Those trees were all bare a few months ago, when I was blogging in February. Now we are surrounded by lush green. It's 7:30 PM and it still feels like the afternoon.
The kids are home every day now. Montessori school is out for the summer, so they are home. Every day. All day long. All five of them. The door slams over and over. Feet flap all over the "kid highways" through the living room and kitchen. Josefina's peeping voice is always saying this or that. Mommy is in and out, still working on closing down things at the school. And I plop myself in the living room, in the middle of everything--which is where I like it best--and allow the surroundings to blend with my own research. When I pick up the internet I open a window on the whole world, right here in the living room in the midst of my children. But in a profound sense the same thing happens when I open a book. A world of understanding is contained in those pages, and something much richer than digital imagery is required to visualize it: the human imagination. I can easily get lost in these worlds, and the hubhub that surrounds me is actually congenial. I love being surrounded by people when I think. I also like being interrupted, which is a good thing because it happens plenty.
I was just interrupted now by the presentation of some crayon drawings by the "little girls." Everyone is covered with mosquito bites. Later on, maybe we'll pop out and see the fireflies.
These are the days between the Ascension and Pentecost. In the Church's prayer, there is all that wonderful expectation of the coming of the Holy Spirit. It gives form to these days. How do I listen to His inspirations? I feel so dry, sometimes. Where is God? He is inside the needs and tasks of this day, in the children and their concerns, in the time Eileen and I have together, in the rhythm of my work and prayer. When I pray, "come, Holy Spirit," I am asking Him to manifest Himself; to enrich my awareness of His presence. He calls out and gives Himself through the invitation to love contained in the most ordinary circumstance. His invitations say, "Love all the way. Do not stop at your own satisfaction. Seek the Source of what attracts you, and--in affirming the goodness of whatever is given in the circumstances--allow yourself to be embraced by the Source." Often our situation seems dull, repetitive, and fruitless. Here especially we must call out to the Holy Spirit, and listen to the silence in which He whispers the secrets of Divine Love.
Come, Holy Spirit.
