Day 34 of 365 (A Fellowship with the Sun and the Crows)

In the first time in about three months I picked up Thomas Merton. He was talking on this date in 1968 about making peace with the crows. I gather they were waking him from his sleep at his hermitage and otherwise disrupting his contemplative life. Good golly what would Merton have made of texting, e-mails and cell phones. There was a line about walking out along a ridge top saying ritual prayers and coming to an understanding that the crows were part of the service. 

Riding in the car this morning the sun was rising down the easterly line of my sight. My journey to work goes south first and then it turns west. Awaiting the green signal, I looked toward the east and the sun was a small dot of fire along the horizon created a penumbra behind the stream of steadily oncoming traffic. We would hold tight until the light changed no matter the little white and black sign which stated that a right turn on red was permitted. 

Riding to work with the sun coming up seeing a flock of birds on a telephone wire I kind of thought something similar in that earlier morning light. The cold is part of their experience and mine. However they too are part of a world that is all too fragile. Another day is here. Another chance at redemption awaits. Pax in this world is illusive. Pax in my heart might still have an opportunity.