, and in Maine my final destination in the low 70s. It is summer in all those places but especially with the reduced humidity it feels like the season changed. That was our experience no matter when we made the trip. We have made it in winter, spring, fall and summer and yet it always feels like a change of seasons.

I have been reflecting, as is my nature, upon my recent Cursillo experience last weekend in SC. I have been on so many of those retreats that they sometimes blur in my mind into one another, except for my first. One thing I can say though, in during each retreat I saw and felt a change of seasons. The spiritual climate went from cold or cool to warm or hot. Last weekend was no exception to that statement. God just seems to arrange things quietly in the background so the right people are together at the right time to accomplish the right things. One thread for example on this retreat was the six or seven participants that ride Harley Davidsons. No big thing but it helped make them feel at home and helped them open up to what God wanted to do. Some of the threads I learned are too personal and would be too obvious to discuss because confidentiality would be a stake, but they weave together in a God ordained mutually feeding kaleidoscope of grace. So many people shared with me deep circumstances of their lives and let me participate as God helped them change the season in a short journey from head to heart. That short journey moves me every time, and is so much more important than my enjoying this clear cool Massachusetts morning.