Take time to fill life's little brook

By Mary Regina Morrell

"How do you do nothing?" asked Pooh . . . Christopher Robin replied, "It means just going along, listening to all the things you can hear, and not bothering."

For the past eight years, in addition to jobs that require lots of creativity, I have written this column, Things My Father Taught Me, twice a month. Adding a stray column here or there, that adds up to nearly 200 columns written about the many things my father, and my Father, have taught me.

Bur recently I have found the writing difficult, the thoughts jumbled into little piles like rocks collecting on the bottom of a stream bed that has stopped its move forward.

Laying in bed one evening I wondered if I could possibly be losing the gift I had been given. It was a disquieting thought, so I rose from bed to find something to distract my mind.

Of course, as many women will do, I turned to cleaning, sorting out piles of mail that had accumulated in the den. As I threw one thing after another into the garbage I came across a greeting card that I had purchased but never sent - probably because I liked it so much I didn't want to part with it. The photo was of a cat stretched luxuriously across the top of a role top desk full of "stuff.," obviously basking in the sun which shone through the adjacent window. The verse read, "There's no pleasure in having nothing to do. The fun is having lots to do and not doing it."

Doing nothing is a concept I can't quite get my head around, but at three in the morning, with a mind running on overtime and getting nowhere, it sounded like an incredibly wonderful experience.

Still, being the often times stubborn Irish woman that I can be, I put aside the thought and went on cleaning, musing still about the solution to my predicament. The next thing I was to pick up was a book of poetry by Emily Dickenson. Randomly I opened the pages and my eyes rested on the poem printed here.

"Have you got a brook in your little heart,
where bashful flowers blow,
And blushing birds go down to drink,
And shadows tremble so?

And nobody knows, so still it flows,
That any brook is there;
And yet your little draught of life
Is daily drunken there.

Then look out for the little brook in March,
When the rivers overflow,
And the snows come hurrying from the hills,
And the bridges often go.

And later, in August it may be,
When the meadows parching lie,
Beware, lest this little brook of life,
Some burning noon go dry!"

As the light finally began to dawn in my head, it was almost as if my faithful guardian angel could be heard muttering something like, "It's about time!" and exhaling a sigh of relief. I sat in a nearby chair and considered what I now had to clearly acknowledge. I needed to stop writing for a time and take a respite for doing nothing - not a retreat, not a time of prayer or recollection, all of which have a purpose, but a time of no purpose other than to simply be and, in the "be-ing", be renewed and refreshed.

So, for the next month or two I will be taking a hiatus from writing Things My Father Taught Me.

But during this time of simplicity and expectant waiting for the rain of renewal, I will be storing up all the lessons my Father is still teaching me so I can once again share them.

May summer bring each of us some time to fill up the little brook of life in our hearts.

____________________________

For some reflective summer reading Mary's reflection journals, The Heart's Garden, Beneath the Wings of Love and Through the Strength of Heaven, are available from the Metuchen Office of Religious Education for under $5 a piece plus postage. Call 732. 562.1990, ext. 1310, to order. Her book, Angels in High Top Sneakers, is available from Amazon.com, barnesandnobles.com, and your local bookstore.

Contact

Diocese of Metuchen
http://www.diometuchen.org NJ, US
Mary Regina Morrell - associate director, Office of Religious Education, 732 562.1990 ext. 1309

Email

mmorrell@diometuchen.org

Keywords

time, life, respite, renew

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